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If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:7) |
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"If my words abide in you." |
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What does it mean to have Christ's words abiding in us or remaining in us? |
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The answer to this question gets at the heart of what the new covenant is. |
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The new covenant is one of transformation, of change of personality. Divine grace contains the virtue and power that produce the desired change. |
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The old covenant, the Law of Moses, included righteous, holy statutes and ordinances that bring life and prosperity when they are observed. Numerous Jews, such as the mother and father of John the Baptist, were blameless in terms of the observance of Moses. |
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However, the rank and file of the Jews did not attain God's goals for them. God's goals for them were that they would behave righteously, be a separate holy people unto Himself, and obey His commandments stated in the Law and the written Prophets and brought up to date by the contemporary prophets speaking in the name of the Lord. |
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God summarized the intent of the law as doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. |
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By the way, these goal are eternal. They never change from eon to eon. They always have been, are now, and forever shall be the requirements for fellowship with God. |
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We are under a new covenant but the goals remain the same. The difference is that a higher level of attainment of the goals is required under the new covenant and infinitely superior grace (enablement) has been provided that we may attain the goals at a superior level than was possible under the Law of Moses. |
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God was not pleased with most of the Jews under the old covenant. They behaved unrighteously, keeping fellow Hebrews as slaves long past the seven years, for example. They violated the rules of holiness by marrying Gentiles. |
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They refused to obey Gods's laws concerning the Sabbath and concerning the making of images. Also they sought help from Gentile kings rather than trusting the Lord. |
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When they offered sacrifices they presented blemished animals instead of the perfect specimens demanded by the Lord. They held back their tithes. Sometimes they offered the required sacrifices when their heart was far from God, like people sitting in church on Sunday morning and thinking about the Super Bowl. |
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God was not pleased with them and so He authorized a new covenant. The new covenant is described in the Book of Hebrews. |
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Let us think about the new covenant because it has to do with Christ's words abiding in us. |
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First of all, the new covenant is not primarily one of forgiveness, as was true of the animal sacrifices under the Law of Moses. The new covenant is one of transformation. |
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Under the new covenant God Himself is to write His righteous laws in our heart and in our mind. This is what it means to have the Word of Christ abiding in us. |
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To be continued. |
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For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (Hebrews 8:10) |
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Christ is the Word of God made flesh. We human beings are the flesh being made the Word of God, living epistles, as the Divine laws are engraved in our heart and mind. They are written in our mind so we understand them and in our heart so we obey them. |
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The process of writing the law in our heart and mind is the mainspring of the new covenant. Let's see how it works, for this is what salvation is. It is not that the writing of Divine law in our personality leads to salvation, rather it is what salvation is—an important distinction. |
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When we begin our Christian walk we assign our old adamic personality, that born of our mother and father, to the cross with Jesus. We count ourselves crucified with Christ. Every part of our old personality must go to the cross, the good as well as the bad, or the program won't work. |
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Next, we count our new born-again personality, that which is born of God when we receive Christ, as already having been raised with Christ to the right hand of the Father. These are not figures of speech. We actually, although in the spirit realm, have been born of God and actually have risen with Christ to the right hand of the Father, far above all other personages in the heavenlies. |
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Our body and soul are kept locked up under the blood of Christ and therefore free from condemnation. Our new spiritual personality is dwelling in Christ in God on the highest thrones. |
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Now the program of salvation, of change, begins. |
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As we pray, read our Bible and think about the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, gather regularly with fervent believers (if possible), serve in the church, give, seek God's will, tend diligently to the needs of our family, and do all else associated with wholesome Christian living, the Lord begins to reveal to us the sins of our personality. |
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We are not under condemnation because our old personality is kept under the blood of the atonement. Now God is ready to begin to bring out these hidden enemies one at a time and deal with them. |
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Let us say that someone hurts us. A flaming arrow has hit us—perhaps from a fellow believer of the same church. |
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The moment of truth is here. We have a decision to make. |
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Our first personality is ready to climb down from the cross. "They are not going to do that to me!" "It isn't fair!" "I'm going to get even!" "If they think they are going to get away with that they have another thing coming!" |
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The Word of Christ says, "God will forgive you if you forgive those who harm you." |
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We now have a choice to make and that choice is one of those that will determine our eternal destiny. |
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To be continued. |
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Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (II Corinthians 3:3) |
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If we, as so many Christians do, choose to get off the cross and try to harm the tool God has used to uncover the sin in us, we will continue in spiritual death. No salvation will take place. If we continue to ignore what Christ has said we will save our adamic life and then lose the Kingdom of God in the end. We will remain a bitter, spiritually dwarfed person. |
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But if we go to prayer and ask Christ to help us to keep His commandment by forgiving the individual who harmed us, something very, very powerful takes place. Divine grace steps in. The Virtue of Jesus Christ enters us through the Holy Spirit. The vengeful part of our adamic nature dies on the cross. In its place comes the Life of Jesus Christ. A new creation appears. |
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This is how the new covenant operates. This is what salvation is. The death and new life do not bring us to salvation, they themselves are the salvation of God under the new covenant. |
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This is how Christ's Word is to abide in us so we may always have our prayers answered. |
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Death, and life. Death, and life. Death, and life. The old dies. The new lives. We continually are crucified with Christ. We continually are living by the Life of Christ and therefore remain without condemnation. |
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Are you having problems with worldliness, too much television watching, involvement in the American sports idolatry, preoccupation with money? Come to Jesus. He has the power. The power! He will stretch forth His mighty hand and yank that stuff out of you. In its place He will install Divine life. This is salvation. |
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Are you bound with the lusts of the flesh, adultery, fornication, pornography, drugs, alcohol, a violent temper? Come to Jesus. He has the power. He will cast it from you. In its place He will put His own Nature. This is salvation. |
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Do you gossip, criticize, slander the church members, seek to draw a following after yourself? Are you stubborn, self-willed, self-seeking? And then you wonder why your husband won't serve the Lord? |
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Come to Jesus. He will set you free. Adam will die and Christ will live in you. This is salvation. This is the new covenant. |
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Are you disobedient to God? Are you unwilling to stay in the prison you have been put in? Are you ready to leave your wife and children and run off with some floozy (probably a "believer")? Come to Jesus. He has the power to change your heart. |
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Why should you five years from now wake up to the fact you have betrayed those who trusted in you. Roll over in bed (in your imagination) and take a hard look at the unprincipled person who removed the crown of glory from your head; who took you away from your precious wife and irreplaceable children; who caused your mother and father to grieve over the son they had such hopes for, were so proud of. |
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I hope the thought makes you good and sick. It ought to! |
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To be continued. |
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Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21) |
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Wake up! Shake yourself while there still is time! Come to Jesus. He has the power! The power! He will kill that snake coiled up in your heart. He will put eternal life in you and you will walk forth free from the snares of Hell. This is how grace operates. The gift of Divine grace is infinitely more than forgiveness. It is the power of God in Christ to set you totally free from the person and works of Satan. |
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Satan is after you, make no mistake. He hates to lose a servant. He is wise, cunning, crafty, skillful at deceiving the believers. |
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Come to Jesus. He has greater wisdom, greater cunning, greater craftiness, greater skill. He will release you from the chains. This is the new covenant. This is salvation. This is eternal life. This is the operation of Divine grace. This is the Kingdom of God. |
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You can see that the Divine salvation is not pointed toward Heaven or toward any other place. Salvation is pointed toward fellowship with God and toward participation in the many roles and tasks assigned to the royal priesthood. Apart from your change from Adam to Christ participation in the Kingdom is impossible. Adamic flesh and blood life cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of God, only the new creation which is born of Christ and formed from the Life of Christ can enter the Kingdom. |
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Let me give you an illustration of the true nature of the Christian salvation. |
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Let's say that there was a wealthy Englishman who decided to help a boy. |
