Mailing # 69 Our Old and New Will Chapter 2 Part 6 (Word to the Church)
THE TRUE MEANING OF THE CROSS
I will take the risk of repeating some statements or quotes concerning this extremely important subject of our Christian lives. I will try, again, to present a practical side of this subject as well as my experiences rather than just quote verses of the Scripture, which may be quite well known though in a rather narrow and shallow way.
Every believer believes and knows quite well that the Saviour died on the Cross so that our sins may be forgiven us and we may thus be reconciled to Our Father, Who is in Heaven. (Eph. 1:7// Col. 1:14// Rom. 5:10// 2Cor. 5:18, etc.) So then, the only thing such believers need is to join some church, some congregation and sit there, hear sermons, pray, play music, sing, give offerings, read the Bible or join in some other church activities. As I already declared, there is nothing wrong with any of these activities… BUT there is everything wrong WITH MAKING THEM THE AIM OF OUR LIFE!
This is a true tragedy because believers miss the true meaning of the Cross and Salvation and with it THE TRUE AIM, DESIRE AND WILL OF GOD, OUR FATHER, Who planned the Cross of Our Lord and ALSO OUR CROSS in our Salvation.
The tragedy is that this limited faith and knowledge stops right there! It stops RIGHT at the very beginning of our Salvation. Why does it not go any further, deeper, higher? Why does it not encompass the Full Vision of God as revealed in the New Testament?
WHY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR SALVATION AND OF THE TRUE WILL AND DESIRE OF OUR GOD, THAT IS – OUR CROSSES – NOT PREACHED, TAUGHT, EXPLAINED AS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IN ALL CHURCHES? WHY IS IT ONLY THE CROSS OF JESUS, WHICH IS PREACHED (IF IT IS AT ALL!) AS IF OUR CROSSES DID NOT EXIST? ARE THEY NOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR PERSONAL SALVATION? (Mt. 16:23-25)
MILLIONS OF BELIEVERS MAY NOT EVEN KNOW THAT THEY HAVE THEIR OWN CROSS PREPARED FOR THEM BY THEIR FATHER, WHICH IS IN HEAVEN!!! AND EVEN IF THEY ARE EVER TOLD, THEY MAY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THAT CROSS IS, HOW INDISPENSABLE IT IS FOR THEIR SALVATION AND LIFE ETERNAL. HELLO??? THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TRUTHS CONCERNING OUR PERSONAL SALVATION!
It seems that after we are redeemed, we are led by our leaders to the broad way where we are free to live our new religious life and enjoy our Salvation “as we like” and “as it suits us”. And we are quite content with that way because it is pleasant to our old soul and we see nothing wrong with it. As long as we “come to a church or work for the Lord”, all is well, we praise the Lord and feel good.
I see two kinds of born-again believers on the broad way (Mt. 7:13): (a) those that clearly enjoy it and have no intention to abandon it, and (b) those that may not enjoy it that much, or they are not satisfied at all. It takes time for both these groups to start experiencing the fruit of their walking along the wrong way. To those that do not seek truth and have no intention to seek it, the Lord will not grant truth. The Lord will cause you to find when you seek… because the Word of God is not a theory, you see, It applies to your life. (Mt. 7:7)
Those that are content with their “misery” and do not ask or seek the truth concerning their misery and the way out, the Lord will let them “enjoy” their misery for as long as their heart may wish… until they are “fed-up” with themselves! And if their heart would never desire to get out of their misery, they will never get out! Yet, the Lord has provided the way out of all misery, deception, destruction, evil and death for every one of us – but WE HAVE TO SEEK IT! And the way out is THROUGH OUR OWN CROSS! EVERY OTHER WAY LEADS TO OUR DESTRUCTION. Are you truly registering this truth in your hearts?
I am not asking you how do you feel (you may feel terrible). I am asking you whether you believe what God says in His Holy and Eternal Word, or not? And if you do not believe, is it because you did not know it before? In that case, keep reading, the Lord will show you the necessary truth what you need at this time of your life.
