a_Nextmessage02

a_previous02
jdglogo1

Message 68 - By Leroy Surface

Given Over

Introduction

Is This America in 2014?

Romans 1:28-32 KJV: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

--------------------------------------------------

Given Over

America’s State of the Union, Summer 2014

Isaiah 1:4-6:  “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” 

Our nation is dying.  In fact, she has been dying a slow death for an entire generation, but there are very few that could discern her sickness in the early stages.  Today, her “cancer” has metastasized to the point that the entire body is diseased.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied against the sins of Jerusalem and Judah for an entire generation before they were destroyed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.  After the prophet Isaiah came Jeremiah, followed by Ezekiel, both of whom were clearly speaking the judgment of God against Jerusalem.  After Jerusalem was destroyed, Jeremiah, rightly called “The Weeping Prophet,” wept as he wrote in Lamentations 4:12, “The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.” 

There is a parallel between the backsliding and destruction of ancient Jerusalem and the backsliding and destruction of America in this, our generation.  At present, we continue to be the most powerful military force in the world, but our sins have robbed us of the ability to make moral judgments and take stands for justice in the world around us.  Until 9-11, we were very much like Jerusalem before she was destroyed; no one would have believed an enemy could have done what they were able to do.  The “Iron Curtain” had fallen, and we were “at peace” with Russia.  It was not missiles from our former enemy that destroyed the twin towers; it was nineteen men with airplane tickets and box cutters who were able to do the unbelievable.  Sadly, what happened on 9-11 is nothing by comparison with what is coming to this nation in the very near future.  America is going to be judged for her sins, and it will be a harsh judgment.  At seventy five years of age, I know the America I grew up loving and honoring does not exist today.  We are “bankrupt” in every way.  Financially, we are over seventeen trillion dollars in debt, which proves that the only “prosperity” we have enjoyed in this past generation has been “false prosperity.”  If the “first man Adam” had been given the task of paying our nation debt, he would pay seven million, seven hundred fifty seven thousand, two hundred forty three dollars, and ninety cents every day for six thousand years.  That’s $7,757,243.90 every day from his day to our present day, only to discover the debt is increasing at the rate of one billion, seven hundred seventy six million, eight hundred sixty five thousand, one hundred sixty dollars, and eighty five cents ($1,776,865,160.85) per day in 2014.  America is bankrupt, living on borrowed money, plus another trillion dollars (that’s ($1,000,000,000,000.00) a year our government is printing with absolutely nothing to back it up.  One of two things is certain for our nation’s economy; we will either see a most horrible depression while the printed money is taken out of the economy, or we will see an equally horrible inflation while the printed money is absorbed into the economy.  I believe the inflation is in the beginning stages right now. 

Worse than our financial bankruptcy, however, is our spiritual and moral bankruptcy.  Our problems began fifty one years ago when the Supreme Court of our nation ruled prayer in our public schools to be unconstitutional. This ruling, which barely troubled the waters at the time, began a generation in which the majority of the children would receive absolutely no moral influence from the scriptures.  The secularists of America had won a great victory against the church, and we did not even know the magnitude of the loss we suffered.  They began a dedicated war against Jesus Christ and His church which has continued unabated to this present day, which is fifty one years later.  I saw on the news just this morning that a Christian girl was expelled from school because she said “bless you” when another person sneezed.  This expulsion will probably be overturned but it underlines what great intolerance there is against anything “Christian” in America today.  American’s have learned to tolerate over a million abortions a year.  We “tolerate” a drug addicted culture, legalizing drugs in several states.  In twenty two states, at this time, we “tolerate” homosexual marriage for men with men and women with women.  We “tolerate” every “god” from every nation, even changing our immigration laws to allow them entrance.  We “tolerate” pornography, and have become light on pedophilia, but we cannot tolerate a little girl saying “bless you?”  Oh, how far we have fallen, America.  While “gay marriage” has become the order of the day, marriage between young heterosexual couples has become “passé,” with a majority of young couples living together outside of marriage.  At present, forty percent (40%) of the babies born in America are born to unwed mothers.  This is a brief synopsis of the state of affairs in America in the year 2014, one which I will enlarge upon in this message.

Five Sins That Bring the Wrath of God

Revelation 9:20:  “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

1. Idolatry:  Within two years after America rejected God in the public schools in 1963, congress changed America’s immigration laws and for the first time the flood gates were opened for the worshipers of other gods to enter America, and our nation, which was founded a “Christian Nation,” quickly became an idolatrous nation.  In the first commandment, God said He is a “jealous God,” and He will certainly destroy the people or nation that turns from Him to worship other gods.

2. Murders: It is only those sins which are approved by law that brings the wrath of God against nations.  America’s “murders” that has brought the anger of God against us is legalized abortion, which is “murder” that has the approval of law.  At present America has aborted over 56,000,000 babies, perhaps the most horrible slaughter of the innocents in the history of the world.

