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 The Silent Preacher # 1        

Why do we need to be saved? What are we saved from?

The best kept Secret in the Church

The title of this tract contains two very important questions, However I believe that most people who have gone to Church all of their lives do not know the correct answer to either of these questions. Read on and find out if you know the correct answers.

Let us start where mankind started in the Garden of Eden. Adam was created by God after God's own Image, and in His own Likeness, a living reflection of the Divine Nature; God brought forth His own nature in Adam in a finite way.

After God created Adam, the Lord said, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

This is how Adam started out, but he then broke the only commandment that God had given him, he took of the forbidden fruit that Eve gave him. Eve was deceived Adam was not, he knew it was wrong! This very interestingly was the only commandment that God had given to them up to that time, and they broke it! “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Genesis 3:16-17 Notice the reason God gave to them for not eating of the forbidden tree, the tree was forbidden because it would cause them to die to the presence of God's Divine Spirit, it was not a physical death, but a spiritual death, a death from the Divine essence of God's Spirit, and this is exactly what happened to them! In that spiritual death Adam and Eve lost all of the Divine presence and fruit of God's Spirit. From this point on, they were incapable of living in the capacity, nor for the purpose that God intended. God set about to remedy this problem, you see God had enough devils, He wanted more Angels, He created Adam to bring forth a new people with Heavenly, Not Demonic attributes!

Yes, this was Adam's fall, he fell from being a Divine creature, God could no longer say about His creation “behold, it was very good.” Something happened, man had died to the Divine presence of God, he was no longer “like God, nor in God's own likeness, a living, finite reflection of the Divine Nature. This was his fall, and ours as well since we were in Adam as a seed when he fell.

Knowing all of this we can now readily understand what Jesus meant in John 3:3-7

“Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you,

`You must be born again.”

Jesus said, “We must be born again,” He said this because we had lost the Divine presence and likeness of God in our lives! When Adam partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he went into self will and out of God's will. Self-will is in reality selfishness, God is love. His will is always the will of loving others. This is His very makeup because GOD IS LOVE!

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1John 4:8

Again in John 15:5 Jesus told us a very important secret, He said at the end of that verse

“Apart from Me you can do nothing”

Now do you know why you and I can do nothing apart from Him, it is because only God is love, apart from love we can only fulfill the lust of the flesh, and the selfishness of our fallen nature and thus live in the pride of life.

The necessity of our new birth is found in this, our having died to the Divine presence of God in Adam. We now know what is wrong with the unregenerate man, so it is not difficult to figure out what we need to have fixed in our lives in order to be redeemed. Nothing but the new birth of God's Divine Spirit coming to life in us again as it was in Adam before the fall, can fix our problem.

Now how can this come about? By listening to Jesus in John 3:3-7, but you may say I have believed on Jesus as my Lord and Savior, this is well and good, but did you take the advice He gave in Luke 9:23

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

You see our Savior knows exactly what is wrong with us, and how to fix it! Why did He command us to deny ourselves? It is because every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, no matter what he is doing, until a humility that comes only from heaven becomes his redeemer. Because every unregenerate son of Adam has life and death in his own choice, not by any natural power of taking that which he wills, but by a full freedom, either of leaving and trusting himself to the redeeming operation of God which is eternal life, or of acting according to his own will and power in flesh and blood, which is eternal death.

The Apostle Paul said . . .

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Tim 6:12.

The only one who fights this “good fight” is the one whose strife is with his own self-idolatrous nature, which we have received from Adam. We fight the good fight of faith so that our old nature may be brought to death by the supernatural humility of Christ. Did not Jesus say

"Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart;” Mat. 11:29.

Here Jesus said “Learn of Me, for I am meek, and lowly of heart." What light we have here, for those that love the light! Self is the whole evil of fallen nature; self-denial is our capacity of being saved; humility (Jesus) is our savior. This is truly our fight, that our very life, our (old nature), must be denied, for only then can we learn of Him, and His humility. You must give up all that you are, and all that you have from fallen Adam, for all that you are, and have, from him is that life of flesh and blood which cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

For without a real birth of this Divine love in the essence of your soul, you may know all about the Bible and the Lord, be as learned and polite as you can, but still, your heart is only the fallen heart of Adam, and your knowledge of the kingdom of God will be of the same nature of that which the Pharisees had. For everything is self-love self-seeking, and self-esteem, but that which love does. If love is not the breath of your life, the Spirit that forms and governs everything that proceeds from you, you are truly broken off from the works of God; you are without God, and your name, and nature, and works, can have no other name, or nature, but that which is called pride, wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation, under the power of Satan in his kingdom of darkness, regardless of how much you go to Church, and pretend to be Holy.

The soul is only as cleansed from its corruption, purified and delivered from the power of sin, as it has renounced all of its own will, and its own desire, to have nothing, receive nothing, and be nothing, but what the will of God chooses it to be, or have. For without this new birth, which is the same thing as saying, without being Divinely inspired continually, there is no difference between the Christian and the infidel. Whether the uninspired, unregenerate son of Adam is in the Church, or out of the Church, he is still that child of this world, another “fallen Adam,” a mere natural man, to whom the things of the Spirit of God are only foolishness. You must understand and learn this; and when you do you will posses all of the theology that you need to have, and you will have all the benefit of a very profound education. Old Adam with all his ignorance is cast out; and when Christ's humility is received, then you have the very mind of Christ, and the very thing that can bring you forth as a son of God. We must not ever allow self to rise up again, or love worldly things.

Every sin that can be named is centered in self, and we can sin no higher, than we can live to self. For self is the fullness of atheism and idolatry, it is nothing else but the creature broken off from God and Christ; it is the power of Satan living and working in us, and the sad continuance of that first turning from God, which was the whole fall, or spiritual death of our first father, Adam. Remember, nothing can enter into heaven, but this life which is born of, and comes from heaven.

The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam, are many. But the one great enemy is called anti-Christ, which in reality is self-exaltation. This is the Devil's birth, and his power, when his throne is set up in our hearts and we go into self-exaltation; but when self-exaltation ceases, the last enemy will be destroyed, and all that came from the pride and death of Adam will be swallowed up in victory.

For this reason it can also be seen, that there is and can be but one true religion for the fallen soul, and that is, dying to self, to nature and creature; and turning with all the will, and desire of the soul to God. And all of this is done by faith! Sacrifices, offerings, prayers, praises, and ceremonies, without this are only sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals. No, zeal, consisten­cy, warmth, or fervor, in the performance of these religious practices, is a real proof of God in the soul; because nature and self-love can do all of this, without God.

Observe modern religion, where is the proof of 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Most people who profess to being a Christian   Do not possess what they profess!

In most cases it is not their fault, they have been lead into the “Church” by others that do not know or understand the truth of the Christian experience. About now someone might say, this man believes that we can earn our salvation, but, this is silly, what work could a mere fallen mortal do to make him or herself Divine, Holy, or pleasing to God, NOTHING! Salvation is a gift of God not of works. We can no more change our nature from being all selfishness to all love, any more than we can rise and fly by flapping our arms.

God and God alone can put Divine life into us. Today we have fast food, and we think we can have fast conversions. Just a little over a hundred years ago when someone came to the Lord they travailed at the altar, sometimes for hours, this was because they knew that Christians are different from worldly pagan people. This was because of the holy lives and self-sacrificial lives they led. Impenitent sinners knew that they had to forsake this world and the kingdom of self, they knew that Christians were self-sacrificing, and so they would count the cost and spend time on their knees to make sure they had this new life, that in fact they had become “new creatures in Christ” they wouldn't get off of their knees until they had truly believed and forsaken their own self-life. When they rose up from their knees the old things had passed away, and all things had truly become new.

We start out most of the time in a denomination not of our own choosing. Whoever leads us to the Lord, or whatever denomination our parents were in, we become, and that without much thought. The meaning of the word denominational is  “Under the control of a religious denomination.” A denomination is any church organization that holds itself separate from the rest of the Church. This division may be on account of a doctrine, a difference of opinion, or any of many different reasons. The actual meaning of the phrase Denominational principles is A denominational system.  Acceptance or support of such principles or system. Division into denominations. The meaning of the word “Divisions” is: Being divided. A difference of opinion; disagreement. A separation into groups Or anything that divides; partitions; a boundary, anything separated or distinguished from the whole. (Webster’s College Dictionary)

What does God’s Word have to say on this subject? 1 Corinthians 1:10-14

"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. "

Please take note of the fact, that this is the first letter to the Corinthian Church. In this letter, in the first chapter, the Apostle Paul addresses the question of divisions (denominations). To God and the Apostle Paul this is a very serious problem! In the fifth chapter of this book 1Corinthians 5:1 the Apostle Paul addresses a different problem

“It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.”

One would think that a problem such as this would be on the top of the list, but to the Lord and the Apostle Paul this problem, however bad, was not as important as the problem of divisions (denominations), for you see the Apostle started off in the first chapter verse ten with the problem of divisions (denominations).

The Apostle Paul orders “That there be no divisions among you.” A denomination is above all things a division of the Church of the living God! Did the Lord think that division was “OK”, No! Divisions (denominations) are a separation of believers, Let the Lord Jesus tell us how the people in the world will recognize His disciples, John 13:35

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

If honesty prevails we who have ever had anything to do with a denomination will have to admit that love doesn't cross denominational boundaries very well, not the kind of love God expects from us, “oneness” doesn't cross well either! One distinguishing trait of denominations is an attitude of “our doctrines are correct, the other denominations are a little off” etc.

Remember the birthing place of denominations is division, and divisions are caused by men who do not allow the Spirit of the living God to lead them. In other words self-willed people getting their own way in a matter, and not seeking and submitting to the will of God! Christian brothers and sisters, not able to agree on some point of doctrine or something of even less importance. But instead of seeking the Lord and finding His will in the matter, and becoming of one mind, they let the division become so great that they can no longer even fellowship in the same building! All of this has been said to point out how all of this error has come about.

READ your Bible, start with 1John 2:27

“And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

This is another reason why you need God's Holy Spirit, it is God's Spirit that teaches us about all things.

Let this be my excuse to the learned world, for having nothing to do with any schools of wisdom, but the ones where the one and only lesson is Divine love; and the one and only teacher, is the Spirit of God!

I have taken several quotes from our dear Bro. William Law (1700's,) and here are a few more . . .

The heart is then only broken and contrite, when all its strongholds are broken down, all false coverings taken off, and it sees, with inwardly opened eyes, everything to be bad, false, and rotten, that can, or does proceed from itself.

Don't die without the Divine life in you, because this is a truth, we are in no hell, but what our own natural strength has awakened; we are bound in no chains, but those of own unbending, hardened spirits; we made ourselves such, by our renouncing with all our strength, all meekness, and subjection to God.

An important piece of advice

This advice comes from the Son of God, our one and only Savior, He said . . .

  . . . . . . . . . . . . "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them,  "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."  Luke 13:23-24

 

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The Silent Preacher # 2

The Overcoming Life

Many people profess to being a Christian, they read the Bible and see how victorious the believers lived back in Bible times. They read about the martyrs listed in Fox's book of martyrs, and know inwardly that they would not really be able to give up their lives in that way, why is there such a difference today as in times past?

Every book that this sort of professed believer reads, seems to bring the conviction upon them that they aren't like the people that were described in the holy book they were reading. If it's a book about prayer, they know that their prayer life falls very, very short of what is described in the book. If it's a book about witnessing, they realize that they don't have that sort of “luck” when around unbelievers, they don't even know what to say.

Now when I talk about Spiritual books I am not talking about the 'run of the mill' type of books turned out today, I am talking about books written at least before the nineteen hundreds, by Sanctified men.

To understand why we need to be redeemed read the tract called Why do we need to be saved? What are we saved from? This tract goes over the reasons and nature of our salvation. The tract you are now reading shows us how to acquire victory in our walk with Jesus.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus started their ministries with these words, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The word repent is greatly misunderstood today, in fact, it is rarely used anymore. We are told this word means to 'turn from your sin,' this is a good start but let us understand what Jesus meant when He said repent, to turn away from our sin is to stop sinning. Today this must sound ridiculous to most professing believers, because for years a false Gospel has been preached in main-stream Christianity, but stop we must. We need to see our lives in the same way God sees our lives, because all that which comes from self, and natural reason, however wonderful it appears on the outside, can have no better a nature within, than self-love, self-seeking, self-esteem, and fleshly wisdom, which are those very works of the devil in us, of which Christ came into the world to destroy. (Mat 1:21)

We must understand this, all sin, death, damnation, and hell is nothing else but this kingdom of self, or the various operations of self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking, which separate our soul from God, and end in eternal death and hell.

We need to be sanctified, but today most people haven't any idea of what it means to be sanctified. Today people believe they are sanctified the very moment they make some half-hearted commitment to God. They believe this because they were told that at the moment they “accepted” Jesus Christ they were automatically sanctified. Let's look at what sanctification really is.

Sanctification is a term frequently used in the Bible. Its simple and primary meaning is to be in a state of consecration to God. To sanctify is to set apart for a holy use. A state of sanctification is a state of consecration. This is plainly both the Old and the New Testament use of the term.

How do we become sanctified, how do we continue to live a life wholly sanctified to God? Adam was wholly sanctified to God when he was first created, but he went into self and out of sanctification when he disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. Another name that tree could be called is “The tree of self will!”

The secret

We truly need to see the wickedness of our own hearts, not until we understand how evil and wicked we really are will we turn in disgust from our selfishness and self-will. This is repentance, when we see and hate the wickedness of our own hearts! This is why Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23 One of the first requirements for us to become disciples of Jesus Christ is for us to deny ourselves. To truly deny ourselves we must deny our own thinking, and our reason, for how can a man deny himself, without denying his reason, unless reason is not a part of himself? We must die to ourselves in everything, or we have not denied anything.

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." The Devil cannot stop us from entering the Kingdom of God and nether can anyone else, so what causes the tribulation? It is only, and always ourselves, and nothing else.

We want Heaven and the Kingdom of God and to be called a Christian, the tribulation comes in when by necessity we must deny ourselves. You will find great resistance when you try to deny yourself something you really like, when this happens you will see clearly that you have a fallen selfish nature that must be denied at all times.

God wants to reverse something in our lives and the Apostle Paul will show us what it is, Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Understand this clearly, you will be a slave, either to your fallen nature (old man) or to God. The only thing that we can have a choice in, is who we will be enslaved to, who our master will be! To be enslaved to our old man (old nature) is really to be enslaved to the world. If you would like to know the evil nature and effects of a worldly spirit, it is this; it will always unite you to a worldly, earthly nature, which will cause you to strongly desire the things of this world, that will not, and cannot, satisfy you. On the other hand being enslaved to God will unite us with the Holy Spirit of God and espouse, and unite us to Christ, God, and heaven. This results in us being content regardless of what is going on around us, regardless of what we have, or do not have!

Paul also brings out another behavior that we should imitate, it is found in 1 Corinthians 9:27. But I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. Paul watched his life, he knew that he was enslaved to God for he said “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  Peter also was aware of this fact for he said, “Act as free men, and do not use your

freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.” 1 Peter 2:16.

The Victory

The first step in receiving the victorious Christian life is repentance, without truly repenting of being the boss of your own life you will be like the sow, after washing, always returning and wallowing in the mire. Most people when the thought of repenting comes up, think about some great and damning sin that they are under bondage to practice. They tell the Lord that they won't do that anymore, and for the most part they are sincere, tears flowing, heart broken before God's throne, but in a few weeks or days they are having problems with that same sin again!

What is wrong here? It is really very simple, they were sincere but did not look in faith to the God of all power, the God of all grace, and went in their own strength and their own power to conquer the enemy of their soul. You must understand the biggest enemy of our soul is our selfish self, yes just look into the mirror and you will see the real, and powerful enemy of your soul, YOU!

We always fail in doing right because we try to do right with our flesh, and our flesh will always fail. It's like wondering why our chickens keep disappearing, when we have put a fox in charge of the hen house.

Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

The Apostle Paul is telling us here the same thing that Jesus said in John 3:3-7 You see, in order to be born again, we must give up our first life, we must deny it, we must die to it, or we can't be truly born again.

In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” We are saved by faith, we must believe the Gospel and all of the promises we find in God's Holy Word! Here is one my favorites. Ezekiel 36:24-30

24) "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.

Here the Lord is telling us that He will take us out of the world (nations) and bring us into the Kingdom of God and it will be our land

25) "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all, God will remove all of the idols in our life! He promises to do this because He and He alone is our Savior. If God does not deliver us from our sin no one else can.

26) "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Then God promises to remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart, this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love removes this rebellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable (heart)

27)"And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive! God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. In verse 27 "And cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do [them]."

Yes, God will cause us to walk Holy!

28) "And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

God is telling us that we will abide in Him in the Kingdom of God, and we will be called His people.

29)"Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you.

30) "And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, that you may not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.”

Here God is telling us that He will bless us and not allow any curses to fall upon us. God has committed Himself, by His Holy promises, to cause us to obey Him! What more need we ask of Him. This is the faith part, will you believe God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you place your faith in Him, now, today, this very moment?  Please take note of the fact that God is the one who does all of these things!

Many people after reading this will say to themselves “This is good, yes, this is important, someday I will do this. If this is your response, listen very carefully and you might be able to hear God say .  .  .  .

Thou Fool

2 Corinthians 6:2 "At the acceptable time I listened to you, behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation."

Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

Philippians 2:12. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; Don't put off this decision to resign yourself entirely into the hands of God, this might be the last warning from the Holy Spirit to you!

An important piece of advice

This advice comes from the Son of God, our one and only Savior, He said . . .

Luke 13:23-24 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them,  "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

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The Silent Preacher # 3

Works / Faith, The Debate

If you listen to the preachers, or watch “Christian” movies that are considered Evangelical, most of them will instruct you to be careful not to rely on your “good works” to obtain your salvation. This is of course correct and good. But unfortunately they do not go on and tell you that after God sanctifies you He will expect you to be rich in good works.

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Jesus said this, it is a command of God; it is one of the reasons that God saves us from our unregenerate state. He wants us to be a light in this very dark world. In order that others can see by our lives that they are not living right, and need something that they do not have – Salvation!

All Christians in the Bible are always referred to as Saints. Yes, you read this correctly I said, “Saints” not sinners. We were all sinners before we were converted, this is what conversion is, going from a state of rebellion to God to a state of obedience to God!

This might sound so strange to you that maybe I ought to include a few Scripture references for this fantastic claim.

Acts 9:13. But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem.

Acts 9:32. Now it came about that as Peter was traveling through all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

Acts 9:41. And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

Acts 26:10. "And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

Romans 1:7. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:25. but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints.

There are so many other references that it would take up the rest of this little tract to record them.

No where in the Bible does anyone ever refer to born again, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled believers as sinners!

It has become very popular for preachers and professed believers to refer to one another as sinners. I guess it sounds humble, or perhaps it is in reality a more correct title for most of the people today that profess to being a Christian. Be that as it may, no where in the Bible do we find this being said. Sinners are always impenitent people, that are considered rebellious to God's causes, never people that are in a right way with God!

What is all the fuss about?

We have had an argument going on for many years. The center of this argument is the "works / faith question". It has been believed that there is a difference between a Christian that has works and one who has faith, this is silly. Gospel works are always and only the results of Gospel faith. And you cannot separate one from the other.

The real basis for the contention centers around two fellows:

John Calvin (1509-1564) and James Arminius (1560-1609)

It is most interesting to point out that James Arminius started out as a Calvinist. He believed in what Calvin had taught, but, he had not really looked deeply into Calvin's teachings. His departure from the Calvinistic view of predestination, was brought about by the government of the United Netherlands! He was asked to examine the Calvinistic view of predestination, because the United Netherlands wanted to make it the official stand for all of the Churches in the United Netherlands. James concurred with John Calvin's doctrines, but as he had not really looked into Johns doctrines very deeply, he started to study them. He did not go to Augustine's teachings as Calvin had done, but instead he went directly to God's Word. To James' surprise he found that the Scriptures did not defend many points of Calvin's writings, and instead he discovered several truths about predestination, a truth that would bring about much persecution for him.

Arminius was the ablest exponent of what various other people had already been teaching: that God's predestination of the destiny of individuals is based on God's foreknowledge of the way in which they freely (in the context of prevenient grace) accept or reject Christ by receiving or rejecting His teachings. 

Arminius's teachings were promoted especially by John Wesley, the Methodists, and also Charles Finney and, in our time, by the denominations which constitute the Christian Holiness Association.

Unfortunately even James missed the deeper truth about all of this. I will try to put it in the simplest way I know how.

The preacher says of himself and all men, we are poor, blind, imperfect creatures; all our natural faculties are perverted, corrupted, and out of their right state; and therefore nothing that is perfect can come from us, or be done by us. Truth enough! And the very same truth, as when the apostle says, "The natural man knows not the things that are of God, he cannot know them, for they are foolishness to him." This is the man that we all are by nature. But what Scripture ever spoke of, or required any perfect works from this old man, anymore than they would require an elephant to fly? The Scriptures require us to become a NEW creature in Christ!

What an educated pastor must he be, who considers this old natural man as the Christian, and therefore rejects Christian perfection, because this old man cannot attain it? What greater blindness, than to appeal to our fallen state, as a proof of a weakness and corruption which we must have, when we have been redeemed from it? Is this any wiser than saying, that sin and corruption must be there where Christ is, because it is there where He is not?

What this new birth is in us, and what it accomplishes in us, is as expressly told us by his beloved apostle John, saying,

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” John 3:9. This is as true and unalterable, as to say, that which is born of the devil can do nothing else but sin.

Look at all of the good works you can think of, they have no goodness for you, except when the Spirit of God is the one who did them in and through you. For all the outward works of religion may be done by the natural man, he can observe all Church-duties, stick close to doctrines, and put on the semblance of every outward virtue; but, this is as high as he can go, he can only pretend!

Do not ask if we are saved by faith, or by works. For we are saved by neither of them. Faith and works are in the beginning only preparatory to the new birth; afterwards they become the true genuine fruits and effects of it. But the new birth, a life from heaven, the new creature, called Christ in us; is the one and only salvation of the fallen soul. Nothing can enter into heaven, but this life which is born of, and comes from heaven.

Try to grasp this great truth, that it is God who works all in humility and weakness; we are to wait and to trust in His working. Learn this well, that God can only work in us as He dwells in us.

“The Father abiding in Me does the works.”

Christ had revealed the secret of His, and all Divine service, man yielding himself up for God to dwell and work in him. Because it is God who works through us, and not we who do the holy works! We simply become an empty vessel for God to dwell in.

How this is to be, is taught us in these words,

“He that believes on Me.”

That does not only mean, for salvation, as a Savior from sin. But much more. Christ had just said,

‘Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me: the Father abiding in Me does the works.’

We need to believe in Christ as the one in and through whom the Father unceasingly works. The works His disciples are to do cannot possibly be done in any other way than Christ own works were done.

Not of works which we have done, as the source from which our salvation comes. Our works to attain salvation will never save us or anyone else! Good works are the fruit and outcome of our salvation, it is part of God’s work in us. This is the one thing for which we have been created anew.

As the eye, because it was created for the light, is most perfectly adapted for its work; and the vine, because it was created to bear grapes, also does its work so naturally; so it is with us who have been created in Christ Jesus for good works. God has prepared us for good works, and the good works are already prepared for us.

Eph. 2:10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

And so just as strong and clear as the teaching is, Salvation not of works is its blessed counterpart,

Salvation for good works

because God created us for them, and even prepared them for us. Let each of us seek to understand the deep Spiritual truth of the message,

“Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand , that we should walk in them.”