For those that will not believe this Word of God, feel free to stop reading and throw this book to the garbage. One day you might find it there again as you will walk through it. But then, you should also cut out of your Bible Mt. 3:10; 16:24,25; Mk. 8:34,35; Lk. 9:23,24; 13:6-9; 2Cor. 7:1; Gal. 5:24; Heb. 6:1-6; Rev. 3:5; 22:19// 1Jn. 5:16 and many more passages and also throw them to the same garbage! Furthermore,…
…THE HEART THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE OR REFUSES TO BELIEVE IS EVIL! (Heb. 3:12) THOUGH IT IS REDEEMED, IF IT DOES NOT CHANGE, IT WILL BE DESTROYED. (Jude 5)
Let us come back to our main topic and try to answer why many of our leaders have not led us to the narrow way.
I believe the reason are the powers of evil, death and darkness, which are “bodyguards of lies” trying to guard the secret of the whole truth of the Cross – its true meaning and true victory! By keeping the whole truth from the believers, the evil powers thus prevent them from being “fully saved” and matured into sons and daughters of their Father. Believers thus remain spiritual children and keep their carnal souls for the rest of their earthly lives. But children never go to war because they love their own lives and thus have no word of their testimony! Therefore…
…CHILDISH BELIEVERS CANNOT OVERCOME THE DEVIL THOUGH THEY ARE COVERED WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF THE LAMB! (Rev. 12:11) SHOULD I AGAIN SAY: HELLO?
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I am constrained by the Spirit of the LORD to destroy at this place a very deep deception of the devil and the consequential false doctrines or beliefs propagated in the churches of Jesus Christ world-wide by many leaders. Ponder the following:
a) Every believer is under the precious Blood of the Lamb and is covered and protected from BEING DESTROYED by the powers of hell. Hell cannot prevail over any believer (Mt. 16:18) PROVIDED that that believer will remain under that blood! It is possible for any believer not to abide under the blood just as it is possible for him not to abide in Christ! The Lord says very clearly: “IF you abide in Me AND My Words abide in you…” (Jn. 15:7) That is to say, the Word of God must dwell and live in that believer.
IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO BELIEVE AND SING ABOUT JESUS WHILE YOU DISREGARD OR TAKE HIS WORD LIGHTLY AND LIVE YOUR OWN OLD LIFE THUS MAKING THE MOST IMPORTANT AIM AND WILL OF YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER NULL AND VOID!
b) THE FACT THAT HELL CANNOT PREVAIL OVER A BELIEVER DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE BELIEVER CAN PREVAIL OVER HELL! While he is a spiritual child, he is “holding his mother’s skirt”, is protected but cannot overcome the Devil. To do that, in addition to the Blood of the Lamb, he needs a strong spirit, the word of his own testimony and he must not love his (old) life even unto death! (Rev. 12:11// 1Jn. 2:14)
The word of our testimony is NOT about being covered by the Blood of the Lamb! Satan knows this fact. It is the word of our NEW SOUL ABOUT THE DEFEAT OF SATAN IN OUR OLD SOUL ON OUR OWN CROSS! OUR OLD SOUL HAS NO WORD OF ANY TESTIMONY, WHICH WOULD OVERCOME SATAN! Please note, that the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony are two separate facts in Rev. 12:11.
I am sorry to say that many evangelists, preachers or other ministers are plainly deceived in this vital question! Furthermore, with this deception, the powers of death still retain the chance to get some of the believers back. It is but deception and closed hearts, which bring pagans to their final destruction. True? It is nothing but deception and closed hearts, which may take such believers out of the Book of Life and into the same destruction! (Rev. 3:5; 20:15; 22:19!)
There are probably many books written on this subject and I have read some of them. What leads me to write on this subject again are my experiences, which speak loud and clear that the Cross, Desire and the True Will of Our God and Father have not been preached, understood and experienced by multitudes of believers. There lurks a very great danger especially for the believers with stony and closed hearts who are “eternally unwilling” to change, grow up, get rid of their old, sinful nature, which is absolutely abhorrent to Our God and will be definitely destroyed by Him in His perfect timing.
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SO, WHAT ABOUT THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST?
Is there something more than what we have always known and believed? Let us ponder this question in greater depth, breadth, width and height. I believe the Lord can enable us to grasp a much greater picture of His Cross and Glory.
1. Yes, ALL our sins, past, present and future, are under the Blood of Christ. Yes, we obtained the forgiveness of our past sins and were reconciled to Our Father. No, our present sins, which we commit now and are aware of are not forgiven us automatically – just because we were redeemed or baptized in water or in the Holy Spirit! I repeat, ALL our sins are atoned for by the Blood of Christ, but not all are forgiven until a confession and repentance is made by the believer when the Spirit shows the sins to his conscience, either directly or through others.
“IF we (born-again believers) confess our sins (which the Spirit shows us in our conscience), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn. 1:9)
These may include sins, which we have committed after our Redemption and never confessed or repented of. If we do not confess such sins, they shall not be forgiven us. Has this been clearly preached? Not in my experience. And there is more to be said about our past sins, which we had committed against men and not “directly” against God (see two excellent books[11][12] by brother John Adejoro-Oluwa).
Furthermore, if we do not forgive men their sin or trespass against us, neither will Our Father forgive our sins or trespasses against others. (Mt. 6:15; 18:35)
Furthermore, it is also clearly written:
“if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1Jn. 1:8) Wow.
This Word also means: “If we say we have no hell in our soul, we deceive ourselves”, because sin is born or originates in hell, sinful nature is hellish nature. Why are we scared to talk about this fact? Does it hurt our image? IT DOES! Does it shock us? IT DOES! Does it contradict our firm persuasions and beliefs that we are already holy, righteous and fully sanctified? IT DOES! (Rev. 22:11)
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I am again constrained by the Spirit of the Lord to share with you at least briefly a very important spiritual fact, which affects all of us because we all have sinned and keep sinning wherever our old man is not dead… wherever he rules.
When we repent of our sins, the Lord forgives. Also, the Lord forgets, but we do not! I do envy the Lord’s ability to forget and never remember whatever He chooses to forget. I would love to do likewise. Wouldn’t you? The result is that the memory of our sins may be “bothering us” for a long time. The same applies to the sins, trespasses or offences by others against us though we may have forgiven them! The hell keeps dragging us back to our past by all available means especially using our memory! True?
So, how do we overcome this problem? We know that the Lord will not erase our memory because we repent to Him. It does not work with us as with our computers where we erase anything and never see it again. Here the Lord gives us a different weapon than forgetfulness. After our true repentance, He grants us FAITH and keeps building it up in us, which faith shows us how we are before Him, how He looks at us. In this light, ANY SINFUL MEMORIES LOSE THEIR POWER AND INFLUENCE OVER US even if they keep appearing for a while. Then they fade away as an old picture, which you stored in the attic of your house. It starts gathering dust and you will not remember it any more… unless you purposely keep going to your attic.
Another effective weapon in our hands or rather heart is the fact that you can look straight into the devil’s face and tell him that HE IS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE for all your sins and trespasses and weaknesses and sicknesses and all that! He brought sin and destruction to all this beautiful Creation of God, for he is the destroyer. (1Cor. 10:10) You are free to accuse him even before the Throne of God… because he cannot bear this truth. This should be a part of your faith, which will permanently shield you from his accusations.