3. Sorceries: The Greek word is “pharmakeia,” which speaks of our drug culture.  America is a nation of drug addicts, and much of it is legal in the name of “modern medicine.”  Today, however, the trend in America is to legalize marijuana, and to consider the sell and use of hard drugs to be a “nonviolent crime,” with very little punishment.  Drugs have destroyed entire generations of our youth in the past, and will only increase the anger of God against America as they are made legal across the nation

4. Fornications:  The Greek word is “porneia,” from which we get the English word “pornography.”  It includes every sexual sin, whether adultery (unfaithfulness in marriage), sexual relations outside of marriage, sodomy, pornographic entertainment, and a host of other forbidden things.  Numerous judges in America have recently refused to punish pedophiles and other abusers of children.  Twenty two states as of this writing have legalized homosexual marriage, sometimes imposed against the will of the people by a single judge or court.  America’s sexual sins have “reached up to heaven,” and for these, our nation will certainly receive of the wrath of God.

5. Thefts:  Again, it is not the “thief” that is incarcerated for his or her crimes that brings the anger of God; it is the covetousness which permeates the hearts of most Americans today, whether they are rich or poor.  It is another case where the church itself has “changed the truth of God into a lie,” and thus created greed in the hearts of the people in the name of the “prosperity gospel” which in itself is an oxymoron.  The scripture warns against those who believe that “gain is godliness” (I Timothy 6:5).  It is in the next verse that the apostle says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”  Jesus tells us to “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (Luke 12:15).  

Legal “thieves” are found in every area of American life today, from the legal, to the medical, to the political, and to the religious.  Lawyers who have legally made themselves incredibly wealthy through “class action suits;” politicians who have gone from poverty to incredible riches while parading themselves to be “the servants of the people;” a medical system that will charge ten to twenty thousand dollars to birth a live baby, but will kill a living child in its mother’s womb for less than a thousand dollars; and the “preacher” that has discovered he can live a life of luxury out of the offerings of the people.  Each and every one of these have found legal means to take that which does not belong to them, and they do so because of the greediness of their own heart. It is because of these five sins that the anger of God has risen against our nation and the western world to the point that He will give us over into the hands of those who hate us.  Even now there is a great and formidable “army” rising up to punish America and the western world for their sins. 

These five sins will be the direct cause of the worst calamity the world has ever seen.  Jesus called it “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).  The angel Gabriel spoke to Daniel of it in these words; “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…” (Daniel 12:1).  The apostle John saw it in his visions on the Isle of Patmos, which he recorded for us in the book of Revelation. 

Revelation 9:13-16:  “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.”

Sins of the Church that Destroy the Nation

Romans 1:21-23: “…when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

This text is speaking about Old Testament Israel, and their sins against God which ultimately brought about their destruction.  These were spiritual sins that caused God to be angry with His people.  There is a parallel between the course Old Testament Israel took and course modern America is taking, and each step of that course is away from God.  I will seek to show that parallel in the scriptures.  

1.  “…when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful…”  The words “when they knew God” speak of the day at Mount Horeb when God introduced Himself to the children of Israel and gave them His “Ten Commandments.”  They did not “glorify Him as God.”  They did not “draw near” to the mountain where God was.  They did not “fall on their faces” to worship Him as God.  Instead, they turned their backs to Him and ran away from the mountain. 

There was never a nation on this planet which once “knew God” as He was known in America.  This nation was founded by brave men and women who left the tyranny of religious despotism in Europe to carve out a new life in the wilderness of the “new world” that became America.   They came to worship God freely, according to the dictates of their own consciences.  Thirteen different colonies were formed, mostly on the basis of the particular religious doctrine they held, but all of them were “Christian.”  When the United States of America was formed, the “many” were made to be “one” under a constitution that protected the church from government tyranny, and the people from religious tyranny.  There was one thing common in America; the belief in God, the Father of Jesus Christ.  We were a “Christian Nation” which from its inception was blessed by God.  The Children of Israel had the promise that if they would obey the voice of God and keep His covenant, they would be a “holy nation,” a “kingdom of priests,” and a “people above all the peoples on earth.”  Israel never obtained the promise, but America became the greatest nation on earth, and the “hope” of the downtrodden in every nation.  From America’s beginning through the nineteenth century our children received their primary education from the KJV bible, and the result was a moral populace.  The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule set the standard for the common man, and America was a “good nation” and a “God fearing nation.” We could sing “God bless America” with the strong emotion of knowing that God did bless America.  Everything has changed to the extent that when we sing that beautiful song today, it is empty and sorrowful, because we know that God will not “bless America.”  Our national sins have turned His face away from us.

2. “…became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened…” Paul said they “became vain in their imaginations” and “became fools,” all the while they thought they were very wise.  About seven hundred years later, God spoke of that day to the prophet Jeremiah; “But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:24).

I would be foolish to ignore the fact that America also had some major ills which had to be corrected.  Slavery is a horrible curse on any nation, and some of our founding fathers were also slaveholders.  Slavery became the issue of the civil war, which almost destroyed our nation when it was barely seventy five years old.  Consider, however, that the union army which fought to free the slaves marched to the tune of a gospel song that became known as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  One of the verses is as follows;

“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.”

Notice that they understood that “Christ died to make men holy.”  Today, in modern America, even our ministers do not believe that.  Our foundation has been destroyed, both as a nation and as a people.  Even the “church” has lost its bearings. 