God is even now waiting for us to do this.

One great failure of believers in their working for God is that when they think that God has given them something to do, they undertake to do this work in their own strength. They have not learned the lesson, that because God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, and has already prepared the good works in which we are to walk, He will most certainly, Himself work them all in us.

"It is God which works in you."

The power to exercise and show love is a work. There is no such thing as power in the abstract; it only acts as it is exercised. a grace must be acted before we can rejoice in its possession.

This work of the Lord is no easy one. It cost Christ His life to conquer sin and Satan and gain the risen life. It will cost us our life, too, the sacrifice of our life of nature.

"And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that you may abound unto every good work."

What Scripture calls the "works of the law", "our own works"; and the "works of righteousness which we have done," or "dead works;" any work by which we seek to merit or to be made fit for God’s favor, all of these are indeed the very opposite of grace. But they are the very opposite of the good works which spring from grace, and for which alone grace is bestowed. Abounding grace has abounding work for its aim. And abounding work needs abounding grace as its source and strength.

Just as any man may be very diligent in an earthly pursuit, or a heathen in his religious service of an idol; so men may be very diligent in doing religious works in their own strength, with but little thought of that grace which alone can do true Spiritually effective work. For all work that is to be really acceptable to God, and truly fruitful, not only for some visible result here on earth, but for eternity; the grace of God is always indispensable. “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

Working in our own strength, with very little prayer and not waiting on God for His spirit, is the cause of failure.

“That you may abound to every good work.”

Pray over this now until you know that this is what God has prepared for you. Take into your heart, as a living seed, this precious truth:

“God is able to make all grace abound in you.”

Trust His power and His faithfulness. The Apostle James said. James 2:14-17

What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

After we have been born anew in Christ we must make certain that we are not deceived, have the

“Old things truly passed away?”

2 Cor. 5:17. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  This is the Christian life.

Works and faith are in an indissoluble bond that cannot be broken, if you have faith, you will have works connected with that faith. If in fact you say that you have faith but no works follow, you have what the Apostle James would call a dead faith!

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

I wrote this to point people to the truth; you will want to have this truth in your life when you face a God who spared nothing, and gave everything in order for you to have salvation.

Luke 13:7. "And he said to the vineyard-keeper, `Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?”

 

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The Silent Preacher # 4

The True Prayer

No book exists that can truly teach you how to pray, prayer must be an inward birth, that arises from the desires of your own heart. When anyone, feeling his or her own corruption, and the power of sin in their soul, looks up to God with true earnestness of faith and desires to be delivered from it, whether they pray aloud or pray with their mind, no prayer is better than this, because the Spirit Himself will intercede for them. The soul that truly takes each and every occasion of life regardless of whether it is something that appears to be good or something that seems to be bad, if they will allow themselves to simply fall down into the hands of God, and exercise faith, trust, and resignation to Him, they will always be safe in each and every state, regardless. God always accepts a broken, and contrite heart, God will answer this prayer.

Here lies something that is hidden from most souls; sometimes we may feel like we are on the mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, this is a wonderful experience, but, it won't do our souls as much good as when tribulation and distress attack us. Because this always gives us the means and power of exercising a higher faith, a purer love, and a more perfect resignation to God, which is always the best state of the soul. Therefore the soul that sees only God, the soul that intends to be nothing but His alone, will have nothing to stop its progress; light and darkness equally assist him; in the light he looks up to God; in the darkness he lays hold on God; and so they both do him the same good. Here is the true darkness reappearing in the soul, to have an expectation of something coming from ourselves, which we should expect only from God. When we look for our own virtue, our own piety, our own goodness, we will live on in our own poverty and weakness; one day pleased and comforted with the seeming strength and firmness of our own pious state of mind, and fancying ourselves as being very Spiritual; but then, tomorrow, fallen into our own mire, we are dejected, but not humbled; we grieve, but it is only the grief of pride, because we see that we are not as Spiritual, as we had vainly imagined.

The only way we can go safely through all the difficulties, trials, temptations, dryness, and opposition, of our own evil moods, is to expect nothing from ourselves, and to trust nothing in ourselves, but in everything expect, and depend upon God for relief. Hold fast to this, and then regardless of what happens, whether it is darkness, temptation, or the rebellion of nature, you will be led through it all, and united with God. Do not think of looking for any other power to cause you to become a new creature in Christ, anymore than you would think of looking for another power to resurrect your body on the last day. Now perhaps you can see that all of the trials of life, in each and every circumstance, are really our greatest blessings; they do for us the very things that we need to have done, they force us to know our own nothingness, and the "All of God." They bring the reality of Romans 8:28 to life in our hearts,

 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

People who have long dwelt in the joy of devotion, in the center of Divine love, prac­ticing every virtue with a kind of greediness, become frightened when cold­ness seizes them, when their hymns do not seem to lift them to Heaven and their hearts, instead of enjoying the love of every virtue, seem ready to be overcome by every vice.
But here, hold fast to that which has been said and all will turn out for good. For this coldness is the Divine offspring, and gen­uine birth of the former fervor; and comes from it as a good fruit, and it will bring the soul nearer to God than the fervor did.

Consider yourself as wrong, as having gone astray, and having lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble, is allowed to live in you, that you do not make a part of the prayer of your heart to God. For nothing so wonderfully shows us the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is the state of our heart: If you are carried away with any trouble or delight that does not have an immediate relation to your progress in the Divine life, you may be assured your heart is not in its right state of prayer to God, your heart is in the world.

A Test

If it is the earnest desire and longing of your heart, to be merciful as He is merciful; to be full of His unwearied patience, to dwell in His unalterable meekness; if you long to be like Him in impartial love; if you desire to communicate every good, to each and every creature that you are able; if you love and practice everything that is good, righteous, and lovely, for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely; and never resist evil, except with goodness; then you know with the utmost certainty, that the Spirit of God lives, dwells, and governs you.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments,” said the Lord, “hangs all the law and the prophets.” And without these two com­mandments being true in our lives, no good light will ever arise, or enter our souls. What a great truth we have here! Seek to understand this, with all of your heart.

Do you know what it is to love God with all your heart and soul? You need to only look back, to that which has been said of the nature and Spirit of God. For when with all your heart and soul, you love and long to have His nature and Spirit, and to be wholly united to God, and also to be governed by Him; then you truly love God with all your heart and soul. Always live your life no matter where you are, in your home, at work, anywhere and everywhere with God's Divine Heavenly love always leading and ruling. The ways of love are so gentle and heavenly, you will not learn them all at once.

Place yourself at Christ’s disposal for service to your fellow Christians. Count yourself their servant. Study their interest. Set yourself actively to promote the welfare of the Christians and people around you. Only selfishness can make you hesitate, and sloth and ease may raise difficulties.

Remember it is always the lack of true sainthood and true holiness that causes such a deficiency and feebleness of our Christian service. Faith in Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, always gives us the power for all that God calls on us to do. Be certain that you understand this, it is because self, which expresses itself by self will, occupies our heart, this is why it is so easy, natural, and pleasing for us to care for ourselves. When Jesus Christ truly lives in us, it will then be just as easy, natural, and pleasing to live wholly for the body of Christ, and the people of this world who need God's salvation through Jesus Christ. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit” Remember, the Word of God is a seed, a fire, a hammer, a sword; it is bread, and light, it is many things. Always allow it to do its work in your life. The man of God who allows God’s Word to do its work of reproving, correcting, and instructing in his life, will be complete, and entirely furnished for every good work.

A Word About God's Love

Many people do not even start to understand what God's love is, and what it can actually do. To start with let's look at a few Scriptures that will explain quickly the difference between what unregenerate people call love, and what God means when He says to love one another. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails .”

1.  Love is patient. This is the first attribute about love that God gives us, whenever we are not patient with our spouse, children or anyone; we are then and there not in the process of loving them. We might say many times that we love them, but understand that at that moment of time we are NOT loving them. Love is a verb, it is an action, we are loving people, or we are not loving people, and this goes on all day long.

2.  Love is kind.  Does this really need to be said, yes, it many times has to be clarified. Oftentimes, especially with married people, they are not kind to one another, when this is happening, they are not in the process of loving each other. Make certain that at all times and places you are loving (kind) to everyone you are around.

3.  Does not seek its own. Love is NEVER selfish, but our conditional human kind of love is often selfish, and we don't even realize it. Again when this is happening, we are not operating in love! Love as God has demonstrated to us in the giving of Himself and His Son, is NEVER selfish!

4)  Does not take into account a wrong suffered. When someone does some­thing wrong, how many times do you bring it up and hold it over them? Do you keep bringing it up, especially when you are angry. This again is human conditional love, it is really not love at all, but a cheap substitute for God's love.

5)  Bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, Love never fails God has said, love bears all things, endures all things, love never fails, God's love is always this way, it never fails. This is the difference between God's love and unregenerate human conditional love which really is not love at all! Do you bear all that your spouse, or others do, all of the time? When you fail at this, all that has really happened, is that you are not truly loving that person.

Can you see the real essence of love, does it seem to you that you could not consistently live this way, always bearing all things, always enduring all things, always loving like God loves? When you understand what love is, you will realize what God meant when He said, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You will also have a better understanding of what He was saying in Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”

We must be one of those “Who does the will of Our Father who is in heaven.”

About now, you might be thinking, this looks impossible, your Bible will tell you that nothing is impossible with God! This impossible looking thing is the very situa­tion that brings us to see our need to pray, in order to receive help from above, Divine help. We cannot live the Christian life without Christ, this is why Jesus said you must be born again, until we experience the new birth of Christ in our souls, we truly cannot do anything that requires righteous­ness, we must abide in the Spirit of God.

Jesus told us a Divine truth in John 15:5 when he said . . . “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” And don't let any Devil tell you that you can't obey God, because you can, with God's help. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And also Jesus said . . "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Now, if Jesus could do nothing without the Father, how much more do we need to depend on Him. "He who has My command­ments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

I Don't Think That God Is Hearing My Prayers!

Have you ever wondered if God was really going to answer your prayer, or perhaps at times as you were praying you were think­ing that your prayer was not getting any higher than the ceiling of the room that you were in! Many people have felt this way, and the reason why is simply this, you were in the process of telling God what you knew He wanted to hear, for instance, Lord I love you, Lord I love your Word, Lord I want to be fruitful, etc. etc.

Now all that many people do is lie to God, yes, this is what you are doing whenever you are praying and asking for something that is not really in your heart! Many people tell God that they love His Word when they rarely ever read it, except in church when their Pastor tells them to turn to a certain passage. You might be surprised just how many professing Christians there are that have never read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation even once! God does not answer prayers that are in reality only lies. Many people spend years doing this and have never had even one prayer truly answered!

When you pray, speak only truth to God, if you don't delight in reading His Word tell Him, He can change that, you can't! If you are not living for Him as you should, ask your Savior  to change that, He can, and

He Will!

 

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The Silent Preacher # 5

Will Versus Desire

For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.     John 6:38

Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, He never sinned, and therefore He is our example, we are to copy His way of life, for that is the only way that we can have life, I mean true life. In the above Scripture Jesus told us how He lived His life, He said “I came down to earth not to do My own will, but the Will of Him who sent Me.“

This is a very important Scripture, in it we are told how to live an overcoming life, and how to have continual victory in our lives here on earth. We start out in life doing only our own will; the things that we want to do, this is the fountain of sin – doing our will instead of God's will, which is really thinking that we are smarter than God! Learn this about God, He can see around corners, by this I mean He can see what is going to happen tomorrow, and even ten thousand or twenty trillion years in the future. He is Eternal, He doesn't live in this finite life of time!

How foolish is it to have a God like our Heavenly Father, and not listen to Him, not be lead moment by moment by His very insightful will. This appears to me to be the mistake of all mistakes. Why do people make this tragic error over and over?

God has given us certain faculties one of which is intellect, intellect includes understanding, reason, and conscience. Another is sensibility it is the faculty of feeling. It comprises emotions, desires, affections, all of the things we call feelings.

Will is the power of choice, our ability to choose or refuse whatever we want to.

Our conscious state is made up of our intellect, sensibility, and will. Now we must understand that the law of God presents us plainly with the fact that we can do the things that God commands us to do, which is always everything that God's moral government demands. Its language is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." The true meaning of this law is that every moral being shall consecrate all of his or her powers, whatever they are at the present moment, to the service of God. Our consciousness informs us that by willing, we control the acts and states of our intellect and that we think, reason, judge, and affirm, by voluntarily controlling the attention of our mind. Consciousness also testifies that we feel by directing our attention to objects calculated to excite our feelings, and that we act by willing to act. Thus God rules us by the voluntary power of our minds surrendering to the will (law) of God. God wants to secure the entire consecration of our whole being to His great purpose which is non-conditional love.

Always remember that the will of God is expressed in His law. He is Himself in the same state of mind in which He requires all moral beings to be; that is, He loves us regardless of what we do, or don't do, He is always in a state of non-conditional love.

Holiness is a term that expresses the moral quality of His will. Love is the fulfilling of that will; and our conformity to His will in this law of universal love is holiness. When we obey God in this, it implies that we have confidence in the wisdom of God. If we did not believe that God was wise we could not innocently pray that His will be done.

It also implies confidence in His love. If God is not love, we have no right to pray that His will may be done. And if we do not believe Him to be universal and perfect love, we have no right to pray that His will should be done perfectly on earth as it is in heaven. It implies a confidence in the one who prays, that it is possible that the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven. For if he does not believe it is possible, he cannot sincerely pray that it be done. It implies a confidence in the one who prays, that it is possible that the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven. For if he does not believe it is possible, he cannot sincerely pray that it be done.

So away with all such excuses that tend to relieve your conscience of all responsibility of obeying God in this great commandment! Come at once and forever out of the selfish religion that puts your own will and comfort first, and gives Christ what you have left over and don't want.

Another aspect of this prayer is hypocrisy. In the mouth of a selfish being it can only be hypocrisy. It must be in all cases down­right hypocrisy for a selfish man to offer this petition to God. Because this petition is hypocrisy on the lips of anyone whose will is not in entire harmony with the will of God so far as God's will is known to them. If there is anything in which the will is not entirely conformed to the known will of God, in offering this prayer, the petitioner is being hypocritical, and is in the act of abusing, flattering, and mocking God.

We see what Christ intended by the command, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." Many persons feel shocked at the idea of anyone being even for a moment without sin in this life. And to expect to be perfect in this life, is with them completely unreasonable. From the manner in which they speak of the subject of perfection, it would seem that Christ's command "To be perfect as God is perfect" is a most extravagant requisition, and something which Christ did not expect we could, or would obey in this world.

If they are consistent they must suppose that in requiring us to offer this petition to God, He must have intended that we should understand Him as using a “figure of speech,” and not that we should seriously expect or even suppose it possible that the will of God should be done on earth by any human being as it is done in heaven. But the truth is that Christ simply intended to require men to be truly religious.

We have just seen that nothing short of being as perfectly conformed to the will of God as the Angels in Heaven are, can be called true religion. He meant therefore merely to say, be truly religious, be what God requires you to be. Do not rebel in anything against the will of God, but be upright, sincere, and perfect, which is all saying the same thing. It is therefore, true that every moral being that can sincerely offer this prayer is, and must be, in his measure, for the time being, so far as the state of his heart is concerned, as perfect as God is.

An Important Truth

Both the flesh and the Spirit have desires, one must be denied in order for the other to have its way!

Wherever, and in whatever, the working will chooses to dwell and delight in, that becomes food for your soul, its condition, its clothing, and its habitation. For all these are the true and certain effects and powers of the working will. Nothing does, or can go with a man into heaven; nothing follows into hell, but that in which your will loved and dwelt in, and with which it was fed, nourished, and clothed, in this life.

It is sad but very true that your nature must become a torment and burden to itself, before it will willingly give itself up to that death, through which alone it can pass into life. For salvation is in reality a victory over nature; so far as you resist and renounce your own vain, selfish, and earthly nature, so far you can overcome all your own natural (evil) habits of the old man, and as far as this is done, this is how far God can enter into you, live, and operate in your life.

"My little children, of whom I travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you." This forming of Christ in us, is the sum total of all, and, if this is missing, everything is missing. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels, though I have the gift of prophecy, though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, etc. and have not love" (that is, have not the Spirit of Christ) "It profits me nothing." For by love here, the apostle means neither more nor less, but strictly that same thing, which, in other places, is called the new creature, Christ formed in us, and our being led by the Spirit of Christ.

All preaching and hearing is vain, and all preachers and hearers stand chargeable with the vanity of their religious performances, who think of preaching, or hearing to be profitable, in any other way, or by any other power, than in and by the Holy Spirit of God dwelling and working in them. As creatures therefore, we are under an absolute necessity of being under the motion, guidance, and inspiration of some spirit, that is greater than our own. All that is put in our own power, is merely the choice of our leader; but led and moved we must be, and by that spirit, to which we give ourselves up, whether it be to the Spirit of God, or the spirit of our old fallen nature. Every spirit necessarily reaps that which it sows, it cannot possibly be otherwise, it is the unalterable procedure of nature.
All of our salvation necessarily depends upon us, because our will has its power of motion in itself. As a will, it wills only to receive that which it wills; everything else is absolutely shut out of it. For it is the unalterable nature of the will, that it cannot possibly receive anything into itself, but that which it wills; its willing is its only power of receiving; and there can be no possible entrance for God or heaven into the soul, until our will desires it; and thus in this way, all of man's salvation depends upon himself. God made us free moral agents.
And so the Lord of glory says to us "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." John 14:15 yes, this is, and can only be our decision, our will in action. And though when we are upon our knees, and pray for different spiritual things, and direct our prayers to the Lord God of heaven; yet only the things that are truly in our desire (heart) are in fact the things we really desire, and these things are in actuality the God of our heart, and, unfortunately we truly worship them in spirit, and in truth.
As we can see, willing and doing are connected by a natural necessity, and that a man naturally and necessarily acts as he wills, and can't act any way other than that in which he wills to act. We oftentimes are “taken in” by our own subtle ways of praying, when we pray prayers that are not from our heart (our will.) What greater good can be expected from our praying in the words of David, or singing his Psalms several times a day, if our heart has no more of the spirit of David in it, than the heart of the Pharisee had of the spirit of the humble publican?
The great multitude who profess to having religion have, I fear, fallen entirely short of conceiving rightly the nature of true religion, and a thorough investigation of the subject is long overdue, also, the Lord's prayer in its true spirit should be deeply pondered by the Church, and the question should be asked, “What is implied in the sincere offering of this prayer to God?” Unless these fundamental inquiries are started and pressed, until the Church comes to an intelligent understanding of them, false hopes will continue to be cherished, and thousands of professing Christians will continue to go down to hell.
If self is not denied, if you live on in your own will, to the pleasures of your own natural lust and appetites, and in conformity to the vain customs, and spirit of this world, you are truly dead yet while you live. Therefore stop all this self-activity, do not listen to the suggestions of your own reason, do not run on, in your own will, but be retired, silent, passive, and humbly attentive to this new risen light of God's Spirit within you.

It is because of all of this, the working of your own will, reason, and judgment, that you are not where you are supposed to be, and it is because all of these things are false counselors, the sworn servants, bribed slaves of your fallen nature; they are all born and bred in your kingdom of self; and therefore, if a new kingdom is to be set up in you, if the operation of God is to have its effect in you, all these natural powers of self must be silenced and suppressed, until they have learned obedience and subjection to the Spirit of God.

Jesus said, “Unless a man forsakes all that he has, he cannot be my disciple” The reason is simple, and the necessity absolute. It is because all that the natural man has, is in the possession of self-love, and therefore this possession is to be absolutely forsaken, and parted with. All that he has, is to be given to Divine love, or else this natural man cannot be changed into a disciple of Christ. For self-love in all that it has, is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and therefore it must have everything taken away from it; and then to the natural man all is lost, he has nothing left, all is laid down at the feet of Jesus. I know all of this seems to be “A hard saying” but it is the truth, listen to Jesus, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it. You must sell all that you have, you must lose your life,” in order to gain Eternal life. The riches of self are your own riches; but all this self is to be parted with before the pearl of great price can be yours. Think of a lower price, or be unwilling to give this price for it, plead with all of your excuses, and then you have become that very rich young man in the gospel, that went away sorrowful from our Lord, because HE HAD great riches!

Did he really have great riches?
Do you?

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The Silent Preacher # 6

Pride / Humility

1Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to {your} elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

All virtue is based on truth, we can have no humility until we discover our constant and continual need to be led by Jesus Christ. The entrance of humility into our lives is the discovery that we can truly do nothing good in this life, apart from abiding in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 15:5). The one who rightly feels and lives in this sense of his needy condition, lives in humility. Whenever you have the feeling “I can handle it” you have re-entered the life of pride!

Let's look at the proud-hearted person, if others knew all of the secrets of his or her internal life that he or she knows, nothing would ap­pear more dreadful than to have their heart fully discov­ered to the eyes of all that looked upon it. The life of the intensely proud person is filled with worry and concern, the main problem for them is to keep all the true workings of their heart a secret to others that they come in contact with, this they must do on a continual basis. Very few people in this world would not rather choose to die, than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their pretense, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasiness, hatred, envies, and the secret sins which they have done become known to the world.

Let's Take A Look At Humility

Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, the true state of our heart is enough to shame us when we become aware of it. There never was, nor ever will be, but only one true humility in this world, and that is the one humility of Jesus Christ, which no man, ever since the fall of Adam, could have any degree of but only that portion which he has received from Christ.

Pride and self have all of man, until man has his all from Christ. It is a fact that every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, regardless of what he is doing, until a humility that comes only from heaven becomes his redeemer.

He alone fights the good fight of faith, whose strife is with his own self-idolatrous nature, which he inherited from Adam. The real fight or strife is bringing to death all of the pride in our lives by the supernatural humility of Jesus Christ, the meek and humble lamb of God.

Is it possible for pride to dwell in a heart conscious of its own miserable behavior? Shall a creature in such a condition that he could not support himself if his shame ever became known to the world, could he possibly, be so vain and proud of himself? Do not ever forget that all of your shame and wrong doing is known to God, and to His holy angels that are constantly looking down upon your life of pride, from Heaven!.

The apostate self-idolatrous nature of the old man must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ. The reason why this must always be, is because all that you have or do, will either have the glory of God manifested in it, or the power of hell in full possession of it! This is always true, we are really slaves in this life, the only choice we have is to whom we will be enslaved. We will serve the living, Holy, and loving God or we will be serving our self-idolatrous nature along with Satan and his group of demons. You must understand this, that whenever pride raises it's unholy head in our lives, we are really enthroning Satan to rule in our lives!

What is it that above all other things strengthens and exalts the life of self, and makes it the master of all the powers of the heart and soul? It is the pride of thinking that we know more than others, this is what makes us want to strive to have great intellect, this is part of our “flights of imagi­nation,” along with the glory of learning, and the self-conceited strength of our natural reason: all of these things are the different parts of the strongholds of our fallen nature, which is the master-builder of pride's temple in our hearts, which, keep up the daily worship of the idol “Self.”

Why does all of this folly come about? It comes because the Church is no longer that Spiritual house of God, in which nothing is intended and sought after, but Spiritual power, Spiritual life, humility, meekness and patience. The Church has become a mere human building, made up of worldly power, worldly learning, and worldly prosperity in gospel matters. And therefore all the frailties, follies, and imperfections of human nature, must have as much life in the Church, as in any other human society. And the best members of such a Church, must be forced to plead for it's members to have as many imperfections as is to be expected in any worldly endeavor, where the fallen nature of man is still alive, and in charge. For nothing but a full birth, and continual breathing and inspiration of God's Holy Spirit in the newborn creature, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.

