I.Greetings to the Saints with adorations, admirations, and thanksgivings to God
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” 1 Peter 2:9
“To the strangers scattered throughout” Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, California, New York City, Missouri, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and all of the USA, all of Germany, all of the UK, all of Africa, and all of the world: firstly, it is to you we write and greet in the name of Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the builder of the heavenly mansions, the city of Zion, and the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Take heart and consider the “abundant mercy” of God that he “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:1, 3-4). Though this world foams at the mouth in blasphemous rebellion against God, though the Name of Jesus Christ is blasphemed and mocked, yet still even in the last days “we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness,” that “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,” and “that wicked one toucheth him not” (1 John 5:19, 4, 18). “We know that the Son of God is come,” lives today, “and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Because He lives we live, He conquers we conquer, “for all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:20). The servants of Christ Jesus are partakers of salvation in a commision to minister the messag eof salvation as the last remaining light of this world before the judgment of fire. We are commissioned as His ambassadors, as the risen Lord said, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:18). And yet in a little while the “seventh angel” will sound with the “great voices in heaven, saying, The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
Oh exalt God Almighty and give Him the praise! Oh Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, let the world “praise Thy great and terrible Name; for it is holy” (Ps. 99:3)! “The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The LORD is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people” (Ps. 99:1-2). Our every supplication should be preceded with an awareness of our state before this Awesome Deity. Many men murmur against God, but Abraham saw it a weighty thing to even speak to God. In righteousness he had faith, in humility he did premeditate, before speaking to God he did inculcate: “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 19:27).
Man may desire to supplicate, but no prayer can man worthily generate. But dust and ashes, I am an earthly creature. Under the Sun we burn, in the night a sleeper. With this eternal, heavenly God I cannot grasp his pinky finger. He wears time like a kingly gown, and Heavenly Jerusalem will be coming down. His Kingdom blooms after apocalyptic dooms, the beauty of a heavenly flower falling to earth like a rain shower. Mountains melting, the earth under God’s smelting. The heavens rolled back, nothing is left intact. In pools of blood, He returns wicked men to mud. From dust and ashes I’ll be translated, having glorified eyes to see God I once carnally hated. I will wonder still at His right hand majesty. Gasping at the end of days, beholding The Rod of Iron He’s grasping. Nations in recreation, He subdues all scholastically. God becomes all in all, and the Father takes supremacy.
II. An Update
The Triumph of Christ in California, New Mexico, Indiana, New York City, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, Abilene, and the uttermost parts of the world.
Around three months have passed since our last posted update and I suppose that because of this some of you may be wondering. By the grace of God we are still serving Christ Jesus, still pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God,” but the “good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in” have been increasingly abundant and straining! Why? Sleeping saints “awake to righteousness and sin not” (1 Cor. 15:34)! Have you forgotten the narrow way of Christ or “that ye should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21)? Are you different than He? You who claim to be His servant and disciple, has “evil communications” “corrupted” what was once that part of your walk that is called “good manners” resulting in your friendship with a Christianity that is not like Christ (1 Cor. 15:33)?
In a day more perilous than His was is the “spirit” that you have received led you in His same steps (2 Cor. 11:4)? Is your holiness anything like the Lord Jesus Christ’s? “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). Is your “Christianity” best described by a baptism of death or are you “baptized for the dead” (1 Cor. 15:29)? Can you relate at all to the sufferings of the saints in every age, as to be consoled by or even understand the saying: “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19)? Many are assured they presently have eternal life yet do not walk the crucified life (Gal. 2:20), have not left their “old” life (Rom. 6, Col. 3), yet “the disciple is not above his Master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master” in every generation and still today (Lk. 6:40)! The work of God is abundant and straining for the times are still “perilous” (2 Tim. 3:1), still full of modern day “beasts at Ephesus” (1 Cor. 15:32), the devil still “walketh about” “as a roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5:8), the unconverted elect mingled in the masses are still at present “white already for to harvest” (John 4:35), and with “plenteous” duties “the labourers” are still “few” (Matt. 9:37).