3. “…professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…”

The apostle wrote this about the children of Israel in the interim between the time they rejected God and turned to worship a golden calf at Mount Horeb, a period of just over six weeks.  David said in Psalms 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God’.”  Our nation is not being “governed” today, but it is “controlled” by highly educated individuals who “think they are wise,” but have “become fools,” and they are leading us to our destruction.   David also tells us in Psalms 9:17 that “…every nation that forgets God …shall be turned into hell.” America has forgotten God and our culture has become a literal “hell on earth.” 

4. “…and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Hardly six weeks had passed before the children of Israel built a calf of gold and they called it “The LORD,” saying, “To morrow is a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5).  David spoke of that day hundreds of years later, saying in Psalms 106:19-21, “They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.  Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.  They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt.”  They introduced the golden calf to the congregation, saying, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4).  This was the sin of blasphemy, because God had introduced Himself to the children of Israel less than two months before, saying, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).  They contributed the wonderful works of the incorruptible God to a corruptible image of a calf which they had fashioned with their own hands.  

In less than a hundred days after leaving Egypt they had fallen into idolatry.  Three days before God spoke to them from the mountain, He had promised to make of them the greatest nation on earth, a people above all people, if they would “obey His voice.”  Now, less than two months later, they were a people whom God wanted to utterly destroy.  Listen to the hurt and anger in the voice of God as He saw them worshiping the golden calf; “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt (God denied they were His people), have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them (They had broken every commandment of God in their revelry before the golden calf): they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt (They credited the golden calf with all the wonderful works which God alone had done for them).  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32:7-10). It was only the intercession of Moses for them that kept the wrath of God from utterly destroying the children of Israel that day. 

Romans 1:24:  “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.”

This verse tells of God’s “punishment” of the children of Israel because of their idolatry.  He “gave them up to uncleanness.”  Their “sin” was that they rejected God while He was speaking to them from the mountain and their abomination was that they replaced God with an image of a calf made of gold, and worshiped it as “the god” that delivered them from the land of Egypt.  Exodus 32:6 describes their idolatry; “They rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”  They brought their “offerings,” which belonged to God, and presented them before the golden calf.  Then they “sat down to eat and drink (they ate the flesh of the offerings and drank the intoxicating wine) and rose up to play.”  The scripture says they “sang and danced” before the golden calf (Exodus 32:18-19).  Stephen, who became the first martyr for Christ, said of the children of Israel, “they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.  Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven” (Acts 7:41-43).   

God gave them up to idolatry, and in their idolatry, He gave them up to uncleanness.  In their uncleanness, they “dishonored their own bodies between themselves.”  Their manner of worship was nothing more than “play,” and their “play” became nothing less than a sexual orgy as they dishonored their bodies between themselves. 

Paul said God “gave them up to uncleanness.”  Stephen said “God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.”  There is a connection between idolatry and moral uncleanness.  In Colossians 3:5, the apostle Paul makes a connection between idolatry and covetousness (Colossians 3:5). Whatever the case, God “gave them up to uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.” The nation became consumed with sexual immorality, which was actually part and parcel of their idolatry.    

Romans 1:25: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”  

The second “sin against God” which takes us further down the road to destruction is one that can only be committed by those who fill the pulpits of America.  They have “changed the truth of God into a lie.”  The result of that “lie” is to “serve and worship the creature more than the Creator.”  The “lie” has actually been around for thousands of years, so the verse could be better understood to say they “exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”  This generation of the church is “wallowing in the lie” like a hog wallows in the mire.  There have been some real men of God in the past who have believed things which were not true, but they did not “wallow” in it.  Charles Spurgeon was a Calvinist who believed in predestination, which is a lie, but he did not “wallow” in it.  Instead, he preached repentance and faith to everyone who would believe.  I heard John Osteen say the man who was living in fornication with his father’s wife (I Corinthians 5:1-5) would go to heaven “because he has already believed in Jesus.”  John’s take was that he would “die before his time” if he did not change his lifestyle.  I believe John was a man of God, but he didn’t understand the purpose of Christ’s coming into this world, to “make an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24).  I’ve heard Charles Stanley teach the same doctrine, and even Jimmy Swaggart teaches that an adulterer could be caught in the act of adultery at the moment of the rapture, and be received by God “as long as his faith is in the cross.”  Preachers preach these things, believing they are promoting the wonderful “grace of God,” but not knowing they are guilty of “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 1:4).  I do not believe these men are liars, but I do believe they have believed a lie, and have given it to untold millions of people in America and around the world in this generation. 

A Corrupt Image of Christ

In order for these men to believe these things they must have a distorted “image” of God.  Notice the words in Romans 1:23; they “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.” Christians are not idol worshipers, but many have been guilty of changing the image of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man.  How is this possible?

Christ is eternal.  He is the creator on all things, who became the flesh and blood Son of God in the incarnation.  Christ became a man, and that man was Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary.  In eternity past, Christ was “The Word” which was “with God” and “was God” (John 1:1).  Peter began his message on the Day of Pentecost with these words; “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know” (Acts 2:22).  Some take this verse and others like it to teach that Jesus Christ was only a man on earth.  Some teach that He left His Sonship in heaven to become a man, and everything He did on earth he did as a natural man through faith, fasting, and prayer.  That is impossible, because Paul tells us that God “…sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law…” (Galatians 4:4).  The Son of God was “made of a woman.”  Christ became a man; Jesus was a man, but He was “more than a man,” He was “the only begotten (of a woman) Son of God.”