Away then with all the wearisome books about Church unity, Church power, and Church salvation. Do not ask for theolo­gians to give you a definition of the Church. The apostle has already given it to you, and not only a definition, but he has described the unchangeable nature of it as well, in these words. “But now Being made free from sin, and become servants of God, you have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." And again in 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Therefore to be in the true Church, and to be in Christ a new creature which does not sin, is in the strictest sense, the very same thing.

Proud self is all the evil that man has, and God is all the goodness that he can ever have; self is always with him in this life, and God also is always with him. Death to self is our only entrance into the life of the Church, and NO ONE AND NOTHING BUT GOD CAN GIVE DEATH TO SELF.

Look at all the good works you can think of, they have no goodness for you or for anyone else, except when the Spirit of God is the one who did them in you. For all the outward works of religion may be done by the natural man, he can observe all Church-duties, be strict about doctrines, and put on the semblance of every outward virtue; but, this is as high as he can go, he can only pretend!

When you profess that you are a Christian and say that you are being led of God's Spirit, but still have pride and self-exaltation ruling in your life, you are again only pretending to be a Christian.

Pride and self-exaltation are the very marks of an unregenerate person! Pride is the opposite of humility, Jesus told us in Matthew 11:29. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” Until you learn of Him, you can only pretend to be a Christian, for humility is the very core, the heart of Christianity, just as pride and self-exaltation is the very trademark of the unregenerate life!

The Scripture teaches us that pride is always a bad thing, for instance, Satan fell because of his pride! Here are a few more Scriptures that I believe will make the point clear.

Proverbs 16:18. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. A few more: Proverbs 8:13 Proverbs 11:2. Proverbs 29:23. Philippians 2:3.

Pride is the worship of self, any amount of pride in your life fixes it so that you can't fulfill the greatest of all the commandments,

Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

When pride in any amount is in your life you will only, truly be worshiping yourself When you go to Church and to fellowship, you will only be pretending, and making believe, for pride always tells you that you are the one that should be worshiped!

Colossians 3: 12. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

The Nature Of The Proud Person

Pride of heart may be defined as a disposition of mind to exalt ourselves. It is a spirit of self-exaltation, a disposition to get out of our own place, and get above those who rightly, even in our own estimation, ought to hold a place above ourselves.

How Does Pride Deceive Us?

Pride renders us blind to our own faults. The person who has a proud heart will not see their own faults. They don't even have a desire to see them.

The proud person imagines that they are vastly better than they really are, and tries to make everybody else believe it, if they can. Therefore they will overlook their own faults completely, or as far as they can.

Pride leads men to excuse, or at least apologize for their own faults. If a proud man cannot cover his own faults, this is always his next recourse. When he cannot deny that many things in his conduct are wrong, he will yet maintain that under his very peculiar circumstances, they are nearly or quite right.

He will be the last person to be candid about his or her faults, and the proud person never enjoys this honest looking into their own heart.

Pride leads men to imagine that they have virtues which they do not have. This is often manifest in their egotistical manner of speaking. In their conversation they believe that they have virtues which nobody else realizes.

They almost always overrate their own seeming virtues. The truth is, all proud persons actually have no real virtue at all!

The proud person is always quick to make comparisons between themselves and others. They always believe that they are better than their friends and associates. Although they may still only be an impenitent sinner, they see themselves as better than most professed Christians. Pride of heart always deceives.

Pride of heart induces an entirely dishonest application of truth. If the proud man sits under preaching and if what he hears applies to himself ever so fitly, he is sure not to notice at all its application to himself, but will be very prompt and active in applying it to his neighbor.

Pride makes people imagine that they believe the Bible when they do not. If anybody tells them that they do not really believe the Bible, they think that they are being slandered. Their will does not bend to the supremacy of Bible truth. And so, any thought that they believed the Bible to be true was a mere delusion.

Yet who does not know that thousands read the Bible and profess to believe it, but are not half so much interested or affected by it, as they are in reading some modern novel!

Certain Truth

God will do everything in His power to remove the mask, so that our real character is displayed to the whole universe. He is now attempting by His grace to undeceive men; but if this fails, He will one day very soon sweep away all of the lies that are concealed in our lives, once and for all! Then "He that is filthy shall be filthy still," Yes, for the rest of eternity!

All delusions are based on dishonesty of heart and mind. Where there is honesty, and humble trust in divine guidance, there is never any danger of being deluded.

This is the great foolishness of those who imagine that if they are only sincere, they shall be saved. What do they mean by sincerity? It is this, that you really believe what you profess to believe. But unfortunate­ly man can really believe a lie to be the truth.

The Bible tells us that because they "Do not love the truth, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." The fatal mistake made by those who think that all sincere men will be saved, is this: they overlook the fact that some men may be sincerely wicked, and, may bring themselves to believe a lie sincerely, and God may leave them to the natural influence of their own wicked heart.

I have often wondered when people pray, why they do not know that their prayers are not ascending any higher than the ceiling of the room that they are in! They really have no communion with God, because they are speaking lies to God, lies that originate in the pride of their own hearts!

When you pray you must tell the Lord what is really the need of your heart, and to do this you must be in an attitude of humility, for only when humility is reigning in our hearts and lives do we know the truth of our hearts.

Pride of heart is one of the most disgusting as well as the most dangerous of all forms of sin. A proud man is perpetually disposed to deceive himself in everything.

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The Silent Preacher # 7

A Test! Am I Truly A Christian?

To answer this question we must look to the Scriptures, and not to the teachings of man. The things written here are not the teachings of a denomination, but strictly the word and will of God.. Please read all of the Scripture References.

Read the warning from Jesus Christ, the one whom our Heavenly Father sent to save us. Matthew 7:15-23 Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.

To take this test you must be honest, you may cheat on this test, but you will only be cheating yourself. Jesus said "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!" Set truth before your mind now and realize that God's Holy Spirit is watching you. He can and does know what you are thinking, He can see into your heart, as surely as you can see this paper you are reading!

To check the Bible for the Biblical answer to these questions read on.

Question 1 Do you deny yourself at all times? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - Luke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Comment - This doctrine of "Denying ourselves and picking up our cross" is the very heart of Christianity, without this being true as the practice of our lives, we are but hypocrites! This very attitude was the central theme in the life of Jesus, and He has instructed us to follow Him in this example. If we don't practice self-denial, we aren't His disciples. It's useless to try to follow the One who was crucified without taking up our own cross daily.

Question 2 Do you always do what the Lord Jesus Christ tells you to do? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Read also Matthew 22:37-39 - Luke 6:27-30 - Matthew 19:17 Matthew 7:13-14

Comment - The Sermon on the Mount is God's will for our lives, Listen to Jesus in Luke 6:46-49 "And why do you call Me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" Not obeying the One who was sent to save us is not bright! And again Jesus said, "Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. "But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great." Listen to what John has to say about obeying the Lord, 1 John 2:4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; Pretty strong, but so very true!

Question 3 Are you walking with a pure conscience right this minute? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - Acts 23:1 And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." Acts 24:16 "In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. 1 Timothy 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.      1 Timothy 1:19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have reject­ed and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

Comment - All of true religion consists in having a pure conscience both before man and God. Having the "old man" or "old nature" put off. With what does the "old man" or "old nature" consist? It is this, and no more; the very spirit of selfishness, the great "me", "mine", "my" and " I ". It is self-esteem, self-seeking, and living wholly to self, and this is all that possibly can come from "our flesh" or "old nature", in other words, the real you without God! And mark me well, these things must be "put off", so that the new man (Christ Jesus) can be put on. One of the benefits of being born again, is a good, blameless, and clear conscience!

Question 4 Are you in bondage to sin? In other words, does any sin have control of you? Another way of asking this question is this, do you practice any form of sin? The Scriptural answer is No.

Scripture - Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Romans 6:12-15 Therefore Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 1 John 3: 8-10 The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righ­teousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. John 8:34-36 Jesus an­swered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. . . . . . "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

Comment - This question is very simple, but in light of what is preached in almost every Church; it has become a difficult question to understand. Remember Jesus came to save us from sin, if you are still in bondage to sin, you still need to be saved! Matthew 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." When the Bible speaks of Christians and a practice of sin, it is always in the "past-tense" Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Here are a few more Bible references to this question about sin being in the "past-tense", 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 Ephesians 2:1-10 Colossians 1:21-23 Colossians 3:5-11 Titus 3:3-5

Question 5 Do you have enmity, or un-forgiveness against anyone? The Scriptural answer is No.

Scripture - Mark 11:25. "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions."   

Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." "But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Comment - If we harbor un-forgiveness in our hearts, we are simply proving that selfishness is still ruling in our lives, and we do not have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. God has emphati­cally stated that He will not forgive us of our sins if we refuse to forgive others. Learning this and still refusing to forgive others only proves that we have really not repented at all!

Question 6 Do you profess to know God, but live your life denying Him? The Scriptural answer is No.

Scripture - Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed. Matthew 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. Luke 6:46 "And why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 1 John 3 “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

Comment - Our lives show what is truly living and reigning on the throne of our hearts, if self is alive we might profess to be Christians, but our actions will constantly contradict us. We sometimes fool our­selves, but we don't fool those who know us, and we certainly won't be able to fool God! In 1 John chapter 2, you have a good and faithful test, do you “keep” His commandments? When we profess to be Christians, and then live like the people in the world live, we serve Satan in the way that pleases him the most. Our lives become a sort of darkness set on a hill where all can see it. We do more of a disservice to God, to the blood of Jesus Christ than any devil is capable of doing. Please don’t do this!

Question 7 Do you strive to be perfect before God in all of your ways? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - Luke 13:23-24 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Comment - Most people give God the crumbs of their lives, they do not truly love God. Read 1 Corinthians 9:23-27 My friend are you truly "running the race" or just "plodding along?"

Question 8 If all Christians were currently as fruitful as you are, would the world ever be converted? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - John 15:5-6 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

Comment - To the shame of the Church most "Christians" do not know how to lead others into the Christian experience. If you have never lead anyone to Christ, then a hundred million other people such as you, with all of the money that the world possesses at their disposal, would be ill-equipped to convert the world. Shame of all shames. If you have been born again then that fountain of living water should be in you, a well of life for others.

Question 9 Are you persecuted for your faith? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture- Matthew 5:10 "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Read also John 15:20

Comment - Persecutions come only when we are following Jesus Christ, and come, they will. The world will always send persecutions to those that defy it, and follow Jesus to the cross.

Question 10 Do you pray without ceasing? The Scriptural answer is Yes.

Scripture - Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing; Read also Ephesians 6:18

Comment - Praying is a simple test in itself, if we do not "Pray without ceasing" it is only because we have more confidence in ourselves than we have in GOD! This also proves that we do not love God as we should. If we rarely ever pray we are proving to the world, and all that know us, that we have more confidence in walking by sight, than we do in walking by faith. If you really believe that God always answers prayer, at each and every turn of events, you would be before Almighty God, praying in faith, all of the time.

To pass this test you must get all ten questions right, if you fail to answer even one of the questions correctly, you have found a form of selfishness and self-will in your life.

God's standard for all Christians can be found in Matthew 5:48

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Remember, Jesus said this, it is His standard! 

How to truly be saved

I have no heart to go into the process of salvation in the limited space available here in this tract. The scope of this tract is to test professing Christians, to see if, in fact, they are on the "Narrow Road" that leads to life, to find out if they are truly born of God's Spirit. If you are in earnest about becoming a true son or daughter of God, and to become truly born of the Spirit of God, please read the tracts above this one some of them are designed for the purpose of showing you, with the Holy Scriptures, God's definition of salvation, and just what we must do to be born of God's Spirit, we have no denomination for you to join, We only want you to truly join the real Church of the Living God, and this only!

Remember!

We live in a time that I believe was best described when the Angel gave the Church of Laodicea its very solemn warning in Revelations Chapter 3 starting on verse 14 and going to verse 22 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

It is time to awake and become laborers in those fields that are white unto harvest.

But first we must repent, and be endued with that power from on high.

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The Silent Preacher # 8

 Nothing But The New Creature

1 Corinthians 5:17  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Here we have God's Word telling us what it is like to experience salvation, and what hap­pens when we are truly in Christ. It is nothing else, nor anything more than our becoming a new creature! And this cannot happen until, as this Scripture indi­cates, our old things have truly passed away.

The apostate self-idolatrous nature of our “old man” must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ. Then that which is alive, wills, and works in you, will be the same as that which was alive in Christ, and now it is true that you are in Christ and are a member of His Church.
To everything but this new creature, Christ says, "I do not know you"; and to every virtue that worldly wisdom puts on, He says, "Get behind Me, Satan, for you savor not the things that are of God."

The Church of Jesus Christ has only one purpose, and that is to make us holy as He is holy, but nothing can do this, but that which has the full power to change a sinner into a saint, and he who has not received that power, may be assured that he is not yet truly a member of the Church. Because the Church cannot bring forth any other births, but holy children of God; the Church has no other purpose, no other nature or work, but that of changing sinners into saints.

Creeds, religious notions, beautiful Church buildings, along with educated ministers, singing, preaching, and praying, cannot convert dead sinners into living saints. For that which cannot help you to all goodness, cannot help you to any goodness, nor can anything take away even one little sin, but that which can take away all sin.

It is because of this very truth, you and I becoming a new creature that the apostle said, "Circumcision is nothing, and un-circumcision is nothing"; because all is nothing, as pertains to salvation, except a sinner being changed into a saint, or in the apostle's words, being changed into a new creature. Therefore nothing can truly be called a Church, or salvation, but that which has the power to take away all of your sins, thus making you a new creation in Christ Jesus!

The true forgiveness of sins is real and true, when that power of sin in us is made powerless; and nothing can do this, but that power by which we become sons of God. We know that a blind man doesn't have deliverance from his blindness, until he receives his sight. It is just as true that our sins have only been forgiven us, when we receive the power by which we become sons of God, or the new creature. Only then is our old man truly put off, and the new creature in Christ is raised up in his place. Here is another way of saying this, our sins are truly blotted out and done away with, when a birth of God that does not sin, has come to be the ruling life in us.

Why did our Lord say, that unless you eat My flesh, and drink My blood, you have no life in you? Did he mean, you have no earthly life in you? Why did the apostle say, "He that has the Son of God has life, but he that has not the Son of God has not life?" Does he mean the life of this world? No, we truly are without Divine life in ourselves, there is only one Eternal life and that is the life of God, He and He alone is Eternal life! If we do not partake of this life, if we don't receive a birth of this life, we will remain as Adam was after his fall, naked and afraid of God.

This is why the apostle said in Gal 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

In order to have this new creature, this new life that is Eternal, we must be willing to part with our old life; we must truly deny ourselves in order that we can experience the new life of Christ. The apostle went so far as to say “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  You see, we must not only deny ourselves, we must be buried with Him (Jesus Christ).

Now perhaps you can see the importance of that which our Lord and Savior said in Matthew 16:24 When He said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny him­self, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”

Nothing but a full birth, a continual breathing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the newborn creature, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.

This is the whole labor of a preacher to the end of the world. He has nothing to preach to sinners, but the absolute necessity, the true way of being born again from above. If he doesn't do this one thing that is so necessary, but instead, starts disputing about words and doctrines, and teaches professing Christians to be zealously separated from one another, for the sake of being saved by different opinions of faith, works, justification, or election, etc., he has forgotten his errand, and has become a blind leader of the blind. For all that is called faith, works, justification, sanctification, or election are only different expressions of the restored Divine life, and what it does in us, it can have no existence anywhere, or in anything, but the new creature. When preachers do this oftentimes this is what happens, Ephesians 4:18. "Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." This is what God wants us to do instead;

1 Timothy 6:12. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Yes, truly become a son of God and receive His power from on high! Only then will you become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

What Not To Do To Become This New Creature!

Don't try to work or earn your way into the Kingdom of God for this can't be done; salvation is never accomplished by any kind of works which we have done, because our works before we are sanctified are all born in selfishness. Remember, our works to attain salvation will never save us, or anyone else! Good works, are the fruit, and outcome of salvation, it is always the result of God’s work in us, Philippians 2:13. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." The one thing for which we have been created anew is to start walking in good works, and only those good works which God prepared beforehand, and only after we have been sanctified!

As the eye, because it was created for the light, is most perfectly adapted for its work, as the vine-branch, because it was created to bear grapes, does its work so naturally, so are we who have been created in Christ Jesus for good works, and have been prepared for the works, and the works prepared for us.

The clear teachings of God's Word are especially important to understand, it is very true that we are not saved by our works, the counterpart, is also very true, we are saved so we can do good works, because God created us for them, and even prepared them for us. Let each of us seek to take in the deep Spiritual truth of this message, “Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has afore prepared” for each one of us, and which are waiting for us to take up and fulfill. (Ephesians 2:10)

Many are the marks, which learned men have given us of the true Church; but be that as it may, no man, whether he is educated or not, can have any mark or proof of his own true Church-membership, but his being dead to all sin, and alive to all righteousness. This can't be more simply said, than in these words of our Lord, "He that commits sin, is the servant of sin"; but surely that servant of sin, can't at the same time be a living member of Christ's body, or the new creature who dwells in Christ, and Christ in him.

How easy is it to see, that the sincerity of our weak endeavors is quite a different thing from that, which alone is, and can be the required perfection of our lives. The first, God bears with. Not because He seeks, or requires it but He bears with them, because even though they are at a great distance from that perfection, or new creature, which God absolutely requires, which is the fullness of the stature of Christ, and is that which Paul says, is the one that obtains the prize. Now when the Lord says "Strive, to enter in at the strait gate." Here He is requiring our best efforts, and yet at the same time He also tells us, "That many shall strive to enter in, but shall not be able." Why is this so? It is because Christ Himself is the only door into life. Here the striver mentioned by Christ, and those which Paul calls runners in a race, are the very same persons; and Christ is calling Himself the one door or entrance, and this is the same as when Paul says, that only one receives the prize, and that one, which alone obtains the prize, or that enters in through the right door, is that new creature in whom Christ is truly born. And NO ONE ELSE!!!

The pleader for imperfection further supports himself by saying, no man in the world, Christ excepted, was ever without sin. And all by our own experience must agree with this statement; and with the apostle I also add, "That if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar." But then it is as true to say, that we make Him a liar, if we deny the possibility of our ever being freed from a necessity of sinning. For that same portion of Scripture says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And in 1 John 3:9 (of that same epistle) he also says, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

But surely he that is left under a necessity of sinning as long as he lives, can't be said to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, any more than a man who must be a cripple to his dying day, can be said to be healed of all his lame­ness. How vainly does the Church pray for the baptized person, to have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph against the devil, the world, and the flesh, if this victorious triumph can never be obtained; if notwithstanding this baptism and prayer, he must continue to commit sin, and so be a servant of sin, as long as he lives?

The Devil's Greatest Victory!

This question about Christians continuing to sin after being converted and sanctified is very confusing to most believers today. Most believe that it is impossible to live righteously in this life. But, is that the teaching of the Bible? Let's look.

To start with, the Angel of God told Joseph, in Matthew 1:21. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."  We are told by an Angel that Jesus was going to save HIS people from their sin! Now follow me through. In Matthew 5:48 we are told by Jesus Himself  "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” This is very clear, we are not only to stop sinning (disobeying God) but we are to be perfect! Do you under­stand so far? Now let's look at Romans 6:12. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,”  Here we have another direct command to not let sin rule in our lives!

Now let's look at what I call the “Killer Scriptures” They only kill the notion that God is not powerful enough to bring us out of a sinning life and into victory, in other words  "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed”  In case you don't remember, Jesus said this! John 8:36

Killer Scriptures

Hebrews 6: 4-8. ”For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repen­tance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame." You can see by this Scripture that God does not intend for us to go on in sin after being born from above! Look again at another;

Hebrews 10:26. For if we go on sinning will­fully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Here we have the question answered of what happens if we continue to sin after receiving the Lord. "It is to trample underfoot the Son of God! It is to insult the Spirit of grace." Let's go on;

1 John 2:3 "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His command­ments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."  Pray and ask God what all of this means.

One last Scripture ; The apostle John also said in 1 John 3:9

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Please  "Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”

May God cause you to hunger and thirst for Him!

 

I hope you understand, this is truly the Word and will of God! May God bless your understanding.

If you would like to see five hundred and twenty-nine other Scriptures in the New Testament that clearly tell us to live righteously and Godly in this present life, click on the link below to read a little booklet. You will find five hundred and twenty-nine powerful Scriptures that will affect you greatly. If on the other you only want to argue the point, do not waste your time on this little booklet, it was written not for the sake of argument, but for those that are truly hungering and thirsting for the Kingdom of God!

Click here to read the book.

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The Silent Preacher # 9

The Treasure And The Pearl

 

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matthew 13:44

 

What do the treasure and the pearl represent?

Anyone should know that they represent the Lord Jesus Christ. These parables are in­tended to show what it is like when Jesus Christ is really found. He captures the heart and soul of every man and woman, then carries it away from everything else in this world, nothing else is important.

What is meant when these parables both speak of finding a great treasure for our souls to possess? It is this;

      1  That the person who finds this treasure recognizes its value.

2  That they are willing to lose everything else, in order to have this prize.

     3  That upon the discovery of this great treasure they do something, they don't stand still, or just talk about the treasure.

Here it can be seen that unless people come to have a deep sense of their own spiritual sickness, they will not seek after Christ, and therefore will not find Him; He will not be a treasure to them.

Our soul sickness is not a “small” thing, it is the most important concern that we have in this world, we must attend to it or suffer an unspeakable destruction. So many people see no value in their own soul, they take care

of their bodies, but their souls are for the most part neglected.   Foolishness of all foolishnesses!

I believe it is necessary for us to see the evil propensities in our lives, we will never realize the need for such a salvation until we see the absolute depravity of our lives! I don't believe anyone will even look for the treasure or the pearl, which both represent the same thing, until we discover that our lives are a veritable fountain of sin of all sorts, pride, envy, self-esteem, self-seeking, etc.

Don't Die Without The Divine Life In You

We are in no hell, but that which our own natural strength has awakened in us; we are bound in no chains, but of our own unbending, hardened spirits; and we were made such, by our renouncing, with all of our strength, all meek­ness, and subjection to God, and to His will.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls,” if earthly interests, and sensual pleasures, are still the desire of your heart, and only partly hidden under a form of Godliness, you can be assured, that you have not found the pearl of great price. For where Christ is born, and His Spirit rises up in the soul, there, all self, and self will , is denied.

Begin to search and dig in your own field for this pearl of eternity, this treasure hidden in a field, which in reality lies hidden in you; it cannot cost you too much, it is not too expensive, for it is everything, and when you have found it, you will know that all that you have sold and given up for it, was absolutely nothing in comparison. But if you turn from this heavenly pearl, this Heavenly treasure, or if you trample it under your feet, for the sake of being rich, or great, either in the Church or in the world, if death finds you in this kind of "success," you will think, that though you lost the pearl, you have found something of better value. For in that parting moment, the things, and the sounds of this world, will all be exactly the same; to have owned an estate, or only to have heard of one, to have lived in a castle twenty years, or only to have twenty times walked by a palace, will be the same amount of good, or the same amount of nothing to you.

Yes, while things in the world were going well for you, and Eternity seems so far away, you didn't want any change in your own nature to occur, you were not cognizant of any inward destruction in your natural temperament, no, didn't have any deliverance from the love of self, and the enjoy­ments of your passions; you liked your state, and your old nature being gratified, you liked wearing long robes and having your phylacteries broad, and people greeting you in the markets places. You didn't want to have your pride and self-love dethroned, your covetousness and sensuality to be subdued by receiving a new nature from Heaven. This is true blindness, pity all such people.

