Only Through Jesus Christ

“Jesus Willfully joined us in our fallen state” – R. Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6.

ENCOURAGING WORD:

Up until just recently, I did not see this parallel between Adam and Jesus Christ quite this clear. To add to the verse above, I need to share the following verse as well, Genesis 3:12; “Then the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” What we fail to recognize in Genesis 3; 1-24 is what took place and how it is an Old Testament picture of a New Testament teaching! Through the teaching of these verses we need to understand two important decisions that took place with Adam and Eve. First of all, we read that Eve was deceived and tricked into eating the fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden that was forbidden to eat. We read in Genesis 3:5; “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” where Satan lied to Eve and deceived her into disobeying Gods command where we read in Genesis 2:16-17; “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it youshall surely die.” After Eve had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she gave also to her husband to eat and he did eat. Adam new that Eve had sinned and knowing what God told them about eating of the forbidden fruit, Adam willfully joined her in in her predicament because of the love that he had for his wife Eve. Therefore, Adam was well aware of what he was doing, where Eve was lied to by Satan and deceived and tricked into making her decision. This is where we get the Bible verse where it says, John 8:14; “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”  So, Satan is not only the father of lies, but also of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. From the beginning, Satan has been a liar. He told his first lie to Eve, to deceive her and draw her away from God. He was the first liar, who makes him “the father of lies” in the same way that the many Hippocrates who practice modern day medicine are today. I will not expand on this last verse today, except to say this, the pharmaceutical industry is as corrupt an organization as any other on earth if not the most corrupt. These lies have killed millions of people just as Satan’s lies have done from the beginning of time.

Now, let us take this to an understanding that should bring us to our knees in repentance and encourage us to give our lives over to Jesus Christ. We, the people of this world have been in Adam and Eve’s shoes for the last six thousand years. When God chose to enter His creation in the personage of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, mankind was still in their sinful state of mind,with no cure available. Jesus Christ came to us as the last Adam as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:45; “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam (Jesus Christ) became a life-giving spirit.” Jesus, knowing that we have all sinned and were found unworthy to enter the kingdom of heaven, chose to take on the sins of the world and pay the price that we owed because there was no way for us to pay for our owns sins. As the last Adam, Jesus, like Adam did with Eve, willfully entered into our sinful state, and took on our sins and joined us in our predicament. See, Adam was willing to die for, and with Eve, just as Jesus was willing to enter our sinful state of mind and die with us so that He could take on our inherited state of sin. Jesus could have left us all die and parish into everlasting torment, but because of His Agape love for you and me, He chose to make restitution for the sins of the world for those who would accept His free gift of grace. Adam was the husband, and Eve was the bride, just as Jesus Christ is our Bridegroom and we are His bride. But it doesn’t stop there, Jesus Christ did indeed pay for the sins of the world, but to receive this wonderful gift that we refer to as grace, one needs to accept it for the remission of sins. If not accepted by the party in who is intended, it does not apply to their life.

We read this very important Bible verse that is very seldom ever taught about in our denominational churches of today, John 3:5; “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.” How does one become born again you may ask? Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and have received the Holy Spirit into your heart, it is then that you become born-again. But it has to be a true conversion, not just lip service, but a commitment of the heart. I do not believe that most people really understand what this means. When you become truly born-again, your name gets placed immediately in the Lambs Book of Life. You are now sealed with the Holy Spirit. We read in Ephesians 1:13-14; “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” We read a very interesting couple of words in the above verse that guarantee that we cannot lose my salvation once we truly become born-again. “Who is the guarantee of our inheritance” If this verse is true and I believe it is just like every verse in the Bible, then Paul is telling us that our security in the Holy Spirit is guaranteed. Jesus also said this in the following verse, John 10:28-29; “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Read this again if you are one of those that believe that you can lose your salvation. “And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” This means that even you cannot snatch yourself out of the Father’s hand. When you are sealed, you are sealed. 1 John 5:13 validates this truth, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Now, I know there are those out there that do not believe what I just wrote about. They do not believe that once saved always saved. I believe the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” goes a lot deeper than just the surface. There are a lot of people who believe that they are saved but in reality, are not. They can lose their so-called salvation because they never really had it in the first place. Here is a very convincing verse that validates my reason for saying this. Matthew 7:22-25; “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” So, the question that I have to ask is this, is your faith built on the Rock (Jesus Christ) or some religion that preaches saved by works. If you are truly in the hands of Jesus Christ, you cannot lose your salvation. Based on the scriptures in the verses above, I believe it is obvious that you cannot lose your salvation once you are in the hands of God Almighty. If you believe that you can lose your salvation, then you are saying that Jesus is not powerful enough to hang on to what has been given Him. Ask yourself this question; do you feel that your salvation lies in your trust in Jesus Christ or the teaching of your local church. When you really understand the Bible as it is written, you will see that they are extremely different in what truth is and what is proclaimed to be truth.