In the past three month, though I can scarcely remember all that happened, I do know that our work in the sovereign pleasure of God was always including missions abroad. We have been to Missouri, Wisconsin, California, Indiana, New York City, Pennsylvania, and more. William went to Wisconsin for approximately a week of labor. Jordan, Masao, Kevin, and William went to California for approximately two and a half weeks of labor. Chris, Kevin, and I (Sean) went to New York City and Pennsylvania for weeks of labor. Finally and at present, William, Ryan, and Jake are in Indiana doing labors. It was the cause of God, for His own Names sake, to sanctify and send His people to testify and triumph in His Name- to make “manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life” (2 Cor. 2:14-16). That is to say: unsaved men are the same as yesterday and if they come to know Christ they will know that He the light and they are in darkness, He is the life and they are dead, He is good and they are evil, and He is salvation and they are in hellish anarchy against His Kingdom and rule because they are by nature, children of damnation.
Salvific light is a sin remover and a righteous intruder. This light is righteously bright, and therefore an expeller of sin; it is not relatively defined by men. It is no candle in a devil’s den, to give a warmness of light to help them sin. Costly hugs and kisses are the harlot’s love and wishes (Prov. 7:6-27). Feasts of peace on the eve of judgment are no banquet of the Lord (1 Sam. 28:22-25). They extinguish the fervency and every possibility of fasting; they replace the need of mourning with meat. This is the devil’s method of madness; he is a master builder making prisons of gladness. If there is no repentance, there is no life; therefore, preach repentance that they may have life! The comforts of this life are the witch’s love and harlot’s ways to steal repentance from sinners all throughout their days.
Nevertheless, blessed be God! Rays from Thy countenance are shed abroad; they circle, astound, and clothe Thy saints with armour shod. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Rom. 13:12). “There be many that say, who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us,” and he has, therefore we are victory bound!
A Message to the Persecutors
“He that saith I know Him” – Do you keep His commandments? (1 John 2:4)
“He that saith he abideth in him” – Do you walk, even as He walked? (1 John 2:6)
“He that saith he is in the light” – Do you walk in the light and love as He authored and defined it? (1 John 2:9)
Before the antichrist is revealed to this world there are specific events that must transpire. There must be “strong delusion” and then the world will welcome him with open arms (2 Thess. 2:11). It is written, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11-12). This delusion causes an orderly, robotic reprobation in worldwide unity. If you have this one mark (pleasure in unrighteousness) you can expect to be a part of this end time antichrist army.
The distinct mark of holiness for saints is that they, overwhelmingly and predominately, have no pleasure in unrighteousness. Pleasure in unrighteousness is reigning in all once-born men. They are captive under “the rulers of the darkness of this world” and even “the prince of the power of the air” (meaning Satan) (Eph. 6:12, 2:2). This great darkness is: “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Salvation is a creation of holiness! Why? Well truly, “there is none that understandeth,” but in Christ this is not so, for by him “it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 13:11). “There are none righteous,” nevertheless, you “become the righteousness of God in him” at salvation (2 Cor. 5:21). Though all the world has “gone out of the way,” the Lord Jesus Christ is our “Way, Truth, and Life” (John 14:6). The Lord makes the seekers of sin seekers of him, and that by the effectual spoken word. Herein is the Christian confession to God, that, “when thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face, LORD, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8). Holiness is the inevitable exclamation of salvation!
If you are a light in the midst of a kingdom of darkness, if you love righteousness in a world dominated by satanic unrighteousness – This is an extraordinary situation. In this extraordinary situation love and righteousness would be active in extraordinary deeds. A Christ dominated, grace-filled, righteousness-loving, wise, seeker of God would be identified as a light of holiness. The darkness that blanketed Egypt, “even darkness which may be felt” (Exodus 10:21), was not in the place where the Israelites dwelt. “There was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Ex. 10:22-23).
Abominations are everywhere in this world, therefore the righteous have no ease. The nations seek paradise and retirement, and at enmity to them, the saints bear the baptism of death. Think of the great contradiction of saints and sinners! The one, a majority, seeks the welfare of life, a promise of many days, the hope of a sustainable environment, and a wealthy retirement. The other, an unhidden, interruptive minority, has visions of judgment burning and energizing their heart, that “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Therefore they number their days, neither trusting nor seeking many, having a heavenly hope to be spent and expended as a bold witness. The one, the majority, seeks to escape every memory and sting of death. Therefore the cinema is filled with the emotion of a life well lived. Movies are haunted with death’s near and untimely touch, and excited with a fantasy of men heroically overcoming an early grave. The other, the minority, is sent to testify to the majority, to turn them from vanity – that they must go to a spiritual grave to be saved, crucify their present days, and all this to escape a second death.