If you will not admit to the convictions of personal guilt, and will not let the light of God's Word shine in upon your heart, there is no hope for you. Self-blinded to your sin and consequent danger, you must go down to eternal darkness. For when God deals with us he wants us to use our minds, He wants us to think! He gives us His law as our rule, and asks us to study it and judge ourselves by its demands. Therefore, unless you make up your mind to know yourself, and are also willing to take the trouble and admit to your heart all of the truth, there is no hope for you. It is amazing to see how much self-delusion there is.

Another condition of feeling one's need of Christ is that you consider deeply what the Bible teaches respecting yourself. It is amazing to see how many read the Bible, over and over again, and yet, it never gets a hold on their attention, and, consequently, they never really receive a just conception of its greatest and most vital truths. " A man who had never heard the Gospel, said to God at the judgment, "Why didn't you tell me these things before? Even though he did have an excellent opportunity to hear and understand the Gospel. You see, he had ruled out listening to the Gospel. Again the man said, "Why didn't you tell me there was such a hell?" I did tell you; I have told you often and urged you to listen, but you wouldn't. The man returned, "No; but I didn't understand the importance of it." God told him, you would not try to understand.

Sometimes you have been preoccupied while someone was preaching a sermon, as if deter­mined not to hear. Of course, you hear nothing to any good purpose, because you sit down to read a chapter in the Bible, in which are a great many precious things, but your eyes pass over every­thing, for your heart is not in it. You were not searching for truth and wisdom as worldly men dig for treasure. Can you see why men fail to understand the Gospel?

You must remember that heaven and hell, each have their foundation within you, they do not come into you from outside, but spring up from within you, accordingly as your will and heart are turned either to the light of God, or the kingdom of darkness. But when this life, which is in the midst of these two eternities, comes to an end, either an Angel, or a devil will be found to have taken a birth in you.

As soon as you are ready to hear this eternal speaking Word, It will speak wisdom and love into your inward parts, and bring forth a birth of Christ, with all His holy nature, Spirit, and tem­peraments, within you. It is there as an holy oil, to soften and overcome the wrathful fiery properties of your nature, and change them into the humble meekness of light and love. It is there as a speaking Word of God in your soul; and this pearl of eternity is the peace and joy of God within you, but it can only be found by the manifestation of the life and power of Jesus Christ in your soul. Christ cannot be your power and your life, until in obedience to His call, you deny yourself, and take up your cross daily, in order to follow Him, into regeneration. This is unconditional, it will admit of no evasion, it is the only way to Christ and eternal life.

But regardless of which Church or denomination you are in, if self is un-denied, if you live to your own will, to the pleasures of your own natural lust and appetites, senses and passions, in conformity to the vain customs, and spirit of this world, you are dead yet while you live.

The One Great Stumbling Block

You say all is well within you; you have no suspicion that anything is wrong; you look back at the time when you “Accepted the Lord” and it was at this time that you thought that your newness of life would begin, but, not much really changed in your life, and then you found wonderful spiritual books, and after reading them and having your eyes opened to many great truths, you believed that you had discovered the pearl of great price because you agreed with all of the truth that you had read in these spiritual books. This of course is ridiculous, it doesn't matter what you know or agree with, the only thing that counts is this –

Do You Own The Pearl?

It is indeed a great joy, that you have found the pearl of great price; but take notice, that it is not yours, you can have no possession of it, until as the merchant did, you sell all that you have, and buy it. Now, self is all that you have, it is your sole possession; you have no true spiritual things of your own, nothing is yours but this self. The riches of self are your only riches; but all of this self is to be parted with before the pearl of great price can be yours. Think of a lower price, or be unwilling to give this price for it, plead with your excuse, that you try to keep the command­ments,

and then you have become that very rich young man, who went away sorrowful from our Lord, when He said, "If you will be perfect," that is, if you will obtain the pearl, "Sell all that you have, and give to the poor.”

Did you sell your all in order to buy it? Suppose you had been told, that up to this day you have lived in the grossest self-idolatry, loving, serving, honoring, and adoring yourself instead of God. That all your intentions, projects, pleasures, and indulgences, have been only so much labor to bring you to the grave in total ignorance of that great work, for which you were born into this world to accomplish. Suppose an Angel said to you, "Oh man awake; you have a great amount of work, your time is short, I am your last trumpet; the grave calls for your flesh and blood, your soul must enter into a new lodging. You must be born again: and if you are not born again you will become a devil."

To trust or pray for anything else other than the Life Of God, which is a birth of Heaven in our souls, is as useless to us, as placing our hope and trust in a graven image! To think of anything in religion, or to pretend to any real holiness, without totally dying to this your old man, is only building castles in the air, and can bring forth nothing, but Satan in the form of an Angel of light.

If you have not found Christ to be more to you than all of the other things in this world, you should understand that you have not made much of an advance in piety, if in fact you have made any at all. If you have not found Christ in such a spiritual way, in such a way that your soul is seized and held by Him, you ought to assume that there is something more for you to find, and that it is the Treasure, or you may call it the Pearl, they are the exact same thing! Please my friend don't pretend all is well, if in fact, Christ is not your ALL, your everything, your life!

Facts That Seem To Be Very Plain Today

How very few people seem to have found Christ and to have renounced everything for His sake. The Psalmist said; "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth whom I desire besides Thee;" but, unfortunate­ly, there are not many who feel in their hearts the same way the Psalmist felt.

Let me say this to every unpardoned sinner, “you need to find Christ as your all.” You complain of condemnation and bondage. If you will look for that treasure in the field, until you find it, you will be willing to part with everything else, seeing that they are of no importance in comparison with the worth of the Pearl of great price that you have found.

Who of you have found Christ? Have you found Him to be the Treasure, the Pearl? For if you have, you will say. “This treasure is much greater than I expected.” With every new understanding and sight of His glory, this will sink in deeper and deeper. To even think of living again for self, will seem like a nightmare to you!

This Scripture that we have been contemplating demonstrates that the one who truly discovers the Treasure, the Pearl, will sell all that he has to buy it. When you appreciate Christ in this way, you will say with Paul, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." You will always find it this way, those who find Christ, will forsake all this world has to offer. If they don't it can only be that they still believe that something else besides salvation in Christ is the real pearl!

What About You?

What are you going to do with Jesus Christ? Have you found the Pearl? Are you ready at this moment to sell all that you have? Do you see Christ as being worth all that you own, yes and even more? If you are still hesitating about giving up all to Him, He who gave up His all for us, shame on you! Today, this very moment, truth has surrounded you. You must forcibly close your eyes in order not to see your duty. Now, if you do close your eyes to this very great truth, you may never again have an opportunity to hear the voice of God, look at what our Lord has said,

“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” Romans 1:28

God's grace seems to be a deep well that can't go dry, and this is true indeed. You see it is not that God ever hides from us, or that He ever runs away from us; it is a fact that in every case it is we who have done the running, the hiding. And if we continue in this course there will come a time that we of our own doing will no longer be able to hear God. It will be for us as it was in times of old, Ezekiel 12:2. "Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house. Yes, this is what happens to us, our own rebellion and stubbornness prevents us from hearing the loving call of the Master.

You must understand this, God never changes, He is love, we are told in 1 Corinthians 13:8 that “Love never fails” What a truth we have here, God never stops loving us, He has commanded us to forgive our enemies, He has told us to keep on forgiving people, and so we can see His will in the matter. God does not have a double standard. He Himself lives by these same rules He has given to us.

If you end up in hell, it will be because you have resisted the love of God to the point of no return, and that has been demonstrated to be when our eyes, and ears are closed by our own rebellion!

 

Make The Right Decision!

 

 

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The Silent Preacher # 10

  You Are To Be Perfect

Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

As we read the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus starts out by telling us who are the blessed in this life; And opening His mouth He began to teach them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. "Blessed are those who have been per­secuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Today we would call most of these attributes virtues, but please understand carefully what our Savior is saying, He is saying that people with these attributes are the only ones who are blessed in this life! If any of these attributes are missing in your life, you are not blessed. This is part of the perfection that Jesus Christ demands to be in our lives.

Then we find many commands made by the Son of God, such as “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” This is not popular today, but it is true none the less.

In the last seventy five years Satan has made many strides in the area of divorce and re-marriage. Approximately one hun­dred years ago

it would have been almost impossible to find one pastor of a Church, that would perform a marriage ceremony for a divorced woman. Twenty years ago I con­sulted with fifty different pastors involved with many different denominations. I asked them what they believed about a divorced woman remarrying, even though she had a living husband, and without exception, they said that it would be all right. What was it that Jesus, our Savior said? Why is this?

More commands from the One sent to save us; "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” "You have heard that the ancients were told, `You shall not commit murder' and `Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.” "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, `Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, `You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

It seems that Jesus is expecting a lot from us poor fallen souls! Yes, He is, and it is because He has made a way of redeeming us and changing our very lives in order for us to be in the very center of God's will, yes, in everything. This command to
“Be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect” was not a mistake or Jesus being overly zealous, IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!

Our God has provided everything in order to bring this about. In John's Gospel Jesus tell us of our need to be born again from above. Without this new birth we can never live up to the standard that Jesus and our Heavenly Father have set in chapter five of Matthew's Gospel.

Do not forget what the Angel of God told Joseph, in Matthew 1:21. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." The Angel told Joseph that Jesus was the one that was going to save HIS people from their sin! Now follow me through. In Matthew 5:48 we are told by Jesus Himself "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” This is very clear, we are not only to stop sinning (disobeying God) but we are to be perfect! Again in Romans 6:12. we are commanded, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,” Here we have another direct command to not let sin rule in our lives!

This command to be “Perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." is intended to reverse what happened when Adam sinned. Many people are shocked at the idea of anyone being even for a moment without sin in this life. And to expect to be perfect in this life, is to them a most unreasonable request. With most people, it seems that Christ's command to be perfect as God is perfect, is something which Christ did not expect we could, or would obey in this world. But just the opposite is true, He not only expects it, He commands it!

Yes, Jesus Christ truly wants us to be ready for our Heavenly abode, to be proper citizens of Heaven, just as the Angels in Heaven are.

What Is Sin

Sin is rebellion against the throne of God, sin is not having a conscience that is pure towards our Heavenly Father. Sin is the destruction of our very lives, it is a hell that doesn't wait, it destroys us now in this life, and that is why Jesus came to save us from it.

Sin brings about fear, sin is darkness of the worst sort. How many sins did Adam and Eve do before God put them out of the Garden of Eden?

The answer is ONE! Yes, only one sin and they lost their place in paradise, sin caused them to hide from God, sin brought a curse upon all of mankind, and the earth itself. Do not ever underestimate the power and destruction of sin.

Yet our Savior has said very clearly "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” This is His promise of our being freed from sin! The Apostle Paul received this freedom, And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good con­science before God up to this day." Acts 23:1

Are you living your life right now with a perfectly good conscience before God and men? This is the will of God for your life. You may say I have never met anyone who has a perfect conscience! And I wouldn't argue with you, this is the very fruit of today's brand of religion, it is dead, it is fake!

A few years ago I met a young man. We were talking about the Lord, and something that I had said caused him to ask me “You are not saying that you live without sinning everyday in word, thought, and deed are you?” I answered yes, I don't practice sin anymore, sin is the very rare exception in my life now, whereas, I used to sin almost daily, but now I am sanctified, and the Lord Jesus Christ has set me free from sin.

He was incensed, he said, “No one has ever said that to me, do you mean you don't sin anymore?” He then told me that the Bible didn't promise anything like that, that the Bible said that we all have to practice sin every day of our lives.

I asked him to go home and lock himself away with his Bible and find for me just one verse that said a Christian born again from above could have a practice of sin and be in good standing with God. I told him if he could show me that one verse anywhere in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, that I would throw away my five hundred and twenty nine verses that I have found in the New Testament, that tell us to live a holy and consecrated life and I would join him in his way of life, but, he would have to show me the verse first, because I am a man of the Word, not the teachings of man!

He came back and exploded on me, his vituperation was indeed something. The only thing he left out of the conversation was the one little Bible verse that I had asked for! I pointed this out to him, and again asked him not to ask his Sunday school teacher, or his pastor, but to simply look in the Word of God and find me this one little verse that I was asking for. If in fact the Bible teaches a sinning religion, then it should be a simple thing to find only one little verse that says this.

The problem is that the Bible teaches no such thing! Look at what the Bible actually teaches; Mat 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'

Mat 16:24-25. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. Mat 11-13. "And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.  "And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. "But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. 1 John 2:3-4 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 1 John 2: 29. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

To read all 529 Scriptures we have a little book that lists them all, you may down load a copy of the book or read it by clicking here

Five Hundred Scriptures   All of these Scriptures tell us over and over again to live a holy life!

What God does not mean when He tells us to be perfect!

He does not expect us to know everything, nor does being perfect in the Biblical sense mean that we will not make mistakes, such as, math mistakes, work mistakes, tripping while we walk, and things like these. The perfection that God is after is “heart perfection,” a “pure conscience,” our wanting to be perfect as He is perfect, is where it all begins. And until you believe it is possible to be perfect, until you WANT to be perfect, you will never even find the smallest pinch of perfection in your life! This is why the Apostle Paul said in Romans 6:3-5 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

Baptism is a picture in the natural, of that which has already happened in the spiritual, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death” When we go down under the water, we are presenting a picture of the death and burial of the old man. When we are raised up again, from under the water, we see another picture of the resurrection to newness of life. Baptism is a complete picture of our dying to self, or, the “old man” and being born again, of the Spirit. Here we are told the secret of how we can be born again of the Spirit of God, it necessitates our truly dying to ourselves! Without Matthew 16:24 being true in our lives we shall never be born from above, we shall remain in our self-will, and our self-righteousness, and of course we will truly not live one moment of our lives without a practice of sin!

A Very Important Thing To Remember

“Apart from Me you can do nothing”

This is very true our Savior said it in John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Just as a branch would die without it's union with the vine, so we die the moment we stop abiding in our vine, Jesus Christ! The Apostle Paul told us that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Jesus Himself also lived His Holy life in this same way, listen as He explains it to us, John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” John 14:10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

Let’s look at another Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:17. KJV “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Do you see this wonderful truth; we become new creatures, we are not given a little overhaul, we are made into new creatures. Now watch what happens as a result of this “All things are becoming new.” Why is it so necessary for “All things to become new,” why must this happen? It happens because we are no longer the old creature that we were in our original birth, that consisted of nothing but flesh and blood, but now we have truly become a new creature, born from above, born to newness of life. This clearly takes on its real meaning when we look at Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." The word “transformed” is the Greek word “metamorphoo” which means to transform (literally or figuratively, "metamorphose") change, transfig­ure, transform. This is the same word we use to describe the process of an ugly caterpillar changing into a beautiful butterfly.

Have you received this power? Are you abiding in Jesus Christ, are you always patient, meek, and humble? In other words, have you been born again, in the very love of God? Have all of the “old things” passed away? Patience, meekness, and humility, are not natural in the un-regenerate man, if these virtues are a practice of your life, then you have truly been born again!

You see, to sin is the natural thing for an un-regenerate person to do, and God be praised, Holiness is just as natural for the one who has been born again to newness of life! Praise God for His great salvation that turned a worm like me into a son of God! It can't be more simply said, than in these words of our Lord, "He that commits sin, is the servant of sin"; but surely that servant of sin, can't at the same time be a living member of Christ's body, or the new creature who dwells in Christ, and Christ in him.

How easy is it to see, that the sincerity of our weak endeavors is quite a different thing from that, which alone is, and can be the required perfection of our lives. The Savior said for us to "Strive," to enter in at the strait gate." Here He is requiring our best and most earnest efforts. Do not fail to obtain this prize. Listen to the Old Testament Promise of Holiness, Ezekiel 36:25-27 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. God meant every word, you can depend on it, He never fails!

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The Silent Preacher # 11

Self-Will

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

 

Christ's yoke is truly easy and unencumbered by anything of the flesh. This is because Christ's yoke is formed and moved by love. The yoke we are all under in this life is truly wearisome and very difficult, because pride is the dictator of our life and makes us keep up a front.

When we are without the Divine presence of God, if we are not led by His Holy Spirit, we can only move in self-love, everything we do has for its motive self. When we do something wrong or despi­cable, pride moves in and tries to make it look like it was someone else's fault, if that fails then pride tries to show the reason why we had to do this wrong and unholy thing. Pride never admits being wrong, it never comes into God's light!

This is what makes us weary and heavy-laden, until Christ is formed in us, we have nothing good in us, and yet at times we try to do good things, but its always from a selfish motive, that is why Jesus, our Savior said that we can do nothing good, that only God is good. And now you know what makes our yoke so very difficult, it's because we are very self-willed.

You might be tempted to say “I'm not very self-willed," and in so doing, you will have told me that you don't know yourself very well, you don't know the inner workings of your own heart; they are a mystery to you! We are all self-willed until we are born again from above, of the Spirit of God. We always secretly want our own way in all things!

Why are we all self-willed, good question the answer can be found in the book of Genesis. We are told that Adam was created by God in God's own Image and in His own Likeness, a living reflection of the Divine Nature; God brought forth His own nature in Adam in a finite (limited) way.

After God created Adam, we are told, “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31. This is how Adam started out, but he then broke the most important commandment of all that God had given him, he took of the forbidden fruit that Eve had given him. Eve was truly deceived, Adam was not, he knew what he had done was wrong! God had up to this point asked Adam to do, or not do, five things, they can be found in Genesis 1:28 - 1:29 - 2:15 - 2:16-17 - 2:19. The one he broke was actually a commandment, and it was the only one that God had said death would result if he broke it, and, unfortunately he broke it! Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Notice the reason God gave Adam for not eating of the forbidden tree, it was because that tree would cause him to die to the very presence of God's Divine Spirit, it was not a physical death, but a spiritual death, a death to the indwelling presence of God, and this is exactly what happened to him!

And in that spiritual death Adam and Eve lost all of the fruit of God's Divine Spirit. From this point on, they were incapable of living in the capacity, or for the purpose that God had intended. God is love and because He is the only Good and they had just died to all love and all good, you can now truly comprehend the words of Jesus in John 15:5 Jesus tells us this very important truth, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Why is this so, it is because they (the father and mother of all human beings) had died to all love, and all goodness, and we were in them as a seed, how can we do anything of value without God's love in us?

Satan made his temptation one that would appeal to them, he was watching and saw that they were curious about the forbidden tree. Satan lied to the woman, he told her what she wanted to hear and this was the result - “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6.

Even though God had warned them that they would die if they disobeyed, they did it anyway! By the way, this wasn't just any old sin, this was the granddaddy of all sins, and the reason is this, the greatest part of this sin was not in the taking and eating of the tree, but in placing their “OWN-WILL” over the will of God! Yes, it is sin to disobey God. Yes, touching or eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was a sin, without doubt; but all of this is insignificant in view of their choosing to deny God's will and doing their own will instead. This was the entrance of pride into their lives, they thought their will to be better than God's will, their reasoning better than God's reasoning! This is the real fall of mankind and nothing will help until we humble ourselves and with a broken and contrite heart go to God and ask for mercy, yes, this and this alone, can fix the fatal disease of mankind, pride and exaltation!

What Do The Scriptures Say?

You might ask why they could no longer live for God's intended purpose, the answer is simple, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God they went into self-will for the first time. Self-will is a disease that is easy to catch, but very difficult to get rid of. God set about to redeem them, you see, God had enough devils; He wanted more Angels. He created Adam to bring forth a new people with Heavenly, Not Demonic attributes!

Let us turn ahead now to the beginning of the Church. The great distinguishing trait of the early Church was this "They were all of one mind." This is only possible when each member of the Church is truly born of God, and is submitted to God’s Spirit! This never happens until all pride and exaltation is gone from all of the members. When self-will (carnality) rules in the Church, division, and strife will always become evident.

Look At What Self-Will Produces

1. Pride 2. Selfishness 3. Division

4. Self-esteem 5. The self-idolatrous nature

5. Self-seeking 6. Self-exaltation 7. Living for self

In order to make it simple, you might say that self-will causes just about every evil that the human spirit, devoid of God, can bring forth! With self-will ruling in your life, you will lack any true evidence of actual sainthood and true holiness. This is what causes such deficiency and feebleness in our Christian service.

Faith in Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, always gives us the power for all that God calls on us to do. But self-will only goes after that which brings glory or reward to self; be certain that you understand this. It is because self, which expresses itself by self-will, controls our heart; this is why it is so easy, natural, and pleasing for us to put ourselves first in everything, to be the center of the conversation whenever we can, to be “Right” all of the time, and so on and so forth. When Jesus Christ truly lives in us, it will then become just as easy, natural, and pleasing for us to live wholly for the body of Christ and the people of this world who need God's salvation through Jesus Christ..

“Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit” Remember, that God's Word is a seed, a fire, a hammer, a sword; it is bread and light, it is many things. Always allow it to do its work in your life. The man of God who allows God’s Word to do its work of reproving, correcting, and instructing in his life, will be complete and entirely furnished for every good work. But how can any of this come about, when self is looking and thinking only of SELF, that's simple, it can't!

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls,” if earthly interests and sensual pleasures are still the desire of your heart, or in other words if self-will is still ruling in your life, and only partly hidden under a form of Godliness, you can be assured, that you have not found the pearl of great price. For where Christ is born, and His Spirit rises up in the soul, there, all self and self-will, is always denied.

What is all of this bondage and what is its power? The bondage is our self-will. We become proud of ourselves, that is, we are proud of ourselves until some of the fruit of our self-willed doings become evident. Then pride goes to work to cover up our handy work; we will then lie or blame others, what ever self-will and pride dictate, and this is because we are truly under the administration of selfishness, or self-will, until we are in truth set free by the Son of God, Jesus Christ!

How Can We Be Set Free?

Romans 6:3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? When we follow the Lord Jesus Christ into baptism, we are giving testimony to the world that we have died to sin (self-will). We are saying to the world "our old self (man)” will not rule us anymore, Jesus is the Lord of our life now! Jesus will now rule us!

Why do we need to be buried with Jesus? Romans 6:4 “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

God expects us to walk in newness of life, not continue in sin! If we follow Jesus in dying to ourselves and not letting our old self (man) rule us anymore we will walk in newness of life. Here is the promise: Romans 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Now remember I didn't say this, God did. When God promises something He will do It! No longer do we need to be in bondage to sin or anything else. Remember Jesus said - "Whom the Son sets free, is free in deed"

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” Now listen to God carefully here, If you yield to sin (self-will) you will die. But if you yield to God, you will gain righteousness. Look at the choice that the people at Rome made.

Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righ­teousness.” Jesus said,

“We must be born again”

He said this because we had lost the Divine presence and likeness of God in our lives! When Adam partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he went into self-will and out of God's will. Self-will is in reality selfishness, God is love. God's will is always the will of loving others. This is His very makeup because GOD IS LOVE!

When we are baptized we testify to the world that we have died to self, (self-will), and that our old nature is now reckoned to be dead, powerless. The Lord can now raise us up to newness of life, and from now on we can have victory over sin, the world and the Devil!

How can we become completely sanctified? How do we continue to live a life wholly consecrated to God?

Adam was entirely sanctified (consecrated) to God when he was first created, but he went into self-will and out of sanctification when he disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. Remember that one third of the Angels fell, they were also God's creation, just as Adam was!  When we reverse that process, and by God's help we can, and must reverse it, we can then live for God again and stop forevermore living for self.

