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And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. (Luke 16:9) |
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We had our discipleship class last night. A lady came up afterward and told me how she had mentioned to a pastor that she was writing a tract about being conformed to the image of the Lord. |
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The pastor's comment was, "You're being too hard." |
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If this remark isn't characteristic of our country I'll eat my Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, genuine leather cover and all. |
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Too hard! The Bible is too hard! You bet it is too hard for pleasure-loving people. |
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What's harder than denying yourself, taking up your personal form of execution, and following Jesus? |
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But our whole country is like that. The standards for graduation are too hard, so change the standards! It's too hard to lose weight, so cut the fat off with a knife! It's too hard to keep from fornicating, so develop pills and vaccinations so you can keep on fornicating and not get a disease! It's too hard to be responsible for a family, so don't bother with marriage! |
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This world is not paradise. It was once and then God cursed it. The curse is still operating. You may notice there are weeds in your backyard. |
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The fastest way there is to lose your soul is to try to restore paradise before God's time. The only way you can live a happy, carefree life is by breaking God's laws and losing your personal integrity. |
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The present world is a testing ground for future rulers. You will be tested constantly concerning your integrity. Take the easy way, follow the line of least resistance, leave your wife and children, change partners all you want, and you will lose your soul. By that I mean the soul that was given to you by the Lord will become full of poison and corruption. You will lose control of it. You will become the slave of Satan. |
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Go ahead, preacher, tell the congregation the way of the Lord is easy. "Do you owe the Lord a hundred dollars? Take your bill and write down fifty." |
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The people you are courting now will receive you when you die. You can live with them in the cobwebbed shacks of Hell. At least there you will have friends. You would be kind of out of place with Elijah and Jeremiah in Heaven. |
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The Lord's yoke is easy and His burden is light—for the individual who is doing His will. It is true that the Lord's will more often than not leads to the death of much of what we crave. We are sinners and the purpose of salvation is to change us, not forgive us and leave us as we are. |
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But the Lord's way is light and joyous compared with the way of Satan and self-will. The way of the transgressor is hard! |
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The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is a tough message for a nation of relatively rich people. But it is the only right way, the only way that leads to the castles in the sky. |
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Take the easy way, live an undisciplined life, and you will have a long time to sit in remorse wishing to God that someone cared enough to tell you the truth about the Lord and His demands, and that you had brains and character enough to listen! |
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Where are the faithful stewards? |
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But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18) |
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We find in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation that when Christ returns, His name is The Word of God. |
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Think of it, His very name is the Word of God. |
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John tells us He has been the Word from the beginning and now is the Word made flesh. |
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Gabriel told Mary His name is Jesus, meaning He will save His people from their sins. |
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When He appears He again will be The Word of God. |
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What does it mean for Jesus to be The Word of God? It means that Jesus is the living representation, the portrayal, the personification, the demonstration, the Substance of all God ever has said, is saying, and shall say in the future. |
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The Bible tells us we should be true and faithful. Jesus is true and faithful. The Bible tells us there is perfect joy in the Presence of the Father. Jesus has perfect joy in the Presence of the Father. The Bible tells us we are not to be afraid of bad news. The Lord Jesus is not afraid of bad news. The Bible tells us we must be righteous, holy, and obedient to God. Jesus is righteous, holy, and obedient to God. |
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This is a marvel beyond all marvels. |
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But there is something more marvelous than this! |
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You've got to be kidding. I'm not kidding. |
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Every saint is called to become the Word of God. Our life is to proceed eternally from the mouth of God. |
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We are being changed into the image of the Glory of the Lord. The eternal moral law is being engraved in our mind and heart. Christ, the living Word, is being formed in us through the operations of the gifts and ministries given by the Spirit of God. |
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Line upon line. Precept upon precept. We are the flesh being made the Word, the covenant of God with mankind. We are God's covenant with the peoples of the earth for through us they can receive the wisdom and mercy of God. |
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You and I have about as much chance of making ourselves the Word of God as an ant does learning algebra. |
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But we didn't think up this great thing and we are not doing it. God is doing it. |
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Let's say that you are a liar. Many Christians are liars although they don't like to think of their behavior in such a vivid manner. |
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The Bible commands us to speak truthfully. God is truthful and Psalms tells us deceivers will not stand in His sight. |
