Message 59 - By Leroy Surface
Knowing
the Truth
John 8:31-32: Then said Jesus to those Jews which BELIEVED
on him, If ye continue in my word, then
are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free.
Donald Rumsfeld, a former secretary of
defense under two different presidents, recently shared his insight into “the known” and “the unknown.” He first gave
this insight to a committee made up of five army generals and five PHDs which
had convened to discuss the needs of America’s anti-missile defense system.
Rumsfeld was the chairman of the committee and presented this analogy to them. “There are known knowns; things we know we know. Then, there are known unknowns; things we know we do not know. There
are also unknown unknowns;
things that we do not yet know, and therefore, cannot know that we do not know
them.” (He emphasized this last category as being the one of greatest concern.)
The apostle Paul, however, would add one more category to Rumsfeld’s sequence:
“There are things we think we know, but do not know.” How can we say this? Because he writes to the Corinthians, “If any man think
that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (I
Corinthians 8:1-2). In other words,
“there are things we think we know that we don’t.”
Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free” (John
8:32). Those who “know the truth” also “know that they know.” There are those who “think” they know the truth, but in reality they “know nothing as they ought to know.” The person who becomes aware of a truth they
do not know will be a seeker of that truth.
That person is blessed, because they will find the truth if they seek it
where it may be found, in those scriptures that “testify of Jesus” (John
3:39-40). The person who neither
knows nor cares about the truth is complacent.
They think they know, but they are most often a “slave” to a “lie” which
they believe to be the truth. The modern
church desperately needs to wake up to the fact that, as Rumsfeld says, “There are things we do not know, and we do
not know that we don’t know them.”
Those are the things of Christ that Jesus said will “make us free,” and we will be “free
indeed” (John 6:32) when we know
them.
About twenty four years ago I became aware
that there was a “truth” that I did
not know. There were many things that I
did know, and I knew that I knew them, but I became aware that something was
missing in my experience with the Lord.
It wasn’t because I had not tried hard enough. There were years in my past that I had fasted
from food more days in a year than I ate, seeking sanctification, crucifixion,
more power, etc. There were great “highs” in my experience, and there were
great “lows,” which I had come to
accept, because, after all, we were “making
the devil mad” with all the things we were “doing” for God. I was
determined, by sheer grit and determination, to “be” the man of God that Jesus had called me to be. There was no question about my calling. God had called me into the ministry through a
vision in the night which He gave to me in the year 1962 (fifty one years
ago). In the vision, I was one of the
chosen disciples that Jesus used to feed the multitude. After the multitude had been fed and the
fragments gathered, Jesus turned to me in the vision, pointed His finger at me,
and said, “You give them to eat.” I argued that I had nothing to give, but He
told me to bring what I had to Him; He would “break it” and “bless it”
as He had the loaves and fishes, and He told me “Whatsoever I have broken and blessed is sufficient to meet every
need.” I “knew” that He had called me, and I “knew that I knew.” I was
greatly blessed by God in the early years of my ministry until I came in
contact with an older “prophet,” who,
through his teaching, corrupted my understanding of the gospel. I had been fasting three days a week from the
beginning, out of a great desire to see the Spirit of God move in the services,
and He really did, giving us gifts of healing and miracles, and many souls
saved. The “prophet” taught that much fasting was necessary for the salvation
of our own soul. He did not understand
the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:20,
which say, “…except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” From this scripture, he taught that we had to
“fast more days, pray longer prayers, and
give more money” than the Pharisees if we were to be saved. It did not take this man long to gather an
army of followers who actually became greater “hypocrites” and more “self
righteous” than the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. It was into this hypocrisy that I took the
plunge, fasting more days than I ate, giving over fifty percent of my income,
and trying to pray three hours a day.
Amazingly, it was the last that I found impossible for me to do. Please believe me, that I was “very sincere” about all these things,
because you cannot do such things without being sincere, but you can do them
and be wrong.
After about three and a half years under
the influence of that “prophet,” God
brought me out, again through a “vision
in the night,” in which I saw myself trying to cross the Jordan River into
the promises of God over manmade bridges.
After climbing a succession of these extremely high bridges, I finally
realized that none of them reached into the promise of God on the other side. Near the end of the vision, as I sat in total
despair and darkness, Jesus came to show me the way, and I did not know who He
was until the last words He spoke to me.
He showed me a very simple “way”
to cross the river, and said, “Whosoever
will’ may cross over. You must only have
a will to come, and you can cross over.”
That is the moment that I first saw that salvation is received by “faith” and “not by works.” And, though
I saw in the scriptures that salvation is “by
grace, through faith” (Ephesians
2:8-9), I still did not understand.
