As always my many thanks to both the Author and the Publisher for this work. (John B)
ONE'S SALVATION IS POSSIBLE ONLY WITH THE FULLEST ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST, AS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOR, AND YOUR SURRENDER I N LOVE. John B.
John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Note (JB): take note that Mary is not ever mentioned, in Scriptures, as an object of worship or prayer, thus its but a Human tradition, thus without meaning or virtue! There's also no Scripture, showing her ascension to Heaven, also tradition since 1500's as their introduction to begin this Marion worship as Queen of Heaven and co-mediatrix with Jesus her Son, by the 1850's! [ Second Thessalonians 1-12 is good read and then Revelation 13:2 then put on your thinking cap!JB}
CHAPTER 2----- CHRIST AND THE LAMB.
A pastor was deeply troubled about his own personal battle with sin. Somehow, he seemed to lack the moral courage to gain victory. The struggle became so severe that when he went to sleep one night, he had a nightmare i n which he saw a man whipping Christ in Pilate's judgment hall. Watching the lash as it buried itself in Christ's bleeding back he could not stand and think of anyone wounding the Lord Jesus. In his dream he rushed forwards, seized the man and began to struggle with him. Suddenly, this brute of a man turned his face and the pastor screamed in terror and woke up. For the face of the man whipping Jesus was none other than his own!!! You see, in allowing sin to gain mastery of his life, he was wounding the Lord Jesus, with each sin. It was an experience he would not ever forget!
This true story fully illustrates the following Scripture: Zechariah 12:10 "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.,"
How little do we realize the pain that we cause Jesus when we continue in our some, over and over
again, sins. How little do we realize the disappointment that we heap upon our Savior Lord Jesus when we not even try, to gain a victory, Yet it shows us, or should, just how unworthy we are of His great love for each. Look at how Isaiah put this:
Isaiah 53:3-7 " 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. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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."
What a description, agree? Did you take note of these words---- rejected, despised, stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, oppressed, and the this--- "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity [lawlessness] of us all. For he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter."
As the apostle Paul meditated upon the tremendous sacrifice of Christ, he marveled in amazement. And if we look at the Cross, we, also, would join Paul in these words:
Romans 8:37-39 "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"
Can you think of a better reason than this?
.John 15:13 " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
NOTE(JB): Dear reader, please know it was pure love, for Y O U and me, that Jesus allowed, YES allowed Himself, to be nailed to that Cross! Know you not that Jesus and Satan are at WAR, over your love and mine? Thank God, Jesus Has the Victory, he won it at the Cross!
Do you remember the story of John the Baptist? When he declared----John 1:28-29 " These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
Note(JB): Those who have studied Daniel's 2300 days/years prophecy, will recognize this as be very beginning of Jesus' ministry that began in the first half of THAT week, the 3.1/2 years of Christ's teaching and then cut-off, on the Cross, and 3.1/2 years latter, with the Stoning of Stephen, the Gospel went to the gentiles, and the Jews could come to God only by and with Christ in their hearts! That's the Bible's truth! The Jews just as all others must come to the Father-God, through and with Christ Jesus!
Who can not fail to see The Father's great love for us all, as e knew even before sin fell, He provided a plan of salvation even before this earth was created! Plus He created the Sabbath, for us as a memorial to His creation, as He knew evolution garbage, would come! The Sabbath meaning a day of rest and worshipping God!
The very moment that sin entered the Garden of Eden, all heaven was filled with sorrow, for apparently the inhabitants of this world were doomed to death. But God's plan was ready to redeem mankind. The moment the divine law had been broken by man, Christ was ready to make an atonement for man's rebellious transgression. He would take upon Himself man's sins and redeem him.
THE STORY OF REDEMPTION P.42.
"Christ then made know to the angels that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them that He had been pleading with The Father, and had offered to give His life as ransom. To take the sentence of death upon Himself, that through Him man might find pardon, that through the merits of His Blood, and obedience to the law of God, they could have the favor of God, and be brought into the beautiful garden and eat of the fruit of the Tree of life."
Such a plan of love is almost impossible to fully explain; no wonder the redeemed in Heaven will ever search to comprehend the mystery of a deep love. So, in the depth of this love, this wonderful love towards us all, and to see why God has chosen the sanctuary system as a kindergarten display to help us in our learning process.
Let's all put on our "thinking caps," now. Why did Christ come to this earth, to die? In the description of the Heavenly Sanctuary, which you find in the New Testament, there's no mention of an Outer Court. Only in the Old Testament do we find the Outer Court, connected to the Sanctuary. It was only in the Earthly Sanctuary that the Outer Court existed.
WHY?
The Sacrifice of Christ occurred on earth, NOT in Heaven where there can be no death! Therefore Christ had to come to this earth, and in the outer court, Where in the Alter of Sacrifice was found! Thus this is where in symbolics, Christ was killed for our sins, as The Lamb slain. Paul was led to put it this way:....