Those who believe Jesus was a man just like us while on earth also believe He could have sinned, but utilized faith, prayer, fasting, and the scriptures to keep from sinning.  Jesus did not sin because there was no sin in Him.  Just the day before He died on the cross, Jesus told His disciples, “the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30).  There was no sin in Jesus, who died on the cross to “take away our sin,” and those who trust in Him are “made free from sin” (Romans 6:7, 18, 22). 

 Romans 6:7: “For he that is dead (with Christ) is freed from sin.”

Romans 6:18: “Being then made free from sin….”

Romans 6:22: “But now being made free from sin….”

Jesus was “…in all points tempted (the Greek word means ‘tested’) like as we are, yet without sin.”  It was impossible for Jesus to be “tempted” in the sense that we understand the word, because He had no sin in Him, but He could be “tested” exactly as we are tested, but it was also impossible that He would “fail the test” in the matter of sin. 

Those who believe Jesus Christ was a natural man who “could have sinned” are guilty of “changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man” (Romans 1:23), as well as “changing the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25). We know Jesus was not a “corruptible man” just like other men, because, as Paul tells us, “the second man (Jesus) is the Lord from Heaven” (I Corinthians 15:47).  The blood which flowed through His veins was not like our blood, because His was “holy blood” (Hebrews 10:29), vested with the power to “wash us from our sins” (Revelation 1:5), “cleanse us from all sin” (I John 1:7), and to “sanctify the people” (Hebrews 13:12). 

I heard a most famous preacher say just last night, “Jesus was God, but everything He did, He did as a natural man.”  Wrong on both points!  Christ, the eternal “Word,” was “with God and was God (I John 1:1)” until He was “made flesh (John 1:14)” and became a man.  That “man” was “more than a man;” He was the only begotten Son of God and the son of Mary at the same time.  If Jesus had overcome Satan, denied temptation, and lived a sinless life as a “natural man,” then there was no reason for Him to suffer and die on the cross to “take away our sin” (I John 3:5).  His sinless life would have proven that a “natural man” could overcome Satan, deny temptation, and live a sinless life, and we would be without excuse.  The apostle John tells us that we receive “boldness in the day of judgment” when our love is perfected, “because as he is, so are we in this world” (I John 4:17).  If Jesus was in this world as a mere natural man that could have sinned, then it follows that we are still sinners and will sin every day of our lives.  That teaching is the great deception that holds the people in bondage to sin.  John says, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2).  If our image of Jesus Christ is that of a natural man while He was on earth, it is because someone has “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man” (Romans 1:23). If we “see Him as He is,” we are changed into His same image.  “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18).

Given Up to Uncleanness

When the children of Israel changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image “made like to a corruptible man,” God “gave them up to uncleanness.”  If the “veil” could be pulled back just a little, you would be shocked beyond imagination at the gross immorality and perversion which exists in the ranks of those who claim to be believers and expect to “go to heaven” when they die.  Even more so, you would be shocked at the private lives of many of the most popular preachers of our generation. 

Over twenty five years ago, in 1987 and 1988 respectively, the heads of the two largest ministries in the world fell in moral scandals.  The first had a television enterprise which covered most of the world at that time, and the other was an evangelist who preached to crowds of up to a hundred thousand in a single service, while at the same time he was involved in grossly immoral activity.  I will not dwell on the activities of these two men; it was not them who destroyed the moral authority of the church, but it was the church’s response to their failure.  Ted Koppel interviewed many different pastors and evangelists on his “Nightline” news broadcast concerning the scandals.  The vast majority of those interviewed, while ready to condemn and destroy the men privately, would not condemn their sin publicly.  Their only response was “We are all sinners; we sin every day.”  It was Ted Koppel who questioned, “Shouldn’t there be a difference between the ‘sins’ of the church and the ‘sins” of the world?”  Among the half dozen famous preachers on the panel that night, only D. James Kennedy, a Presbyterian, took a stand for righteousness, quoting Ephesians 5:3, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.”   There were others on the panel that boldly told Ted Koppel, “It’s none of the news media’s business what goes on in the church.”  That is the attitude which destroyed the moral authority of the church.  From that time, twenty six years ago this year, the church has not been able to judge the nation, because she refused to be “judged” in the hour of her shame.  

That same year, TBN had a roundtable discussion with Paul and Jan Crouch, Hal Lindsey, and several other lesser known ministers of that day.  The discussion was on what I call “The Scenario.”  “A ‘believer’ is in the act of adultery at the moment the last trumpet sounds and Christ returns to take His people.  Will Christ accept the one who is in the act of adultery?”  To my shock, every minister on the panel except for one answered “Yes, Jesus would accept the adulterer if they have ‘believed in Him’.”  The one man who disagreed stood up and said words to this effect, “If this is what you believe, I want to disassociate myself from this panel.  How can you get on television before millions of people and say such things to those who are weak and struggling to remain faithful.”  For his righteous stand, he was publicly mocked by the moderator of the panel.  I do not recall the man’s name, but I wish to honor him for his stand.