The “pendulum of religion”
swings from one extreme to another. At
the opposite end of “legalism” is “lasciviousness,” and that is where I “swung” to. It wasn’t long (several years) before I was
in a backslidden condition, and I went to the depths of the pit. During that time I repented continually,
begging for God’s forgiveness. I knew
that I was lost. I knew that if I died
in that condition, I would “go to hell,”
but I was a “slave to sin” and could
not deliver myself. I probably prayed
more during that time of backsliding, because I didn’t want to be damned
eternally. I slept on a pillow that was
soaked with tears for a year and a half before the night God restored me on
March 2, 1980. I was alone in the altar
on a Sunday night after everyone else had gone home. I had been crying and repenting as I had for
a full year and a half, when I heard the words “Open your bible.” I picked
up my bible and it fell open to the seventh chapter of Micah. The first words I saw were in the ninth
verse; “I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against
him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me
forth to the light, and I shall
behold his righteousness”
(Micah 7:9). After I read these words, I heard the voice
of God say to me, “The indignation is
past. I will restore your life and I
will restore your ministry.”
Another six years passed, during which I
preached against sin harder than I had ever preached, because I now knew the
damnable nature of it. In March of 1986
God anointed me as a “watchman” and
began giving me visions of things to come as He had also done in the early days
of my ministry. He told me about the
scandals that were coming to the largest ministries in the world, as He would
expose their secret sins to the entire world.
I was not the most likely candidate for the work God had given me,
because I had been a “scandal” myself
almost ten years previously. Only in the
words of Paul can I understand why God would choose someone like me for that
task at that time; “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which
are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God
chosen, yea, and things which
are not, to bring to nought things that
are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (I Corinthians 1:27-29). If we think that we are something great, we
are nothing God can use. If we accept
that we are the “foolish,” the “weak,” the “base,” and the “despised,”
and that we are “nothing,” we are “something God can use” to change the
world. It is in our personal “greatness” that we are defeated. We should understand the words of Jesus to
the apostle Paul in a time that he felt very weak and cried for deliverance
from the persecutions he suffered; “My
grace is sufficient for thee: for my
strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:9).
After three years of crying aloud as a
watchman on my daily radio broadcast, which was heard on several stations
across the southern states, I could not continue further. Every time another scandal would break in the
evening news, I would weep like a baby, because it would open up the wounds of
failure in my past. Even while I was
crying against the hidden sins of the largest ministries, I was still troubled
at nights by horrible dreams from my past.
It was during this time that I began to realize that there was something
I did not know about the truth of the gospel, because Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free.” I knew that I was forgiven and I knew that I
was restored, but like multitudes of those around me, my “conscience” was defiled with past sins. I understood that Jesus meant what He said in
His “Sermon on the Mount,” that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus explained the “exceeding righteousness” of the children of God in several analogies
which He gave in the next verses. The
simplest of them to understand is found in Matthew
5:27-28; “Ye have heard that it was
said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you,
That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart.” Jesus made it clear that as long as sinful
desires remain in our hearts, we are not “free
indeed,” and do not “know the truth”
which He said will “make us free.” I knew that my past was forgiven; I knew that
God had restored my calling; but I also knew my own heart, and it was that
knowledge that made me to know that I was not “free indeed” as Jesus had said I would be. I knew there was something I did not know,
and that was the “missing link” in my
experience. I prayed to God, “If you can give me dreams and visions of
things to come before they happen, surely you can show me the answer to the sin
problem that is in the heart of man.”
There were certain things that I understood about the “truth” I was seeking, even though I did
not know what that truth was. I told the
Lord in my prayer, “It must be an answer
that will work for everyone who believes it….” I knew there had to be a truth about Christ
that would make everyone who believed it to be free from sin, and they would be
“free indeed.” It was a “truth”
that in all my fasting, praying, giving, repenting, working, etc, I had never
discovered.
Believing
the Truth
It is the apostle Paul who received the
clear revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians
1:12). He called it “The Gospel of Christ,” and said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth” (Romans
1:16). The apostle John gives the
same record in John 1:12, “…as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Let’s take a “tour” of a few verses in the book of John which tell about “whosoever believeth in Him:”
John 1:12: “…as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
John 3:16: “…whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 6:35: “…he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.”
John 7:38: “He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
John 12:46: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not
abide in darkness.”
It seemed that everywhere I looked in the
scriptures, the words “whosoever
believeth” would leap out at me. Seeing the biblical description of those
who “believe in Him,” I knew there
was something I did not know about Christ, because the thing I had always “believed,” that I thought I knew, had
not made me free from sin. “If
any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to
know” (I Corinthians 8:2). I understood for the first time that my “experience” was contrary to what Jesus
said would be the case for “he that believeth.” It was these “contrary things” that had been the key to my backsliding. In my mind, I was still “believing in Jesus” at the same time that I was “perishing” in backsliding. Jesus promised, if we would “drink” from His fountain, we would “never thirst again.” It was my “thirst”
for the things of this present world that had drawn me away from Christ.
Before I received the knowledge of the
truth, I would often say “I know by
experience…,” as though “my
experience” would be the proof of what I was saying at the time. I remember the day that God rebuked me in my
heart right in the middle of my message; “You
know nothing by experience; you only know by my Word.” My “experience”
had been one of failure, darkness, and oppression; my experience had been a
lie, but Jesus still says, “Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I soon came to understand that none of these
things I experienced could be so in those who “know and believe the truth” and “trust in Him.” It does make
a difference what you believe about Him.
Concerning the “truth” that Jesus said will “make
you free,” it is a truth we must “hear”
before we can “believe it.” Paul speaks to the Gentile believers at
Ephesus concerning their faith in Christ; “In
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise…” (Ephesians
1:13). Notice that they “heard the word of truth” before they “trusted in Christ,” and they “believed the truth” before they
received the Holy Ghost.