Have you read the commission: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18)? This peculiar minority is rejected, reviled, and reproved, but they are compelled to sing:
This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore. (This World Is Not My Home)
These are the runners of a righteous race (1 Cor. 9:24-27), fighters of a faith-filled fight (1 Tim. 6:12), exercising for everlasting life (1 Tim. 4:7), and wrestling against these rulers of the night (Eph. 6:12). The Spirit does well up a song for this season, and in it you can tell their spiritual endurance and reason:
O land of rest, for thee I sigh! When will the moment come, When I shall lay my armor by, and dwell at peace at home? No tranquil joys on earth I know, no peaceful sheltering dome. This world’s a wilderness of woe, this world is not my home. I sought at once my Savior’s side, no more my steps shall roam. With him I’ll brave death’s chilling tide, and reach my Heavenly home. We’ll work till Jesus comes, We’ll work till Jesus comes. We’ll work till Jesus comes, And we’ll be gathered home.(We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes)
Yea, in this hour, in this day of wickedness, it is evil for a man to be full of laughter and glee, with no sorrow. They have blind eyes of ease, callused hearts of careless, cold immorality; they are comfortable with the devil’s spiritual brutality, they agree to his decrees and follow him in actuality. On these terms Jesus separated the saved and the unsaved: The Lord said, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted,” and “Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh” (Matthew 5:4, Luke 6:21). “Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25). Blessed are the saints, the forerunning messengers that proclaim a new world without end, they are the body of Christ. They walk the steps of their salvation in a Person, and “he is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa. 53:3). The Lord calls out the contrary with woes because they are revelling in Satan’s jubilee and power. They are partakers of Satan’s commission and he has made them fat and full with the pleasures of unrighteousness, and they do “laugh now!”
The world is Satan’s Egypt that afflicts God’s people. The world is drunk to a stupor of laughing in lawlessness. It is a kingdom of criminal perversion deserving Sodom’s fiery fate. Sobriety and sufferings mark the messengers of the Lord. Grave matters grip the mind of godly men for they bear tidings of a fiery death or everlasting life. They are uninvited, unwelcome, uncalled by men, but sent by God. And, as the Lord said, our Exodus route from this Egyptian, Sodomite world will be as Lot’s. He referenced the crime of Lot’s wife who looked back to Sodom. He has declared a similar fate to this world, commanded you not to look back nor love the world, and if you will be saved it is because you are not like Lot’s wife. Jesus gave the warning: “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
III. The Gospel of Grace
“Grace reigns,” the scripture exclaims, “for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:21, Titus 2:11-13). In other words, “saving grace makes one have the earnest expectation of the gospel message which makes you deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. It makes you live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world because you are looking for… the glorious appearing… of Jesus Christ.” If you are not looking for his appearing then you are not living in the manner described. If you are living for his appearing you are living for the world to come, not this present world, “for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:14).
The marks of ready watchfulness begin as heart righteousness; heart Christ-likeness. It is written, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). If from your heart there is a “well of water springing,” thy heart will issue righteousness from day to day (John 4:14). “Grace reigns” in a Holy Ghost Geyser, “springing up into everlasting life” (Rom. 5:21, John 4:14), and this is your Noahic Ark of escalation (1 Pet. 3:18-22). Yea, “as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). “Grace reigns through righteousness,” and “the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 5:21, 8:10). The Spirit of God is not a wellspring of happiness but righteousness, not relative morality but a blistering, holy, righteous mentality. For, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
Unbelief is surrender to a godless night, a groping of blindness without arising to fight. All who know the true faith are recipients of a crucified Savior’s cross-bearing commission, they are enduring “hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” worthy to make this finish and confession: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim. 2:3, 4:7-8). Such grace did hold Lot captive at heart! That is to say, Sodom and Gomorrah was not in his heart, and these were the first fruits of his worthy escape. All recipients of our eternal escalation must be partakers of those fruits. They must be like unto Lot:
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds)” (2 Peter 2:6-8).