The Loss of Moral Authority

Ten years later, January 17, 1998, another scandal was revealed, this time in the White House.  The accusation was made and later confirmed that the president had been involved in a perverted sex affair with a young intern, beginning in 1995.  Sodomy, which has destroyed many nations, suddenly became acceptable to the youth of America because the president, who is the number one “role model” for the nation, was shown to be a heterosexual sodomite.  Sadly, the “church” had no moral authority to judge the immorality in the White House because ten years before she had refused to judge herself for the immorality in her own ranks.  The result was that in a very short time, polls indicated that homosexuality was considered an acceptable and normal lifestyle by the youth of America.  Abortion rates fell a little during that time period and we were glad, but we did not understand it was because our nation was being given up to sodomy, which is certainly no cause for rejoicing.  Our nation had passed from “uncleanness” to “vile affections,” and sixteen years later “gay marriage” is legal in twenty two states. 

The “Lie” That Has Destroyed the Church

When a seed is planted, it often takes some time to recognize what the mature plant will be.  In the parable of the “tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30)” we see that it is hard to tell the difference between the “tare” and the “wheat” until the time of harvest, and then it is “by their fruit” that you know the difference.  It is the same with the doctrines people believe.  A doctrinal seed was planted in the church five hundred years ago which is of such a nature that it has only come to its maturity in our generation.  The doctrine I speak of is called “penal substitution,” which was given to us by John Calvin.  It was actually given in response to the penal doctrines of the Catholic church of the dark ages, and was useful in bringing many people out of the Catholic system to trust in “Christ alone.”  There have been great men of God in the centuries since that have believed the doctrine, which is most simply expressed as “Jesus took the penalty for our sin.”  It is only in our generation that we can see the ugly fruit of the mature seed of the doctrine.  It has filled the church with sinners who think they are saved.  It has taken the “fear of God,” which is the “beginning of wisdom (Psalms 111:10)” out of the churches, and actually hindered the work of the Holy Ghost to convict sin.  During the course of this generation alone we are seeing the ugly fruit of this doctrine.  We hear it all the time; “We are all sinners…we sin every day.  God can’t see our sin because we are ‘covered;’…by grace, …by blood, …by the righteousness of Christ,” or a variety of other “religious coverings.”  The doctrine continues, “Jesus has taken the penalty for our sin.”  If that is true, we can “sin without penalty,” which is exactly what the lying doctrine says.   It is incredible to believe that “God can’t see our sin” when the apostle Paul tells us, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

Is it any wonder that unbelievers reject a “church” which is guilty of the same sins the world is guilty of, but says to them, “You will go to Hell for your sins, but we will go to Heaven because we ‘believe in Jesus,’ and God can’t see our sins.”  The unbelieving world recognizes the ridiculous nature of that religious lie.

Ephesians 2:1-3: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Notice the past tense language the apostle Paul uses.  In I Corinthians 6:9-10 the apostle names things which he clearly says will not enter the Kingdom of God; “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  Now notice his words in the next verse; “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11).  Again, such things are in the past of the children of God, but they are not in their present.  Notice also that the apostle did not say, “but your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future.”  What he did say is, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified….”  Notice the order of things in the apostle Paul’s understanding; “washed… sanctified… justified;” this is somewhat different than the theology which is commonly taught today. 

Revelation 1:5: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood….”

Hebrews 10:10: “…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Hebrews 13:12: “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”

Romans 5:9: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

There is absolutely nothing in all the scriptures to tell us those who are “washed, sanctified, and justified” are still sinners by nature, and must continue in sin.  Everything in the gospel of Christ points us to the truth that Jesus said would make its believer “free from sin” and “free indeed” (John 8:31-36).  The meaning of this is very simple to those who can hear and believe it; He takes sin out of our nature, and replaces it with His righteousness.  Those who are “born of God” have become the children of God by the new heart and spirit God has given to them (Ezekiel 36:26), and as Peter said, they are made “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4).   Someone protested to me years ago, saying, “But that’s only what we are in Christ.”  His belief, which is common today, was “that is only the way God sees us in Christ.”  I answered him, “No! If that’s what we in Christ, then that’s what we are in this present evil world as long as we abide in Christ.”  Christ is the only dwelling place for the children of God.  If we are “moved away” from Christ by any means, sin that was “taken away” by Christ will revive in our hearts, and the end of that person will be worse than their beginning if they do not return in repentance and faith once more. 

The Truth That Makes Free

Jesus told some Jews who claimed to believe in 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” (John 8:31-32).  The “truth” Jesus spoke of is incredibly simple; “Jesus is the Christ.”  If Jesus had told them He was “The Christ,” they would have not believed it.  In fact, they would have stoned Him to death.  The truth had to be a “revelation” from God to those who could receive it.  When Peter made his famous confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus told him, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

The Jews were looking for the appearing of the Messiah (the Christ) in the same year Jesus entered into His ministry, but most of them refused to believe that He was the Christ.  They understood the promise of Christ in Daniel 9:24-27 and knew what Christ would do when He came, but Jesus of Nazareth did not fit their “image” of the Christ.  Jesus told the Jews one day while they were contending with Him, “I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come” (John 8:21).  These words seemed to be a riddle to the Jews, who questioned among themselves, “Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come” (John 8:22).  Jesus answered them in the next verses, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am HE, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:23-24).  Their next question is very simple; “Who are you?”