“Grace”
or “Lasciviousness”
Jude
1:4: “For
there are certain men crept in unawares (into the churches), who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation (foretold by the prophets and apostles of Christ), ungodly men (false teachers), turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” When I began my search for the truth, I came
face to face with a question that arose in my heart; “If the covenant of grace was corrupted in the minds of men by false
teachers before the end of the first century A.D., who, in the last nineteen
hundred years, has ‘turned it back?”
That is to say, who has discovered once again “the faith that was once delivered unto the saints?” (Jude 1:3). Does the twenty first
century church understand the “grace of
God” and what it does for the believer?
Who among the reformers of five hundred years ago understood the truth
of the grace of God? John Calvin gave us
the doctrine of “penal substitution,”
telling us that Jesus “took the penalty
for our sins,” and that “every sin we
will ever commit in our lifetime has already been forgiven.” That cannot be the “grace of God” that was given to man. Martin Luther gave us the doctrine of “justification by faith,” telling us
that absolutely nothing changes in the one who is justified, but our only
righteousness is “in the eyes of God.” Our mistake is that we look to man instead of
God for our theology. We all know of
those religions that are labeled “cults,”
because they follow the teachings of a man.
The reality is that almost everyone, whether denominational or
independent, is segregated according to the particular man or group of men they
follow. Those who claim to be “orthodox” and condemn those who believe
differently are also followers of men.
They look to men like Martin Luther and John Calvin for their
doctrines. The apostle John says, “If
we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is
the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself: he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son” (I John 5:9-10).
The “truth” of the grace
of God must be restored. We should
understand, however, that it cannot be restored through the study of the
doctrines of any man or movement that has arisen in the past nineteen hundred
years. Some have been great men of God,
but they, as the apostle Paul also tells us, could only see “through a glass, darkly” (I Corinthians 13:12). No one has ever, nor will they ever, have a
clearer understanding of the gospel of Christ than that which was written by
the apostles Paul and John. Any person
who will read the epistles of these apostles and believe that they mean exactly
what they say, is on their way to understanding “the truth” that Jesus said will make us free.
A
Light in a Dark Place
Truth is light, but when “truth is fallen in the streets (Isaiah 59:14)” the people “walk in
darkness” (Isaiah 59:9). The “truth”
does not “stand alone;” it must
be held forth by man, but when it is “fallen
in the streets,” the people do not know where to find it or what it is that
they seek. Jesus, however, tells us
where to look. He told the Jews, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). Search the scriptures, of those Old Testament
prophets, that testify of Jesus. Don’t
search the Law of Moses. Paul, who knew
the law better than most, tells us the same thing. Speaking of those who trust in the law, he
says, “…even unto this day, when Moses is
read, the vail is upon their heart” (II
Corinthians 3:15). They walk in
darkness.
II
Peter 1:16-21: “For we
have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. For he received from God the
Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent
glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we
heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
We have also a more sure word of
prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.”
Peter’s two epistles were not addressed to
any one person, church or city, but “to
the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia” (I Peter 1:1). Specifically, he was writing to those
Gentiles who had heard the gospel and believed in Jesus. They had probably never heard of Jesus until
several years after His death and resurrection, and had no firsthand knowledge
of Him as did those disciples in Jerusalem who had known Him in the flesh. As is the case with most “casual believers” these Gentiles had to be continually exhorted to
faithfulness through the promise of “heaven”
at the end. He told them, “…brethren, give diligence to make your
calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For
so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:10-11). Peter found it necessary to remind them
continually of the things that were so very precious to Him, because he had
been an “eyewitness of His majesty.” Paul said much the same to the Corinthians; “I declare unto you the gospel which I
preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached
unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (I Corinthians 15:1-2).
The apostle John tells us something we
should understand about the true believer.
“He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in himself”
(I John 5:10). The “witness”
spoken of in this verse is not a “warm
fuzzy feeling” inside. It is not the
“chill bumps” that a person may
sometimes feel. The Greek word that is
translated as “witness” means “evidence given.” The “proof” that a person believes on the
Son of God is “in” that person. The one who says “I believe” and continues in sin does not have the evidence of
faith. On the other hand, the one who
says “I believe” and successfully “stops sinning” through great
determination and will power, has no more evidence of faith than the one who
continues in sin. The evidence of “faith in Christ” is the “eternal life” that is their life. They can say with Paul, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). Christ is
our eternal life.
The prevailing problem among many of the
Gentiles to whom Peter writes his second epistle is that while they professed
to believe, they did not have the evidence of faith in them. Peter made a personal promise to them; “I will not be negligent to put you always
in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that
shortly I must put off this my
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover
I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things
always in remembrance” (I Peter
1:12-15).
The things Peter told them about Jesus must
have been beyond the belief of some, because Peter reassures them, “We have not followed cunningly devised
fables…but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” The apostle John wrote much the same in his
gospel letter; “We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). The eyewitness
testimony of these great apostles alone could not, however, establish the
Gentiles, who had never “seen” or “heard”
Jesus for themselves. Great men often
become legends, and most often the “legend”
is greater than the man. This certainly
was not the case with the stories Peter and John told about Jesus, but how to
convince these Gentiles who had never seen Him.
