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And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. (I Corinthians 15:45) |
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God's purpose for all of His saints, His Christian people, is that they become, through Christ, life-giving spirits—not just living spirits but life-giving spirits. |
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Just how are we supposed to do that! |
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We do it through crucifixion and resurrection. Crucifixion and resurrection are the mainspring of the Christian redemption. The Christian faith is galactically more than a theology competing with the other theologies and philosophies of the world. The Christian faith is an experience with Christ, an experience of crucifixion and resurrection. |
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God is making man in two stages. The first stage is the adamic, animal creation. The second stage is the life-giving creation. As Christ is the Tree of Life, so are we to become through Him trees of life. This is our eternal role in the creation. |
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Adam never can become a tree of life. The first animal personality of ours is formed from flesh and bone. Its life is corruptible blood. Its mind is always hostile to God's will and way. Its purpose is to serve as root stock on which the true and eternal humanity is to be grafted. It lives, moves, and has its being in blood-enabled metabolism. |
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The new humanity also is flesh and bone. But its life is incorruptible Holy Spirit. It lives, moves, and has its being in the Spirit of God. Wow! |
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We start as Adam and we end as an integral part of Christ, as a life-giving spirit. |
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Probably every person in the audience would prefer to live in the incorruptible resurrection life of Christ rather than in our perishing animal nature. But how do we get there? |
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We get there by dying and being resurrected. |
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Paul said he was crucified with Christ and living by Christ. This is the true Christian life, that of the life-giving spirit. |
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Paul took it by faith that he was crucified with Christ and had the sentence of death in himself. From then on his life included numerous tribulations and imprisonments—suffering of all kinds. But God kept raising Paul up and the spillover of power brought life to those following him. |
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All true ministry comes from the death of the cross. We cannot sit in our walnut-lined study with The Pulpit Commentary and Jamison, Fausset and Brown, choose an introduction, three points, a conclusion, and three anecdotes, and expect to bring life to a congregation. |
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Life comes to others when we take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus through numerous tribulations and imprisonments. We are knocked down continually but God raises us up. As He does, that same resurrection life flows out to others. |
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This is how we become an eternal human being. |
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This is how we represent God to His creation. |
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"The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." |
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And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! (Luke 15:17) |
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The story of the prodigal son is the basic story of mankind. It is the story of Adam and Eve, of Samson, of the Christian Church, of many of us. |
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When someone is given something of great value for the first time he often loses it. After he loses it he then sees the value of it. He sets out to gain it back. Sometimes he can and sometimes he can't. |
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If after arduous labor he manages to get back what he lost he now appreciates it and will not lightly lose it again. |
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Samson had a marvelous gift of strength and he judged Israel many years. But he thought little of his relationship to God who gave him his great strength. He didn't try to live a holy, righteous life, preferring to throw his weight around wherever it pleased him. |
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The result was inevitable. |
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Adam and Eve lived in an unparalleled paradise on the earth. In the wildest dreams of mankind nothing ever could be produced that would rival the garden in Eden as a perfect setting for man. Adam and Eve were unaware of the unspeakable treasure they possessed, the very Presence of God walking around in their neighborhood (what you or I wouldn't give for that!) |
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They threw it all away carelessly. |
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The early Christian churches had the Apostles, evangelism, tongues, miracles, healing, revelation—all the blessings into which we now are arriving. After the Apostles died the believers and their leadership were not able to hold what had been given so abundantly. Men began to gain preeminence as theologians and scholars. For whatever reason the Spirit of wisdom and revelation departed. The Christians couldn't hold the Glory. |
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In place of fishermen and tax collectors there arose one of the tremendous religious organizations of all time, an organization governed by the human mind. The ecclesiastical politics that always will attend human government often resulted in notorious corruption, and the torture and murder of the humble believers who really knew the Lord. |
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This is life. We are given (some of us) a good home, health, intelligence, talents, perhaps a wife and children, maybe an opportunity to accept Christ and learn in Sunday school, loving friends, a fine career. |
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If these come too easy we are in jeopardy. Waiting in the wings is alcohol, the cunning adulterer or adulteress in whose heart are chains, gambling, illegal business practices, the neglect of our physical health, overwork and other forms of intemperance, not to mention carelessness in the things of the Lord. |