It is written that God “delivered just Lot,” meaning righteous Lot, because the “Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10). What can be said of Lot’s practical righteousness by deed or what righteous works warranted God to deliver him from the fire? He was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” As he saw and heard their “unlawful deeds,” it “vexed his righteous soul from day to day.” It is apparent that Lot had a love of righteousness that did lead him from day to day, “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). This is the heart of God and the heart of his children in Christ.
What sins in Sodom did vex Lot? Don’t think that the vexing sins of Sodom were merely of the sexual kind, namely homosexuality. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). Are these things vexing to you like homosexuality? What of other lawlessness that God has mentioned, for surely we must be vexed over the seeing and hearing of it all, especially those that are particularly the greater of sins. Galatians 5:19-21 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 lists the works of the flesh, which, if anyone continues to do they are wicked enough to go to hell. Among the works listed they can be divided between culturally unacceptable sins and culturally acceptable sins. Many people scorn abortion, but have bloody hands because they don’t share the gospel. Many people help the poor, but neglect the spiritually poor. Many do shun adultery or fornication, but celebrate lust, gossip, idleness, covetousness, envy, and un-forgiveness. If you re-read those two portions of scripture (Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) you will find the murderers condemned alongside the covetous, the adulterers alongside the envious, the fornicators alongside the drunkards, witches alongside liars, and so on (see also Rev. 21:8, Matt 6:15). All these deeds are declared damnable, and therefore are lawless. Righteous Lot was vexed by all the lawlessness, not by culturally or Pharisaically-defined lawlessness.
If Lot was temperate enough to refrain from, or in some sense hate: homosexuality, fornication [sex outside of marriage], adultery, drunkenness, and witchcraft [drugs]; nevertheless, if he did in heart lust for women outside of marriage, was drunken with concern for the cares of this life, and high on the ease and riches of an idle life – this is sure condemnation! (Lk. 21:34, Mk. 4:18-19) If your goodly godliness is caught in a garrison of guile wherein you idly Google your life away, that is, pursuing personal hobbies, interests, knowledge, sports, and gluttony – you are perishing! “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk. 21:36). O how beautiful you are on the outside! Innocent of murder, yet you hate, innocent of adultery, yet you lust, innocent of thievery, yet you covet, envy, and are jealous. You are “full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). You may not be crowned a witch, but you love the imagination of magic in Harry Potter-like movies. You may deem yourself not as guilty as a wicked witch, but your sin of self-will is rebellion, anarchy against God, and witchcraft: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee” (1 Sam. 15:23).
You may profess to know the Covenant of grace, but if you are dominated in these sins of lawlessness (as stated in Gal. 5:19-21, 1 Cor. 6:9-10) you are perishing! The culturally acceptable sins are by name and definition:
| Lasciviousness | looseness, unhindered sinful lusts, characteristic in a person who willfully sins. |
| Hatred | being an enemy, intense anger, great dislike, characteristic of the anger or dislike that a person has when he says to another “I hate you.” It is not necessary that the hatred lasts forever but only for a moment. |
| Variance | difference that produces dispute or controversy, disagreement, dissension, discord, argument. |
| Emulations | envious rivalry, a desire of superiority attended with effort to attain to it, striving to be equal or better than others in achievement with sinful motives like self gain. |
| Wrath | unrighteous anger, vengeful anger, characteristic of a person easily angered. |
| Strife | a contest or contention for superiority, sinful competition, self promoting. |
| Seditions | resistance against authority, divisions, in form against divinely distributed rights to the common man it is characteristic in cliques, to look down upon through class, economic status, educational status, sophistication or civilization. |
| Envyings | painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage, an object of envious notice or feeling (his new car made him the envy of his friends). |
| Covetousness | discontent in your life that motivates a fulfillment of that desire through the love of possessions, money, “style,” riches, luxury, laziness, and reputable lifestyles. |
| Revellings | noisy partying and merrymaking commonly associated with drinking parties but are any unrighteous celebrations (that is any celebration that glories in sinful things). |
| Dictionaries used | (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) |
All these sins are (if they are characteristic of your life over and against the fruits of the Spirit, done in persistence or perseverance) they are indisputably evidences of a life without saving grace! Those guilty of the latter description, those deeds that many justify with the saying, “I am only human,” these sins are lawless works that the scripture declares damnation. It is convenient for men to justify themselves but if the word of God condemns you its final. You must repent and rather let God justify you. If God justifies you then the word of God will confirm your salvation, if you have given yourself false peace then the word of God will condemn you. God has told us beforehand what will happen on Judgment Day, it is the word of God that judges us, and God has been merciful enough to warn you what will happen then. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Lk. 21:33, Matt. 24:35, Mk. 13:31).
O friend, you must have a hatred for sin! So much so, that, if you are in the presence of these deeds, from day to day, you are vexed over them. If there is no vexation then there is no love for God or righteousness, you are in darkness. These deeds are the American Dream, popular TV shows, and mostly all media streams. It is the world and the merrymaking of the wicked. Thoughts are not harmless, but effectual definitions of the salvation of man: Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So what about you? When you watch TV, movies, listen to the radio, CDs, and music? When you spend time with family, friends, acquaintances, and co-workers? Is the light of righteousness so pure, so bright, that darkness cannot dim its darling grip on your heart? If you are not daily vexed at the seeing and hearing of these things, as Lot would not have escaped, neither will you. O how quickly you justify yourself simply because you watch it on television, in the secret of your own living room. That room is your cave of covetousness. You love violence and bloodshed, for all manner of sin you restlessly thirst. “How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water” (Job 15:16)? Don’t deny it, repent! You must be born again! “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Turn to righteousness through Christ and don’t look back to this world. The godly man Lot, saw that all of Sodom was being dissolved, by faith he forsook it, and did not look back – in this manner are you looking for the day of God? Are you in like manner, “seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved?”
“The day is at hand,” the apostle Paul proclaims (Rom. 13:12). “Knowing the time, that now it is high time” that “the night is far spend, the day is at hand” he says, in the light of this, “let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the amour of light” (Rom. 13:11-12). What is this day? Urgency exudes from the words “let us therefore,” but what is this day? Reader, there is a salvation which you must prepare for, a “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).
IV. Where is Jesus Christ Today?
“Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).
Is Jesus Christ without the camp? It is written that “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12). Why? Jesus was like “the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp” (Heb. 13:11). Jesus is like those beasts because the Father “hath made him to be sin for us,” and though he never sinned he was “made a curse for us” (2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:13). It is commanded of those beasts that were sin offerings: “the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering” (Ex. 29:14).
Christ suffered at the hands of sinners, “he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Is this the King of Kings? Pilate asked Christ, “Art thou a King then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice” (John 18:37). Indeed He is a King but of what manner has His Kingdom come? Jesus told Pilate before the former answer, “My Kingdom is not of this world: if my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my Kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36). Jesus came as a testimony to the Kingdom of Satan that is presently ruling the world through those that are God’s enemies; those that live in carnality and walk after the flesh (2 Cor. 4:4, Eph. 2:2-3, Rom. 8:4-6). He came as a testimony, a suffering servant, a lamb to be slain but who killed Him? Who killed Christ?
Christ came and was betrayed and delivered up by the Jews, the professing people of God on earth. To go without the camp as a sin offering was to go without the camp of the professing Jews of the day. For us to be betrayed, to follow in His steps, we must also suffer and be rejected by those who call themselves Christians! Note: Those who are “carnal” and “walk as men” (1 Cor. 3:3) will reject those “spiritual” men whom God will send (1 Cor. 2:15-16). Why? Those that are carnal will seek to “reign as kings” while Christ perpetually calls His true people to be “made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (1 Cor. 4:8-13). These are the true “ways which be in Christ” to “be ye followers of” (1 Cor. 4:16-17)! “Let no man decieve you” (Eph. 5:6, 1 John 3:7)!