Peter and John had been convinced by the things they saw and heard first
hand. Peter told of how the Holy Ghost
came on Jesus at the River Jordan, and of the voice that spoke from heaven,
saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased” (II Peter 1:17). He told of seeing Moses and Elijah with Jesus
on the Mount of Transfiguration where he also heard the voice from heaven,
saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased; hear ye him”
(Matthew 17:5). Such things are hard to believe even when
they come from eyewitnesses. Consider
the problem in the next generation when there are no “eyewitnesses” and the testimony then is no more than “hearsay.” If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God
only because it is the story we have heard all our lives, that is called “hearsay evidence.” Peter was an eyewitness to the things he
spoke of, but he could not impart that absolute knowledge to the Gentiles; they
had to experience for themselves the majesty and glory of Christ. He could point them in the direction they
should look, and if they would continue to “look”
they would “see” a great light,
shining in darkness. He pointed them to
the “more sure word of prophecy” (II Peter 1:19), which is “steadfast” and “sure” because they point to Jesus of Nazareth, and were fulfilled
in His death on the cross and His resurrection the third day. It is the “witness”
that God gave of His Son through the Old Testament prophets. They are a witness that cannot be denied by
any reasonable person. In them we find
the evidence that will answer every question and remove all doubt concerning
who Christ is and why He came into the world. That is why Peter called it “a more sure word of prophecy.”
II Peter 1:19: “We have also a more sure
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
I
John 5:10: “…he that believeth not God hath made him a
liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.”
Peter could only bear witness to Jesus
after the fact, telling the things he had “seen
and heard.” God’s witness of His Son
began thousands of years before Jesus was born to Mary. It is the “record
that God gave of His Son” that Peter calls the “more sure word of prophecy.”
If you really want to know who Jesus is, do not look to what has been
written about Him since the death of His eyewitness apostles. Go back to the beginning as the apostle John
does in the introduction to his gospel; “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made. In
him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). This is John’s
witness of Jesus when he says in the fourteenth verse, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth” (John 1:14). It is John who also tells us, “If we receive the witness of men, the
witness of God is greater” (I John
5:9).
The
Seed of the Woman
The record that God gives of His Son
actually begins the same day sin entered into the world through Eve’s deception
and Adam’s transgression. In the same
day the serpent succeeded in bringing sin into the world through his seduction
of Eve and the disobedience of Adam, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis
3:15). It was a promise of “the seed of the woman” that would “bruise the head of the serpent.” He would do so even as the serpent would “bruise His heel.” This is the first promise of redemption and
reconciliation that would be made through the death of the Son of God on the
cross at Calvary. Who is this “seed of the woman?” Almost thirty five hundred years later, Isaiah
prophesied, “Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The “seed
of the woman” would be “Immanuel,” which
means “God with us.” The seed of the woman would also be the Son
of God. Paul speaks of Jesus in Hebrews 2:14-15, saying, “…that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” John tells us in
I John 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” That thing which “the seed of the woman” was promised to do, Jesus did through His
death on the cross. The apostle Paul
tells us that God “sent forth His Son,
made of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4). It was necessary that the “Son of God” would also be the son of a
woman. Jesus is “the seed of the woman” and He did “bruise the head of the serpent.”
Seventy
Weeks
There are dozens of places in the Old
Testament scriptures where God speaks through His prophets about the redeemer
who was to come. There is one prophecy,
however, that is above all others in the proof it gives that Jesus of Nazareth
is “the Christ.” This prophecy is of such importance that God
did not give it to His prophet through a dream or vision; instead, He sent the
angel Gabriel to personally deliver this message to Daniel. Given in only four verses, it tells everything
we need to know in order to “know that we
know” that Jesus is “The Christ”
from eternity. I have kept the four
verses of this prophecy separated because of the tremendous importance of each
verse. This is the message that Gabriel
delivered to Daniel direct from the throne of God.
Daniel 9:24: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy.”
Due to the fact that the ancient Hebrew
calendar had “weeks of years” as well
as “weeks of days,” everyone who
heard this message knew that the timeline given was four hundred and ninety
years. The children of Israel were
nearing the end of the seventy years captivity which God had determined against
them for their transgressions and sins.
Their city and temple had long since been destroyed, but Daniel, knowing
the seventy years would soon expire, prayed and made intercession to God for
understanding of things to come. The
first part of the message Gabriel brought was not what Daniel had hoped
for. Moses said in the Law that if the
people did not return to God when they were punished, they would be punished
seven times more (Leviticus 26:17-18). This was the judgment of God against His
people when they did not return to Him with their whole hearts. The “four
hundred and ninety years” that Gabriel said was “determined upon thy people” was an extension of the time Israel
would be dominated by heathen nations.
It was seven times longer than the seventy years they were
completing. There was, however, a
wonderful promise included in the prophecy. Before the seventy weeks were
concluded, there were six things that would be accomplished for God’s
people. 1. “To finish the
transgression;” 2. “to
make an end of sins;” 3. “to
make reconciliation for iniquity;” 4. “to bring in everlasting righteousness;” 5.