Here is the Biblical proof Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were com­mitted, and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.”

Understand this clearly, you will be a slave, either to your fallen nature (old man) or to God. The only thing that we can have a choice in, is who we will be enslaved to; who our master will be! To be enslaved to our old man (old nature) is really to be enslaved to the world, Satan.

If you would like to know the evil nature and effects of a worldly spirit, it is this; it always unites you to a worldly, earthly nature, which will cause you to become selfish and strongly desire the things of this world, that will not and cannot, satisfy you. On the other hand being enslaved to God will unite us with the Holy Spirit of God and espouse us to Christ, God, and heaven. This results in our being content regardless of what is going on around us, regardless of what we have, or do not have!

A Little Secret

God created us to be Holy, this word "Holy" means to be obedient, Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle­ness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” This self-control is the opposite of sell-will. Trust me, you really don't want to die before attaining the fruit of God's Spirit in your life, all of It!

Let's Look At God's Word

Hebrews 10:26-30 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge His people."

1 John 2:3-7 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His command­ments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His command­ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

What light we have here. By the way, do you love light? You are blessed if you do!

1 John 3:6-10 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Most people don't hear these Scriptures preached much, but be sure of this, it is not only the written Word of God,

It Is The Will Of God!

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The Silent Preacher # 12

The Triumph Of Faith

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith truly is assurance, it is also rest and it is triumph! When we choose to believe, we release God to work freely His miraculous life in us!

Let's Take A Close Look At The Scriptures

John 14: 12-14 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

In this passage of Scripture we are told by the Son of God that we can duplicate His miraculous life, yes, that is what He is saying when He says “ The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;” These are the very words of Jesus Christ. Not only did He say that we would do the works that He did, Heal the sick, raise the dead, open blind eyes, etc. etc. but He also said that we would do

GREATER WORKS THAN HE DID!!!

You might ask “How can this be? When you ask this question you are acting in unbelief! Yes, unbelief is very typical of most people, we need no practice to operate in unbelief. Look at how many times our Lord scolded His Apostles, for unbelief.

Matthew 17:16-20 "And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him." And Jesus answered and said, "Oh unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" And He said to them,

"Because of the littleness of your faith;

“For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.”

Did you understand what He just said?

Nothing shall be impossible to you.

Now, do you really believe what our Savior just said? Don't go into “mental accent” now. Do you really believe that nothing is impossible him who truly believes?

Don't go any farther in reading this little tract until you address this question, for it is more than a question, it is an issue! A very important issue. What do you really believe? This issue is life and death, Heaven and Hell, peace and worry, etc.

True faith is true rest of soul. When we say we have faith in God, we are really saying that we KNOW that whatever God said would happen will actually happen, it can't be otherwise!

Let's look at another example,

Matthew 6:30. "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do you have confidence that God will work all things out for good, in your life? When we have faith we need not worry about all of the things that people worry about in this world, such as, health, finances, and things like these, the two that I mentioned above comprise most of the worry that people have. This is a significant demonstration that they have little or no confidence in God's promises. It doesn't matter whether they go to church or not, whether they profess to be Christians, or live their lives outwardly as pagans.

Nothing matters but this one proposition, that we either have all of our confidence in God, or we DON'T!

The truth of this issue will always settle things, this and this alone determines if we will take up a life filled with times of worry, or a life that continually rests in God.

Some Of The Things We Are Instructed Not To Worry About!

Matthew 8:24-27 And behold, there arose a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves; but He Himself was asleep. And they came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!" And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" The storms of life can often make men believe that they are about to perish, but if you have Jesus in the boat of life with you, there never is anything to really worry about, ever. Unless the type of unbelief that they demonstrat­ed is alive in you and ruling in your life!

Sometimes In Weakness You Must Push Through!

Mark 5:24. And He went off with him; and a great multitude was following Him and pressing in on Him. And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse, after hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind Him, and touched His cloak. For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I shall get well." And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Many people have had the experience of going to doctors and hospitals and not receiving any benefit at all to their health, when this happens all too often they start to worry, instead of touching the fringe of His Holy garment. Be like this woman, say in your heart, “If I can touch even just the fringe of His garment . . . .”

Be Importunate, Don't Give Up!

Matthew 15:22-28 And behold, a Canaan­ite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is shouting out after us." But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once. Jesus didn't give her much hope when she first ap­proached Him. But, she didn't give up, she humbled herself and received that which she asked for.

It Will Always Be According To What You Believe!

Matthew 9: 27-29 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, and saying, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" And after He had come into the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." Then He touched their eyes, saying, "Be it done to you according to your faith." Do not think that Jesus is magic, and all you need is a touch from Him. Remember the woman with the issue of blood. Many people were brushing up against Jesus and “Touching Him” but she alone was healed at that time by contact. It will always be according to what you are believing. Do you believe that all you need is to touch the hem of the Master's garment? Then you will be victori­ous, this is because as you go your way it will always be according to your faith, not according to what you hope or wish will happen, but what you truly believe.

Be very certain of this fact, as you really and truly “Believe in your HEART,” not your mind, “so it shall be!”

Do You Really Believe That God Is Always On His Throne, Always Ruling

Matthew 8:9-10 "For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, `Go!' and he goes, and to another, `Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this!' and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, He mar­veled, and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel." What great faith! This man knew that Jesus could not be anything but victorious! Do you believe as this man believed ? You will be blessed if you do. This is a faith that is rare today, but, this is the type of faith that always receives its desire, you can't pretend this type of faith. Remember, it always blesses God when we truly trust Him!

A Deeper Look At The Opposite Of Faith, Which Is Worry

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The word “anxious” in Philippians 4:6, is the Greek word “merimnao” Mer-im-nah-o (Strong’s reference # 3308) and has the same approximate meaning as the following words; “worry”, “anxiety”, “distress”, “uneasiness”, and “care”.

What Is God’s Instruction To Us On The Subject Of Worry:

1) Don’t worry!

2) Pray with supplication

3) Pray with thanksgiving, (believe that God will answer your prayer)

4) Let your request be known to God.

 

Don’t Worry!

When we choose to worry, we testify that we have more confidence in ourselves and our ability to reason, than in God! We are saying, “Lord I don’t need your help. I’m a proud person and can handle this myself!” On the other hand watch what happens when we pray instead of worry.

1. First, we acknowledge the Lord in our life.

2. Second, we demonstrate our confidence in God.

3. Third, we open up the power of the living God in our lives, and can now expect that the God of all love will solve all of our problems.

Pray With Supplication

When we pray with supplication we are making an appeal to our Heavenly Father. We are showing our dependence on the Lord. The Lord likes us to be dependent on Him, and it is good for us to acknowledge our dependence on Him!

Pray With Thanksgiving, Believing That God Will Answer Your Prayer

When we pray with thankfulness in our heart, we are demonstrating our faith. We believe that the problem is licked, and we are going to over­come. We have so much confidence in Almighty God, that we can smile in the midst of the storm! As we pray in this way, our hearts are lightened. We begin to realize that our problems with the things of this earth just aren’t that impor­tant, when compared with eternity. 

Here Is A Good Place To Introduce Romans 8:28.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [His] purpose.

Do you recognize this? All things work together for good, if you believe this, you can rest! In fact, you are resting! If you can’t rest, let me ask a question, “Do you love God?” Remember, the promise is “To those that love God”,

Read John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”

Do you “keep His words.” If your answer is no, this may be the problem. Jesus said this is the proof of our love to God; Keeping His words!

Let your request be known to God.

Even though the Lord knows all things, He expects us to make our requests known to Him. In this way, we acknowledge the Lord God as our heavenly Father. We let Him know that we trust and depend on Him.

Praying also gives us a close communion with the living God! What a privilege, to be able to carry our problems to a God who loves us, and is able (unlike idols), to help us! If you choose to worry instead of praying, you only cheat yourself!

If you obey Philippians 4:6, you can expect to see the reality of Philippians 4:7 in your life.

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. “

Watch this, the problem is still laid out in front of you, it didn’t change, but somehow you have a deep abiding peace that is guarding your heart and mind. It is difficult to understand this peace from the world's point of view. In fact, you can’t understand it. It is flowing all over you, and it is wonderful. This peace that passes understand­ing is from God, the result of trusting in God as our Father.

This is faith to receive and BELIEVE the promis­es of our God.

You must remember that every triumph of Holy men of old was always accomplished by and through faith. Small insignificant men rose to great heights, not because they had greatness in them, but because they had great faith in the living and Almighty God!

A few examples of this that you may meditate upon.

1. 1 Samuel 14:1-23 Jonathan

2. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 David

3. 1 Samuel 17:20-53 David

There are many, many more examples.

 

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The Silent Preacher # 13

God's Precious Promises

2 Peter 1:3-4 “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything per­taining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

What are these precious promises?

First of all, you must settle the question of whether or not God has spoken, and made promises to man. We know by a law of our nature, that whatever God has promised He will do! Our confidence in the promise of any being cannot be the result of the promise itself, we can only have confidence in the promise of any being in direct proportion as we have confi­dence in his character; therefore our natures affirm that God cannot lie, that He must be a God of truth. No man ever doubted this, really nor could any man honestly doubt it. You must remember, one of the attributes of God is that He is perfect!

When God promises something . . .

Because of the truthful nature and Holiness of God, we must believe that :

1. God will perform any promise that He makes.

2. That when He makes a promise, that promise is a direct revelation of His will.

3. Since God is Almighty, nothing but our unbelief can stop His promise from com­ing to fruition.

The promises of God are given to us on the condition of our faith, we must operate believing not unbelieving!

“Jesus Christ Is The Promise of God“

Jesus is our Savior, God sent Him into the world to affect our salvation. This is the reason that Jesus said what He did in John 15:5 . . .

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit;

for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

The true beginning of your victory in God will be the moment you truly apprehend and believe this great truth from the crown of your head to the tip of your toe! No true and lasting changes will take place in your life until you receive this most important truth! Mental assent will not do here, you must understand that until Christ is in reality your life, you are incapable of doing anything of value. The reason is, until we have the life of Christ, all we have is the life of a fallen unregener­ate creature at our disposal. You cannot do or say anything of Eternal value until Jesus Christ has a true birth in you! This is the bottom Line, and it can't be changed.

The Promises

Accidents, Change and Happenstance

Many people worry about things that “might happen,” sometimes, they can't sleep at night. Does this happen to you? It doesn't have to, if you believe one of the most versatile promises that God has given us. Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

If you believe this, you can rest! In fact, you are resting! God has told us that no matter what happens, He will work it out for “Good.” Do you “Know this,” if you do, it will change your entire life! This kind of resignation is especially important to have when: You lose your job, and your car breaks down on the way home; or when you are late for work, and the traffic is especially slow. No matter what happens, it is God's will for your life! God will make even the very things that seem like a catastrophe work out for good. God really meant ALL THINGS!

Always remember and impress it upon your mind deeply, that no circumstance of life is for the purpose of enjoyment, nor are they to make your life unnecessarily difficult, truly all condi­tions and circumstances of this life are a trial, a test! Here is the reason for the trials that God allows to come into our lives Romans 8:29. “For whom He foreknew, He also predes­tined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . .

A Familiar Promise

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 16:3 Most people today do not understand what this promise means, what the Apostle meant is made clear in the last verse of this chapter John 3:36. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Unfortunately the King James Bible does not use the correct meaning of the Greek word for believe, in this case, the word is “apeitheoin” the meaning is to disbelieve (willfully and perversely) not believe, be disobedient, obey not, unbelieving. Jesus taught us this very definition when he asked the question in Luke 6:46 "And why do you call Me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?”

True faith always ends in true obedience!

Another powerful Scripture that explains this to us is found in 1 John 2:3-6 “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

Now use all of the finesse of interpretation you will, put the blinders on your eyes, shut your ears, but it's too late, you have just read the will of God in this matter and your conscience will never be at peace, from this time on and forever more, because now you know that this is true!

More Promises

Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Now you may say “This is a commandment, not a promise!” But remember, whenever God com­mands us to do something He is making us a promise, that  WE CAN DO IT!

Worry

Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Here is our Biblical promise of never having a necessity of worrying. The habit of many is to worry and fret about everything. God is telling us to take all of our anxieties to Him in prayer and we shall have peace in the midst of the problem! Peter also encourages us by saying . . . .    

  “Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.”

Fear

John gives us the antidote for all fear by telling us . . “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punish­ment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” Jesus has something to say on the subject of fear: "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He then tells us to fear nothing else in this world but the losing of our souls by saying . . "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.

More from Jesus

"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. Do not be anxious then, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `With what shall we clothe ourselves?' For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteous­ness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Nothing needs to be added, I believe Jesus said it better than anyone else could, and it does not need to be explained! The only thing that it needs is this, It only needs to be believed!

The Greatest Promise Of All

Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

And again in the book of Acts . . “And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

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The Silent Preacher # 14

Almost Persuaded

Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

This, unfortunately is the way most pro­fessing Christians are, and the problem is that they don't know it! Jesus has taught many, many things in the Gospels. Many people, who wouldn't think of missing a Church meeting, do not obey His com­mandments, nor do they see them as being important. They instead, go about keeping within the guide lines of the particular denomination that they are af­filiated with! The things that are taboos in their fellowship they try to distance themselves from, but whatever is prac­ticed they feel comfortable doing, EVEN THOUGH in many cases JESUS CHRIST SAID NOT TO!

Professing Christians don't seem to see the importance of the words and commands of Jesus, let's look at what He said about this: Luke 6:46. "And why do you call Me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?”

Matthew 24:35. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

John 6:68. “Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

John 14:24. "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.”

John 15:7. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”

Matthew 7:24. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.”

Matthew 7:26. "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."

Matthew 12:37. "For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned."

Listen to what King Agrippa said in Acts 26: 28. “And Agrippa replied to Paul, "In a short time you will persuade me to be­come a Christian." We have no record of this coming about, the time evidently didn't come for this King to be persuaded, but the question now before us is this,

Are you persuaded?

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"

Everything about this question endows it with solemn interest and presses us to ask “What does it mean?”

Escape what? If we neglect so great a salvation, what shall we fall prey to?

The question itself implies that there is a danger of something, and presupposes that you are likely to neglect it, and if you do, you will certainly fall into danger. The question implies that we must be saved from something; that we must make an effort to receive this salvation; and if we don't we will be utterly destroyed!

God has made great sacrifices, and in this has demonstrated His sincerity. As the Scripture says in Romans 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” God's love has already given us all things necessary for our salvation, 2 Peter 1: 3. “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godli­ness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

Do you have the feeling that you are waiting for something to happen and that when it happens you will be ready to be serious before God, are you thinking that at that time you can completely dedicate yourself to God? If this is your case, if you feel this way you are living in great deception, you are in deep trouble and don't even know it! You are not waiting on God, GOD is waiting on you! Wake up, and realize that the old Devil has you just where he wants you, waiting for something to happen that is not going to ever happen!

Hebrews 3:13-15 “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end; While it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'' What does this saying mean, "TODAY is the day of salvation!" Do you find yourself thinking, “I Know I'm Not Quite Right With God!” all you are saying when you say this is that you do not have a pure conscience before God, and this is dangerous. Listen to the Apostle Paul: Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And also, 1 Corinthians 9:23 “ And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.”

Is Philippians 1:21 true in your life? It should be and can be, the only thing that is needed is for you to desire it! Yes this is true, we as human beings only go after the things we desire, this is a sort of law, like the law of gravity. Be certain of this, if you do not desire to follow Christ into His humility, meekness and patience, you never will! If this desire is not a deep desire of your heart you will continue on the broad road that leads to death. Many people live in a fantasy world, inside of their own minds, they tell themselves the things they want to believe, this type of thinking will keep you in bondage all of your natural life here on earth. Again I say WAKE UP, is it as true in your life as it was in Paul's life, that for you to live is Christ, and to die will be gain?

Acts 28:24 “And some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.” Which group are you like? Are you being persuaded by what is being said in this little tract, or do you not believe the things that are being said here? Listen to Jesus, and be persuaded, the Gospel of Jesus is not a “Simple, all you have to do is thing. The gospel demands a complete change in your life. You might ask “What change, what does Jesus demand to see changed in my life?” The answer is easy enough, He wants to see everything changed in our lives; He wants the very foundation of our lives changed! Listen to some of these demands: Matthew 5:48. "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Does this sound like a simple little “All you have to do thing?” At first glance doesn't it sound impossible to you, and without God's help, God's miraculous work in our lives, it would be impossible and it would never be done. But hold on to this for it is very important, this is what our Lord demands, and therefore this is what He will bring about!

Another one: Matthew 14:33. "So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

Does this sound like a “No sweat thing” a little simple, easy all you have to do thing? Again, not to me, Jesus is demanding a complete overthrow of all selfishness in our lives. Are you starting to see that the Gospel is only “Good news” to those that are truly tired of the life they now have, and are willing to give up their life as Jesus demanded in Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” These are the very words of our Redeemer. Unless we deny our “self-life” we will lose our chance of gaining the true life. The reason for this is simple, and if you have really studied the Word of God you already know the answer to this question. Galatians 5:16-17 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” You can see by these very clear words, that the old nature, or flesh, sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. The Scripture tells us here that as long as we have not died to the self-life “We cannot do the things that we please” This experience be­comes known to everyone who tries to follow the will of God, without first truly having a birthing of the Lamb of God take place in themselves. All you will find happening is the experience that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans chapter seven; this is called the “Romans seven” experience, this experience brings us to realize that we are truly  wretched! Romans 7:24 "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"  Nothing but a full birth, and a continual breathing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit in us, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.

This is the whole labor of a preacher to the end of the world. He has nothing to preach to sinners, but the absolute necessity, and the true way of being born again from above. If he doesn't do this one thing that is so necessary, but instead, starts disputing about words and doctrines, and teaches professing Christians to be zealously separated from one another, for the sake of being saved by different opinions of faith, works, justification, or election, etc., he has forgotten his errand, and has become a blind leader of the blind. For all that is called faith, works, justification, sanctification, or election are only different expressions of the restored Divine life, and what it does in us. It can have no existence in you, until you have become a new creature in Christ. When preach­ers forsake the true Gospel and instead argue about doctrines this is what oftentimes happens. Ephesians 4:18. "Being darkened in their un­derstanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness."

Again Jesus said in: Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Take notice of the fact that many will be on the broad road that leads to destruction; few will find, and stay on the road that is narrow and leads to life. Be honest with me here, does all of this really sound easy to you? We must enter a new life, a new way of thinking and a new way of doing, we can't take along any of our “old ways” on this narrow road for they just won't fit!

Many people read this potion of Scripture and really don't even think of what the Savior of the world is saying. He is saying that it is difficult to give up our old ways, it is not easy to follow Christ. At the same time He is saying that it is easy for you to stay the way you are, selfish, wrathful, envious and proud, self-willed, false, and conceited. We can have all of these tempers in place in our lives and yet be absolutely shocked when we are accused of having even one of these attributes! This is why it is so easy for people to profess to being a Christian and yet posses none of Christ! We fool ourselves by not seeing ourselves as we truly are. Who would not want to get off of a road that they knew led to destruction? The reason we stay on the road to destruction so long is because we don't realize that we are on it, unfortunately, some stay on it their entire life!

Please look at this next Scripture and allow God's Holy Spirit to elucidate it to your mind. Matthew 7:17-23 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Jesus the Son of God is telling us that if His fruit is in us, it can never be bad fruit, it must always be “Good fruit,” and if we have not been converted then the fruit of our lives is always bad fruit. Jesus is warning us that if we have a practice of lawlessness, which is to say a practice of sin in our lives, we will be told distinctly that He never knew us, and for us to depart from His presence! Understand what He is saying here, these people that He used in this illustration were people that had prophesied in the name of Jesus, and in His name had cast out demons, and in His name had perform many miracles! These people were not just pew warmers, they had power with God, but were still in the practice of sinning. (lawlessness)

You won't want to hear the Lord of Glory Jesus Christ say these things to you. These words of Jesus are clarified in 1 John chapter 3, starting with 5. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. How clear is John's message to the Church, Jesus came to take away sin, has your sin been taken away, or are you still practicing sin? Are you abiding in Him? I ask this because anyone and everyone who is abiding in Him does not have a practice of sin in their lives! The Apostle John said: “No one who abides in Him sins.” If you do practice sin then, you don't know Him!

“No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.”

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The Silent Preacher # 15

Noah's Ark

We have been given an account of the life of Noah in the book of Genesis, in which we learn of the wickedness of mankind.

Genesis 6:5-6 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” We have the record of God that His righteous creation had become very wicked! And this grieved God very much, “The thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God is Holy, and He created man Holy, and God wanted man to continue in His Holiness.

Man had corrupted the entire earth, the purpose of God in man's creation had been defeated, so God saw the need to start over. Genesis 6:11 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Now at this point God is about to change things because God is love, and God wants His creation to be happy and blessed, so He had to start over. That is what the account of Noah is all about, God's new start with mankind. Genesis 6:13-14 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.”

God made a way of deliverance for mankind, because He wanted man to live and be happy, not cursed!

Let's go back to the sixth day of creation:

Genesis 1:27 “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Notice all that God had done, He created man in His own image, a Holy being to walk after God's own Divine nature. Remember God is love, man was made in the image of God so we can say truthfully that man was formed in and for love! Look at what God saw after He created all of the things of the earth and in the earth.

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

This is how Adam started out

Adam and Eve broke the only commandment that God had given them, they took of the forbidden fruit of the tree. Eve was deceived in all of this, but Adam wasn't; he knew it was wrong! “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Genesis 3:16-17

Notice the reason God gave to them for not eating of the forbidden tree, because it would cause them to die to the presence of God's Divine Spirit, it was not a physical death, but a spiritual death, a death from the Divine essence of God's Spirit, and this is exactly what happened to them! In that spiritual death Adam and Eve lost all of the Divine presence and fruit of God's Spirit. From this point on, they were incapable of living in the capacity, or for the purpose that God intended. God set about to remedy this problem, you see God had enough devils, He wanted more Angels, He created Adam to bring forth a new people with Heavenly, Not Demonic attributes! 777 Italics

Yes, this was Adam's fall, he fell from being a Divine being, God could no longer make this statement about His creation “Behold, it was very good.” Something happened, man had died to the Divine presence of God, he was no longer like God, nor was he in God's own likeness, a living, finite reflection of the Divine Nature. This was his fall, and ours as well since we were in Adam as a seed when he fell.

Genesis chapter six shows us just how bad mankind became “The thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God could not and still cannot abide with this kind of behavior!

Now it is evident that all of the blame can be traced back to Adam and Eve, not God, God had created them “good” not evil, THEY CHOSE to become self-willed, this happened when they did the opposite of what God had commanded them to do. They took from the tree of “good and evil” and died to all of the Divine nature that God had placed within them. Learn from this, don't listen to that serpent of old, listen only to God, this is what Jesus did. John 8:28 Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” And again:

John 5:19. “Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”

It is plain that Jesus understood that only the Father from above is to be obeyed, The Devil tried many times with many temptations to get Jesus to repeat the awesome mistake that Adam and Eve made, but Jesus stood victorious against the “Old serpent!” We need to follow the same example that Jesus Christ set for us.

God isn't going to start all over again, He is very soon going to end this world of corruption and take out of it only one entity, His bride the true Church, this Church won't be any certain denomination, it will be comprised only of Holy sanctified believers.