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He went to the East End of London and chose a young man. He brought the boy to his mansion and gave him a fine room. |
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The philanthropist said, "Welcome to your new home." Then he charged the boy strictly: "I am going to raise you as a son. You do not know very much about our manners and ways of doing things. You are used to living in dirt, speaking cockney, stealing, fighting, lying. We don't do that around here. |
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We are all your friends. We want you to have a nice home and to grow up as a valued member of our household. When you are older we will help you get the education you would like to have." |
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This is a pretty good picture of grace. God comes to a Gentile and invites him into the royal family to stand in the palace among the princes of Judah. There is nothing the Gentile has done to earn this—he is a boy off the street so to speak. He is ignorant of the splendor of the palace to which he has been invited freely. He has lived in Gentile corruption all his life. His ancestors were hardly out of the caves when the elders of Israel were eating and drinking in the Presence of God Almighty. |
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This is the gift of God's grace we cannot possibly earn. |
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To be continued. |
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Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (I Peter 1:23) |
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But what comes next? One of two things. |
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The boy will appreciate what has been done for him. He will take advantage of the lessons in culture presented to him, working hard to learn the manners of the house and to make his new father proud of him. Little by little change will come in his actions, his speaking, his thoughts. |
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When he is older he will decide on a career and go off to school. There he will study hard—again to show his appreciation for being removed from the slums and made a worthy member of an illustrious household. |
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We would not say he had earned his place in the family. Rather he responded appropriately to the gift given him. He worked it out, so to speak. He proved himself worthy of the good fortune bestowed on him. |
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But suppose the boy decided the old fool (not realizing the iron discipline that had made the man wealthy) was soft in the head. "Dad will give me anything I want." He began to sneak out at night with his old friends. Pretty soon he was bringing them in through his bedroom window where they drank and fooled around with girls. |
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It became evident to the household there was no change in his actions, his speech, or his thinking. Once in a while he would pretend to be fitting into the household but it was evident he was conniving so he could live in luxury but maintain his old filthy ways. |
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When the time came for school he enrolled in college where he continued to drink and womanize, failing every course. He was a drunken lout—a disgrace to the family that had adopted him. |
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Now you tell me. How will the father respond to this? |
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You are right, he will disown him and look for a more worthy candidate. |
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Can you see from this illustration how dispensational thinking has destroyed the reality of the Kingdom of God? |
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We are saying (in dispensational thinking) that no matter whether the boy becomes a worthy member of the household he is part of the home forever because of the gift given him in the beginning. |
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I wonder how many passages of the New Testament directly deny this point of view? There are a number of them. |
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We must be proven worthy of the Kingdom of God. There are several verses of the New Testament speaking of the need for us to behave in a manner worthy of the Kingdom of God. It is not at all a case of our attempting to earn the gift of grace or to improve on it in any manner. It is rather that we must prove we are worthy of it. This clearly is scriptural. |
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To be continued. |
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16) |
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In showing that the concept of Divine grace as an unconditional amnesty independent of any lasting change in our behavior is totally unscriptural I will present just one verse taken from among the many. If the reader is an inquirer after truth the one verse will suffice. He will notice the rest of the passages as he studies the Bible. |
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But if the reader is bound to hang on to the traditions of dispensational thinking that have brought the evangelical churches to the present state of moral corruption, he would not be convinced if we presented twenty-five passages that clearly stated the believers who live in the appetites of the flesh, continuing in the old adamic nature, will kill their spiritual life. |
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Such blind traditionalists will ignore every Bible passage, throw dust in the air and cry "I'm saved by grace" for the space of two hours, and then return home to continue in their eternal spiritual babyhood. |
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There is a knee-jerk reaction today to anyone who dares question the concept of salvation as a sovereign action that guarantees our eternal safety independently of our behavior. The suggestion that maybe we are not as safe as we thought proves to be overwhelmingly threatening to people. |
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Anyway, here is the passage. Notice it carefully. It is a bomb. |