“to seal up the vision and the prophecy;” 6.
“to anoint the most holy.” God
promised that all these things would be completed to perfection before the end
of four hundred and ninety years.
Daniel 9:25: “Know therefore
and understand, that from the
going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the
Messiah the Prince shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and
the wall, even in troublous times.”
Verse
twenty five tells of the
coming of one called “the Messiah,”
which is the Hebrew word for “the Christ”
of the Greek text of the New Testament.
Both words mean “The Anointed
One.” God tells the exact year that
Christ will appear. He gives a point in
time that the prophecy would begin, and exactly sixty nine weeks later (483
years) “The Christ” will appear in
ministry. The starting point for the
prophecy was “the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,” which was given by King
Artaxerxes of Persia in 457 B.C. Exactly
four hundred and eighty three years later, God said “The Christ” would come. He
would come “to finish the transgression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness” (verse twenty four). He would “seal
up the vision and prophecy,” which means that every prophecy of redemption
and reconciliation would be fulfilled in and by Him. He would be the one whom God would anoint “the most Holy,” which He did when the
Holy Ghost came upon Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew
3:16-17).
It was several years later that the decree
to “restore and rebuild Jerusalem”
was given by King Artaxerxes of Persia.
Certainly the scribes of Israel took note of the date, and began the “countdown” to the coming of “The Messiah,” even though they knew He
would not come in their lifetime.
Exactly four hundred and eighty three years later, however, the entire
nation of Israel was excited about the “seventy
weeks prophecy.” According to the
prophecy, the time had fulfilled, and this was the year the Messiah (the
Christ) would appear. Luke recorded the
excitement and expectation in his gospel, “And
as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John,
whether he were the Christ, or not” (Luke 3:15). It was the year the Christ would appear, and
everyone had their candidate as to who He would be. Most of the people believed in their hearts
that John the Baptist must be “the
Christ.” No one suspected that their
Messiah might be a “meek and lowly carpenter”
from Nazareth (Matthew 11:29). It was right on schedule, however, that Jesus
came to John’s baptism, probably at the end of the fifth month of the year on
the Hebrew calendar. The sign that God
had given to John the Baptist was that the Holy Ghost would come upon and
remain on the one who was “the Christ.” John saw the Holy Ghost come upon Jesus, and
gave this testimony to the people; “I
saw, and bear record, that this is the Son of God” (John I: 33-34). God was the first,
however, to introduce His Son to the people when He said from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” Jesus was right on time,
even to the very month of Artaxerxes’ decree (Ezra 7:6-26).
Daniel 9:26: “And after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:
and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are
determined.”
The words of verse twenty six, which tell us that Messiah (The Christ) will be “cut off, but not for Himself,” speak of
the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. The Hebrew word that is translated “but not for himself” is “‘ayin,” which
actually means “to come to nothing,”
which is what Jesus did when He died on the cross. It is because of His “obedience to the cross” where He “came to nothing” that God has “highly
exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow…” (Philippians
2:8-10).
It is the opinion of this writer that the
words “the people of the prince that
shall come” actually speak of the Jews that Christ came to; “He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not” (John 1:12). The words “the
prince that shall come” is an obvious reference to “the Messiah, the Prince” who was promised to come in the previous
verse. The reason for the
misunderstanding most teachers have in this verse is found in the Hebrew word “shachath,” which
was translated “destroy.” The “Strong’s
Hebrew Dictionary” defines “shachath” as follows: “a primitive root; to decay, i.e. (causatively) ruin (literally or
figuratively).” This Hebrew word was
properly translated as “corrupt”
twenty five times in the Old Testament, and should have been translated as “corrupted” in this verse. In Hosea
13:9, God says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me
is thine help.” In the sense of “corruption” the Jews certainly “destroyed themselves” when they rejected
their Messiah and brought the righteous judgment of God against themselves when
Titus and his armies came in “like a
flood” to lay Jerusalem waste in 70 A.D.
Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many
for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
Daniel
9:27 stands alone as the most
important prophetic verse in the entire Bible.
Untold millions of people have been misled by their teachers to believe
that this verse speaks about one they call “The
Antichrist.” The popular end time eschatology is erroneously built on this
single verse. Again, in the opinion of
this writer, it is Satan himself that has blinded the minds of the people to
the correct understanding of Daniel 9:27. To do so is to blind them to the wonderful
truth of the gospel, and to take the “glory”
that is due to Christ and give it to antichrist. Let me make myself clear. If you are expecting a man called “the antichrist” to arise to world power
and make a seven year treaty with the Jews in Israel, you have believed the
erroneous interpretation of this verse of scripture. The idea that “the antichrist” will arise to power, make a seven year treaty with
the Jews, allow them to rebuild the temple and reinstitute animal sacrifices;
only to break the treaty after three and a half years and establish his office
in the temple in Jerusalem, where he will declare himself to be God, and kill
everyone who refuses to worship him.