What a true Christian believer isn't like

I will do this by describing in detail the things that a true believer doesn't have in their lives:

1. They are not self-willed.

2. They are not selfish.

3. They don't envy others.

4. They have no pride.

5. They are not wrathful or hateful, nor vain.

6. They live without malice.

7. They are not sensual.

8. Guile is never in their mouths.

9. They have no falseness.

10. They are not covetous.

11. They are definitely not worldly-minded.

12. Their souls are not in any torment.

13. They are not envious.

14. They are never conceited.

15. And of course they don't love self-esteem.

This is not the complete list, but it should serve to give you an idea of what the true sanctified Christian man or woman is like.

To understand the make-up of a fallen soul all you have to do is look over the list you just read and reverse the statements, if it said they are not, realize that the fallen soul is.

The fallen soul whether or not they pretend to be a Christian will have these types of fruit in their lives:

1. They all will be self-willed.

2. They will be selfish.

3. They will envy others.

4. They will have pride.

5. They will be wrathful and hateful at times.

6. They will be vain at times.

7. They will have malice at times.

8. They will be sensual.

9. Guile will be a part of their lives

10. You will be able to find falseness in them.

11. They will be covetous.

12. They will definitely be worldly-minded.

13. Their souls will oftentimes be in torment.

14. They will be envious,

15. They will be conceited at times.

16. And most will love self-esteem.

I am not saying that all of these attributes will be evident all of the time, but at times you will see many of these attributes in their lives!

First of all, why did God choose Noah?

The Scripture answers this question for us in Genesis 7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.” Do you see how God makes decisions like this? God in the beginning of His creation wanted a people that were a duplicate of His nature, because His nature is perfect, and good. But, man chose to be self-willed and not live according to the nature that God had originally given them, as recorded in Genesis chapter three! And after six short chapters of the Bible we find that all men, except Noah, had become very corrupt and evil. God in His infinite wisdom saw that there was only one thing He could do that would be successful, and that was to start over with the only man that was not corrupt and evil, which was Noah, God included his family as well.

Noah went through in faith

Listen to what the Bible says about this man Noah, Genesis 6:22. “Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” This same thought is repeated in Genesis 7:5. “And Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.” Do you see Noah's obedience, when you do, you are really seeing Noah's faith!

True faith always pro­duces true obedience! Noah built an ark, a large boat, where no large body of water had ever existed, this is faith. Noah endured all of the jokes that the people of this world dished out; this was faith. Noah preached a message of righteousness to the people of this world only to receive back ridicule and debasement from them. God told Noah to collect a few of each kind of the land animals that existed on the earth, and bring them into the ark, imagine bringing in snakes, lions and tigers! This was of course another example of Noah's faith in action.

Noah Always did according to all that God had commanded him.

Many people do not realize that his obedience to God in all of these marvelous things was the result of his believing God; when we don't obey God it is always because we don't believe God, we think to ourselves “I don't have to do this God's way, and everything will still work out all right.”

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

This is an interesting Scripture, for, in it, we can see the difference between believing, and obeying, disbelieving and disobeying!

*NOTE IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE, THE WORD “BELIEVE” IS USED IN BOTH PLACES. THE SECOND TIME THE WORD “BELIEVE” IS USED IT IS ACTUALLY A DIFFERENT GREEK WORD, AND THIS GREEK WORD MEANS TO OBEY. Most of the newer translations have caught this error. The translators of the King James Bible apolo­gized for the rush job they were forced to do translating the King James version of the Bible. Until the Civil war, the translator's notes were in the King James Bible, in these notes the translators gave an admonition for us to read other versions of the Bible as well, because of the hurried way that they were forced to do their translating. This note placed in the King James Bible by the translators has been removed! I wonder who it was that made the decision to remove such an important note from the very men that did the translation of the King James Bible. Also, what could have been their motive for removing the translator's notes?

Back to faith

Hebrews11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

And again in Matthew 24:37-41 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left”

The Apostle Peter had something to say about Noah: 2 Peter 2:4-5 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.”

This is the same thing that is going on now, I believe that this world is just about as corrupt now as it was then. The only difference is that God has His Church, the bride of Jesus Christ is being taken out of the world, and this has been happening for the last two thousand years. Can you see that we must in the same way as Noah did, believe (obey) God, and do what God says to do whether or not we understand it?

Are you in the process of building your ark? I don't mean a boat, I mean are you doing the things that God has told you to do, or are you being disobedient? We have the above warning in the book of Matthew, the warning is clear, we will all be going about our daily lives, and suddenly everything will be over for us. This can happen in two different ways, the first as described in Matthew 24:37. The second way it can happen is this: You might be going about your day's business, sudden­ly you feel a great pain in the middle of your chest. People start asking you what is wrong, but just as suddenly you are no longer in your body, for your spirit has been separated from your body, this is what death is. The people around your dead body will say he has died, or she has died! But you will know that you are not dead, you are simply no longer in your body, you won't even know exactly where you are.

This second scenario can have many different ways of coming about, for instance: you might be walking somewhere and a car might come careen­ing around a corner and hit you. We don't know how our life is going to end, and we don't know When our life will end. About the only thing we can be sure of is that our life on earth WILL end!

When this happens you will be willing to give up everything you have on this earth to have a second chance at living your life correctly. News flash!!! You actually have that second chance, right this very moment, but after you pass from this life into eternity you will never have another chance!

Believe God and repent of your self-willed way of life, follow Noah's example and look carefully at the commandments of Jesus Christ.

AND DO THEM!

Today is the day of salvation. Don't look around for someone to help you, you know if you have a selfish heart, a worldly spirit, a love of esteem and pride in your life. You and only you can form the words or groans of prayer that can reach the throne of God; the only thing you really need is a contrite and broken heart about the way you have treated God and your fellow man. DO IT NOW!

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 The Silent Preacher # 16

True Conversion

The foundation, the whole nature of the Christian religion rests upon two secretive pillars, which are,

   1) The greatness of our fall.

   2) The greatness of our redemption.

Some people, not many, see the greatness of our fall but then do not come to understand the great­ness of our redemption. Until both of these great truths have awakened, and opened our minds for the full reception of Divine light, all reformation and pretence to change, is only a dead and superfi­cial thing, a mere garment of hypocrisy,

Let’s start with the greatness of our fall.

When you see, that sin begins with your first decisions formed from self-will, and that it rises up in the essence of your nature, and lives in the very form of your life, and that you are chained in the very jaws of death and hell, as unable to alter your own state, as to rise and fly by flapping your arms. Until you understand this truth, living the Christian life can only be pretended. After you truly understand this truth you will not from this point on be able to attribute any degree of good to yourself anymore than you would try to take credit for the creation of the world.

The Greatness Of Our Redemption.

And now with this knowledge you need to see that the free grace of God has provided you with a remedy that is greater than all of your problems. The reason the blood had to flow from the cross was to cleanse you from all sin; yes, God has given you freely of the holy blood and life of Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, to enter as deeply into your soul, as sin has entered, to change the very form and essence of your life, and bring forth in you a new birth of the Divine Nature of the Living God! And all of this is done by God, we have but little to do with it, other than to want it with all of our hearts. When we truly desire to be set free from sin, then our repentance is real and acceptable to God. Repenting is our part; it is our main part in God’s plan of

Redemption; we must see our fallen, miserable, ungodly state, and with all of our heart want it to be changed and then we can start walking holy before our God. He can, and will do all of this for us, and only He can bring this about by His infinite power.

The Start Of True Christianity

After repenting God will put His Spirit in you, this is the start of Jesus Christ ruling in your life! Our lives consist of covetousness, pride, wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation, until a humility comes into us from above in the form of Jesus Christ ruling in our hearts. Pride is the father and mother of wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation. Whenever pride is alive in you the rest of this ungodly crowd is also alive in you, whether or not you realize it. Humility is the exact opposite of pride and is the real proof that conversion has taken place in you (that Christ is in you of a truth.) After you are converted your soul will now find God to be all love, and your soul will have only one desire, and that is, to be itself all love to God and man. This is the conviction that brings about conversion and it arises from an inward awareness of these truths.

Every man that has ever lived, has Jesus Christ for their Savior, and none other; they can receive the promise made to Adam, and receive through that promise, the same thing that Adam received from it, which is a seed of the woman, an incorruptible seed of life, springing up in the essence of their life, which will oppose and resist the seed of the serpent, which is the diabolical nature that is in all of us.

Remember, the soul is only so far cleansed from its corruption, and delivered from the power of sin, and purified, as it has renounced all of its own will, and desire to have things. When it wants to be nothing but what the will of God chooses it to be, and have. This might be hard for you to understand, but, it is true and in time you will realize it.

A few Scriptures to point out these great truths.

 John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” And Mark 4:19 And the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Today’s “Christless Christianity”

For the last hundred plus years Christianity has been drifting away from the true and living Christ. Turn the clock back before the Civil War and you will see a very different Christianity. When someone came to Christ they would kneel down at the altar until a change took place in their lives, a change that was evident and didn’t need assurance from others. They wouldn’t get off of their knees until the Prince of Peace came into their lives and they had the witness of God’s Spirit in their lives, which is peace, patience, meekness and humility! Compare that with today’s “All you have to do – Burger King religion,” you know what I mean, I believe the phrase is “Have it your way.”  Believe me this is not the Christianity of the Bible.

A Few Scriptures To Point Out These Truths.

Deuteronomy 4:29 "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, And to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

God has not stopped wanting this last commandment of His to be obeyed by us, but only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring about this true Christianity, which is obedience to God.

Matthew 5:48 tells us the same thing in a nutshell. "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the will of God for us all. Many have said, “I can’t be as perfect as God is perfect,” but, in reality all they

are saying is that God can’t bring about this type of obedience in us. The creator of the universe can’t do this? ? ? ?

This is very typical of the way people set aside the commandments of God, for shame! If we can’t obey God in this commandment then God is being unjust to command us to do something that is impossible to do. Please remember what the Bible says about God - Matthew 19:26 “And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible."

The truth is most people that go to Church and participate in the things of God operate in unbelief most of the time, so it is easy for them to “walk by sight” and say “I can’t” when in reality, the truth is they just don’t want to!

This is what should be done, look at every commandment that God has given us, and if it looks impossible, realize that God can, and will do what He promises. I have always viewed Matthew 5:48 as a promise, not a command!

One Of The Problems Of Today

Most people have been taught that they must sin each and every day in word, thought, and deed. Now after the Devil programs people to believe something like this, it is very difficult for them to take seriously all of the manifold commandments of God to walk without sin. A few examples –

John 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you."

Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? Notice that continuing in willful sin is trampling under foot the Son of God, and insulting the Spirit of grace

1John 2: 3-6 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. God is saying here the proof is obedience!

1John 3:4-6 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. If we still practice sin we don’t know Him (Jesus)

1John 3:8 The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

This is a little sample of what God has to say about Christians sinning; none of the above Scriptures give us a license to sin. Jesus came to save us from sin, (Matthew 1:21.) If selfishness (SIN) in any form still rules in your heart my friend you need to be saved!

How can a person truly receive this great salvation?

The first step in receiving the victorious Christian life is repentance, without truly repenting of being the boss of your own life you will be like the sow, after washing, always returning and wallowing in the mire. Most people when told they need to repent think about some great and damning sin that they are under bondage to practice. They tell the Lord that they won't do it anymore, and for the most part they are sincere, tears flowing, heart broken before God's throne, but in a few weeks or days they are having problems with that same sin again! What is wrong here? It is really very simple, they were sincere but

did not look in faith to the God of all power, the God of all grace, and went in their own strength and their own power to conquer the enemy of their soul. You must understand the biggest enemy of your soul is your selfish self; yes just look into the mirror and you will see the real and powerful enemy of your soul, YOU!

Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. The Apostle Paul is telling us here the same thing that Jesus said in John 3:3-7 You see, in order to be born again, you must give up your first life, you must deny it, you must die to it, or you can't be truly born again.

In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” We are saved by faith; we must believe the Gospel and all of the promises we find in God's Holy Word! Here is one my favorites. Ezekiel 36:25-27  25:"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all; God will remove all of the idols in our life! He promises to do this because He and He alone is our Savior. If God does not deliver us from our sin and the idols in our lives, no one else can.

26: "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Then God promises to remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart; this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of all love removes this rebellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable heart.        

27: "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive, God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. In verse 27 "And cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them."

Yes, God has promised to cause us to walk Holy!

The Steps To Holiness

1.  Seeing that we are living wrong.

2.  Repenting.  (Stop sinning, turn from it)

3.  Believing that God is stronger and more powerful than our sinful life.

4.  Consecration, a life of prayer.

 

We have covered the first three, now we will look at Consecration.

Consecration

This is the last part of God’s work in our lives while we are here on earth, to bring us into a consecrated life, a life lived for others as Jesus Christ demonstrated everyday He lived here on earth. He lived for God’s glory and the redemption of mankind. He is truly our example. 1 Peter 2:21-24 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” This Scripture clearly shows us the will of God for our lives, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Peter had another thought on God’s will for

our lives and it is this; 1 Peter 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.  Prayerfully read these Scriptures again starting with 1 Peter 2:21. Allow God’s Spirit to speak to you; He will, if you allow Him to!  (Prayer)

We must be fruitful, it is God’s will for our lives; for just as God loves you and is at this very moment trying to redeem, fulfill or consecrate and bless you, this He also wants to do for everyone, and He wants you, after you have been filled with His Spirit to live for the same purpose that Christ lived for, to seek the lost and introduce them to the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. You must have no other purpose in your life but to live as a Holy vessel completely given over to God.  (Prayer)

John 15:5-6 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (Pray)

You must deny yourself and pick up your cross if you want to be His disciple. Matthew (16:24) You must understand Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Pray)

Without dying to your self-life you will never be fruitful, YOU MUST LIVE TO LOVE EVERYONE YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH, FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOUR LIFE, TO LIVE FOR OTHERS.  (Prayer)

This is the purpose of your life after you have been sanctified, to lead others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! This can only be done as you give of yourself by suffering in the flesh.  (Prayer)

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 The Silent Preacher # 17

God Seems Far Away!         

This small tract has been written to show believers why at times they have doubts about whether or not they are where they should be with God.

Jesus has given us a great deal of good advice about how to live a life that is pleasing to God, some of what He said was by way of commandment. I will deal with one of the most difficult commandments for humans to understand and do.

Giving Up All Our Possessions

"So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Luke 14:33

This at first glance seems to be a “hard saying” but it is a must for all people to accept if they want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This principle is not often taught in the denominational churches today, and so it seems to be “a little over the edge.” At first glance it seems to be fanatical, but it isn’t, it is a distinct command of the one who was sent with no other purpose but to save us!

We were born into this world unregenerate and lost, this can be said another way by saying, we were born into this world selfish, very selfish! This is the main difference between a person who is regenerated and one who is unregenerate, “selfishness.” The Lord must deal with this, and He does in all of His teachings, especially His sermon on the mount.

Almost all of the time when a believer feels like they are at a distance from God you can be sure that they have recently exercised selfishness of some sort or the other.

A Few Other Scriptures That Confirm This Fact

Luke 12:33-34 "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Acts 2:44-45 And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; “And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

Acts 4:32-35 “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles' feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need.”

This wasn’t some wild sort of enthusiasm that took possession of the first believers; this was the Spirit and will of God that had taken possession of them. This was not only the birth of Christianity, but also the birth of a new type of God’s creation, a people void of selfishness! I have heard many preachers discussing the early Church and stating that they believe that it was all too enthusiastic, and they point out that it doesn’t happen today. It is true for the most part that it ended, but when it ended, so did the true witness of the true Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! What we see in the early chapters of the book of Acts is God’s pattern for the Church and for all believers! We have never known a time of such Spiritual power in the Church as took place at that time. Don’t allow any devil to tell you that what is going on today in the Church is superior to what had taken place in the early Church, because that is a lie!

Let’s examine what the Apostle Paul taught in Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Notice the urgency in what he is saying, “I urge you therefore” he is urging us because of the importance of the issue. Also he uses the phrase “By the mercies of God” This phrase is used because the Apostle  knows that if it wasn’t for the “mercies of God” we

would never really do it. And what is it he wants us to do? To present our bodies as a “living and holy sacrifice” take note of the word  “sacrifice”

1.        Giving up what you want so that other people can have what they want.

2.        Giving up or forfeiting something valuable for the sake of another person.

3.        Destruction or surrender of something for the sake of someone else.

4.        A loss entailed by giving up or selling something at less than its value.

5.        To give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person.

I used five different dictionaries to show the meaning of what the Apostle is saying. God is telling us in Romans 12:1-2 that we must give up our lives as a LIVING, HOLY, SACRIFICE.

This is not something new in the Gospel, for Jesus already commanded us to do this very thing in Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34 and also here in Luke 9:23-24 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it“ All three of the parallel Gospels have this command, Matthew, Mark, and Luke!

Denying our self is really what being a Christian is all about; without denying ourselves, we are no different than all of the unregenerate people of this world. God wants us to be a light in this very dark world that we live in. Matthew 5:13-18

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. (Jesus is saying that if we lose our savor, unconditional love, we are worthless!) "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house”. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.  "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” (This is the point of Jesus coming to reunite us in loving obedience to God, our Father!) "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.”

Can you see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a license to sin with impunity, but a license to be free from sin and to be a light to others that live in this very dark world?

Luke 12:15 And He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."

Luke 12:33-34 "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Acts 2:44-45 And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; “And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

Acts 4:32-35 “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles' feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need.”

The reason for Giving Up All Our Possessions

This command seems unfair in the beginning of our walk with God, but this is because of the deeply rooted selfishness that is embedded so very deep within our heart. Until the light of His glory shines into our hearts we will never even know that it is

there. It is very important that you see the depth of God’s love toward us, for it is this very love that draws us into a repentance that we shall never repent of. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”2 Corinthians 7:10

Look at what God has done for us, He created us, in the beginning, Holy beings, but our original father and mother Adam and Eve sinned, they fell from the high place of glory that God had ordained for them. When we are born we all choose to be in a state of consecrated selfishness, we do not have to be taught how to be selfish, selfishness is the natural choice of our lives until a humility that comes down from above is born within us.

As a rule we go about life unaware that we are so selfish, which is easy, because most of the people in this world, rich and poor, black or white, and every other color in between, are also naturally, very selfish. It matters not our nationality, we won’t yield to God, as a rule, until by some calamity we discover the wretched state that we are in. Sometimes by making a perfect mess of our lives, generally by running off our spouse or ruining a relationship with someone who is dear to us; or, perhaps by ruining ourselves financially, then we, with our pride temporarily shattered, turn an ear and perhaps even an eye in the direction of God.

God always has His ears and His eyes in our direction because of His great love with which He loves all of us. He only needs our permission to come into our life and perform His miracles of life, which can transform us into a perfect, living example of Jesus Christ.

God requires one great thing from us in order to perform His miracles of life, and this one thing is repentance, turning from our sin in shame and disgust, and wanting to be as Holy as our God is Holy! When we see our absolute need of God’s presence in our lives, we will call upon Him in truth and sincerity!

At this time, when we see the love of God in truth, we won’t want a “get-out-of-Hell-free card!” We will only be satisfied with the continual presence

of God’s great love in our lives. As 2 Corinthians 7:10 states “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. We must all come into this state of Godly sorrow, for if we do, we have a promise from God, (and He never lies) that we will not repent of coming to God in this way. So very many people come to God for the wrong reasons; they are unhappy and want to be happy; they have very large problems that they know they cannot solve, and so they come to God; God fixes the problem, and then they don’t “need” God, and so return in their heart to the way they were before they came to God! They may continue for a while going to Church and talking the talk, but, now their heart is not in it.

We must acquire this Godly sorrow; we must see that our choices and our way of life are not good. God is everything, He is just, He is love, He is mercy, He is gentleness, He is patience, He is meekness, He is humility, He is faithfulness, He is.  .  .  I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

Consecration

This is the last part of God’s work in our lives while we are here on earth, to bring us into a consecrated life, a life lived for others as Jesus Christ demonstrated everyday He lived here on earth. He lived for God’s glory and the redemption of mankind. He is truly our example. 1 Peter 2:21-24 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” This Scripture clearly shows us the will of God for our lives, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Peter had another thought on God’s will for our lives and it is this; 1 Peter 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. Prayerfully read these Scriptures again starting with 1 Peter 2:21. Allow God’s Spirit to speak to you; He will, if you allow Him to! (Prayer is so very important!)

We must be fruitful, it is God’s will for our lives; for just as God loves you and is at this very moment trying to redeem, fulfill or consecrate and bless you,  He also wants to do this for everyone, and He wants you, after you have been filled with His Spirit, to live for the same purpose that Christ lived for, to seek the lost and introduce them to the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. You must see God’s purpose for your life as the most important and never allow any other purpose in your life but this, to be about your Father’s business and live as a Holy vessel completely filled with the presence of God. 

Why We Must Give Up All Of Our Possessions

Our hearts and minds must be on the things above, not on the things of this earth.  Colossians 3:1-17 “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father”

Let go of everything your eyes can see, for they are of this earth, earthy, and really worthless in comparison with the things that are above. If you don’t do this you will never be fruitful in God’s Kingdom. Selfishness wants to have everything for itself; love wants others to receive. Don’t hold on to a bag of garbage and have your hands so full that you can’t hold on to God’s Kingdom, for this would be a great mistake! Fix your eyes on things above!

Fruitfulness

Luke 13:6-9  . . ."A certain man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, and did not find any. "And he said to the vineyard-keeper, `Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?'  "And he answered and said to him, `Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;  and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.'"

Are you like this fig tree? How many years has it been since you professed a relationship in Christ? (The Vine) God has, and is doing everything in order for you to bear fruit, When will He say of you CUT IT DOWN!

 

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The Silent Preacher # 18

                                     Which Road Are You ON?

 

There are two gates, Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”

There are two gates, one is wide and very pleasing to our flesh, we can do what we wish on this road, we can pretend to be Christians on this road, and we can entertain all sorts of thoughts and plans while on this road. But this road leads us to hell and after that, the lake of fire. The other gate is strait and narrow, somewhat difficult to get on and difficult to stay on. This road is most difficult for our flesh, our “old man” doesn’t like this road, but it leads to Heaven, the Lord Jesus, and our Heavenly Father. Some might say it isn’t difficult to get on the road to life and stay on it, but then they will be disagreeing with the Lord Jesus Christ on this point, for it was He who said “And few are those who find it.” We have a great many Scriptures that warn us to be diligent in this for instance, 2 Peter 1:10-11 “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

Take note of the fact that it is easy to end up in hell, it is difficult to end up on the right road! We have many things working against our being on the right road. I personally believe that the modern preaching is the main problem, and will be the main vehicle that the Devil continues to use to that end! For example, the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist, and all of the apostles, John, Peter, James and Paul just to name a few, taught that a man must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to receive the forgiveness of sin and be restored to our heavenly Father. Today the word repentance is played down or not used at ALL in modern evangelism. Without repenting, we will not get anywhere with God! Today’s modern evangelism has almost stopped using this word "repentance" (I think that the Devil has done his

job well,) getting the various denominations to leave off using the very act that God demands, REPENTANCE. 

Modern evangelism has also tired of preaching the law of God. Today the focus is on everything, except the one thing God designed to use in order to show us our transgressions  "The Law." It seems today that even mentioning the "law" is going against the grace of God! The greatest preacher of all times, Jesus Christ, preached the LAW. Jesus wasn't afraid to preach the law of God; He preached nothing else to get sinners to see their sin. Only the light of God's law will allow us to see the wrong in our life. We don't need a Savior until we see ourselves as sinners! And we never will see ourselves aright until the light of God's holy law is put before our face.