Jesus had told them, “I am He.”  We can understand His words better in the context of His discourse with the Samaritan woman.  “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am HE” (John 4:25-26). 

In order to truly understand who Jesus is, we must understand what the prophet Daniel told us Christ would do.  It is an understanding which is so important to us that God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Daniel of the Messiah (the Christ) who was to come into the world.    Daniel recorded the words of Gabriel in Daniel 9:24-27.  Gabriel told him of “an end of sins” and “everlasting righteousness,” which Christ would come into the world to accomplish.  The important part of this prophecy, however, is Gabriel not only told Daniel what Christ would do, but he also told when and how He would do it.  The prophecy is about seventy “weeks of years,” which in modern terms speak of four hundred and ninety years.  A decree would be given by a Persian king to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and before 490 years passed from the time of the decree, Messiah would not only have come, but He would have “finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness.” Before the end of that time He would have been “anointed the most holy” (when the Holy Ghost came upon Jesus (Matthew 3:16), and He would “seal up the vision and prophecy” (Daniel 9:24), meaning that He would fulfill every vision and prophecy of redemption when He suffered and died on the cross.  Four hundred and eighty three years after King Artaxerxes gave the decree in 457 B.C., the Holy Ghost came upon Jesus of Nazareth at John’s baptism and He was anointed “the most holy.”  At the same time, God spoke from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).  Three and a half years later, in the middle of the seventieth week of Gabriel’s promise, Jesus Christ fulfilled every vision and prophecy of redemption when He died on the cross for the sin of the world.  It was through His death on the cross that He “finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness.”  Gabriel told Daniel that Christ would be “cut off, but not for Himself” (Daniel 9:26), which foretold His death on the cross where Jesus died to “take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  He has “made an end of sins” in everyone who believes the truth and trusts in Him.  These things which the angel Gabriel told the prophet Daniel is the truth Jesus said would “make us free” from sin if we know “who He is, what He came into the world to do, and How He did it through His death on the cross.”  Those who continue to believe Jesus died to “take our penalty” or to “take our punishment” have believed a “lie” which was crafted hundreds of years ago to deceive the people of God and leave them in bondage to sin all the days of their life.  Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” but He also said, “If ye believe not that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

The “Penalty” for Believing the Lie

Romans 1:26-27: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”

Notice the words “For this cause….”  Vile affections, which speak of perverted sex acts, are not the sin that will bring the judgment of God against our nation.  Instead, it is God’s righteous judgment to “give America up” to perversion because of those ministers in the “church” who have perverted the truth of God and preached a lie.   Listen to the words of Paul to the churches of Galatia; “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).  The Galatians thought they would be brought closer and more pleasing to God through the lie they believed.  They were deceived by false teachers, but nevertheless, they “fell from grace” and “Christ became of no effect to them” (Galatians 5:4).

When I was a teenager in the 1950s, I did not know what a “homosexual” was.  Of course, there were those who did such things in secret, but they were considered to be “sinners” just as the fornicator and adulterer was.  We believed that Paul’s list of those who would not inherit the Kingdom of God was true.  He specifically named ten lifestyles which would have no place in the Kingdom of God.   They are “fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners.”  In Galatians 5:19-21, he gives another list of seventeen, calling them “works of the flesh;” they are “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.”   When I was a small child, our churches sang a beautiful song titled “Sin Can Never Enter There.”  A few years later, when the same churches began telling us “We are all sinners and we sin every day,” I knew that something had gone awry.   I predicted at that time, “There will come a day that those churches will be forced to accept homosexuals as Christians, because, ‘after all, we are all sinners’.”  


 

God Rejects America

Romans 1:28:  “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

America has been in the final stage of God’s judgment for several years, and is actually being prepared for destruction.  The first stage was when God “gave us up to uncleanness,” which was manifested as a total lack of moral restraints in America.  We became an “amoral nation,” which speaks of a total absence of biblical morals.  The second stage of God’s judgment was when He “gave us up to vile affections,” which is manifested by the popular acceptance of gay marriage in our nation.  The third and final stage of God’s judgment prepares the nation for destruction.   “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”   God has given America over, and everything she has become is evidence of that fact.