This entire scenario is based upon an erroneous interpretation of Daniel 9:27. Many preachers have dedicated their lives to
preaching the antichrist rather than “the
Christ.” Some have become fabulously
rich through the books they have written, and movies, like the “Left Behind” series of a few years
ago. None of these believe that Christ
succeeded in doing what He came into the world to do. The proof of this is the fact that these
teachers will also tell you that the children of God are also “sinners,” and that Jesus did not “take away our sin” (John 1:29) in order to “make an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24). If their teaching is true, then when “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), He died in vain.
“…He
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…” The
only subject of this prophecy, from verse twenty four through verse twenty
seven, is “The Messiah (Christ).”
The scriptures do not say he
will “make a covenant,” but, that he will “confirm the covenant,”
which speaks of the “covenant of
blessing” that God gave to Abraham in Genesis
22:16-18. Paul also speaks of this
in Galatians 3:17, where he says, “…the covenant, that was confirmed before of
God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Notice that Paul says it was “confirmed…in Christ.” The covenant
of blessing was given to Abraham after he offered his son Isaac on the altar to
God. It would not be in effect for us,
however, until God offered His Son on the cross for us. It was a covenant of promise to Abraham and “his seed.” In Galatians
3:16, Paul reveals that Christ is “the
seed of Abraham.” The blessing of
the covenant was offered to the children of Israel at Horeb when God said, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice
indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). The people refused to hear God’s voice when
He spoke to them from Mount Horeb, and they cried for Moses to speak to them;
they promised to obey his voice (Deuteronomy
5:24-27). It was these words out of
their own mouths that caused the Law of Moses to be “added” upon them, as the apostle Paul says, “it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made” (Galatians
3:19).
Christ came to “confirm the covenant with many for one week.” That “one
week” is the “seventieth week” of
the prophecy. It began immediately when
the sixty ninth week ended. It would be
a period of seven years during which the covenant of blessing that God gave to
Abraham and his seed would be “confirmed.” How did Christ “confirm the covenant?” It
was not by anything He did, but it was by what He was as He walked among
men. There had never been, since the
fall of Adam, a man like Jesus. He was
God’s “peculiar treasure,” His “kingdom of priests,” and His “holy nation.” He was all of this even when He came into the
world, long before He died on the cross.
Unclean spirits cried against Him at Capernaum, saying, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). Soldiers refused to arrest Him, saying, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:45-46). He rebuked the stormy winds and sea, and
those with Him marveled, saying, “What
manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8:27). Many things such as these let those who came
in contact with Him know that He was indeed, a “peculiar treasure” to God.
He was the Christ, “the anointed
one” of God.
“…and
in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease…” This amazing promise not only tells the
exact year of Christ’s appearing in ministry, but it also tells the exact year
of His crucifixion. Jesus’ ministry on earth
lasted for three and a half years, and was cut short of the seven years by the
wrath of the religious hierarchy against Him. It was through His death on the
cross, where He was led “as a lamb to the
slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7), that
He “caused the sacrifice and oblation to
cease.” He was our great high
priest, and His death on the cross was His offering for us, a “sinless sacrifice,” sufficient to “take away the sin of the world.” The offering of the body and blood of the Son
of God fulfilled every sacrifice required by the Law of Moses. On the cross, Christ became our “Passover lamb,” whose blood is
sufficient to “sanctify the people” (Hebrews 13:12). Paul tells us, “…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,
once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Never again would God accept sacrifices of
lambs, goats, or bullocks. Never again
will His beloved Son be offered. His
body and blood was offered once, for all…forever.
“…and
for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate…” Some have translated this to
say “in a wing of the temple shall be
abominations.” One ancient
manuscript says “and abominations shall
be in the temple.” I have viewed the
“overspreading of abominations” to
speak of the abominations that were committed throughout the land of Israel in
the days of Jesus. The Hebrew word that
was translated “overspreading” is
descriptive of a bird with its wings outstretched, like a soaring eagle. Certainly the abominations were in the temple
at Jerusalem, but they were also “spread”
across the entire land of Israel. Jesus “purged” the temple two times; once at
the beginning of His ministry, and the second time in the last week before He
died on the cross. In the eighth chapter
of Ezekiel, God shows the prophet Ezekiel the “abominations” that were committed in the temple before Jerusalem
was destroyed the first time. God
revealed these things to Ezekiel and said, “Son
of man, seest thou what they do? even
the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should
go far off from my sanctuary?” (Ezekiel
8:6). The presence of God had
departed from the temple, leaving it “desolate,”
long before it was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem for the last
Passover week before going to the cross, He stood on the Mount of Olives,
overlooking the city, and wept over it.
He said that an enemy would come to destroy the city and lay it even
with the ground, because they “knew not
the hour of their visitation” (Luke
19:41-44). During His last week,
while preaching the devastating message to the scribes and Pharisees which is
recorded in the twenty third chapter of
Matthew, He paused, and once more you can hear the weeping in His voice as
He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye
shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37-39). This was the very hour, in the middle of last
seven years of the prophecy (of the seventieth week of Daniel), that Jesus
pronounced “the city desolate.” True desolation is when the presence of God
has departed. Abominations bring
desolation, and because of the “overspreading
of abominations,” God’s “chosen
people,” the Jews, were left desolate when they rejected Jesus of Nazareth,
because they did not believe that He was their Messiah.