Read Galatians 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.” Now observe, modern evangelism has eliminated this, it refuses to use the very thing God designed to lead us to Christ. Allow me to illustrate; before I repented a man came to me and told me I was a sinner and needed Jesus! I told him he didn't know what he was talking about; I thought that I was not just a nice guy, but one of the BEST! You see the preacher was trying to sell me on my need of a Savior, before I was convicted of sin, before I saw just how lost and in danger I was.  He tried to lead me to Christ, but without showing me my SIN! 

What a victory for the Devil, convincing preachers that this "new way" of Modern evangelism is better than the way God intended. Friend, if you have been "talked into being saved" and have not seen the sin in your life, and have not repented, then you need to be saved. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:48  "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is God's standard for Christians, quite different from the standard the worldly Churches advocate. One day I met a black man by the name of Charles, I saw my sin by beholding the very image of Jesus, that shown forth in his face continually, for he walked continually with the fruit of God's Spirit evident in his life, the way he lived his life convicted me of SIN. He did not have to preach to me, for his very life was the best sermon that I have ever heard!             

The Two Roads

The easy road to follow has but few rules, you can be yourself! You can do as you please; on this road you are the most important person in the uni­verse. All other people are less important than you.

The road that Jesus traveled, the one that leads to Heaven, is a difficult road, He told us this in Mat­thew 7:14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. You must love your neighbor as you love yourself; you need to realize that God loves others as much as He loves you. He is just as interested in them as He is in you; He loves them as much as He loves you! So God expects us to live for our neighbors good as much as for our own.

Focus on the way Jesus lived, that is the way God expects you to live. Not repeating the same ministry as Jesus, for only He could do that and it is done! We are to have the same mind as Christ; 1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, be­cause he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

Something of importance that Jesus said.

Reading in Luke 10:27  “And he answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

What is it to love the Lord with all of our heart? My answer is this, when we love someone, we will find ourselves thinking on the goodness and love­liness of the one we love at all times. We will re­sist being dis­tracted from the one we love. Just as a young man, when he is in love with a young woman wants to be with her whenever possible, so it is with the person who truly loves the Lord with all of his heart. We will pray to Him at all times, and when we are not being dis­tracted by our work, our mind will be on the Lord.

The Big Difference

The big difference between a Christian and a sin­ner is, SELFISHNESS. The Christian is con­verted from a state of being consecrated to selfish­ness, to a state of being unselfish. The sinner is selfish, but often­times, does not see himself, as such. The sin prob­lem in mankind finds

its very root in selfishness. We always choose for self, our motives are always wrong until we yield to the Holy Spirit's persua­sion and our motives are changed, from selfishness to un­selfishness or love. In other words until we are "born again." 

The solution

We cannot deliver or save ourselves. We didn't call on God first, He called on us! Let’s read Ephesians 2:1-9 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the de­sires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Je­sus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness to­ward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of your­selves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

We need to see just how wrong our motives are, even when we are in the process of doing some­thing good! Yes, when selfishness is in our hearts we never really do anything from proper or pure motives, even when we try! Have you ever given something to someone, but didn't feel good about it until others found out about it! When we love our neighbor, and give him something he needs, our motive is satisfied when we see his need satisfied. We don’t need to have others know about it! 

The solution only comes when we find out this one very important fact. We can't save our­selves, we don't even want to, until God's pre­cious Holy Spirit pays a call on us. The Holy Spirit will show us our sin by means of re­vealing to our minds the holiness and goodness of God's law. By showing us Jesus Christ! When our minds fasten on the

good­ness and humility of Christ, we see ourselves as un­done, unclean, and altogether filthy. At this point we will try to reform, we try "not to sin" we try to be like Jesus.  And when we apply all of our mind and strength to this task we make a startling discov­ery, Romans 7:19 “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” We find that sin is our mas­ter; the more we struggle against it the more aware of our bondage we be­come. Now we are ready for a Savior, when we discover that we are wretched. Romans 7:24  “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” We begin to look for some power outside of ourselves! The name of this power, this power that can over­come the bondage of sin, and can deliver to the uttermost, is Jesus Christ 

How can we receive this power over sin?

By repenting of the sin attitude and all of the sin in our lives; when we repent, we can then believe that Jesus WILL save us from our SIN. And don't miss this; the very thing Jesus was sent to save us from was sin. Matthew 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His peo­ple from their sins." John 8:36 "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

The Bible tells us to deny ourselves, Luke 9:23, “And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The very root of all sin is selfishness! The fact that we deny our­selves is the proof that we have truly been born again to a new life, the very life of Jesus.

Consecration

After we are set free from the power of sin and are sanctified, then God will bring us into a consecrated life, a life lived for others just as Jesus lived while here on earth. He lived for God’s glory and the re­demption of mankind. He is truly our example.  1Peter 2:21-24 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges right­eously; and He Himself bore our sins in His

 body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” This Scripture clearly shows us the will of God for our lives, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Without dying to your self-life you will never be fruitful, you must live to love everyone you come into contact with, for this is the will of god for your life, to live for and love others. 

How to bring all of this about!

Ezekiel 36:25-27  1^st - "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.” What a promise! God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin!  But that’s not all; God will remove all of the idols in our life! 2^nd - "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will re­move the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Then God will remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our deci­sions (the decision to obey or disobey God, to live for self or to live for others.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart; this means a stubborn, rebel­lious will (heart). We won’t stop be­ing rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love re­moves this re­bellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable (heart" 3^rd - And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could pos­sibly receive! God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.)  But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be care­ful to observe My ordinances. God has com­mitted Himself to cause us to obey Him! What more need we ask of Him? This is the faith part will you be­lieve God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you place your faith in Him, now, today? Will you enter God’s rest? Please take note of the fact that, God is the one who actually does all of these things!

This is the whole purpose of your life after you have been sanctified, to lead others to the saving knowl­edge of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the example of your new and Godly life! Always live for others, always!

 

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The Silent Preacher # 19

 

19                     Everyday you are choosing life or death!

This little tract is intended only for professing Christians!

Everyday you are choosing life or death! We seem to go day-by-day, just whizzing along, but not really getting anywhere spiritually; we keep very busy, oftentimes too busy for God! I am amazed at how many people profess to being a Christian, and yet in so many ways they do not follow the Lord, but instead, they follow the principles of this world. Examine your life, yes, take a moment right now, use this little tract as a sounding board, find out how much of what you do and think is from the Lord, and is pleasing to God, and how much is of the world, and against the very precepts and teachings of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus was sent into this world with one objective, to seek and to save that which was lost! In Matthew 1:21 The Angel of the Lord told Joseph the mission of our Lord and Savior. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." When we are saved by Jesus according to Matthew 1:21, we are saved from the bondage to sin! The Lord also wants to bring each and every one of us into a life of sanctification. Of course, in order for this to happen we must have a renewed mind. Ephesians 4:23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, also Colossians 3:10. And have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.  Until we have the “renewed mind” we will not understand the will and ways of God. We will forever be substituting “busyness” for peace! Until we beg of God to give us the  “renewed mind” we will always be making the same mistakes with our spiritual life. This “renewed Mind” is the mind of Christ, for when God’s word uses the phrase “renewed mind” it is speaking of nothing else but the mind of Christ.  In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve made a choice, and the choice that they made brought death to all of us. And it is from this choice that we must be saved. Let’s take a look at the choice that they made. Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"  And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 

Notice the name of this tree, which is in the middle of the garden, the tree the Devil wanted them to eat from, the only tree in the garden that God did not want them to eat from. Genesis 2:16-17  “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."

What was the temptation the Devil tempted Eve with?  Genesis 3:5 “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Look at Eve’s response to the temptation. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” This is the choice that they made! Now she thinks that she is wise, and can decide what is good and what is evil.  But the truth is that from the time they ate of that tree that God called “The tree of knowledge of good and evil” they started looking to their own understanding, instead of looking to God to lead them. They started looking to their own wisdom! This was the beginning of “walking by sight” in place of being led by God! One of the first acts they did, can be found in Genesis 3:8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  They hid themselves from the Lord! Human thinking, great isn’t it? Running and hiding from the only one that could help them. Now because they think that they can reason as well as God, they go about living their life without looking to God for His leadership.

Let’s see what the Bible has to say about human thinking, apart from God, Proverbs 14:12  “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” You might think you know what to do, yes, you might be really sure, but remember, our thinking apart from God “is the way of death!”  Now let’s look at how Jesus operated, John 8:28. Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.  And again in John 5:30   "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Jesus did not go “the way of death!”

This is the only way we can live a holy life that is pleasing to God. We must be led of God’s Spirit, seeking God’s will, continually, from the time we awake in the morning until we go to sleep at night. The moment we start taking over in the decision-making department, we stop abiding in Christ. We cease being led of God’s Spirit, and the fountain of sin will start to flow again!

So you see, we must be saved from our self-willed way of life, our independence from God, our thinking that we can do the right thing without being led of the Spirit of God, without the wisdom of God. A better way of saying this would be for us to contradict the Devil, and confess, "Our eyes are not opened, and we are not like God, we don’t know good and evil apart from the leadership of God, apart from the very indwelling presence of God’s Spirit!  Without abiding in Christ we can do nothing!  (John 15:5)

When we start a day without prayer, when we go though a day without continual fellowship with the Living God, we prove that we too believe the lie that Satan told Eve. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the time comes for you to leave this world and enter eternity, you won’t want an “almost” consecration.  If you have not lived your life to the glory of God you will not be at peace when the time comes for you to depart this world! TRUTH!

The Bible commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to  “Pray without ceasing.”  This is so very important, but I have found out it is not important to those that still believe the Devil’s lie. If you believe that you really have the knowledge of good and evil, you will find that you can go days on end without feeling the need for prayer.

 

Many people that believe the Devil’s lie only pray in earnest when they, or someone that they love, are in big trouble!

 Listen to the words of Jesus in John 15:5-6  "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.  "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. This is a very stern warning, in verse 5 Jesus tells us that if we abide in Him we will bear much fruit. Is this true in your life? Have you led many souls into the Kingdom of God? Is the fruit of God’s Spirit truly alive in you?  Or is it true that you are fruitless, that in reality you have not led any souls into the Kingdom of God? And that the fruit of God’s precious Spirit is seldom evident in your life? The fruit of God’s Spirit is: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do you see your need of abiding in Christ, because without abiding in Him we are constantly choosing death! In verse 6 we have another warning, we are told by our Savior, that if we do not abide in Christ, we are to be “thrown away as a branch, and dry up; and they will gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they  will be burned.:” Now don’t try to tell me that this is not all together clear, this Scripture is warning about Hell! WE MUST ABIDE IN CHRIST!

Many people have only a halfway commitment to God here in this life, that is sometimes convenient, for the “old man,” but at the time of death this lack of commitment will be devastating! If you do not abide in Christ now, when you are about to pass from this life to the next you will have great anxiety. No one, not even your pastor will be able to say anything that will bring comfort to your soul! Yes, a life has been wasted, and why? Because you did not beg of God for the renewed mind, because you were so caught up in the things of this world that you had no time for the world that is to come; because you did not see a daily need of abiding in Christ, and praying without ceasing. Yes, your passing from this life to the next will be very unpleasant, if this is you!

We seem to always have a feeling that some day we will completely yield to God, and sometimes we come close to doing it. Why do we postpone it? Why do we put off yielding completely to the Living God? It is because our

Flesh, our “old nature” wants nothing to do with yielding to God. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. You see your old nature will never co-operate with God, it does not want to! Now listen as Paul explains to us what has happened to those that are truly on the road to life; Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And again the Apostle explains the penalty for yielding to the flesh, Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Jesus said “with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” You must hunger and thirst for righteousness in order to be ultimately saved. Are you at this very moment hungering and thirsting after righteousness? If not, you might need to find a Church that preaches the Gospel in such a way that you do hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is so important because we will only go after that which we desire. The un-regenerated human being is a constant want, a constant desire; we whirl around after this and then after that, and are truly never satisfied. The reason being, that only when we are redeemed and filled with the presence of the Living God, can we be satisfied!

Many Churches today do not even preach the same Gospel that Jesus preached! You must find one that will preach all of the counsel of God.

This is a very important thing; we are truly choosing life or death each and every day of our life. Which one did you choose yesterday? Which one are you going to choose today? 

Make this the very business of your life, right now; God has a plan for your life, a wonderful plan, you must seek Him and find out what His plan is for your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. The only reason God leaves us on this earth after we make our decision to follow Him is so that He can use us to snatch others from the very jaws of Hell.

Now faith is the very necessary and essential thing that must be in our lives. Without faith we cannot please God! The question naturally arises, how can we have this faith that pleases God? I believe the answer is prayer, we must be in the practice of taking every circumstance of life to God in prayer. Only in this way, when we pray and believe that God will definitely answer our prayers will our faith grow and become a tree of faith. Matthew 17:20. . . .  if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. DO you believe this? Do you trust God and His Word? This is very important, do not go through life pretending to be a man or women of faith when in fact you have NONE!

God is in the business of making men and women of faith! How, you may ask can I become a person of great faith? It always begins when we take God’s promises and start living our lives on the premise that God’s promises are TRUE!

Start this very moment, don’t pray another prayer  until you know in your heart that when you ask of God, He is going to perform His word and promises to you that very moment. When you start praying believing that God will perform miracles, when necessary, to answer your prayer; you will start on a journey that will end in your becoming a person of great faith. I say great faith because I have discovered that we only have two types of faith, dead faith and great faith, nothing else is in-between.

Every time you pray believing (knowing) that God is going to answer your prayer your faith grows, but every time you pray in unbelief your faith diminishes. Don’t do this; it does not honor God nor does it help anyone else.

Decide today that indeed you are a new creation in Christ Jesus and you are a person that will have their prayers answered!

ARE YOU ABOUT YOUR FATHER’S BUSINESS?

Do not forget, walking with humility and love every day of your life, is God’s desire for your life! If pride has a toehold in your life, you are at this very moment Hell-bound! Repent and believe  the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

 

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The Silent Preacher # 20

 

                                               How To Overcome Worry?

 

  Worrying is nonproductive, we can become upset, frustrated and sometimes angry when we worry. Worry and anxiety never mend the problem. Worry also hinders our ability to be all that the Lord intends us to be! When we are under the nervous tensions that worry causes, we are often short with other people. Later we feel bad about our behavior, or perhaps about something we might have said, this of course, only compounds our problems.   

How Does God Want Us To Handle Worry?

The Lord created us and knows what makes us tick; therefore He has a great deal of advice for us that oftentimes goes unheeded. I want to share with you some of the Scriptures that best suit this situation; Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. The word “anxious” in Philippians 4:6, is the Greek word “merimnao” Mer-im-nah-o (Strong’s reference # 3308) and has the same approximate meaning as the following words; “worry,” “anxiety,” “distress,” “uneasiness,” and “care.”

The Promise

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If you obey verse six, verse seven will always come to life in you, but you must truly obey verse six from your heart! When you do, a wonderful peace will settle upon you.

 

What Is God’s Instruction For Us On The Subject Of Worry? Here is a outline of the principle points listed in Philippians 4:6

1) Don’t worry!

2) Pray with supplication

3) Pray with thanksgiving

4) Let your request be known to God.

 

1) Don’t Worry!

What I am about to say might sound strange to you at first, but bear with me. Worry is always the fruit of self-will! Worry is the proof that you have plans of your own, and are unwilling for whatever that is happening to happen. Whatever this problem is, it is not in your plans, nor is it your will. When we want to control every situation in our lives, and something comes up that we can’t control, we worry, and try to figure out a way to overcome the problem. This is self-will to the max. You might not understand what I have just said, or you might not agree with it, I will try to explain. To start with, you might want to ask the question, what is wrong with me having my own way, my own will? My answer is found in, Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” We can’t see around corners, let alone know what is going to happen tomorrow, but God knows all of this, He can see around corners. Before you were born, God knew you; He saw the start and the end of your earthly existence before you were born! It’s nice being Eternal.

Another important Scripture; Romans 8:14 “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” God intends to lead us, not follow and pick up the broken pieces! Since He already knows all of the problems that you will ever encounter in this life, doesn’t it make sense to follow Him? Notice in this last Scripture it says “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God.” It doesn’t say, “were led” or “intend someday to be led” God is telling us here that if we don’t follow His Holy Spirit we aren’t His sons! Only those that are “being led” are His sons! We must be in the process of being led!  Notice the difference, it is present tense.

 

God Is On The Throne!

When we commit our lives to the true and Living God He watches over us for good. At times I admit it is difficult for us to see the “good” in the problem that seems to be attacking us at the moment, but, this is where our faith and trust in the Lord become indispensable. When we commit our lives to the true and Living God, He places us in the center of His hand and no problem can come into our lives except if He deems it best for us. Remember the great and awesome job that the God of love undertakes when He receives us into His Kingdom. Romans 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.

God is telling us that He will conform us to the very image of Jesus Christ! Do you understand what is involved in His doing this for us? He must remove every attitude and every habit that does not conform to Jesus Christ, and He must add all of the missing attitudes and proper habits to our lives!

God uses circumstances that sometimes, in our limited way of perceiving things, seem to be bad, or even hurtful to us. But the Lord, like a good doctor, always gives us the proper medicine, sometimes it tastes good, but sometimes it tastes bitter. When God gives you His medicine it is always what you need, regardless of whether it is sweet or bitter, trust Him! Always remember that it is a very difficult thing for God to truly convert us, so that in the end we may be truly saved. He doesn’t simply atone for our sins and put up with our repeating the same sins day in and day out. He regenerates us, and turns us into a brand new creation! I will make this obvious with another Scripture; Matthew 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."

 Yes, Jesus came to bring about this very important change in our lives; He came to set us free from the bondage to sin! If this sounds “off the wall” to you allow me to show you a few confirmation Scriptures on this point; 1 John 3:4-5 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.” As Christians where are we supposed to be? Also 1 John 3:8-9 “The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” These Scriptures, while going against most notions that are preached today, are true and indeed the will of God for our lives. This is what I mean when I say God has a very difficult job truly bringing us into salvation! If you don’t believe that God is capable of bringing us into a state of walking obedient to Him without a practice of sin, then you must believe that Satan is just as powerful as God, and can stop God’s will by having as much power in and over us as God has!

Remember, God is all-powerful, not the devil!

Listen as the Apostle Paul, the grace teacher, explains this to us; 1 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Notice that the Apostle doesn’t say we are going to become a new creature, but that

we are a new creature!

Until we become a new creature we are not yet in Christ, for is this not the very thing that 1 Corinthians 5:17 is saying? Look at the Apostles before their experience with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.

1) Matthew 9:34-35 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. And sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all."

2) Matthew 9:54-55 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.

Here we have two examples of the Apostles behavior before they were endued with God’s power from on high. In Matthew 9:34, pride was still very much

alive and well. In Matthew 9:54 they were ready to kill anyone who didn’t conform to the Lord, by calling down fire upon them. Jesus patiently dealt with them, but before He left them, knowing that they were ill equipped to be His witnesses on this earth, He gave them some important instructions. Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Even after three years of living, eating, and sleeping with the Lord, and having been given the power against all of the outward enemies: Satan, demons, sickness; yes, and even the power to raise the dead, they still didn’t have the power to overcome their own proud nature! The power Jesus gave them was wonderful power, but it didn’t help them to fight our greatest enemy, and that enemy is always ourselves! They still needed this power from on high in order to overcome their own nature, so that they could truly become new creatures in Christ, which is to say a fountain of God’s love!

Another Reason To Trust The Lord

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ”Here we have the Lord of Glory giving us another precious promise that regardless of what the Lord allows to come into our lives He will cause it to turn out for good! Notice how this Scripture starts out, “And we know” Do you KNOW this? Do you believe this? If your answer is yes, then nothing stands in your way of being happy continuously, regardless of what circumstances God allows to enter your life! You can’t lie here and get away with it, because if you believe this Scripture it will change your life, if not, you will still have many things that you will worry about in this life.

Self-will is the most destructive force in our life, I know of no other force that can cause the pain and unhappiness in our lives that self-will can cause.

When we choose to worry, we testify that we have more confidence in ourselves, and our ability to reason, than we have in God! We are saying, “Lord I don’t need your help, I can handle this myself!” On the other hand watch what happens when we pray and trust God instead of worrying.

First, we truly acknowledge the Lord in our life.

Second, we demonstrate our confidence in God. 

Third, we open up the power of the Living God in our lives, and can now expect that the God of all love will aid us in the solution to our problem, and henceforth with all of our problems!

2) Pray With Supplication

When we pray with supplication we are entreating our Heavenly Father. We are showing Him that we know we must depend on Him. The Lord likes us to be dependent on Him, for when we depend on Him we are truly showing that we have learned that apart from Him we can do NOTHING! (John 15:5) This is why it is good for us to acknowledge our dependence on Him, and put away our self-will!

3) Pray With Thanksgiving

When we pray with thankfulness in our heart, we are demonstrating our faith. We can only be thankful when we have the victory of God in our hearts. We know that the problem is licked, even when things look on the outside to be the same. There is the problem, staring us in the face, but we know that we have already overcome; this is faith, victory in our hearts, before we see the evidence in our lives! We can have so much confidence in All-mighty God that we can smile even in the midst of the storm! As we pray in this way, our hearts are lightened; we begin to realize that our problems with the things of earth just aren’t that important, especially when compared with eternity.

How To Test The Strength Of A Problem

If the problem won’t be able to affect you five hundred years from now, it really isn’t much of a problem. Only Eternal choices affect us five hundred years from now! Make the right choices!

A few more facts about Romans 8:28.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Do you know this? All things work together for good; if you believe this, you can rest!  In fact, you are resting! If you can’t rest, allow me to ask another question, “Do you love God?” Remember, the promise is “to them that love God.” Read John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone

 loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. Do you “keep His words,” if your answer is no, this may be the problem. Jesus said this is the proof of our love to God, Keeping His words!

4) Let Your Request Be Known To God.

Even though the Lord knows all things, He expects us to make our requests known to Him. In this way, we acknowledge the Lord as our Heavenly Father. We let Him know that we trust and depend on Him. Praying gives us a close communion with the Living God! What a privilege it is to be able to carry our problems to a God who loves us, and is able (unlike Idols) to help us! If you choose to worry instead of praying, you only cheat yourself! If you obey Philippians 4:6, then you can expect to see the reality of Philippians 4:7 in your life. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.“ Watch this, the problem is still laid out in front of you, it didn’t change, but somehow you have a deep abiding peace that is guarding your heart and mind. It is difficult to understand this peace from the world’s point of view; in fact you can’t understand it. This peace that passes all understanding is flowing all over you, it is from God, it is the result, (proof) of your trusting in God as your Father. If after getting up off of your knees, you do not sense this peace, and you are still worried about the problem, you didn’t exercise faith! You are not believing, but doubting!

Worrying is the proof that you do not trust the Lord, because you do not believe His promises! He always keeps His promises. He never goes back on His word; He never has since before this Earth was formed! This peace is like a thermometer; it will show you just how much you really trust in the Lord and His word. If you fail the test, repent and believe God! Remember; always leave the problem with The Lord. 

Here is a test for the thoughts that you allow to be in your mind. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”

Here is another wonderful piece of advice from the One who created you.

1) Only allow thoughts that are true to be in your mind, if what you are thinking on is not true, but, perhaps a fantasy or an imagination, put the thought far from you instantly. This is where all sorts of things are born that can only bring harm and destruction into your life.

2) The thought must be an honorable thought, if not, do not think about it. If it is not honorable, it doesn’t belong in the mind of someone that wants to walk upright before the true and Living God.

3) If the thought is not a right thought it will lead you into other thoughts that also are not right and this too will bring about destruction for you.