Romans 1:29-31: “Being filled with (1.) all unrighteousness, (2.) fornication, (3.) wickedness, (4.) covetousness, (5.) maliciousness; full of  (1.) envy, (2.) murder, (3.) debate, (4.) deceit, (5.) malignity; (1.) whisperers, (2.) backbiters, (3.)  haters of God, (4.) despiteful, (5.) proud, (6.) boasters, (7.) inventors of evil things, (8.) disobedient to parents, (9.) without understanding, (10.) covenantbreakers, (11.) without natural affection, (12.) implacable, (13.) unmerciful:

This is a list of five evil things America is “being filled with,” five evil things she is “full of,” and thirteen evil things her citizens have become.  Who can deny that America has been given over to a reprobate mind?  Our thinking is messed up.  Those who were once considered decent and moral are now considered to be hateful and intolerant.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied of such a time in Jerusalem shortly before the city was destroyed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.  It was a time in which “truth” was fallen in the streets, and “justice” stood afar off.  During that time it was those who “departed from evil” that made themselves a prey (Isaiah 59:14-15).  Those who do not go along with the immorality and perversion of this age have become the target of the ruling class.  If you don’t agree with gay marriage, you are told you are a “bigot.”  If you don’t agree with abortion, you are “at war with women.”  It seems as if everything has been turned upside down and evil rules the day.  America is being filled with every kind of evil thing, and strangely believes we are the better for it.  I know by the word of God that our nation is being prepared for destruction. 

The Locust Army

In March, 2002, five months after America invaded Afghanistan and a full year before we invaded Iraq, I wrote a message titled “Holy War.”  The following is the introduction to that message, written over twelve years ago;

“America is at war. It is a war unlike any that our nation has ever faced, because it is a "holy war," so called. It is a "holy war" because an extreme­ly religious group initiated it for religious purposes. It is also a very "unholy war" because any war initiated for the sole purpose of terrorizing and slaughtering the masses of people is by nature "unholy." It is a war that we cannot win through our superior military power alone, because there is no single nation or alliance of nations that we could conquer and bring an end to the conflict. By the very nature of the war we know that it can only escalate until the day we clearly understand that we as a nation have no defense to keep us, and no weapon to conquer the enemy. It is also a war that the cost of losing is beyond the imagination of man to comprehend. It is the very soul of the human race that is at stake. There is an answer, but America is not ready to receive it. Unless we, as a nation, do receive the answer, and soon, America will be brought to shame before her enemies.” (“Holy War” March 2002)

Revelation 9:1-4:  “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” 

The events of September 11, 2001 in New York City are described perfectly in these verses of scripture.  A “pit” was opened, smoke came out of the pit, and the sun and air were darkened because of the smoke.  It was out of the smoke from that pit “the locusts” began swarming worldwide.  Radical Islam, encouraged by their success in destroying the twin towers, began systematically migrating to every nation on earth.  Every nation on earth will be hurt by the locust army when it is fully formed, but there are two main targets, which will receive the worst of what is coming upon the earth; they are Israel and the United States of America.  In Israel, two thirds of the population will be killed during that three and a half year time of trouble, while in the rest of the world, one third of all men (and women?) will be slain. 

Trouble, Such as Never Was, nor Ever Shall Be

The prophet Daniel spoke of it.  “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).   Jesus told of it.  “…then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).  This “time of trouble” which is restricted to a period of three and a half years, is looming in our immediate future.  It has been preparing ever since 9-11- 2001. 

Revelation 9:13-16: “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand (200,000,000; two hundred million): and I heard the number of them.”

In the December 2002 issue of “Behold the Lamb” I wrote a message titled “War of the Kingdoms.”  America was preparing to go to war in Iraq at the time, and over three months before the invasion on March 19, 2003, I gave this solemn warning;

“The nation we are preparing war against (Iraq) is the site of ancient “Babylon.”  The river Euphrates runs through that nation.  According to Revelation 9:14, there are four “angels” that have been bound in that river for thousands of years.  I do not believe these “angels” represent earthly kings or nations.  Rather, it is most likely they are spiritual “principalities” after the order of, and serving under “Apollyon,” the locust king (Revelation 9:11).  Probably the next prophetic event is the “loosening” of these four “angels” with their armies of two hundred million.  These armies represent no nation, but are men and women who are “possessed” with the spirit of the locust king, Apollyon.  They are led to battle by the four “angels” out of the river Euphrates.  According to Revelation 9:15, these have been prepared “for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,” to slay the third part of men.  If America’s warfare were only with a nation, it would be an “easy in, easy out” affair with little loss of life, but in fact, we are potentially facing the greatest slaughter of human life the world has ever seen.”  (“War of the Kingdoms” December 2002)

These words were written three months before the war in Iraq began on March 19, 2003.  When the last of our troops were withdrawn almost nine years later in December, 2011, the war had cost almost a trillion dollars and the loss of almost 4500 of our soldiers, with over 30,000 wounded.  Less than three years later, an Islamic caliphate has been established in Iraq, and all of our efforts to defeat terrorism have proven to be vain.  The modern world has never seen such a violent and merciless people as “ISIS” has proven to be.  The prophet Joel describes them perfectly in:

Joel 2:2-6: “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.”

They have told us they are coming to America.  The scriptures tell us this is so.  If we destroy them, they will yet come; we have no military might to stop them.  Joel said, “When they fall on the sword, they shall not be wounded” (Joel 2:8).  This is a prophecy of the suicide bomber, and the Hebrew text says “they shall not be stopped.”  It is because of the sins of America and the western world that they cannot be stopped until they have accomplished what the scriptures say they will do.  They will be stopped, however, in the day the remnant of Israel “…shall look upon me (Jesus Christ, their Messiah) whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zechariah 12:10).  Christ will return and “fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle” (Zechariah 14:3), and “…destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9). 