“…even
until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the
desolate.” Verse twenty seven tells how long the desolation will last; “even until the consummation.” The “consummation”
speaks of a final destruction that had already been decreed by God because
of the backsliding of His people. Jesus
explained both the desolation and the duration of it; “Ye shall not see me henceforth (desolation), till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord (end
of desolation)” (Matthew 23:39). Well over a
hundred years before Gabriel brought His message to Daniel, God spoke to the
prophet Isaiah concerning the “consummation
and that determined.” The same
Hebrew word that was translated as “consummation”
in Daniel 9:27 is translated as “consumption” in Isaiah 10:22-23; “For though
thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the
midst of all the land.” This
prophecy, confirmed by Gabriel in Daniel
9:27, speaks of the last war that will be fought in Israel just before the
second return of Christ to earth. The
nation of Israel and the Jew has remained spiritually desolate for almost two
thousand years. They will continue in
desolation until they shall say, “Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” which they will do in the
latter end of the war that is coming soon in Israel. Zechariah the prophet gives the most complete
record of that last terrible war.
Zechariah 14:2: “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle; and the city shall be taken,
and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of
the people shall not be cut off from the city.”
Zechariah 13:8-9: “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD,
two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
And I will bring the third part
through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try
them as gold is tried: they shall call
on my name, and I will hear them: I
will say, It is my people:
and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
After two thirds of the inhabitants of
Israel have been slain in battle, something astounding takes place that will
totally reverse the tide of the war. Zechariah 12:10 gives insight into
this consequential event: “And I (the Lord) will pour
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of
grace and of supplications: and they
shall look upon *(Strong’s
#413; to, toward, or unto) me (“the Christ”) whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him (“the
Christ), as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be in bitterness for him (“the Christ”), as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
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*(Strong’s Dictionary says the Hebrew word ‘êl,
Strong’s #413, translated “upon” in
the above verse, “properly denotes motion
towards;” while Brown-Driver-Briggs’ gives, “to, toward, and unto” as the definition of this same Hebrew word. In Isaiah
45:22, this same word is
translated unto. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth….” Hence, a more correct translation would be, “They shall look… [to, towards, or,
unto] me [the Christ] whom they have pierced.” According to [I Peter 1:11], this prophecy was given by the “Spirit of Christ,”
speaking through [in this case] the prophet Zechariah. This momentous event will take place, shortly
before the second coming of Christ.)
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We are told by many prophecy teachers, that
the Jews will see that Jesus is their Messiah when He “raptures the church,” and the entire nation will be saved at the
moment they see Him. This scenario,
though commonly taught in many churches, does not agree with what the scriptures say. Jesus actually said to them, “You will not see me until you
shall say ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.” They, the Jews, if they are to be saved must
call upon His name before He
returns. The Jews have now been going
daily to the “wailing wall” for
almost a generation, to pray for their Messiah to come. After two thirds of their inhabitants have
died in the war, which is soon to come, it will appear that their end is near,
and genocide of their race is sure.
After all hope is lost that their “Messiah”
will come to rescue them, they will remember Jesus, whom their fathers rejected
so long ago. Only then, will “…they…look towards (or, unto) me (or,
Him)
whom they…pierced….” Realizing their Messiah did come, and they
refused Him, they will “mourn for Him”
as one would mourn over the death of their only son. Their “mourning”
will be in the grief, that He came to them and they killed Him. They will mourn over His death, not knowing
that He is yet alive. A “vail” has been over the heart and mind of
the Jews for almost two thousand years, concerning their Messiah. The Law of Moses has blinded their hearts,
but, as the apostle Paul said almost 2000 years ago, II Corinthians 3:15-16, “…even
unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it (the people of Israel) shall turn to the Lord, the vail
shall be taken away.” The
eyes of their understanding will be opened and revival will come to Israel, as
God pours the “spirit of grace and
supplications” upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:10). It is at
this point that “the nation of Israel” will cease to exist, as such, but will
become, along with all other true believers since the church of Jesus, the
Christ began, a part of “…the (true) Israel of God (Galatians 6:16).”
Zechariah 13:1: “In
that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”
Zechariah 14:3-4: “Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight
against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the
mount of Olives, which is
before Jerusalem on the east….”
The time of the Jews desolation is nearing
an end. It has been nineteen hundred and
eighty two years at this time since Jesus “left
them desolate.” Their desolation
will end, according to the words of Jesus, before this present generation, in
which we live, passes. It will not end,
however, before the three and a half year “time
of trouble” that Gabriel told Daniel about.
“…there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was
since there was a nation even
to that same time: and at that time thy
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:1-2). This is the second
coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The
“Day Dawn”
Isaiah 55:3: “Incline
your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
The Hebrew word that is translated “incline” in this verse means “to stretch or spread out.” The image is like a dog raises his ears in
order to hear better. God says, “Listen closely to what I say, and come unto
me: hear, and you soul shall live.”
There is a difference between “listening”
and “hearing,” but it all begins with
listening. The children of Israel did
not “hear” what God said at Horeb
because they refused to “listen” (Exodus 20-19). Jesus asked the Jews, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word” (John 8:43). They refused to stop talking long enough to
listen, and because of this, they would “die
in their sins (John 8:24),” having never “heard Him” (John 5:24-25). Simply “listen”
to the truth, and you will “hear.”