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Okay. So you confess your lying nature to the Lord and He forgives you and cleanses you from all unrighteousness. You do your part and then God will do His. |
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In the meanwhile, if you truly are living as a disciple of Jesus (the Bible promises don't work for the average church-attender, you have to be a disciple), Christ is being formed in you. Christ was born in you when you received Him and now He is being formed in you through the travail of the ministry as well as the circumstances through which the Lord is bringing you. |
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What is being formed in you is the Word of God. In this particular instance, Truth is being formed in you. When you have come to the fullness of maturity as measured by the stature of Christ, the Word of God, you will be truth incarnate. There will be no lie left in you. The Divine nature that has been formed in you does not and cannot lie. |
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The transformation from the human nature to the Word of God is God's idea and He has the power to do it. Don't you agree? |
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Cool! |
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Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1,2) |
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Faith is being treated today as though it were magic. One aspect of this is the current faith-prosperity exercise in metaphysics. If I can believe hard enough all I want will be given to me. Wishing will make it so. When you wish upon a star everything you desire will come to you. Cinderella. Peter Pan. Hollywood is great on this kind of faith. Believe you can play a trombone, and presto! |
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A more serious warping of faith is the current "make a decision for Christ." The idea is if we can get someone to go through the "four steps of salvation" he or she is magically transformed from a sinner to a saint. No more is necessary. The conductor is saying, "Next stop, Heaven." |
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This is so far from the Christian salvation it has almost no relationship to it. |
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While it is true that the sinner can come to Jesus and have all of his sins forgiven at once, it must be recognized that this is an introduction to salvation, not the whole ranch. The individual is at the gateway to life. He is at the entrance to what will prove to be a long, treacherous journey before he is ready for the victor's crown. |
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Let all the experienced saints say, "Amen!" |
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God has placed evangelists in the Body of Christ. The evangelist is kind of like a salesman. He is stationed at the entrance to the Kingdom and is inviting whoever passes by to join the party. |
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Sometimes evangelists oversell the Gospel. "Once you accept Jesus you will have no more trouble." I wish they wouldn't do that. It makes the job of the pastor and teacher more difficult. |
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It is the job of the evangelist to announce the good news of God's gift of forgiveness to those who turn away from the world, not to hand people a package all wrapped up and tied with a bow. |
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When an individual receives Christ he or she is embarking on the most wonderful of all adventures. But it is a fight to the death, make no mistake. |
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Once we make a profession of Christ we are to be handed over to the pastor and teacher. It is his or her job to work with us until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, until we attain maturity as measured by the fullness of the stature of Christ. |
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Faith is not a magic that transforms us into saints. Faith is a grace given to us by God so we can relate successfully to Him and come before Christ every day of our life. |
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As we seek always to abide in Christ we are given a portion of evil for the day and a portion of Divine good by which we can overcome the evil. |
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The next day we are given a new portion of evil and a new portion of Divine good—a little more advanced than that of the previous day. |
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We must by faith abide in Christ each day. As we do we grow in the ability to discern between good and evil and in the desire and strength to choose the good and turn away from the evil. This is what Christian growth is. This is what salvation is—the ability to refuse the evil and choose the good. |
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No, faith is not a magic that transports us in our unchanged state into Paradise. Faith is our daily relationship with God and Christ. As we continually behold the Glory of the Lord we continually are transformed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord. This is the new covenant. |
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And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12) |
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The main problem of the last days is and will continue to be that of lawlessness. Antichrist is the man of lawlessness. |
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We are so immersed in our contemporary life that the tapestry of history is not always visible to us. It is hard to realize that for most of his history man has been under severe laws. |
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The Star Chamber, the Algerian hook, drawing and quartering, lining the road with crucified criminals, keelhauling, starving children hung for stealing a loaf of bread—these horrors no longer exist in the Western democracies. |
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But in America while the penalties are getting lighter the crimes are increasing in horror. It is not unusual to read in the paper of a raped, murdered child, or someone who has been carved into pieces and the parts strewn around, or a victim in a car wreck who is raped and robbed while lying helplessly in the wreckage before the police get there. Some of our larger cities are in anarchy such that people, including children, are shot for no reason at all. |
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The punishment increasingly is diminished while the crime increasingly is rampant. Perhaps there is a relationship here. |
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Satan is behind the minimizing of punishment. He is hoping somehow to escape the Lake of Fire. I think Satan's plan is to so arm people against the idea of severe punishment that they will force God to reconsider the idea of an eternal lake of fire. But Satan is deceived in this. Once the Father speaks there is no power that can change the Word. |
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There are two realms of lawlessness today. One is in the Western democracies. The other is in the Christian churches. |