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Now, what does the truth in 1Jn. 1:9 also indicate? I believe that it proves the fact that though there is forgiveness of sins flowing from the Cross of Jesus Christ, yet…
THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST HAS NOT STOPPED OUR SINNING! WE STILL POSSESS OUR SINFUL NATURE AND WE KEEP SINNING. TRUE? SO, WHAT HAS THE CROSS ACCOMPLISHED CONCERNING OUR SIN WHEN WE KEEP SINNING EVEN AFTER OUR REDEMPTION?
It may seem that the Cross of Jesus Christ has not truly given us the final victory over sin. Right? Well, let us explore with an open heart this extremely important truth of God on which depends our very life. Let us declare the most important truth about the Cross of Jesus Christ.
2. The most important truth about the Cross, which I have never heard preached to me or to any of my brethren during my “church years” is the following:
THE CROSS HAS NOT STOPPED OUR SINNING DURING OUR EARTHLY LIFE, BUT IN THE ETERNAL COUNSELS OF GOD – THE CROSS STOPPED US ALTOGETHER! IT STOPPED OUR HUMANITY, OUR OLD NATURE, OUR OLD CREATION! IT STOPPED AND JUDGED ALL THE OLD CREATION AND NOTHING WILL GET BEYOND IT. WE WILL DISCOVER THIS FACT LATER ON, AFTER OUR DEATH OR RAPTURE.
GOD JUDGED WITH FINALITY OUR OLD MAN, OLD CREATION, OLD NATURE, OLD HUMANITY IN KILLING IT, CRUCIFYING IT IN HIS SON AND IN THE VIEW OF THE WHOLE WORLD.
THE CROSS DID NOT JUST KILL THE SON OF GOD BUT THE WHOLE OLD AND CORRUPTED CREATION, WHICH CORRUPTION GOD ALLOWED AND FOREKNEW AND JUDGED IN HIS SON IN WHOM GOD MADE A NEW CREATION!
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD HUMANITY IS ABOUT TO COME AGAIN (GEN. 6:5-8) IN THE COMING TRIBULATION WHEN GOD WILL ALLOW SATAN TO DEVASTATE ALMOST ALL OLD HUMANITY AND THE OLD EARTH! (Mt. 24:21,22,37)
There is absolutely nothing from the Old Creation that can get behind or beyond the Cross and exist! NOTHING! None of us can get beyond the Cross or try to bypass It while living, without dying to ourselves! That is absolutely impossible. (2Tim. 2:11,12) It is equally impossible for anyone of us to go beyond the Cross and keep sinning! (We will touch this subject later on.)
There is absolutely no man who can receive Christ’s Life unless he dies on HIS OWN CROSS! Not one. Even Enoch and Elijah died to their old life on “their crosses” before they could “walk with God” and be anointed and taken to Heaven. (Gen. 5:24// 2Ki. 2:11)
No “old man” ever walked with God or was anointed and taken up! Do you believe this simple fact? So, each of us has his own cross (Mt. 16:24) and the Holy Spirit in us is leading us to take up our cross – just as He led Jesus to take up His Cross. (Mt. 26:39-46) The Lord has prepared for us a real shock. Please, read this very carefully…
IF THE CROSS OF JESUS WERE SUFFICIENT FOR OUR FULL SALVATION, OUR CROSS WOULD NOT BE NEEDED! THEN, IT WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN MENTIONED BY JESUS CHRIST IN THE WORD OF GOD! (Mt. 16:24,25// Gal. 5:24)
HELLO? IS YOUR HEART OPENED? ARE YOU TRULY REGISTERING THIS SPIRITUAL FACT? ARE YOU SHOCKED? YOU SHOULD BE… AS I WAS ALSO WHEN I RECEIVED THIS LIGHT! I BEG YOU TO RE-READ THE ABOVE WORD OF GOD TEN TIMES and begin to see the depth of deception in which we all have been submerged. Our life depends on this clear Truth! Of course, there is a big difference between the Cross of Our Lord and our small crosses. The difference is in the type of death we are to die and also in the process of dying, which is totally different from that of Our Lord.
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To be continued next week in part 7
brother Hanola
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