II Peter 1:19: “We
have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
Peter gives the same principle about “seeing.” If it is truly your desire to “see” Jesus Christ “as He is,” you must “look” in the right places. That is what Peter calls “the more sure word of prophecy.” He says, “take
heed to the prophecies” as a “light
that shineth in a dark place.” The
prophecies that gave the promise of redemption hundreds of years before Jesus
was born to Mary, reveal beyond any question why God sent His Son to the cross
for us. Keep looking until you “see” that He “bruised the head of the serpent” (Genesis 3:15) on the cross; that He “made an end of sins” and “brought
in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel
9:24-27) through His death and resurrection. If you can “see” the “light of truth”
that shines from the Old Testament prophecies of “Christ to come,” you will “know,”
along with the apostle John, “that He was
manifested to take away our sins” (I
John 3:5).
Peter tells us to “Look to the light.” John 3:20-21 tells us to “Come to the Light.” Peter assures us that the “light (the day star)” will “arise in our hearts” (II
Peter 1:19), and we will be “filled
with light” (Luke 11:36).
Isaiah 60:1-3: “Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon
thee. For, behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and
kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
Malachi 4:1-2: “For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn
as an oven; and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But
unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in
his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
Malachi’s prophecy speaks of the “great and terrible day of the Lord.” That “day”
will be one thing to the wicked and another thing altogether to the
righteous. To the wicked, it will “burn as an oven,” and that “day that cometh shall burn them up.” These verses do not speak of “hellfire” or “the lake of fire.” Instead
they are an analogy of what the last three and a half years before the return
of Jesus Christ will be like to the ungodly and the unbelieving. That same day, however, will be totally
different for the righteous; “But unto you
that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His
wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” It is the “dawning”
of a new day for the glorious church of Jesus Christ. It will bring the greatest harvest of souls
the world has ever seen, even in the midst of the “great and terrible day of the LORD.” Notice the words of Joel’s prophecy; “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the
great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:
for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as
the LORD hath said, and in the remnant
whom the LORD shall call” (Joel
2:31-32).
One
Last Question
Romans 5:19: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
“Where
is your faith? Who do you trust in most,
Adam or Christ?” The question seems ridiculous, but it is
not. Almost every “believer” believes that sin entered into the world through the
disobedience of the first man, Adam. We
were all “made sinners” by the act of
Adam’s disobedience. It did not take our
works, because Adam did it for us when he ate of the forbidden fruit in the
garden and we were all “born sinners.” Very few, however believe the second part of
this verse; “so by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous.” It is easy to believe that Adam’s
disobedience had the power to make us to be sinners, but it is hard to accept
the fact that Jesus Christ’s “obedience
to the cross” had the power to “make
many righteous (as many as will believe).”
The truth of the gospel is that “He was manifested to take away our sins.” The “more
sure word of prophecy” said He would come to “make an end of sins” (Daniel
9:24-27). Jesus told the skeptical
Jews in His day, “…if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). They could not
believe that He was “The Christ” who
came to “make an end of sins.” Millions of people who profess to know Jesus
are also “dying in sin,” because of the doctrine they
believe. Their “doctrine” tells them that Jesus only took the “penalty” for their sin and they choose to believe it. Their doctrine leaves them in sin, and as
long as they continue in that doctrine, they will continue in sin. They “think”
that they “believe in Jesus Christ,”
but they do not understand that Jesus is “The
Christ” who came into the world to “take
away our sin” (John 1:29), and “make an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24). The apostle Paul, however, says they “know nothing as they ought to know” (I Corinthians 8:2).
Looking back to Donald Rumsfeld’s analogy, “There are things that we know, and we know
that we know them.” These are the
things of Christ that are alive and working in us. The “sun
of righteousness” has arisen in our hearts.
The wells of living water are springing up, and the rivers of living
waters are flowing out. These are the
things that we know that we know. No one
can take them from us.
“There
are things that we don’t know, and we know that we don’t know them.” If
you are one that is hungry, but have never found the “bread of life;” if you are thirsty, but you have never discovered
the waters of life; if you know there is something about Jesus Christ that you
don’t know; that is what you hunger and thirst for. You are blessed, because if you search those
scriptures of the prophets that testify of Jesus, you will find what you hunger
for.
“There
are things we don’t know, and we don’t know that we don’t know them.” A lady who had been hearing the message of “freedom from sin” for only a few months was questioning my son
Keith. She had serious reservations
about the message we preach. She told
him, “All my friends tell me that God
doesn’t do that.” Keith answered, “Look around you and see the difference
between those who ‘believe that God does’
and your friends who ‘believe that He
doesn’t.” He said the result was
immediate. You could literally see when the “light”
turned on in her heart. Those who
believe they will always be sinners will always be sinners. Those who “know
who Christ is;” who ”know what He
came into the world to do;” and “know
that He did it through His death on the cross,” are the ones who walk free
from sin to serve God in righteousness and true holiness, while they “rest” in Christ who did it.
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Message 59 - By Leroy Surface - Knowing the
Truth
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