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Secular lawlessness in the Western democracies is produced by the notion that man can govern himself. Man is not able to govern himself. He must have strong governmental controls and quick, severe penalties for wrongdoing—wrongdoing as described by the Bible standards of morality. (What other reliable, unchanging standards are there?) |
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I am not speaking here of returning to the Law of Moses but to the concepts of justice and righteousness found in the conscience of all people until they are corrupted by an outside philosophy, such as that of relative morality. The laws of the Bible coincide with the laws of the unpolluted human conscience because both came from the same God. The natives in the bush have stronger, more effective social laws concerning morality than is true of Americans. We don't know where we are morally! |
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When someone willfully harms another person he or she should be punished appropriately and then prepared for another chance at citizenship, perhaps under supervision. A second offense should bring quick, severe punishment and more prolonged incarceration as well as preparation for eventual release. Society must be protected from criminals. |
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It is obvious that some types of criminals must be removed from society permanently. |
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Cruel and unusual crimes deserve cruel and unusual punishment. When cruel and unusual crimes are not responded to by cruel and unusual punishment a kind of psychological "stuffing" takes place in society that will cause some kind of eruption sooner or later. People want and need justice if they are to have any kind of psychological-social health. |
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Man is not able to govern himself. To permit him to do so leads directly to lawlessness. Stern, powerful government, such as in a monarchy, is necessary if society is to be rescued from anarchy. We Christians have this kind of government in the Kingdom of God if we will come under it! |
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The other realm of lawlessness is the Christian churches. It is taught commonly that we have been freed from the Law of Moses so we can do pretty much as we please without severe punishment. The truth is, we have been freed from the Law of Moses so we can be married to Christ—an infinitely more demanding government. |
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Because Christian people have been taught they can sin without severe, lasting punishment they do not grow in righteousness. |
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Now we have a lawless secular society (Antichrist) and a lawless Christian society (the False Prophet). One will assist the other in the last days and the result will be utter chaos. |
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God's response to the chaos will be the great tribulation. |
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God is a God of law and will not tolerate lawlessness for any length of time. |
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His patience should be leading us to repentance. |
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Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man [each of them] shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:1,2) |
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God has called out many disciples from the various churches to serve Him as a holy remnant. They will be "cities of refuge" for God's elect throughout the second half of the prophetic week, the period of the great tribulation. |
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The Lord Jesus rules in righteousness. As soon as He has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, they too will reign in righteousness. |
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There will be spiritual wind and storms because the ancient rulers of the heavens are going to come down to stand against the Lord Jesus and His saints. |
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The ancient rulers against whom we wrestle are spiritual beings of exalted personality. At one time they had governed the universes of God's creatures. |
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Dissension arose among them just as it does among the Lord's people on earth. The Father noted the spirit of rebellion. |
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At the height of the discontent God spoke. He chose Jesus, the eternal Word. He exalted Jesus above all other beings. He established the throne of Jesus above all other thrones. |
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Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Psalms 45:6,7) |
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The princes of the heavenlies resent Jesus. They are jealous of His exalted position as Lord of all of God's creation. Yet they were created originally by the Lord Jesus. |
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Even though they were created by Him, the Word of God, they are seeking to usurp His place as supreme Head of the Kingdom of God. |
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The lords of the air are not convinced that the Father is willing or able to cast them into the lake of fire for eternity. |
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At the present time they are content to watch the demons play with the flesh of the earth. But as soon as God's holy remnant is brought to a place of spiritual strength and authority the princes will be hurled to the earth, outraged over the change in their status. |
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When they come to the earth, tribulation of an intensity and scope beyond man's ability to imagine will torment the nations. Blood will flow like water and the birds (demons) will be satiated with the flesh of humans. |
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Man is no match for the fallen rulers. Religious man is not equal in wisdom or strength to the lords of wickedness. Converted, tongues-speaking Christians are not able to prevail against the huge, sophisticated beings who are about to attack the earth in their fury. |
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Only God the Father, and Jesus, whom God has made Lord and Christ, are able to prevail against the lords of darkness. |
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Therefore God is prepared, in the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles, to come down and take up His eternal abode in the hearts of those who keep the commandments of Christ Jesus. |
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The dwelling of the Father and Christ in the holy remnant will be the place where the devout of the earth can hide from the face of the wicked. |
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The King and His princes—each of them—will be a hiding place from the winds of Satan, a shelter from the storm, as rivers of water in a dry land, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land. |