This is the state of the world and of America in this summer of 2014.  We have reached the point of no return.  God has repeatedly warned of this time throughout this past generation, and the time has come in which everything God has spoken will shortly come to pass. 

No Remedy for the Nations

II Chronicles 36:15-17:  “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.  And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.  Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.”

There is no remedy for our nation, but there is a remedy for the people.  That “remedy” is to turn to Jesus Christ with all our hearts.  Sadly, our nation cannot return, so there is no remedy for the nation.  Do you remember the five sins that have brought us to this place?”  “Idolatry, abortion, drugs, sexual immorality and perversion, and greed” are the national sins which have brought the anger of God against us.  God gave America a time to repent, and she did not repent.  Today, there is nothing remaining but a “…certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).

 We wrote about America’s “Space for Repentance” in the March 2001 issue of “Behold the Lamb.”  The following is an excerpt from the introduction to that message. 

“In God’s longsuffering to us, He has given us a space for repentance.  In His mercy He has intervened in the affairs of this nation at the very highest level. 

On November 7, 2000 we went to the polls to elect a new president.  On December 12, 2000 God gave us our president.  A majority of Americans cast their vote for another candidate, a man that promised a continuation of abortion, the institution of special rights to homosexuals and thus a continuation of the moral decline of our nation.  While it was not the will of the majority of American voters, it was certainly the will of God that placed George W. Bush as our president.  I remember a time in the primaries when each of several candidates was asked who had effected their lives the most?  George W. answered simply “Jesus Christ, because He changed my heart.”  Many news commentators ridiculed such an answer, but God took notice and gave us this righteous man to lead our nation. 

There may be a tendency on the part of many “Christians” to rejoice that “we have won,” but such would be a grave mistake.  “We” have not “won,” but God has intervened and given this nation a space for repentance.  We have already entered into a three and half year time span that I believe is America’s “space for repentance.”  Can America be saved?  The right question is, will she repent?”  (“A Space for Repentance” March 2001)

America’s “space for repentance” was extended from three and a half years to seven and a half years by the mercy and longsuffering of God, but it ended several months before the presidential election of 2008.  President Obama is not the cause of America’s present problems, but his policies have brought an increase in all five of America’s national sins.  In order for our nation to repent, there must be a repeal of the laws approving these five sins, which is impossible to do in present day America.  If we could rid our nation of other “gods,” end abortion rights, win the war against drugs, disallow gay marriage, restore biblical morality, and make an end to the greed which permeates every area of American life; if we could do these things without destroying our selves and becoming like the terrorist we fight against, then God would bless America once more.  It is a “Pandora’s box” that America has opened, and the evil which has come out of it cannot be stopped.  To paraphrase what God told the Old Testament nation of Israel thousands of years ago, “O America, thou hast destroyed thyself…” (Hosea 13:9).  America’s sin was rejecting Christ in our public schools fifty years ago.  God has “given us up” to do every other imaginable evil, and there is no escape for the nation, from the things that are soon coming upon her. 

There is a “Remedy” for YOU!!

First:  We must know who Christ is.  The apostle John tells us in John 1:1-3, “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.”  Christ is the eternal Word of God, by whom God created all things.  He is as eternal as God is.

Second:  We must know what Christ came into the world to do.  This is a message so important to us that God sent His angel Gabriel to tell the prophet Daniel about it.  Everything you need to know about the purpose of Jesus Christ is found in the prophecy of “the Messiah (the Christ)” in Daniel 9:24-27.  The twenty-fourth verse tells us what Christ came into the world to do.  He came “…to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness…” (Daniel 9:24).

Third:  We must know that Jesus, the “son of Mary” is “the Christ, the Son of God,” and that He accomplished everything He came into the world to do when He died on the cross.  1. He “made an end of sins” in our heart when He died for us so that our old man of sin would be dead with Him (Romans 6:6).  2. He “made reconciliation for iniquity” for us when He died for us, to present us to God “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” (Colossians 1:21-22). 3. He “brought everlasting righteousness” into our heart through His death on the cross.  Romans 5:19 says “by the obedience of one (Christ dying on the cross) shall many be made righteous.”

Fourth:  We must “trust in Christ” who did it all at Calvary.  When Jesus cried from the cross, “It is finished,” everything He came into the world to do was accomplished.  He now does it in the heart and nature of everyone who simply “trusts in Him.”  The transgression is finished! He has “made an end of sins;” He has “made reconciliation for iniquity;” He has “brought in everlasting righteousness,” and He has done it all in the hearts of those who believe and trust in Him.

Will you turn to Jesus Christ with all your heart?  Will you forsake the “lie” that has told us sin doesn’t matter?  Will you “trust in Christ” who came into the world to “make an end of sins” and died on the cross to “take our sin away?”  This is your “remedy” and your safe place in the evil day we are in.  Christ has promised us of a place of safety in the day God punishes the nations for their sins.

Psalms 91:1-9:  “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.  A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.  Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.  Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation.”  

Message 68 - By Leroy Surface - Given Over

-----------------------------------------------

TOP of PAGE

NEXT MESSAGE

PREVIOUS MESSAGE

Leroy Surface MESSAGES

Keith Surface MESSAGES

JDG  MESSAGES