4) If the thought is not pure it will lead you into other thoughts that also are not pure. We must be pure in thought if we want to be pure in our actions.

5) If the thought is not lovely it doesn’t belong in your mind. Our minds are to be beautiful gardens where God can dwell continually.

6) If the thought is not of Good repute, (the phrase “good repute” means good reputation,) then they can only be of bad repute. Remember, God wants to dwell with us, and our mind happens to be one of the places that God dwells.

7) Excellence, and praiseworthiness are characteristics that must be present in all of our thoughts in order for God to dwell with us continually.

If the thoughts in your mind do not pass the test of Philippians 4:8, then reject them. Remember, we as children of God are to take every thought captive to Christ. If you will do this, Satan is defeated in his ability to plant the seeds of sin in your life!

Joy will be in your life if you will only exchange the practice of worrying for the practice of taking EVERY problem to God instantly, every time.

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The Silent Preacher # 21

Sayings of C.T. Studd  

  Who was C.T. Studd?

C.T. Studd was an outstanding County and All-England Cricketer. He was a freshman at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1879-1880, and took a degree in law. By that time he had been challenged to a mission­ary career and, forsak­ing his cricketing fame and the family fortune, he followed Hudson Taylor to China.

He returned 21 years later, broken in health, after serving in China and India. Unexpect­edly he received a new and very distinct call to the heart of Africa. At 53, leaving his invalid wife in England, he set out in utter reliance on God's promises. His answer to all who ques­tioned the wisdom of his action was found on a postcard on his desk: If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

Some sayings

The best training for a soldier of Christ is not merely a theological college. They always seem to turn out sausages of varying lengths, tied at each end, without the glorious freedom a Christian ought to abound and rejoice in. You see, when in hand-to-hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost. It's experience, not preaching that hurts the devil and confounds the world. The training is not that of the schools but of the market: it's the hot, free heart and not the balanced head that knocks the devil out. Nothing but forked-lightning Christians will count. A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service.

It is not so much the degree of arts that is needed, but that of hearts, loyal and true, that love not their lives to the death: large and loving hearts which seek to save the lost multitudes, rather than guard the ninety-nine well-fed sheep in the British pen.

True religion is a very practical thing if we do not adulterate it.

Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands.

The best cure for discouragement or qualms is another daring plunge of faith.

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

Our recruits come out from home vastly raw and are largely parrots. They have been crammed with religion as though for an examination, and seem to come out to carry on their education rather than finish it. So many are just taught doctrines without ever having thought them out or searched the Scriptures for themselves. They come out like infants with pop guns. They need to be trained into soldiers with real devil-defying weapons. Some arrive thinking they are the last thing in high-class Christianity and have to find out they know little. That is why I keep the newcomers here at base for a time till I can make them really think out things and settle questions, not from hearsay but from Bible-say.

Last June at the mouth of the Congo there awaited a thousand prospectors, traders, merchants and gold seekers, waiting to rush into these regions as soon as the government opened the door to them, for rumour declared that there is an abundance of gold. If such men hear so loudly the call of gold and obey it, can it be that the ears of Christ's soldiers are deaf to the call of God?

Are gamblers for gold so many, and gamblers for God so few?

How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honors of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day?

Spirituality is much needed here; there is a great lack of it, too much laughing and scoffing, not a real deep spiritual power. And why? Because they are afraid of it. Fancy! They are afraid of getting strained, and so instead of giving them fewer meetings, they dilute them with the ditchwater of nonsense too often.

I don't tell these fellows to volunteer, I tell them to surrender to God and to go away rejoicing in Him, and He will in His own way make all plain.
Here's my final advice to them:
1. If you don't desire to meet the Devil during the day, meet Jesus before dawn.
2. If you don't want the Devil to hit you, hit him first, and hit him with all your might, so that he may be too crippled to hit back. 'Preach the Word' is the rod the Devil fears and hates.
3. If you don't want to fall - walk, and walk straight and walk fast!
4. Three of the Devil's dogs with which he hunts us are:
     Swelled head.
     Laziness.
     Greed.

We have to tell the people the truth, viz.:
1. They are bad and going to the bad place to live in torment forever and ever because

they are bad.
2. If they don't change and become good, they cannot go to the good place.
3. Are they willing to become good, viz., to forsake all evil?
4. If so, there is a way through the love of God, by which way God is willing to hold back the operation of His just wrath against sin and sinners.

Two things have to be done:
  a. Past sins cleansed away.
  b. Power received to live a holy life.
                How?
  a. By the blood of Christ.
  b. By the Spirit of Christ.

Now the main thing is to get the eyes of the people open. They need to see hell as the result of their sin, and that produces fear, the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. Once you get this fear all will be comparatively easy; but if this fear does not lay hold of a man, his so-called conversion is a sham. True love wakens a man to reality; sham love soaps him down to hell, greases his trail, in fact, to hell. Very many are half asleep or deluded, and make up fancy doctrines of their own, which practically mean that an unholy man can get to heaven without being holy.

But remember, Christ did not die to whitewash us, He died to re-create us, and none but His re-creations enter heaven.

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions

of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.

Difficulties, dangers, disease, death, or divisions don't deter any but Chocolate Soldiers from executing God's Will. When someone says there is a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, "That's hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go."

We now use the word "hallelujah" instead of "amen" at the conclusion of a prayer. "Amen" was a very sleepy affair, something like the last moans of a dying cow. I fancy even the angels must have twested up their faces. Our "hallelujah" lends itself to enthusiasm and is something like the triumphant shout of a herd of hefty bulls of Bashan. Nobody can remain asleep long

for he is obliged to wake up at the end of each prayer. We have also adopted an improved form of finale after the benediction. I ask the people, "Is it not true that Jesus is coming again?" And they reply, "Jesus is coming."

Then we all say “Hallelujah.” Well, it is a regular raising-the-roof affair. I sometimes wish some of our dear old staid Christians at home could hear it. The shock would produce enough energy and enthusiasm to milk a whole herd of goats and make them give a double quantity.

Here’s a pretty decent prayer, “Lord, You know as well as I do what I want; what is the use of my saying more? I want to see Jesus running about in thousands of black bodies and purified hearts. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!”

If God who sits in the heavens can laugh, His children on earth should be loyal enough to do exactly as their Father does.

Don’t go into the study to prepare a sermon – that’s nonsense. Go into your study to meet God and get so fiery that your tongue is like a burning coal and you have got to speak.

The “romance” of a missionary is often made up of monotony and drudgery; there often is no glamour in it; it doesn’t stir a man’s spirit or blood. So don’t come out to be a missionary as an experiment, it is useless and dangerous. Only come if you feel you would rather die than not come. Lord Wolsey was right: “A missionary ought to be a fanatic or he encumbers the ground.” There are many trials and hardships. Disappoint-ments are numerous and the time of learning the language is especially trying. Don’t come if you want to make a great name or want to live long. Come if you feel there is no greater honour, after living for Christ, than to die for Him. That does the trick in the end. It’s not the flash in the pan but the steady giving forth of light, it’s shining on and on that we need out here. Our job is to make all hear the Word. God’s job is to give penetration to His Word.

There was a depth of wisdom in our Lord’s command to turn the other cheek, but I say when you do, be sure to keep your tongue in it.

It is good to have the laugh of faith. When doubt whines and cries, faith laughs.

Certainly we should not be at all surprised if God does work miracles of all kinds and we should not limit His power, should He bestow the gift of speaking in other tongues as on the apostles at Pentecost. We should be delighted, for such would mean the speedy spreading of the Gospel. There are so many different tribes and languages that it would be most desirable.

Marriage can be a great blessing or a great curse, depending on where you place the Cross.

Some wish to live within the sound
Of Church or Chapel Bell.
I want to run a rescue shop
within a yard of Hell.

I can easily see why the folks at home want to eliminate Hell from their theology, preaching and thought. Hell is indeed awful unless its preaching is joined to a life laid down by the preacher. How can a man believe in Hell unless he throws away his life to rescue others from its torment? If there is no Hell, the Bible is a lie. If we are willing to go to Hell on earth for others, we can preach it.

I am getting desperately afraid of going to heaven for I have had the vision of the shame I shall suffer as I get my first glimpse of the Lord Jesus; His majesty, power and marvelous love for me, who treated Him so meanly and shabbily on earth, and acted as though I did Him a favour in serving Him! No wonder God shall have to wipe away the tears off all faces, for we shall be broken-hearted when we see the depth of His love and the shallowness of ours.

Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.

 

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The Silent Preacher # 22

Dead Religion

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. `So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. `Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. `Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. 

Revelation 3:15-19

This is one of the many Scriptures that comes against a dead religion, a walk with God that is only in pretense! Today the world is full of this type of religion.

I will point out what God calls a “living faith” or true religion.

Let's Look At God's Word

Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

We are to be salt to the world; we are to season the people of this world with the true knowledge of God. Our lives should

demonstrate the Life of Christ to this dying world. The fruit of God’s Spirit shines through every true believer, and if it doesn’t it can only mean that we are not abiding in the vine (Christ) and we are in the throes of death ourselves, our religion is truly dead! Heed the words of Jesus; “It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” And so it is with the man or woman that once had God’s virtues shining forth from them, and then went back into selfishness, “They are good for nothing anymore! (The very words of Jesus)  God tells us in Revelation 2:15 “Repent and do the deeds you did at first!

Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lamp stand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Here we are told that we are the “light of the world.”  The question here is, are you a light to this world, and were you truly a light to the world yesterday? If the answer is no, then your religion is truly dead. God’s will is for us to be salt and light to the world!

Again the Word of God – Luke 9:62. But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  Have you looked back my friend?

Bible Prediction Of The Last Days

1Timothy 1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, with-out self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God! Does this not describe the times that we are living in; when in history have men been able to run after pleasures like they do today? How many times have I been told “I would like to go to the Revival Meeting but our children are in “little league” or our daughter has a “dance class” so we can’t attend!” In years gone by, as late as the eighteen hundreds, farmers would drop the reins of their mule and stop plowing to attend the meeting of some unknown, itinerant preacher! My friends this is truly the last days! Verse seven of this same Scripture states: that people will be “Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Again, this is another proof that we are living in the last days. The people in the different denominations always want to learn some new thing, but they never seem to come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Where is the meekness, humility, and patience of the Lamb of God?

A few Scriptures on the subject of coming to the knowledge of the truth”

A few unknown truths!

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.  Matthew 5:48

If you are not perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, and you are not even concerned about being perfect, here is an important truth you need to understand! Jesus Christ said this in Matthew 7:22-23  "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from  Me, you who practice lawlessness.' Lawlessness is plain old SIN!

More Scriptures on being perfect

James 1:4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James wants us to be perfect.

Acts 23:1 And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day."  The Apostle Paul maintained a perfect conscience before God.

Colossians 4:12. Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.  Epaphras wanted the Colossians to be stand perfect and in all the will of God. 

James 1:4. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Again James wanted us to be lacking in nothing when it comes to being perfect and complete.

1 Peter 5:10. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. Here we have the Apostle Peter wanting us to be perfect, confirmed, strengthened and established.

There are many more Scriptures that speak of perfection among the people of God but I think that these make the point well. I want to ask you a question, when Jesus stated in Matthew 5:48 that “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” do you need any other Scriptures? Here the Savior of the world has told us what God expects from us, He wants us to be perfect,

 He is perfect in an infinite way, we are to be perfect  in a finite way. I will try to explain.

Acts 23:1 And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." Paul believed that maintaining A perfectly good conscience was important! Can you say with Paul that you have maintained a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." If not, something is very wrong! Could it be that you are in a dead religion? A dead religion doesn't expect much from it's members, but Christ does!

Why is it that today's believers rarely ever attempt to maintain a perfect conscience before God? I believe it is because they really don’t have a true hope in God. The Scriptures state; 1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

In verse one we are told that God shows His love toward us in that, right now we are  called the children of God!

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. Now in verse three we are told  “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  Here is the reason some maintain a perfect conscience before God, and others do not! If you truly have a hope fixed on Him You will purify yourself, you will maintain a perfectly good conscience before God! This is a very important  thing. Do you truly have a hope?

“Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you

obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

Now listen to God very carefully here, if you yield to sin (self-will) you will die. But if you yield to God, you will gain righteousness. Look at the choice that the people at Rome made.  Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righ­teousness.”

Jesus said, “We must be born again”

He said this because we have lost the Divine presence and likeness of God in our lives! When Adam partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he went into self-will and out of God's will. Self-will is in reality selfishness. God is love. God's will is always the will of loving others. This is His very makeup because   GOD IS LOVE!

When we are baptized we testify to the world that we have died to self, (self-will), and that our old nature is now reckoned to be dead, powerless. The Lord can now raise us up to newness of life, and from now on we can have victory over sin, over the world and the Devil!

Living For Self Is The Fountain Of Sin

How can we become completely sanctified? How do we continue to live a life wholly consecrated to God? Adam was entirely sanctified (consecrated) to God when he was first created, but he went into self-will and out of sanctification when he dis­obeyed God and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. Remember that one third of the Angels fell; they were also God's creation, just as Adam was! When we reverse this process of death, and by God's help we can, and must reverse it; then we can live for God again and stop forevermore living for self.

Here is the Biblical proof Romans 6:17-18  “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obed-ient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were com­mitted, and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.”

Understand this clearly, you will be a slave, either to your fallen nature (old man) or to God. The only thing that we can have a choice in, is who we will be enslaved to, who our master will be! To be enslaved to our old man (old nature) is really to be enslaved to Satan, and our flesh!   

  A Worldly Spirit

If you would like to know the evil nature and effects of a worldly spirit, it is this; it always unites you to a worldly, earthly nature, which God hates, because it causes you to become selfish and strongly desirous of the things of this world, things that will not, and cannot satisfy you. On the other hand being en-slaved to God will unite you with the Holy Spirit and espouses you to Christ. This will result in you being content regardless of what is going on around you, regardless of what you have, or don't have!

A Little Secret

God created us to be Holy, this word “Holy” means to be obedient. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle­ness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” This self-control is the opposite of sell-will. Trust me, you really don't want to die before attaining the fruit of God's Spirit in your life, all of It!    

 Let's Look At God's Word

Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terri-fying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three wit-nesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge His people." “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” God does not want us to continue in sin, and tells us in this Scripture that if we do continue in sin we can expect this -

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

A dead religion will leave you in your sin, for it does not have any power, being dead, to do anything else, but leave you in your sin!.

If you have no power with God read Mark 16:17-18 "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." If this seems like something that only the early believers could possibly do, then you need to get on your knees and repent of your unbelief! You have a dead religion!

Remember 1 John 3:9 says “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

It Is The Will Of God!

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              The Silent Preacher # 23                 

The Greatest Battle Of Your Life

We have many disagreements on the subject of religion today; no two denominations seem to agree. In fact, this is the major component of a denomination; they are literally born from some sort of disagreement. A group of people attending Church meetings come to a point of disagreement, and the resulting discord causes a split and as a result, a new denomination is born.

The main trouble with this is what Jesus had said in John 13:35. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Today when you as a witness for Christ, try to show people the truth of the will of God, some denominational teaching or the other will be in their mind to refute the actual Word of God!

I went into this thing of denominational teachings so that you will read this little preaching tract through at least one time before you draw your conclusions.

We will begin. The Greatest Battle of your Life

The main Battle # 1 - Denying ourselves

Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” Here we are told in no uncertain language that we must deny ourselves. Jesus said this because the greatest battle that you will ever engage in is the denying of yourself! To truly understand why Jesus insisted on our denying ourselves we must attend to another Scripture. Galatians 5:16-17

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” Here in a nutshell, the Lord of Glory has given us our answer! It is to be born again of the Spirit of God as Jesus commanded in John 3:3 “. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  We still have our “old nature” or “flesh” with us, but now that we are born of God’s Spirit, we can turn to God and receive of His wisdom, we can follow His Spirit and live our lives with joy and peace! Our old nature is still with us and we have our old natural desires coming from our flesh, now and again, and they are always in opposition to the will and ways of God! This is why we must choose daily, no, moment by moment, whom we will be led of, our flesh, or the Spirit of God! We must deny ourselves as Jesus commands us to in Matthew 16:24. This my brothers and sisters is truly the great battle that we will have while we are in the flesh. We can and will, with the help of God’s Spirit, win this battle, but we must fight the good fight of faith! Romans 12:1 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Are you denying yourself or is your “old nature” having its way?  Here are a few more small battles that together make up the complete battle.

Battle # 2 – Wanting riches & honors

1 Timothy 6:9-14 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the things we must battle against is the Love of riches (money.) Satan will from time to time tempt you with making a lot of money as he tempted Jesus, don’t fall for it! God will supply all of our needs, He promised to do so, and you can trust Him. Don't rush after fame either.

Battle # 3 -  Outbursts Of Anger

Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that the ancients were told, `You shall not commit murder' and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; . .  Anger is the flagship of our old nature, whenever we are frustrated anger is very near. Anger is an indicator to us that self-will is alive and ruling in our lives. In the above Scripture we are told not to be angry with our brother, anger is a sure indicator that at that moment in time we are not loving our brother. The great sin in anger happens when we have an outburst of anger. This is listed in Galatians 5:20 it is one of the “deeds of the flesh” of which the Apostle Paul warns us in this Scripture “That those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now this promise of the Scripture is just as sure and binding as is John 3:16!

Again, put anger of any sort at the top of the list of things you must battle against.

Battle # 4 – Our thoughts

Matthew 5:27-29 "You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery'; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. "And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Here our Lord and Savior tells us to guard against the lust of the eyes. This is something to battle against, some people don't have this problem, but many do. Jesus said, “Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Sin starts in the heart, but the seed of sin oftentimes is in the human mind, we start to think along lines that are not Holy or right. After thinking about things that are not proper to think about, we start to lust for these very things that we were only thinking about a short time ago. You see, our simple thoughts can turn into a very powerful lust, even strongholds!

Read Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” This is a very important Scripture, in it we are given a test for what type of thoughts we should or shouldn’t allow in our minds. If a thought doesn’t pass the test of Philippians 4:8 we should immediately reject it and not permit it to be in our thinking!

The only reason you would allow thoughts to be present in your mind that do not pass the test of Philippians 4:8 is because your flesh is in charge of you at that time. Remember, Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” If you reject God’s Holy Spirit in this great and important commandment you will never walk in victory. You will be like the one the Scripture speaks about, “Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth!” Yes, this too is part of the great battle; you must win this battle!

Battle # 5 -  Divorce and Re-marriage

Matthew 5:31-32 "And it was said, `Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce'; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of un-chastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Again in Romans 7:2-3 “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

This is a sin that is very prevalent today in our country; it is with great pain that I have had to deal with people about this sin. I can’t tell you how hard it is to tell someone that they are not married in the eyes of God, to the person that they are living with. (The word " un-chastity" means any sexual act, outside of the marriage bed, and outside of the purpose God intended the sexual organs to be used! This word includes, but is not limited to adultery, homosexual activity, and sexual acts between people that are not married.) The Romanized word is porneia pronounced por-ni'-ah it is from GSN4203; harlotry (including adultery and incest); KJV--fornication. Today, this command of Jesus is not very popular, but then, it has never been popular. Unfortunately, I must point out a very sad fact. A number of years ago I interviewed fifty different pastors, from some fifteen different denominations, in Phoenix, Arizona. The subject was on what the Churches responsibility was concerning protecting the un-born babies in the world. After my presentation I asked each pastor this question, which was off of the subject  “Can a woman re-marry if her husband that she is divorced from is still alive?” I was very much surprised to find that all of them said “yes,” some with reluctance, but all said that she could re-marry. When I asked about the words of Jesus, they said one thing or the other, but the fact remained, they felt at ease about going along with the opinions of the world, and did not think it important to obey the Son of God!

It has become very popular in the world to divorce your spouse for just about any reason; I understand that the world has no light, only darkness. But, what about the “Church,” what has happened here? In just eighty-five years it has changed its opinion! Yes, eighty-five years ago it would have been just about impossible to find a minister to perform a marriage between two people, one of which had been divorced!  Remember the trouble John the Baptist got into, he lost his head because he stood in the way of King Herod marrying his brother's wife!

Matthew 14:3-4 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her.

Battle # 6 – Meekness Not Revenge

Matthew 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'  "But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. "And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.”And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two.  "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Here we have our Savior telling us that we must be MEEK! The Spirit of the Living God is all meekness, and when His Spirit is ruling in our hearts we are all meekness, whenever a resistance is felt in our being meek toward any situation that may arise in our life, we can know for certain that our flesh is on the ascendancy and God’s spirit is being grieved! We are not to seek revenge regardless of what happens to us or to ours, for the Scriptures tell us in Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Our flesh always wants vengeance, but when the Spirit of God is ruling in our lives we will not want vengeance, because God is love and whenever God’s Spirit is in charge of our life, love is in charge of our life! You see 1 Corinthians 13:5 tells us - . . . . . Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. This too is a great part of the battle we face in always yielding to God’s Spirit and not allowing our old nature to rule. We must love! Read 1 cor. 13

Battle # 7 – Always Love

Matthew 5:43-46 "You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same?

Love is the real difference between a converted person and an unconverted person! Again, whenever the Spirit of God is in charge of our life, love is in charge of our life. We can proffer all kinds of excuses for not walking in love and meekness, but all of this is just your flesh trying to usurp the Spirit of Love (God.)

1 Corinthians 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Without love we are nothing but another part of the problem, love is not an option. If in fact we are abiding in Christ, and then as He promised, He is abiding in us, we are told twice in 1 John chapter four that God is love, while Christ abides in us LOVE abides in us! Every time we walk without loving people we are abiding only in our flesh, and are denying Christ! We are saying I’ll not have Christ Jesus to rule in me!

Battle # 8 – A Pure Conscience

Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus sums up this part of His Sermon on the Mount with these simple words. We are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. This does not mean that we never misspell words or make math errors, or never drop things; it simply means that we always maintain a pure conscience before both God and man and that we always yield to God’s Spirit and not to our “old nature” or “flesh.” Be certain of this, God is commanding us to have a perfect heart towards all of His will, and all of His ways, all of the time! Now, since God has commanded us  . . . To be perfect, as He is perfect. Obviously He has made us in such a way that this is possible for us to do! God is love and God is just, He would never command us to do something that is impossible for us to do, for then God would be unjust! Remember God’s standard for our lives -  "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Your flesh doesn’t even like the sound of these words, but the Spirit of the Living God, if He is truly in you, will take great hope in these words and be overjoyed. How is it with you just now, is joy filing your heart because of this command to be perfect, or is the very thought of being perfect and maintaining a perfect conscience an offense to you, does it sound ridiculous, impossible? If it does you are operating at this moment in the flesh and unbelief!

Battle # 9 - Walk Victoriously In Faith

John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” Are you doing the works that Jesus did? He said that if we believe in Him we would be doing greater works than He did! Here is a little test to see if we believe in Jesus, or if we are allowing unbelief to rule in our lives. This is part of the fight of faith, we are told in Mark 16: 17-18 "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." Is this true in your life?

Battle # 10 - Abide In Christ

John 15:1-6 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must fight this battle; but we can only succeed when we rest in Him by abiding in His Spirit. We can know this is being done when patience, meekness, and humility are ruling in our lives. Matthew 24:13 "But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. It is good that you have started out on this wonderful journey to God, but starting is not finishing, we must complete our course and stay true to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, right to the end, as He has said. Don’t allow your flesh to rule and ruin your life! Abide in Him and become fruitful in the Kingdom of God, after all, this is truly His will!

You won’t want to be “ thrown away as a branch, and dry up; and then be gathered, and cast into the fire, and be  burned.” 

Or do you?

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