Have you ever imagined what it would have been like in Jesus’ generation where Satan’s crafty devices were ruling and governing the established religion of Judaism? Satan did not merely disguise himself as an angel of light to deceive one individual, but he clothed himself in the entire religion of Judaism. It was as if the hands and feet of Satan were Jewish “pastors.” Furthermore, upon their lips and as a seeming justification of their actions was the Holy Scriptures. How hardly would one be able to escape such a widespread delusion when these “pastors” season their teachings with “scriptural” justification?
It is significant that Jesus and John the Baptist were not educated in the Pharisaical “Seminaries;” they had a much different school of God. Their curriculum included the wilderness and their graduating class was one in number. The book of study was so simple a babe may know it, but too deep solely the Spirit can show it (1 Cor. 2:10). God’s Prophets were not the pride of the Jewish proselytes nor the prime pupil of their Rabbinic riddles, these men were strangers from the wilderness whose school was so humble it was a stumbling block and offence. To make manifest a deception that has fastened its death grip on an entire society and generation, one must steadfastly remember what “is written.” You must know what is written well enough to refute the sermons of Satan, whose rhetorical devices are as numerous as a locust plague, whose only appetite is the vineyard and planting of the Lord. All Satan’s fair speeches and scriptural gymnastics can only be resisted by a somber, courageous, unyielding wielding of, “it is written again” (Matthew 4:7)!
In Jesus’ day there were many traditions and denominations of men, yet he wasn’t a Pharisee, Sadducee, Zealot, or Herodian. All of these sects and beliefs were divided against each other, but when Jesus came in the way of righteousness they all united against Him. How did Jesus respond to such contention and perplexity, and how should we respond today? Jesus responded, “it is written” (Mark 9:13), “have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God” (Matt. 22:31), “is it not written” (Mark 11:17), “have ye never read” (Mark 2:25), “ye do err, not knowing the scripture, nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29), and “it is written again” (Matt. 4:7).
Come now, you who judge yourself innocent because you follow the masses, do you know that the majority is usually wrong? The most who say “Lord, Lord” are a satanic throng. Few find, and ever found life in every generation through time. Eight were saved in the days of Noah, while (arguably) millions perished at the worldwide flood? Therefore Jesus said, “enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14). Don’t trust in numbers! Multitudes are always in deception marching in a broad-way band of procession, waving a banner of Christian profession and following generations past who had a sinful religious obsession. False prophets did always beguile the masses, therefore “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matt. 7:15).
Languish in your sin you’re a rotting soul, and you will be covered in carnivorous fowls to feast on your rottenness like ravening wolves. As corpses attract vultures, so sinners attract false prophets. False prophets feed on the flesh of men in their false religion. You must understand that they are commissioned by Satan to make you a deceptive, counterfeit religion, and God will judge you as a spiritual idolater, a golden calf worshipper, and one worthy of eternal torture. A man of God, beholding this madness, would surely be staggered in emotion and pressed to make some kind of interruptive commotion, and so scare these feverish, feasting false prophet carnivorous fowls.
Is this not what the Lord did when He said: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:21-27)
“Lord, Lord, I am sorry I got caught, I am sorry my deeds are wrong, But Jesus’ atonement is my Sunday song and to him I know I do belong.” NO! Repent, for regeneration the Son of God was sent! Such Sunday singers and tithe bringers, Church members of all ages and genders, Examine your fruits not your Sunday suits. At the altar you plead, the bible you daily read, And you thank God for food and shelter – but do you know your need? Jesus purchased sinners and pronounced them freed, Therefore obeying the Word of God is a Christian’s minute by minute deed!
This hour may be a cloudless sky, men may now have a sunny time, but judgment can come in a single hour. A sandy foundation renders the most protective, luxurious, and profitable house useless. Two men, like two houses, will be tried at Judgment Day. Both men hear the sayings of Jesus, but only one does them. This one characteristic separates the two men. Thus, whatever your faith or confession, though you abide under an illusion of safety, though you may think you will be sheltered from the storm of Judgment Day, if you do not obey the word of God you will perish. You may confess Jesus as your Lord and have an earnest assurance that you have faith, but if your faith does not move you to hear the sayings of Christ [the bible] and do them, your faith is not of the saving, counterfeit kind. Is your faith and Christianity genuine? O readers, in this chapter please “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates [or fail the test]? Study the scriptures presented, and test your faith by the word of God. A stubborn unwillingness to be introspective will be your greatest evil. A man can be so bound in pride that, though they are deceived, they cannot even entertain the possibility of deception. False assurance is their damnable regression, and they find repentance to be a depression. On the contrary, “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Cor. 7:10).