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If you will be patient with the Lord He will make you a city of refuge for the weary and oppressed. Would you like that? (from A Study Guide for the Book of First Corinthians) |
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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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The Law of Moses could not produce people who always exhibit righteousness and praise in the sight of the nations of the earth. Yet the bringing forth of righteousness and the worship of God are God's purposes in calling out Israel from among the nations of the earth (Isaiah 61:11). |
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Because the old covenant did not and could not bring about the type of royal priest God desires, God has given us a new covenant. The new covenant, while it includes the forgiveness of our sins, is not primarily a covenant of forgiveness. The new covenant is the putting of the law of God in our minds and the writing of the law in our hearts. |
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The new covenant includes the eternal forgiveness of our sins. The forgiving of our sins is meant to serve as a foundation on which the Lord can proceed with the work of conforming us to the moral image of Christ. We are to be transformed into new creations of righteousness and holiness. |
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The forgiving of our sins under the new covenant never was intended to be a means of escaping God's insistence that we be in His image. Grace is never an alternative to godly behavior, only to the statutes of the Law of Moses—circumcision, the feast days and so forth. |
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The new covenant is being preached today as the Divinely ordained means of escaping the Kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. It is taught that grace is an unconditional pardon, and as long as we believe in Christ Jesus we can sow sin and reap the fruits of righteousness. We have aborted the intentions of God. |
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We are saying to the Christian who works wickedness that he will not reap what he is sowing. We are claiming that if he accepts Christ Jesus he then can proceed to fumble ineffectively at the task of following the Lord and never be condemned for his lack of diligence. |
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If this were true the new covenant would be virtually worthless for the Kingdom purposes of God. The new covenant would be the lesser covenant, for the old covenant at least demanded righteous behavior, bringing a blessing on those who obeyed the Word of the Lord and a curse on those who disobeyed the Word of the Lord. |
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Notice what the unchanging Christ spoke through Isaiah: |
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Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. (Isaiah 3:10,11) |
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These words were addressed to Jerusalem and Judah, to God's elect. |
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If such were the case under the old covenant, how much more is it true under the new covenant where we have every grace of God to help us turn away from wickedness and live righteously? |
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For us this is a new day. The winds of God are blowing away the dead leaves of dispensational thinking. The righteous Lord has come to bring true, actual, living righteousness to His saints. |
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How about you? Are you ready to move into actual righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit? The Kingdom of God is at hand. Rejoice wildly with us! Wave the banners! Sound the trumpets! Sing the songs of war and victory! |
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Welcome the King as He comes! (from The Continuity of the Covenants) |
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Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:53,54) |
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If we would understand the statements of the New Testament concerning eternal life we must realize that the expression in its fullest sense refers to the resurrection of the body to a certain kind of life—not just to perpetual existence but to a specific kind of perpetual existence. |
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What does "have everlasting life" mean? Is it the same thing as going to Heaven?—as being washed in the blood of the Lamb?—as being born again? |
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We know that eternal life is the Substance of Christ Jesus in us. As we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have eternal life in us. If we cultivate that eternal life, learning to live by it, the Lord Jesus will raise us when He appears and we will be eternally alive with Divine Life in body, soul, and spirit. |
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There is the biologic life of flesh and blood and then there is eternal life. If we would attain resurrection unto life in the Presence of God and Christ we must develop and nourish the portion of eternal life given us when we received Christ. |
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We must learn to think of our initial experience with Christ as being the beginning of our quest for eternal life. At the outset, righteousness is imputed to us. Our sins are forgiven by means of the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. The Divine Seed is planted in us. We are touched with a beginning portion of eternal life, a deposit on the fullness of eternal life that will be ours if we pursue Christ until we attain the mark set before us as an individual. |
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Thus we are given a marvelous start. Now it is up to us to fight the good fight of faith, laying hold on eternal life until we attain the out-resurrection, the first resurrection from the dead. |
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We must always keep in mind that every aspect of salvation is an opportunity. There is a spirit of assurance among evangelical people that is not based on reality. Godly assurance is a blessing but false assurance is a destructive deception. |
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We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, not with a blithe, overconfident attitude that we are a favorite of God and no matter how we behave God would never punish us severely nor could we possibly lose our inheritance of eternal life. God always is looking to see if we are serving Him. There are no favorites, no respect of persons. The believer who continues in well doing will inherit eternal life. The believer who is careless, not being careful to observe the Lord's commandments, will inherit corruption in the Day of the Lord. (from Laying Hold on Eternal Life) |
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