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Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. (Revelation 3:4) |
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The church in Sardis was one of the seven golden lampstands. |
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We are speaking of the believers in Sardis, not the unsaved, because the people addressed all had "garments." |
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Of all of these people "saved by grace" only a few had not "defiled their garments." |
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What does it mean for a Christian to defile his or her garments? It means to practice the sins of the flesh; to live in the malicious ways of the world, not taking up our cross and following Jesus. |
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What will be done for those who have kept themselves pure by following Christ? |
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They will walk with Christ in the white robe of the royal priesthood. |
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Why will they walk with Christ in the white robe of the royal priesthood? |
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Because they have proven themselves worthy of the gift of grace by keeping themselves clean through confessing and turning away from their sin. |
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What about the majority of believers in Sardis? |
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They will not be permitted to walk with Christ in the white robe of the royal priesthood. |
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Why will they not be permitted to walk with Christ in the white robe of the royal priesthood? |
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Because they have not been found worthy to do so. |
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Why have they not been found worthy to do so? |
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Because they have continued to walk in the appetites of the flesh. They regard God as a soft-headed old fool who will give them anything they want and will keep on forgiving their carelessness and disobedience because of His "love and mercy." |
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We are wrong in this. The sword of judgment is hanging over America. Unless the churches repent we are going to have a Gentile holocaust terrible beyond imagination. |
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God's wrath is as great as His love. Divine wrath and Divine love do not dilute or compromise each other. Each is perfect and complete when it is exercised. |
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To be continued. |
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And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. (Mark 4:20) |
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We believers did not choose Christ. Christ chose us. He has chosen us that we might bear fruit and that the fruit would be lasting. |
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The fruit we bear is the moral image of Christ. We keep the commandments of Christ. The fruit is borne first in us and then in those whom we influence. |
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God has planted a Vine. The Vine is Christ. It is God's will that the Vine fill the whole earth with the fruit of righteousness and praise to God. |
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Every Christian without exception is called to be a fruit-bearing branch of the true Vine. If we will abide in the Vine the very Life of Christ will flow through us such that our actions, our words, and our thoughts are conformed to Christ's image. |
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How does Christ's Word abide in us? As we have described. As we are willing to put to death through the Spirit of God the works of our fleshly personality the Word of God takes the place of that which has been killed. The resulting change in our behavior is the fruit God is looking for, the image of His Son. |
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As we are willing to let God kill us and raise us, the power of our resurrection spills over to other people and the Life of Christ is born in them. In this way Divine fruit is born in us and in those who hear us. |
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We Christians owe a debt to our nation. The unsaved people depend on us to be a moral light to guide them. When we are not bearing that light, the fruit of righteousness to which we have been called, the people will turn against us. As Jesus said, we will be gathered in bundles and burned. |
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The Christian who is not revealing in his or her personality the light of good works is not fulfilling his or her role in society. Man or woman, boy or girl, we have been called to show forth righteousness and praise before the nations. |
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When the Christian churches do not, by their example of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God, provide moral guidance to the secular society, they will be attacked by that very society. The secular people will know intuitively we are not fulfilling our role and they will have their revenge. |
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We think the next few years will be critical in America. If we Christians will humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways, God will hear from Heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land. |
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But if we persist in the lawless grace-rapture heresy that has destroyed our moral strength and rendered the Scriptures incomprehensible, not turning to God, not putting away the filthiness of the flesh, then the moral abominations and consequent persecution and destruction that certainly will follow will remind us that our calling as Christians is not to be carried off to Heaven but to be the light of the world. |
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Our God has given us an honored place in His house. Let us not disappoint Him but become a worthy member of the most distinguished family of all. This we can do through our Lord Jesus Christ. |
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