Many would expect Jesus to have showered the Pharisees with soft reproofs and gentle corrections. You might expect he served them as the least of all men, not overturning their spiritual concessions. Or, perhaps, he honored them with entreaty not judging their professions. Some people witness by presents and vain physical possessions, but not the Lord of glory. He came to give himself, and he is the Everlasting Bread, Living Water, Imperishable Treasures, and Manifold Mansions. Do you love Him? He is that Bread (John 6:32), Water (John 7:38), Treasure (Matt 13:44), and all measure of blessing is given by a reconciliation to Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17-21) – a single-eyed consuming love to God alone. A salvation of indwelling love (1 John 2:5), that “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” – having nothing instead. “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (1 John 2:5).
In unfeigned love, the Lord, the Prophet like unto Moses, did rebuke the Pharisees more fiercely than Moses rebuked Aaron. The most loving person who ever walked this earth preached a sermon of woes to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 with no appeal for mercy, forgiveness, or hope, even proclaiming their state horrifyingly hopeless by the words: “ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell” (Matt 23:33)?
Spiritual idolatry was running rampant and the Savior of the world grinded the golden calf of Pharisaical religion by uprooting the blind guides which, he said, “my heavenly Father hath not planted” (Matt 15:13). He said, “let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matt 15:14). Jesus was offensive, he was merciless to defend the blind and defenseless, and he was the perfection of love that did cry aloud, calling the blind to a righteous attention. At one point his disciples said to him, “knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying (Matt 15:12)?
Reader listen, Christ was “set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against,” and it was even spoken to Mary, “(yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:34-35). Jesus “was the Word,” “His name is called the Word of God,” and “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (John 1:1, Rev. 19:13, Hebrews 4:12). Reader, I preach to you today: Be born of the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, and you will find it Pharisaical in our day.
Many claim to walk in the Spirit, many love the saying ‘what would Jesus do,’ but “he that saith he abideth in him [in Jesus] ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). The Holy Ghost was not sent for world peace but spiritual war, and “when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). He is “the Comforter” that reproves in judgment “because the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:11). The Holy Ghost is a comfort to the saints, but gnashing disturbance to the lost (Acts 7:54). He is an incense of pleasure and life to the saints, but a stench of death to the wicked (2 Cor. 2:14-16). Henceforth to be a son of God you become an alien to the world, as it is written, we “should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not” (1 John 3:1). Is it any marvel that if you are a Christian the world will hate you? As it is written, “marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). Walk in the Spirit of Jesus and you will see that this is the calling for you and me: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:12-13).
It breaks my heart that the truth is often misunderstood to be unwise passion, zeal without knowledge, or some other diagnosis made by ”civilized” or “dignified” men. Oh that God would grant ears to hear!
My inner man may break and my bones shake,
But there are certain cries that do sinners awake,
And an assortment of methods righteous reasoning does take.
It may come in sharpness given to the heartless,
Paul’s arguments that were sarcastic in rhetorical tactic,
Or the prophet’s illustrative sermons of God’s wrath that were frightfully enthusiastic.
Civilized men do not depict the love of urgency, and emotionless messages are not for emergencies.
In delivery of a message the prophets were often blatant and drastic, To compel men to the truth and away from the fatal fantastic.
A Christian must reconcile himself with the tribulations of truth. The word of God brings a sword of division, and if you speak it in love it will happen to you as it is written: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth” (Gal. 4:16)? Thus it can be said, “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love” (Psalm 109:4-5). Nevertheless, in Christ we partake of so great a love for others we verily can say in response to all the affliction and repercussions of righteousness, in first person, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:15).
~ Within this post are many excerpts from “A Case Against Xmas,” Chapter III Counterfeit Christianity, found at www.XmasExposed.com.
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Amen. Thank you, brother Sean.
By: Jenn on 11 April, 2011
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It pleases my soul that you sound more like scripture than man.
Tracy (maryland)
By: Tracy on 12 June, 2011
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