ACTION POINT:

Let me end this message by asking you this question, if someone were to stand in your shoes and take your punishment for a crime that you committed, wouldn’t you show that person the utmost gratitude and respect for what He did for you? Of course, you would if you had any sense of decency within you. We are all under the curse of sin with one destination for all. There is no avoiding it unless you turn to Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, ask for forgiveness and give your heart to Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There are those that will say, “You Christians are so narrow minded to think that you have the only way.” We do not think it is the only way, we know it is the only way. Jesus Christ said this in John 14:6; “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” Now, you have to ask yourself this question, do you believe the Word of God is true or not? If not, then it does not matter what you think because you have no foundation to stand on for anything that you believe. If you believe that the Bible is the true and inherent Word of God, how can you then deny this truth? With that being said, there are Christian churches that preach that all roads lead to heaven. I would not want to be in their shoes when they stand before Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment and get judged accordingly for all those that they lead down the wrong path. We read in Matthew 18:6-7; “But whoever causes one of these little ones (All mankind) who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”  This is a harsh warning to a lot of church leaders of today. The only way to be sure that you avoid false teaching is to get into the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit guide you through it. The only way to hear the truth is by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, otherwise you will have no idea if you are being lead in the right direction or not. Keep this in mind, the one that leads you down the wrong path will pay dearly for what he or she has done, but so will you for following that person and not seeking Gods Word from God Himself. You will not be able to blame anybody or anything when you stand before the Lord. You will be held accountable for everything that you believe and everything that you have done. Jesus is the only way, make sure that you don’t open the wrong door. There is only one door and that door is narrow as we read these final words in Matthew 7:13-14; “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Which gate will you choose? “Written To the glory of God, Inspired by the Holy Spirit!”

From our Chaplin—R. Fritz

Jesus Willfully joined us in our fallen state

Jesus was sent so we might be saved. John 3:17 says and this is Jesus speaking “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  To love God is to obey him and your love for him will show with your obedience. It means you will follow him no matter what he asks. If the Holy Ghost really lives in you, it is hard to sin. Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit, guilt comes from Satin, the accuser. That conviction comes so we can repent and ask for forgiveness for sins. John 3:19-20 says, and this is Jesus speaking “And this is the condemnation, that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved (Criticized or corrected).”  When we are saved by grace, that starts a relationship with Jesus Christ. That in itself does not stop us from sin. We are on the road to wanting to be in the light. This is also when the Holy Spirit comes upon those people in dreams, thoughts and starts to talk to them. God told me it is time to tell those that are ready for deeper spiritual revelations to now reveal them. There comes a cleansing process that has to happen to clean you of the spiritual garbage you have collected up to that point. The Holy Spirit will not live with unholy spirits in the same body. These spirits do not want to leave, they have a place to stay. For at least 10 years in my life, I went to a bible study where people were set free from demons or spirits that were removed from their life. When I first got to the bible study, my job was to pray for people. The longer I was there, I was given more responsibility to help these people. The spirits or demons or spiritual junk is there because of sin. There were times that spirits would not leave. We told that person to tell that demon to leave. What most people do not know is that spirit is a part of them and sometimes they do not want to get rid of them. They are still saved by grace, but without the spirits leaving, the Holy Spirit will not indwell in that person. They are not “Born Again,” but the Holy Spirit can come upon them through God’s grace. We all have made choices throughout our life. These choices had consequences. We might not have known about these consequences I have shown you for your choices and actions. When we choose Jesus Christ, our nature changes, we are forgiven for our past sins, some of the spirits might leave, but there are some that stay because they are a part of you for a long time. If God sent you to our Bible study, we would help you get rid of them. I was sent to this Bible study to get rid of my issues. In my case, I had to pray and fast for 28 days. Mark 9:25-29 and Jesus speaking “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”  The cleansing process is what gets your body ready for the Holy Spirit indwelling. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews is speaking to Jesus about him being a teacher sent from God and answers Nicodemus in  John 3:3-7 Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. “Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of 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. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” I think sometimes people skim right over these words of Jesus. It says you must be born of the water and of the Spirit to enter into the kingdom oy God. The born of the water talks about water baptism and of the Spirit is talking about the Holy Spirit. We must first go to where baptism started to understand what it was for. Matthew 3:11 and this is John the Baptist speaking I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:  Baptism is for repentance of sins. John the Baptist knew Jesus had no sins, but Jesus wanted to be baptized. This was prophesy and although Jesus had no sin he was going to fulfil “what we should do” and verse 16 talks about Jesus coming out of the water after being baptized and the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon him. The Holy Ghost was indwelled in him. Then the Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness to be tempted. To see the fulfillment of that prophesy, we must go to Acts 2:36 The promise of the Holy Ghost was fulfilled when Peter said to the house of Israel that God hath made Jesus whom the Jews crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:37,38,41 says Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men, and brethren, what shall we do? They were convicted and did not know what to do. Verse 38 says Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day were added unto them about three thousand souls. The underlined words are the words that need to be spoken over those that are baptized. 1Peter 3:21 says The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Baptism is the washing away your sins (spirits). Sometimes they do not leave, and it says you need to pray and fast. Words are not enough to get rid of your past. It is your actions that seal your future with Jesus Christ and that is to believe, trust and obey. Matthew 12:31-32 says, and this is Jesus talking “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Our words and actions can remove us from the book of life, whoever we are. Revelations 22:19 says And if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

 1John1:9 says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our choices and our actions will always show our Lord where our heart is. I pray everyone is given wisdom and knowledge to do the righteous thing. When you move in the right direction the Lord will bless you.