Philippians 2:6-8 "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Can you even grasp this? Imagine Christ, Who being equal to God Himself, descended from Heaven's purity lowered Himself below the level of angels, became a flesh man, yet still divine, as a helpless babe, in a manger. Yet not to be a man as Adam, who was formed to perfection. OH, no. But a Man after the consequences of four thousand years of sin. Born into a world filled with sorrow, misery, disease, death and every conceivable temptation. Then, when Christ's mission was to come to an end, He would be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan and his could conceive of. For He must die as a guilty sinner, yet totally pure and innocent.. His last hour would would be so terrible, that the angels had to veil their faces as they could not look upon Him. And finally, because He bore our sins, He must also endure the anguish of the lost, as all our sins were place upon Him, The Father, had to withdraw Himself, from His sight, as Life can not exist in the Face of the Father, without being destroyed. He thus bore the anguish of Separation, for the first time EVER, because our guilt was put on His shoulders!
In The Desire of Ages, Mrs. White put it this way: P755. "The Spotless Son of God hung upon the Cross, His flesh, lacerated with stripes. Those hands, so often reached out in blessings, nailed to wooden bars. Those feet, so tireless on the ministries of love, spiked to a tree. That royal head, pierced by the crown of thorns. Those quivering lips, shaped a cry of woe. And all that He endured; the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands and His feet, {JB as well as His back shredded flesh exposing bone] The agony wracked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His father's face speaks to each child of humanity declaring "It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt. For thee, He spoils the domain of death,j and opens the gate of paradise. He, who stilled the angry waves,j and walked the foam-capped billows, who made the devils treble and disease to flee. Who opened blinded eyes, and called forth the dead to life, offers Himself upon the Cross, as a sacrifice. And this, from love, to thee. He, the hearer, endures the wrath of divine justice and for thy sake, became sin itself!"
NOTE(JB): Not badly written for a lady with only three years of schooling, agree?
What WORDS! What an inspiration of God! Let's turn to Leviticus 14 and Verse 27+
.Leviticus 4:27-31 " And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the LORD; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him."
REMEMBER THIS:
The animal sacrifice represented, and was a foreshadow for Jesus Christ's, death upon the tree!No, think of Y O U slicing the throat of YOUR pet, as a method seeking forgiveness of Y O U R sins! Does this not give a truer picture of how God views our sins? This implied the confession of sin, our sin, to the sinner's substitute, The Lamb of God!
STEP THREE.
Then comes step number 3. After the sin has been TRANSFERRED to the Sacrifice, the victim must be slain. WHY? Because the wages of sin is death. The broken Law of God demands the penalty of death.
Leviticus 4:28-29 " Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering."
Why did God put a death Penalty , upon the eating of the fruit from one tree?
A: It was the one food, He demanded they NOT EAT, but they listened to Satan's lies instead!
Just as so many still do to this day, Sunday worship, Craven images, lie, steal, covet, and accept his lies of evolution over Creation!
Genesis 2:16-17 " And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Note(JB): It's not like HE, snuck this one in on us, now is it? He told us up front, rebel against my laws, and you shall die!
Genesis 5:5 " And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
Please remember, it was always the sinner's hand to slay the sacrifice! When we learn, and realize the great cost of sin, before we are ready to overcome our sins, We will determine, and with The Help of the Holy Spirit, we shall have victory over sin, because we shall know how hateful sins are to God, to Whom we have learned to love! Then and ONLY THEN, will there be no more sin! What a tragedy that so few of us seem to grasp this concept lesson. Which is the why of this verse:.....
Matthew 7:13-14 " 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."
NOTE(JB): I pray that each reader, shall find and be willing to enter the narrow gate! C U THERE?
In review: The Sacrificial offerings were ordained by God, The Father, to teach and show each sinner, who earnestly desires forgiveness, that he or she, must acknowledge the sin, be repented of the si n,, and bring His si n to Christ, our Sacrificial Lamb of God We, each MUST acknowledge our part in the Crucifixion of Christ, by faith and take hold of the Divine power that will him and her a hatred for sin and enable the sinners to sin no more: The he and she can then rejoice in His redemption!.
However, this sacrificial plan has a much broader and deeper purpose than the Salvation of humanity. For Christ came to this earth, not to die, BUT to SAVE mankind, BUT also He came to vindicate the character of God The Father, before the whole of the Universe.
WHY?
Due to the Great Conflict, between good and evil, when God's Law was challenged by Lucifer, who was latter called Satan, meaning opposer, and thus caused a war i n heaven....
Revelation 12:4 " And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.:7-9 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
Note(JB) Now that you know who the dragon is read Revelation 13:1-2 "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.:
Please read Daniel's 7th chapter, and learn that a kingdom ruled by one man, in both the civil and religious, is called a BEAST POWER, no think Rome and the Dark Ages!. She has not changed one piece of doctrine, to this very day!