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The consequences of our folly may be years in coming. The strong leader becomes addicted to alcohol, drugs, or gambling. He loses his job, his money. The office flirtations turn into betrayal and the wife (or husband) and children are left to make do while the cute secretary turns into a nagging, self-centered hag. |
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But the boys have grown up without Dad and his little girl is too big for her teddy bear and dolls and is living somewhere with her female "partner." |
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To be continued. |
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The respectable businessman finds himself in federal prison, disgraced, while his family attempts to survive the shame. "That's all right, my wife has strong shoulders. We'll make it." |
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The extra thirty pounds coupled with drinking, smoking, and the seventy-hour workweek end up under the big camera while the surgeon threads the catheter into the thigh. "Dear Christ, what if I die? Where am I going? Mother, can you hear me? Help!" |
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We thought we were God's pet, the golden boy who was bound to live the good life forever. |
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Here we are, broken, sick, addicted to alcohol, without God or our family, without the respect of our acquaintances, maybe in prison, maybe with lung cancer or AIDS. |
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In the newspaper we read of those who at one moment are on top of the good life and the next moment are in the pits from personal tragedy. |
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What a way to learn! |
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Maybe it has happened to you. Believe it or not, I have good news for you. |
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There is a way back through Jesus Christ. And not just back, but back to heights that never could have been attained had we not suffered loss and then recovered. |
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Through the death of the blind Hebrew the whole company of Philistines was slain. |
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Out from the descendants of Adam and Eve will come the wiser, battle-hardened sons of God who will judge mankind and the angels. |
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The Christian Church has fought its way back from the Dark Ages until the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is beginning to rest on the assemblings. Never again will the saints lose the Presence of Jesus. |
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When the wall is rebuilt, as in the days of Nehemiah, the locks and bars are installed. The result is not as fancy as the original construction but far more deeply appreciated. That which we gain back the hard way we are apt to appreciate and maintain. |
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The Christian Church will march upward, clearing the stones from the Highway of Holiness, until our Lord returns and the sun rises on the new world of righteousness. |
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After six thousand years of insanity, by God's help we'll never lose Paradise again! "Get thee behind me, Satan!" |
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How about you? Are you in the pits? That's the hard way to discover the value of what you once were given so freely. |
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Perhaps it's not too late. Go to God. See what He will do for you. |
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Perhaps what will come out of your return home will prove to be the best that ever could have been. |
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But don't be such a fool as to turn to the pigs in order to have the opportunity to be welcomed back home. Appreciate what you have. Make the most of it. You won't have such a glorious testimony for the Full Gospel Businessmen but you will have your self-respect, a loving wife and children, friends, your health, and your God. |
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And Dude, those blessings are not to be taken lightly! |
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Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) |
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There is a big difference between ministering and bearing witness. |
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Ministry is a means to an end. Bearing witness is the end. |
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The purpose of ministry is to build the Body of Christ to the measure of maturity as measured by the fullness of the stature of Christ. |
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The purpose of bearing witness is to reveal to God's creation His Person, way, will, and eternal purpose in Jesus Christ. |
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Ministry is temporary and will be done away just as scaffolding is done away as soon as the building is completed. |
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The witness of God is eternal. Once we become a witness of God we bear witness for eternity. |
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Consider Noah, Abraham, Job, Daniel, Elijah. They were, are, and from now on will be witnesses of God. When we think of any one of them the Person, way, will, and eternal purpose of God come to mind. It shall always be so. Once a witness always a witness. |
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True ministry is a witness of God to the one being ministered to. But today we have ministry apart from true witness. We have people who are preaching, teaching, and evangelizing who not only are presenting a warped gospel but who themselves are bearing more of a witness of the devil than they are of God. |
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The televangelist pleads for money, wears his five hundred dollar suits and begs widows to send him their food money. ("God will send you back five thousand dollars.") Not only is his message incorrect as he oversells the grace of God, but the witness he is presenting by his appearance and actions is not telling the truth about God. |
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Our country has come to believe the whole Christian business is a money-making scam. |
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The pastor who has his eyes on the attendance rather than on the Lord is compromising the message of the Gospel so as not to drive people away. He talks of the rapture, of grace, of God's love, of how to have a successful marriage, of how to be prosperous. His message is not balanced. The witness he is giving of God is false. God is not as he is presenting. God is as much a consuming fire as He is incomprehensible love. To stress the goodness of God and not His severity is to bear a false witness. |
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Sometimes when we speak of witnessing for Jesus we mean doing the work of an evangelist. The work of the evangelist is necessary. But perhaps even more importantly in our day in America is the witness of people whose lives have been changed. They now have integrity, are honest, joyful, dependable, truth- telling, morally pure human beings. |
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Perhaps most Americans have heard the Gospel. Many of them have "made a decision for Christ." A significant part of those who have made such a decision are in jail in the present hour. |
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Why? Because the preachers are emphasizing grace, grace, grace, and themselves are living spiritually careless lives. They are not witnesses of God. They may be ministers but they are not witnesses. |
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When there is no true witness of God the iron is not present to enable the preacher and his hearers to stand against sin. |
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This is where we are in America today. |
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Whatever you want to do, do it now. You have a right to have fun and be fulfilled. Love yourself above all. Do not let anyone get in your way. The government has promised you life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.Make sure you get yours. (Americans 1:1) |
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The following is taken from "an epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Christian churches of America. |
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"Dearly beloved, now that Christ has come you are not to be overly concerned with your behavior. Put your trust in Him, and even though you continue in your sin and self-seeking until you die it is impossible for you to incur God's displeasure. |
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"In fact, when you sin you are magnifying the grace of God. When you fornicate, God sees only the holiness of Christ. When you lie, God sees only the truthfulness of Christ. When you murder, God sees only the gentleness of Christ. |
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"I have written some letters to the churches that appear to warn against certain behaviors. But you are not to regard these as necessary aspects of your salvation for even though they seemingly are addressed to the saints they actually are directed toward the unsaved and the Jews. Always keep in mind that faith without works glorifies the grace and mercy of God. Faith must stand alone. Your efforts to live righteously detract from God's grace and are legalism. You may safely ignore all I have written to the churches concerning moral conduct. |
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"Remember, dearly beloved, God is love. You may leave your wife and children and live with a prostitute. You may give your word and break it as often as you like. God will not hold this against you, because you believe in the Lord Jesus. You may sin thousands and thousands of times, living in every kind of moral filth. Yet, God will continue to love you with His great Father's heart. |
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"(Aren't we having fun in the Son!) |
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"No matter how you live your life, no matter how many people you injure, no matter how unfaithful you are, how you despise the Scriptures, how unrighteously you behave, how much you despise mercy and love revenge, how arrogantly and haughtily you walk before God and men, you cannot possibly displease God or lose your salvation. God sees you only in Christ, having His righteousness. |
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"God loves you in your filth. Christ loves you although you continually disobey His commandments. The Holy Spirit loves you although you rebel against His every prompting. |
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"Beloved, there is no need for you to live a holy life. Jesus does it all. He will change you from within your personality apart from your having to obey any commandments. Remember, all efforts to obey His words or the words of the Apostles are ‘legalism.' |
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"If you have ever at any time professed belief in Christ Jesus, when you die you will go straight to Paradise to live forever in a golden mansion. |
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"Return to your father's house with a blonde and a twelve-pack. Live it up. Have a party. Make your older brother jealous. Dad loves you so much he is ready to turn the whole ranch over to you. Maranatha." (from A Contemporary Error) |
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Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Romans 8:37) |
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The life of victory in Christ, of performing the will of God perfectly, is readily available to every human being. |
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The "Assyrians" have fled because of Calvary. The enemy has been defeated totally. He can work only in the realm of deception in his attempt to lead us into sin. He no longer possesses the authority or power to truly harm the saint. When we come to understand the Word of God and what Christ actually accomplished on the cross we are able to press into the Kingdom of God with all confidence. |
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Perfect victory in Christ indeed is for you no matter how weak and incompetent you may consider yourself to be. This moment, cast yourself and your cares on Christ Jesus. Do not worry about trying to explain all the details to Him. He understands perfectly every detail of your life. |
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With your mouth—out loud—tell Jesus that from this point on you will do the will of God as the Holy Spirit assists you. Tell Him you desire to be one of His conquerors, that you want Him to remove from you the overwhelming desires of the sinful nature, the world, and Satan. You want to belong to Christ and to Christ alone. |
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From this moment on, believe with all your heart and soul that Christ Jesus will enter you and become the Way, the Truth, and the Life in you. Do not allow yourself to be troubled, worried, agitated in your mind. Give yourself completely to His love, power, and wisdom. |
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Christ loves you more than you have any idea. |
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Has life on the earth become a heavy burden to you? Jesus will take you dancing among the stars. Are you concerned about whether you are pleasing to the Father? Jesus will bring you in His name into the Presence of the Almighty God, there to receive the blessing. |
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There is a song without end. Would you like to hear it? Would you like to have it created in you? |
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Whatever He says to you, do it through His grace. Instead of being one of those believers who is wandering about in guilt and confusion you can hold up your head in the realization you now are Christ's responsibility and through the indwelling Christ you are walking forward in victory—in the center of God's will. |
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The water is only waist deep. We overcome through Christ, not through superior spiritual ability. If you believe Christ when He states that what He begins He finishes, then lift up your heart and rejoice. Relax and stand up straight in the water. You received Christ by faith when you needed to be saved from the wrath of God. Now receive Christ by faith in order to become a conqueror, an attainer of the first resurrection. |
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Lord Jesus, we pray You will reach down now and touch the reader of these words. Give to him or her the assurance that You are the Finisher as well as the Author of his or her salvation. |
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Enter, we pray, into the heart of the reader as he begins to realize the acceptance of Your Presence will lift him from the state of "trying to be a Christian" to the level of the conqueror who, through the Spirit of God, is pressing toward the mark of the first resurrection from the dead. |
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Come, Lord Jesus, and shine through Your saints. Take to Yourself Your irresistible power and reign on the earth. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven. Amen. (from The Conqueror) |
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Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10) |
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The Hebrew Prophets spoke much of the glory of the Kingdom of God and of how blessed Israel and the nations will be when Christ returns to the earth. |
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As far as we know, all New Testament doctrines can be found in the Old Testament in some form. The writers of the New Testament gained their understanding of the Christian salvation as the Spirit of God revealed the Old Testament to them. |
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"The just shall live by his faith" was stated by a Hebrew Prophet (Habakkuk 2:4). The explanation of what the just shall live by faith means is set forth in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, and all the examples are from the Old Testament. |
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Paul's teaching concerning the Antichrist can be found in the Book of Daniel. The atonement made by the Lord Jesus is set forth in the fifty-third chapter of the Book of Isaiah. The doctrine of the resurrection from the dead is presented in Daniel 12:2. The history of the nation of Israel is an object lesson to us Christians. We derive our comfort from the promises found in the Old Testament. |
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Righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God are the major emphases of both testaments. The new covenant does not have a different goal from the old covenant. The new covenant does have improved means of attaining the same goal. |
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Paul, Peter, James, John, and Jude stress righteous and holy conduct in view of the return of Christ in His righteous Kingdom. The issue of salvation always is shown to be what position we will have, what our fate will be, in the Day of the Lord—the Day when Jesus and His saints return to the earth to establish righteousness among the nations. This is the same vision seen by the Prophets of Israel. |
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Evangelical believers are looking for the coming of Antichrist. The spirit of Antichrist already is being revealed and has undermined the Gospel of the Kingdom with a deception concerning the escape of the elect to Heaven to live in beautiful mansions. |
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Satan would be well pleased if all the elect would leave the earth and go to Heaven to live in beautiful mansions doing nothing of significance. Satan fears the coming of Christ and His saints into the earth to establish God's Kingdom of righteousness and peace. Satan would much prefer that Jesus remove His warriors to Heaven and stay away from the earth. In view of Satan's ambitions in the earth it is easy to recognize the source of the grace-Heaven model of salvation. |
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When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," what are we asking? Do we want to stay and see the Kingdom come or do we want to go to the spirit realm? Why don't we pray, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, help us get up there"? |
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I would like to be here to see Jesus crowned on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. How about you? Maybe King David will be the one to place the crown on his Son's head. |
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What do you really want, to have a mansion in the spirit realm, wear golden slippers, and play a harp, or have a part in the establishing of God's Kingdom on the earth? Which would you rather have, gold and diamonds in Heaven or people to love on the earth? |
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How anxious are you to die? |
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Ask your heart. (from The Continuity of the Covenants) |
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