Ecclesiastes 1:9 " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
(JB) It was only by Satan's powers, that the whole world obeyed, Rome on it's Sunday worship, the Venerable Day of the Sun God! in 321 A.D. by decree from Emperor Constantine and Rome's Bishop accepted it, and the Pagans that flooded in the Church, with it's "Royal Robes of Red and Scarlet, its feast days, and processions, beads, wedding Rings, prayers to the dead, Easter {Ishtar, Nimrod's wife, who proclaimed herself her dead husband's Queen, as his heir, now living in the Sun as a god, and she is Queen of Heaven and fertility, her signs? Rabbits eggs and Pine comes--{Many seeds}! Who fails to see the connections to Babylon? Yet with her, this church, are many who know and love Jesus! The leadership????? Who knows, but God!
John 12:31-32 "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
So it was, That Christ's dearth on that Cross would not only make it possible for men to be forgiven of their sins, upon honest repentance (JB meaning to turn away from] ,sins and heaven would be available to us, on the CONDITION, of loving obedience. BUT it would also JUSTIFY The Father-God before the entire universe, that Lucifer-Satan the devil had questioned God's judgment, before the entire UN-Fallen universe, and to establish God's Law forever, and as a testimony, that sin is death! {ARE WE ALONE? NO! Read Job chapter 1}
NOTE(JB): Ellen White wrote i n the Spirit of Prophecy, in essence, that Satan visited all occupied worlds,, and was accepted only here on earth by Adam and Eve! [Genesis 3.] .
When Adam and Eve accepted Satan's proposition, Satan declared this world to be his, because they had chosen him as their ruler.
Genesis 1:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Note(JB): Dominion, means a king and his domain! Thus Adam was earth's King, for a while, until he obeyed Satan!
Satan did not accept, nor believe that God was able to forgive sinful man, yet God in His love, had already foreseen this problem, and why Jesus pleaded with The Father, with His own life as a sin-sacrifice for human sins.It is in this way, that Jesus became the "The Lamb of God", destined to be slain before the earth's foundations were laid.[REV.13:8] In this way, The Lamb of God became the way of escape for mankind's sins, as Jesus took our place at His death!
NOTE(JB): It is therefore, we each accept Christ's and His gift, of His death in our place, or we pay the price of eternal death ourselves! God's love is unconditional, but all His promises, are conditional upon our acceptance of Jesus as our personal Savior, with loving obedience! Remove any one condition, and you stand alone, i n life, on your own powers!
This very earth which was claimed by Satan {Job chapter 1] ,became the "Theater," in which God has chosen to redeem man, and to justify Himself before the whole universe, thus all His created beings. This then is the fullest of meanings of Christ very last words on the Cross.."it is finished".
.John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."
At the very moment of Christ's death, there was a mighty shout, throughout the worlds of the Universe,. The fight had been decided and Christ had won this round of the war, a war for your soul and mine, between Christ and Satan! It was Satan, who had self-revealed himself as a liar, and a murderer, . It was Jesus, who proved that man in flesh body proved that man can keep God's law. The Universe's greatest excitement came with Jesus' victory over Satan, at the Cross and His Resurrection. Plus some-day soon He4 shall return, to gather up ALL His own, both from the graves and the living, and be with Him forever, in Heaven! The sinners, the unbelievers, shall not ever leave this earth, period!
So, how may of you, dear readers, are for the greatest adventure of your life? Are YOU ready to commit to Jesus your being, and then, someday, live with Him and the Father and all the Holy Angles for eternity? I n eternal joy and happiness, with no crime, no death, no illness,no jails,or cemeteries, and hospitals? In a Garden like Eden that cover all the earth's lands?
Sometime ago, a local paper, in Central Oregon, told a story of a little girl who had been playing in the garage where she found, what she thought was a bottle of soda pop, the bottle looked just as the one one her Mom gave her occasionally. She drank it all, even though it did not taste as she remembered. But soon she got a terrible belly pain, and told her Mom, who rushed her to the Hospital, but help came too late. She'd pain with her life, for the substance in the old pop-bottle, was a deadly weed poison! This exposes two huge problems, ONE, never store left-over poisons i n a soda bottle, and TWO, sin is a deadly poison. But now Y O U know that God already has the antidote in Jesus Christ for our sins.....
Acts 4:12 " Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
NOTE(JB): This includes human priests, and those sleeping i n Christ, i n the graves, including Mary, for whom not one verse of Scripture tells us that she was resurrected, as yet! Thus tradition of men!
Never, ever forget, that The Father-God has a a way of escape. And that way, friends, is though Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God. He will send into Y O U the Holy Spirit, to teach you in all truth, to guide you, in your life, and most importantly to rebuild your character, more and more Christ like.
Revelation 3:18-22 " I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. "
Note(JB): Those i n HIS Churches, are His brides, Spiritually speaking! Will you let Him in, in total surrender, of self? He who is able to take all sins out of your life, and be ready for entry i n the Royal Family of The Father, as His son or daughter, as inheritors of the Kingdom?
NEXT: Chapter 3. "Christ the HIGH PRIEST.
Questions? Comments? John at servant@frontier.com
Want/Need more? Visit your Seventh-day Adventist Church, any Saturday/Sabbath at 9-10 A.M. It can be the first step towards your eternal life!
Other sites: BLBN.org-- redeem.international -- aftv.org-- amazingdiscoveries.org-- itiswritten .com
servantsite@wordpress.com
cc/jb
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment