DIE KRUIS VAN JESUS CHRISTUS EN DIE VERVULLING MET DIE HEILIGE GEES.
Liewe Vriend,
Luister na die Woord van God uit die volgende gedeeltes:
“Toe die HERE sien dat die boosheid van die mens op die aarde groot was en al die versinsels wat hy in sy hart bedink, altyddeur net sleg was, het dit die HERE berou dat Hy die mens op die aarde gemaak het, en daar was smart in Sy hart.”
“I was hurt / broken / crushed by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted after idols. They will hate themselves for the evil and disgusting things that they have done.”
“Hoe dikwels was hulle wederstrewig teen Hom in die woestyn, het hulle Hom gegrief in die wildernis; en hulle het God opnuut versoek en die Heilige van Israel gekrenk.”
As God se skepsele en eie kinders Hom nie volkome liefhet nie, Hom ongehoorsaam is en teen Hom sondig, grief en krenk dit God geweldig en dit veroorsaak berou, groot smart en verbryseling van Sy hart. Hy is ons Vader en ons is na Sy gelykenis geskape. Hy voel ook as Vader bittere pyn in sy hart as sy kinders eerder na die Satan luister as na Hom.
God het toe sy hart, sy enigste geliefde Seun wat in die boesem van die Vader is, aarde toe gestuur om God se wil, genade, liefde, krag en waarheid te kom illustreer. Toe Jesus sy werk voltooi het, het Hy homself oorgegee in die hande van ons almal - die mense , heidene, sondaars , ouderlinge, skrifgeleerdes en owerpriesters - dat hulle /ons aan Hom doen wat ons wil . Al ons smaadhede en sonde teen God het op Jesus geval. Hy het ons sondes in sy liggaam aan die kruis gedra , . Ons sonde het Hom deurboor en verbrysel. Aan die kruis van Jesus sien ons sonde duidelik voor ons oë en wat sonde waarlik is en doen. Dit vermoor Hom!So het Jesus sy Vader se deurboorde, gebroke en verbryselde hart weens sonde duidelik aan ons kom illustreer, bekend en sigbaar maak.
God het deur die profeet Saggaria gesê:
“Maar oor die huis van Dawid en oor die inwoners van Jerusalem sal Ek uitgiet die Gees van genade en smekinge; en hulle sal opsien na My vir wie hulle deurboor het, en hulle sal oor Hom rouklaag soos ‘n mens rouklaag oor ‘n enigste seun en bitterlik oor Hom ween soos ‘n mens bitterlik ween oor ‘n eersgebore kind. In die dag sal die rouklaag groot wees in Jerusalem… en die land sal rouklaag by geslagte, elke geslag afsonderlik; …Al die ander geslagte – elke geslag afsonderlik, en hulle vroue afsonderlik. In dié dag sal daar ‘n geopende fontein wees vir die huis van Dawid en vir die inwoners van Jerusalem teen sonde en onreinheid. En in dié dag, spreek die HERE van die leërskare, sal Ek die name van die afgode uit die land uitroei, sodat aan hulle nie meer gedink sal word nie; ook die profete en die onreine gees sal Ek uit die land laat wegtrek.
Nou kom die Heilige Gees vol van genade en met smekinge na jou, elke keer as jy sonde doen, en smeek jou om op te kyk na Hom vir wie jy deurboor het met daardie sonde en om bitterlik te rou en te ween oor wat jou sonde Hom aangedoen het, want Jesus het al jou sonde in sy liggaam aan die kruis gedra.12 Wat jy aan die geringste gedoen het, het jy aan Hom gedoen. As jy God se Woord breek, breek jy ook vir Jesus, want die Woord het vlees geword. Elkeen van jou sondes pynig en grief die hart van jou eie liefdevolle Vader, dit deurboor en verbrysel Jesus Christus, en dit bedroef en blus die Heilige Gees van God uit! Die Heilige Gees van genade smeek jou daarom om Jesus / Hulle ontwil - en om jou eie ontwil - om op te kyk na Hom vir wie jy deurboor en jou te bekeer en te stop met jou sondes, want Hy ly bitterlik daardeur en jy gaan in die ewige hel daarvoor betaal as jy daarmee aangaan!!
Jesus het ons sonde so in sy liggaam kom dra, “sodat ons die sonde kan afsterwe / kan stop daarmee en vir die geregtigheid kan lewe” en om sonde total te veroordeel en sonder enige verskoning te laat. Dit was presies die boodskap van die Heilige Gees op en na Pinkster. Dit het hulle diep in die harte getref, hulle het hul bekeer toe hulle dit besef en so het God hulle gereinig en gevul met die HEILIGE Gees. Sonde het gestop en selfs ‘n leuen is met die dood gestraf!
O, vriend kyk tog op na Hom vir wie jy deurboor met elke sonde en rou en ween bitterlik oor Hom. Stop en bekeer jou daarvan dat jy genade mag ontvang. As jy dit nie sien nie, kyk en kyk en kyk weer totdat jy dit sien en besef en die bittere berou ervaar oor wat elkeen van jou sonde Jesus aangedoen het. Dan, in genade op genade belowe God dat Hy jou sal vergewe - as jy ware berou het, jou sondes en skuld teen Jesus bely en jou bekeer daarvan en dit alles regmaak met Jesus en jou naaste. Meer nog, Hy sal jou dan ook was, reinig en verlos van jou sondes met die bloed van Jesus wat jy bely jy gestort het. In nog groter genade sal Hy jou ook genees deur die wonde wat jy in ware berou en geween bely jy deur jou sondes gemaak het. O, sy oneindige genade!
Dan sal jy Jesus baie liefhê, want Hy vir wie baie vergewe is, het baie lief.
Deur dit te doen, gehoorsaam en ontvang jy die Heilige Gees. Dan open God daardie stroom van Jesus se bloed wat kragtig vloei teen sonde en onreinheid, en wat die afgode, valse profete en onreine geeste uit jou hart uitdryf. Op díé dag word die swakste soos David en Dawid soos God / Jesus. So word jy verlos en gereinig van elke sonde deur Sy bloed en word jy vervul en vol gemaak met God se Heilige Gees en met die Here Jesus self. So ontvang jy die gawe van die Heilige Gees wat God belowe het aan die wat Hom gehoorsaam is en kan jy ‘n heilige lewe lewe waarsonder jy God nie sal sien nie.
So reinig die bloed van Jesus jou van elke en alle sonde en maak jou regverdig en heilig. As jy dit volhardend glo en aan God gehoorsaam bly, skenk Hy jou ook hierdie wonderlike beloftes uit sy groot genade en liefde – terwyl jy die doodstraf verdien het! O, Sy groot liefde en genade! Hoe sal ons ontvlug as ons dit verag?
As jy egter die Heilige Gees weerstaan en teen Hom sondig deur nie op te kyk na en in berou te ween oor Jesus vir wie jy met elke sonde deurboor nie, sondig jy teen die Heilige Gees en jy bly skuldig aan die liggaam en bloed van Jesus. Dan is daar geen vergifnis of verlossing van daardie sonde moontlik nie. Sonder die erkenning en belydenis in diepe berou van die bloedvergieting van Jesus deur elke sonde, is daar ook geen vergifnis of verlossing van daardie sonde nie. Die fontein van Jesus se bloed gaan nie vir jou oop nie en daar is geen ander manier om verlos en gereinig te word nie. Al die afgode, valse profete en onreine geeste word dan ook nie deur God uitgedrywe nie, jy bly ‘n slaaf van sonde en hou aan sondig - al wil jy nie meer sondig nie. Die woord van God is baie duidelik dat jy nie hemel toe sal gaan as jy aanhou sondig nie. Moet jouself nie bedrieg nie en laat niemand jou hieroor bedrieg nie. Sonder ‘n heilige lewe gaan jy God nie sien nie. Geen ongelowige, gruwelike, moordenaar, hoereerder, afgodedienaar, leuenaar of onreine sal die hemel ingaan nie en niemand mag iets van hierdie woorde in Openbaring byvoeg of wegneem nie.
As jy egter getrou doen wat die Heilige Gees jou leer, sal God doen wat Hy sê Hy sal doen. Dan sal jy uiteindelik ervaar God bewaar jou van struikeling en stel jou sonder gebrek (faultless) voor Hom met gejuig (exceeding joy)! Dan lewe jy ‘n heilige lewe en die bose het geen vat op jou nie. En die heilige bly steeds heilig en die regverdige bly steeds regverdig. Sulke mense, wat die gebooie van God so doen, het reg op die boom van die lewe en om in te gaan deur die poorte van die hemelse stad. Dan sal jy nou al en in die hemel kan uitroep en sing: “… Jesus Christus… Aan Hom wat ons liefgehad het en ons van ons sondes gewas / verlos / vrygemaak het in sy bloed en ons gemaak het konings en priesters vir sy God en Vader, aan Hom die heerlikheid en die krag tot in alle ewigheid! Amen.” Dit alles doen Jesus vir ons deur sy bloed en kruis alleen.
AMEN!
Met liefde vir Jesus Christus.
Verwysings:
Gen 6:5-6
Eseg 6:9
Ps. 78:40-41
Joh 1:18
Joh. 1:18 verklaar = declared / revealed / made known / made clear
Matt. 17:22-23; 21:33-46. Mark. 9:31; 12:1-12, Luk. 9:44; 20:9-18.
Matt. 26:45, Mark. 14:41, Luk. 18:32-33; 24:7
Matt. 20:18-19, Mark. 8:31; 10:33-34, Luk. 9:22; 24:20
Matt. 17:12, Mark. 9:12-13,
Ps. 69:10 & Rom 15:3
1 Pet. 2:24, Joh 1:29. wegneem = arron in Gr. = wegdra. Ook soos in Lev. 16:21-22, Hebr. 9:28 en 1Joh.3:5.
Rom 4:25 Jesus… wat oorgelewer is as gevolg van / deur (Gr. dia) ons misdade
Jes. 53:5 Korrekte Hebreeus is: Maar Hy is deur / as gevolg van ons oortredinge deurboor, deur / as gevolg van ons ongeregtighede is Hy verbrysel. Sien Gesenius’s Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Strong’s no. 4480 (e). Al die voorafgaande pas hierby in. Jes 53:12, Jes 53:11 (skuld is “iniquities” = sonde)
2 Kor. 5:21, Gal 3:1
Joh 1:18 verklaar = declared / revealed / made known / made clear; 14:7, 9
Sagg 12:10 - 13:2
Matt. 25:40 & 45
Joh. 1:14;
Efes 4:30, 1Thess 5:19
1Pet 2:24
Rom.8:3
Hand. 2:22-23, 36; 3:13-19; 4:10-11; 7:52.
Hand. 5:1-11
1 Joh 1:9, Matt. 5:23-24
1 Joh 1:7
1Pet. 2:24, Jes. 53:5
Luk 7:47
Sagg 13:1&2
Sagg 12:8
Efes. 3:19; 4:13
Hand 5:32
Hebr. 12:14
1 Joh 1:7
Rom. 3-5; Hebr. 3-5
1Kor. 11:27
Hand 7:51, Efes 4:30, 1Thess 5:19, Matt 12:32, Mark 3:29, Luk 12:10
Hebr. 9:22 (sien Ampl. Gr. Aphesis = vergifnis en verlossing
Open 21:27; Gal. 5:19-21, 1Kor 6:9-10; Kol 3:5-6; Efes. 5:5
Hebr. 12:14
Open. 21:8 & 27
Open. 22:18-19
Judas 1:24-25
1Joh 5:18
Open 22:11
Open 22:14
Open 1:5-6
Matt. 26:28; Hand. 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; 1Kor. 1:18; Efes. 1:7; 2:13-16; Kol. 1:20-22; Hebr. 1:3; 9:12,14,22; 10:10, 14, 19, 22; 13:12, 20-21(sien KJV); 1Pet.1:18-19; Open. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 7:14; 12:11.
Monday, 2 January 2012
THE LORD'S SUPPER - ITS ORIGIN AND TRUE MEANING
The Lord’s Supper – its origin and true meaning
When Adam and Eve chose to listen to the snake rather than their Creator and loving Father, they wounded, crushed and broke the heart of God (Gen. 6:5-6). That is why God said that they will surely die when they eat of that tree. Ever since then every sinner with every sin does the same to the holy and loving Father – mercilessly, heartlessly, inconsiderately, over and over (Ps. 69:20, Ezek. 6:9). That is also why God said that the soul that sins will surely die, why the wages of sin is death and why we will not see God without a pure heart and without holiness.
With perfect love, God repeatedly sent His prophets to call His children back to Him, but they were all treated the same as the One who sent them and whose words they spoke. Which one was not rejected, stoned or killed? Matt. 21 & 23.
Finally, in an ultimate act of love, God Himself came down to earth as Immanuel, in Jesus Christ, from the bosom of the Father – to visibly and personally show the world His life, perfect love, patience, grace and power and to speak His words to them.
Then He handed Himself over into the hands of His children, his people, mankind, the sinners, the Scribes, Chief priests and Pharisees to do to Him what they chose – and they rejected, martyred and killed Him by crucifixion. Matt. 16:21; 17:12, 22-23; 20:18; 21:33-46 in the parable of the farmers. Mark.14:41; Luke 9:22, 44; 17:25; 18:32-33; John 1:11; 7:19; 8:37-40.
After three days Jesus rose to prove that He was indeed God, the Creator, who was murdered. He will now return to judge ever man for every thought, word or deed that went against His holy, righteous will and commands and that wounded His loving heart.
On the cross, God, through Jesus, physically and openly displayed what mankind has been doing to Him through sins from the time of Adam and Eve and what His loving heart feels when we sin. Spiritually He was and is still given into the hands of every man to do to Him what they choose - and with every sin He is martyred, crushed and pierced. Peter said: He bore our sins in His body on the tree 1Pet.2:24. Isaiah said: But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was bruised because of our iniquities Is. 53:5. (“min” in orig. Hebrew is “because of” – see Gesenius’ Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the O.T, Strong word no. 4480 (e)). For he shall bear their iniquities and He bare the sin of many Is. 53:11 & 12. David and Paul said: The insults with which we insulted God, has fallen on Jesus Ps. 69 & Rom. 15:3. Paul says: “He was delivered (to be killed) because of our offences /transgressions” (Gr. dia = because of) Rom.4:24. And our sins grieve and quench the Holy Spirit of God and of Jesus (Eph. 4:30, 1Th 5:19). Jesus said what we do to the least, we do to Him. By ill-treating and disregarding the least, we do the same to Jesus and so grieve and wound Him again. If we hate anyone, we are his murderer and therefore also Jesus’ murderer. This is spiritual murder and before God it is the same as physical murder. The Word also became flesh and dwelt amongst us. By breaking the Word of God, we also break and wound Jesus.
Zechariah said, God will, through the Holy Spirit of grace, plead with us to look up to Him whom we have pierced and to grieve and mourn bitterly because of what we have done to Him (with every sin), every nation, tribe, man and women by themselves (Zec.12:10-14).
It is undeniably clear: Every man with every sin breaks God’s loving heart, martyrs Him and Jesus and is the murderer of Jesus Christ. We made and caused His wounds through our sins. We all broke his heart and His body and spilled His blood.
That is what Jesus showed and demonstrated at the Eucharist. “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed because of many for the remission / forgiveness / deliverance / release (Gr. Aphesis) of sins. (Gr. Huper / alt. peri = because of and as a quotation from Is. 53:5 and in line with all the abovementioned scriptures). Every time we break the bread and pour the wine, we remember, admit, confess and demonstrate how our sins wounded and broke Him and how we shed His blood. The covenant in His blood is this: If we admit and confess with deep bitterness and remorse what our sins did to Him and if we repent from our sins, our sins will be forgiven and He will wash, cleanse, free and deliver us from our sins by His blood. Is there greater love than this? But if we continue in sin (or uses the bread and wine unworthily) and we do not confess and repent, we are guilty of His body and blood.
And God keeps His covenant. That is why they praised Him and sang in Rev. 1:5; “Unto Him that loved us, and washed / freed / cleansed / delivered us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” That is how the devil is overcome and how we can live victorious lives – by the blood of the Lamb! Thanks and glory to God.
Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Ever since Adam and Eve He is slain Rev. 13:8. God demonstrated it before the eyes of Adam and Eve when He tore apart and pealed the goats’ skin and dressed their nakedness. And they were reminded of that every time they had to put on new skins again. But He promised that Someone will crush the head of the serpent – obviously in our hearts. All excuses, love and consideration for or lies and deceptions of Satan are crushed and destroyed when we realize the Lamb of God is slain when we sin.
The sacrificial lambs in the O.T. and the scapegoat (Azazel) (Lev. 16) signified to the Jews exactly the same truth. The scapegoat bore the sins of the people into the wilderness and there it died a terrible death. Most Jews knew everything about the sacrifice but did not realize what it truly signified and meant and they kept on sinning – and God hated their sacrifices. Those who realized it pointed to what their sins did to God and the Messiah – was in the same way as us forgiven and washed by the blood of the Lamb.
The brazen serpent of Moses in the wilderness confirmed this message. Look at Jesus on the cross, admit and confess your guilt of His death and you will be cured of the sicknesses caused by the bites of the serpents.
David realized and experienced the same when he was told that the child born from Uriah’s wife will die because of his sins. He stopped eating and was ready to die because of that. Later he said: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,” Ps. 51.
John the Baptist saw and recognized this Lamb of God that bore the sins of the world. That is why he spoke the way he spoke. No sin is excusable or may be overlooked because the Lamb of God bears it. He attacked even kings and said to the religious people: “Do not even think to call yourself a child if God if you do not bear fruit worthy of repentance. If you do not bear good fruit, you will be cast into everlasting fire. He will thoroughly purge his floor.” Graciously, He can even make a stone a child to bear the acceptable fruit. There is therefore much hope for me and for all of us.
Paul also received this great light when he was told that he was all along persecuting Jesus, the Messiah, through his sins against the believers. He was so overwhelmed with grief and bitterness because of that, that he stopped eating and drinking for three days and he was set to rather die than live with what he has done. He constantly prayed, confessed his great sin and pleaded for mercy and forgiveness – and God heard him and sent Ananias to help him. We must all see this great light.
Therefore Peter clearly wrote that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we may die to sin (stop with sin) and live for righteousness. By his wounds we are healed from (the leprosy and sickness of) sin 1Pet. 2:24.
Isaiah said: By this knowledge of Him, My righteous Servant shall justify many, because He will bear their sins. Is. 53:11. By knowing and believing that Jesus bears any sin that I might commit as wounds in his blessed loving heart and I am therefore guilty of murder and deserve hell for it, will make me truly repent and confess it with deep remorse. Then God forgives, His blood washes and He makes me just and righteous and my sin stops – and so I love Him very much because I have been forgiven very very many death-deserving sins. So, by this knowledge I am justified i.e. made just and righteous.
Everyone who denies that he, because of his sins, is guilty of the blood of all the prophets, from Abel to Zechariah and of Jesus, proves thereby that he is a child of those who killed them. The blood of all the prophets and of Jesus will therefore be required from his hands.
But if we acknowledge and confess that we, through every sin, have broken the body and spilled the blood of the prophets and of Jesus and if we repent from all sins, we can be forgiven and cleansed - that our sin may stop. So His blood cleanses us from all and every sin. Zechariah said that, when we look up to Him whom we have pierced and mourn and grieve bitterly for Him, then that fountain (of His cleansing blood) will open and flow mightily against sin and unrighteousness.
Then, at the Lord’s Supper, we take the bread and break it and pour the wine and drink it and so remember and signify His death until He comes. This is the true meaning and origin of the Lord’s Supper.
SELA.
When Adam and Eve chose to listen to the snake rather than their Creator and loving Father, they wounded, crushed and broke the heart of God (Gen. 6:5-6). That is why God said that they will surely die when they eat of that tree. Ever since then every sinner with every sin does the same to the holy and loving Father – mercilessly, heartlessly, inconsiderately, over and over (Ps. 69:20, Ezek. 6:9). That is also why God said that the soul that sins will surely die, why the wages of sin is death and why we will not see God without a pure heart and without holiness.
With perfect love, God repeatedly sent His prophets to call His children back to Him, but they were all treated the same as the One who sent them and whose words they spoke. Which one was not rejected, stoned or killed? Matt. 21 & 23.
Finally, in an ultimate act of love, God Himself came down to earth as Immanuel, in Jesus Christ, from the bosom of the Father – to visibly and personally show the world His life, perfect love, patience, grace and power and to speak His words to them.
Then He handed Himself over into the hands of His children, his people, mankind, the sinners, the Scribes, Chief priests and Pharisees to do to Him what they chose – and they rejected, martyred and killed Him by crucifixion. Matt. 16:21; 17:12, 22-23; 20:18; 21:33-46 in the parable of the farmers. Mark.14:41; Luke 9:22, 44; 17:25; 18:32-33; John 1:11; 7:19; 8:37-40.
After three days Jesus rose to prove that He was indeed God, the Creator, who was murdered. He will now return to judge ever man for every thought, word or deed that went against His holy, righteous will and commands and that wounded His loving heart.
On the cross, God, through Jesus, physically and openly displayed what mankind has been doing to Him through sins from the time of Adam and Eve and what His loving heart feels when we sin. Spiritually He was and is still given into the hands of every man to do to Him what they choose - and with every sin He is martyred, crushed and pierced. Peter said: He bore our sins in His body on the tree 1Pet.2:24. Isaiah said: But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was bruised because of our iniquities Is. 53:5. (“min” in orig. Hebrew is “because of” – see Gesenius’ Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the O.T, Strong word no. 4480 (e)). For he shall bear their iniquities and He bare the sin of many Is. 53:11 & 12. David and Paul said: The insults with which we insulted God, has fallen on Jesus Ps. 69 & Rom. 15:3. Paul says: “He was delivered (to be killed) because of our offences /transgressions” (Gr. dia = because of) Rom.4:24. And our sins grieve and quench the Holy Spirit of God and of Jesus (Eph. 4:30, 1Th 5:19). Jesus said what we do to the least, we do to Him. By ill-treating and disregarding the least, we do the same to Jesus and so grieve and wound Him again. If we hate anyone, we are his murderer and therefore also Jesus’ murderer. This is spiritual murder and before God it is the same as physical murder. The Word also became flesh and dwelt amongst us. By breaking the Word of God, we also break and wound Jesus.
Zechariah said, God will, through the Holy Spirit of grace, plead with us to look up to Him whom we have pierced and to grieve and mourn bitterly because of what we have done to Him (with every sin), every nation, tribe, man and women by themselves (Zec.12:10-14).
It is undeniably clear: Every man with every sin breaks God’s loving heart, martyrs Him and Jesus and is the murderer of Jesus Christ. We made and caused His wounds through our sins. We all broke his heart and His body and spilled His blood.
That is what Jesus showed and demonstrated at the Eucharist. “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed because of many for the remission / forgiveness / deliverance / release (Gr. Aphesis) of sins. (Gr. Huper / alt. peri = because of and as a quotation from Is. 53:5 and in line with all the abovementioned scriptures). Every time we break the bread and pour the wine, we remember, admit, confess and demonstrate how our sins wounded and broke Him and how we shed His blood. The covenant in His blood is this: If we admit and confess with deep bitterness and remorse what our sins did to Him and if we repent from our sins, our sins will be forgiven and He will wash, cleanse, free and deliver us from our sins by His blood. Is there greater love than this? But if we continue in sin (or uses the bread and wine unworthily) and we do not confess and repent, we are guilty of His body and blood.
And God keeps His covenant. That is why they praised Him and sang in Rev. 1:5; “Unto Him that loved us, and washed / freed / cleansed / delivered us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” That is how the devil is overcome and how we can live victorious lives – by the blood of the Lamb! Thanks and glory to God.
Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Ever since Adam and Eve He is slain Rev. 13:8. God demonstrated it before the eyes of Adam and Eve when He tore apart and pealed the goats’ skin and dressed their nakedness. And they were reminded of that every time they had to put on new skins again. But He promised that Someone will crush the head of the serpent – obviously in our hearts. All excuses, love and consideration for or lies and deceptions of Satan are crushed and destroyed when we realize the Lamb of God is slain when we sin.
The sacrificial lambs in the O.T. and the scapegoat (Azazel) (Lev. 16) signified to the Jews exactly the same truth. The scapegoat bore the sins of the people into the wilderness and there it died a terrible death. Most Jews knew everything about the sacrifice but did not realize what it truly signified and meant and they kept on sinning – and God hated their sacrifices. Those who realized it pointed to what their sins did to God and the Messiah – was in the same way as us forgiven and washed by the blood of the Lamb.
The brazen serpent of Moses in the wilderness confirmed this message. Look at Jesus on the cross, admit and confess your guilt of His death and you will be cured of the sicknesses caused by the bites of the serpents.
David realized and experienced the same when he was told that the child born from Uriah’s wife will die because of his sins. He stopped eating and was ready to die because of that. Later he said: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,” Ps. 51.
John the Baptist saw and recognized this Lamb of God that bore the sins of the world. That is why he spoke the way he spoke. No sin is excusable or may be overlooked because the Lamb of God bears it. He attacked even kings and said to the religious people: “Do not even think to call yourself a child if God if you do not bear fruit worthy of repentance. If you do not bear good fruit, you will be cast into everlasting fire. He will thoroughly purge his floor.” Graciously, He can even make a stone a child to bear the acceptable fruit. There is therefore much hope for me and for all of us.
Paul also received this great light when he was told that he was all along persecuting Jesus, the Messiah, through his sins against the believers. He was so overwhelmed with grief and bitterness because of that, that he stopped eating and drinking for three days and he was set to rather die than live with what he has done. He constantly prayed, confessed his great sin and pleaded for mercy and forgiveness – and God heard him and sent Ananias to help him. We must all see this great light.
Therefore Peter clearly wrote that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we may die to sin (stop with sin) and live for righteousness. By his wounds we are healed from (the leprosy and sickness of) sin 1Pet. 2:24.
Isaiah said: By this knowledge of Him, My righteous Servant shall justify many, because He will bear their sins. Is. 53:11. By knowing and believing that Jesus bears any sin that I might commit as wounds in his blessed loving heart and I am therefore guilty of murder and deserve hell for it, will make me truly repent and confess it with deep remorse. Then God forgives, His blood washes and He makes me just and righteous and my sin stops – and so I love Him very much because I have been forgiven very very many death-deserving sins. So, by this knowledge I am justified i.e. made just and righteous.
Everyone who denies that he, because of his sins, is guilty of the blood of all the prophets, from Abel to Zechariah and of Jesus, proves thereby that he is a child of those who killed them. The blood of all the prophets and of Jesus will therefore be required from his hands.
But if we acknowledge and confess that we, through every sin, have broken the body and spilled the blood of the prophets and of Jesus and if we repent from all sins, we can be forgiven and cleansed - that our sin may stop. So His blood cleanses us from all and every sin. Zechariah said that, when we look up to Him whom we have pierced and mourn and grieve bitterly for Him, then that fountain (of His cleansing blood) will open and flow mightily against sin and unrighteousness.
Then, at the Lord’s Supper, we take the bread and break it and pour the wine and drink it and so remember and signify His death until He comes. This is the true meaning and origin of the Lord’s Supper.
SELA.
JESUS CRUCIFIED AND MORAL REGENERATION
MORAL REGENERATION
Moral decay has only one cause, one result and only one real solution.
The Cause and the Result:
The cause of moral decay is found in each man's heart since Adam and Eve. When we rejected our high, lofty, all-knowing, wise, loving and righteous Creator and Father and chose to listen to the low belly-crawling dust-eating liar, thief and murderer, namely Satan, moral decay and corruption were the inevitable. No man can stop it or change it. We may stop some things, but we remain morally corrupt. We can be leaders and rich but we sit with corruption and moral decay in its endless forms nevertheless. Past and recent history proved it undeniably e.g. apartheid, discrimination, reversed discrimination, racism, corruption, immorality, unfaithfulness, perversity, etc. amongst even leaders. No man who has rejected the God of heaven for the gods of this world can be a real morally regenerated person and any attempts to regenerate himself or others are futile.
The Result in Heaven:
The result in heaven of our moral fall was that we have left behind a hurt, bruised, wounded and bleeding Father. After all the very good He has done for man, we chose a snake above Him. That pierced and crushed His heart.
The Attempt from Heaven
However, because of His love and pity for our condition, He Personally came to earth to call man back to Himself so that He may regenerate and restore mankind again.
The Answer from Earth:
But He and His words and commands were once again rejected and He was martyred and murdered on a wooden cross. He bore mankind's sins like wounds in His body, as He bore it in His heart through all the ages. We can now clearly see the result of our moral decay on our Father in heaven . We hurt, wound and kill Him. That was and is our answer for His love!
The Result on Earth:
This has a result amongst us. Now we reap what we have sown. Our own walk is coming down on our own heads. Israel was totally destroyed after rejecting the Chist. Look what is happening to the white apartheid Afrikaners and to the black people with HIV. History is repeating itself over and over and proves exactly what God has said. What you want people to do to you, do to them. If you ill-treat them, you want to be and you will be ill-treated. If you ill-treat God, ..... look and see the result before your eyes.
THE SOLUTION:
We need to turn back with remorse to our God and Father and His Son Jesus Christ and repent with all our hearts and apologize to Him for the hurt, pain, wounds and death we have caused Him. Then we need to apologize to our neighbors for what we have done to them. God promised that He will then forgive us. What is more, He will even cleanse, purify and deliver us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. "If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2Chron.7:14. THEN ONLY is moral regeneration possible and real.
UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE, THEY LABOR IN VAIN WHO BUILD IT. Ps. 127:1. Is God building this house of moral regeneration? If not, you waste your time. I have tried for 43 years in my own heart but failed, but God did it at last. You will never succeed with moral regeneration in your heart and in the heart of others - UNLESS GOD BUILDS IT.
The Alternative:
If however, we remain morally corrupt and keep on rejecting and piercing our God and hurting our fellow man, eternity in flames will be our just reward and we will already start experiencing it in this life.
Moral decay has only one cause, one result and only one real solution.
The Cause and the Result:
The cause of moral decay is found in each man's heart since Adam and Eve. When we rejected our high, lofty, all-knowing, wise, loving and righteous Creator and Father and chose to listen to the low belly-crawling dust-eating liar, thief and murderer, namely Satan, moral decay and corruption were the inevitable. No man can stop it or change it. We may stop some things, but we remain morally corrupt. We can be leaders and rich but we sit with corruption and moral decay in its endless forms nevertheless. Past and recent history proved it undeniably e.g. apartheid, discrimination, reversed discrimination, racism, corruption, immorality, unfaithfulness, perversity, etc. amongst even leaders. No man who has rejected the God of heaven for the gods of this world can be a real morally regenerated person and any attempts to regenerate himself or others are futile.
The Result in Heaven:
The result in heaven of our moral fall was that we have left behind a hurt, bruised, wounded and bleeding Father. After all the very good He has done for man, we chose a snake above Him. That pierced and crushed His heart.
The Attempt from Heaven
However, because of His love and pity for our condition, He Personally came to earth to call man back to Himself so that He may regenerate and restore mankind again.
The Answer from Earth:
But He and His words and commands were once again rejected and He was martyred and murdered on a wooden cross. He bore mankind's sins like wounds in His body, as He bore it in His heart through all the ages. We can now clearly see the result of our moral decay on our Father in heaven . We hurt, wound and kill Him. That was and is our answer for His love!
The Result on Earth:
This has a result amongst us. Now we reap what we have sown. Our own walk is coming down on our own heads. Israel was totally destroyed after rejecting the Chist. Look what is happening to the white apartheid Afrikaners and to the black people with HIV. History is repeating itself over and over and proves exactly what God has said. What you want people to do to you, do to them. If you ill-treat them, you want to be and you will be ill-treated. If you ill-treat God, ..... look and see the result before your eyes.
THE SOLUTION:
We need to turn back with remorse to our God and Father and His Son Jesus Christ and repent with all our hearts and apologize to Him for the hurt, pain, wounds and death we have caused Him. Then we need to apologize to our neighbors for what we have done to them. God promised that He will then forgive us. What is more, He will even cleanse, purify and deliver us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. "If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2Chron.7:14. THEN ONLY is moral regeneration possible and real.
UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE, THEY LABOR IN VAIN WHO BUILD IT. Ps. 127:1. Is God building this house of moral regeneration? If not, you waste your time. I have tried for 43 years in my own heart but failed, but God did it at last. You will never succeed with moral regeneration in your heart and in the heart of others - UNLESS GOD BUILDS IT.
The Alternative:
If however, we remain morally corrupt and keep on rejecting and piercing our God and hurting our fellow man, eternity in flames will be our just reward and we will already start experiencing it in this life.
MESSIAH CRUCIFIED: THE BITTERNESS OF THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST - SPURGEON, ET AL.
MESSIAH CRUCIFIED: THE
BITTERNESS OF THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST:
The real causes
for, meanings and effects of the cross of Jesus Christ are missed by most
believers and preachers. Read the following carefully and prayerfully.
SPURGEON
I extracted quotes from: “SPURGEON’S SERMONS ON THE CROSS OF CHRIST”. Chapter 8 is “The bitterness of the Cross”
Zechariah 12:10. This is godly and life changing for any sincere person.
“.. the first effect upon any man who has a
true sight of Christ- is that it produces sincere sorrow: "They shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and
shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn"
.... for they who behold His wounds are themselves wounded, they who gaze upon
His pierced heart are themselves pierced to the heart - nay, they are pierced
in the heart, and they who, by faith see the flowing of His precious blood feel
their very hearts bleed on account of Him, and all that He endured on their
behalf. (because of them – my comment)
A sight of His crucifixion crucifies sin. A
sight of His death - if it be a true sight - is the death of all love of sin.
If, then, you have never felt the mournful effect of the sorrowful spectacle of
the bleeding Saviour, you have still need to stand, and to look, and look, and
look again until you feel it, for so it will always be: "They shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him"
There will come over your soul, when you get a
true sight of Christ, much bitterness on account of your having slighted the
extraordinary love of Christ to you. And yet I have been all this while
slighting Him! Others have loved me, and I have returned their love, ashamed to
be thought ungrateful; but all of them put together have never loved me as He
has done, yet I have been His enemy, and, as far as I could, I have opposed
Him. Woe is me! Woe is me, that I should have treated so ill my best Friend!
Then there follows, over and above all this, the
black, bitter thought that our sin caused His death on the tree. The awakened
soul sighs, “My sins! My sins! My sins!” Nothing ever reveals sin like the
cross of Christ. So does the cross touch what we thought to be only mistakes
and errors, and they rise before us in their true character as hellish sins. In
the light of Calvary , sin does like itself
appear; and what is the likeness of sin there? Why, the murderer of the Son of
God – the murderer of the Prince of Life – the murderer of man’s best Friend,
whose only crime was this: “found guilty of excess of love,” and therefore He
must die.
O sin, is this what you are? Are you a
God-killing thing? I have heard of men being guilty of regicide, but what shall
I say concerning Deicide? Yet, sin virtually and as much as it can, stabs at
the Godhead, crying, with the wicked husbandmen, "This is the heir; come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be
ours." This is the terrible character of sin - it will imbrue its
hands in the blood of Him who is perfectly innocent and perfectly benevolent;
it will take man's best Friend by the throat, condemn Him as if He were a
felon, nail Him to a gibbet, and then stand and gaze at Him, and mock his very
death-throes. There is nothing upon earth so devilish as sin. O to what
extremes of atrocity has sin not gone!
And such is your sin and mine, to a lesser or
greater degree. A sight of the cross, therefore, brings bitterness into the
soul, because it shows us what sin is, and what are its ultimate issues and
true designs if it could carry them out. Never do we smite upon our breasts so
hard as when we see the cross of Jesus. We are condemned at the mercy seat even
more fully than we are at the judgment seat. This is the condemnation of sin in
the soul of man, that he sees what it did in murdering the Christ of God, and
this causes the repenting sinner to “be
in bitterness for him, as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
I feel quite sure that God intends our first
sight of Christ to fill our soul with bitterness; and therefore I ask you most
seriously to question your conversion unless there was some measure of this
bitterness mingled with it. A sinner's sight of Christ must breed sorrow for
sin; it is unavoidable; and the more clear that sight shall become, and the more
it is mixed with faith, and the more sure we are of pardon, the more bitterness
will there be in it. When we know that our sins are forgiven, it is then that
we most of all realize their guilt, and abhor and hate them.
As the
great love of Christ is better known, it brings deeper grief for sin. We then
more deeply lament that we should ever have slighted such love. .. and side by
side with that will be a growing sense of abhorrence of yourself, and
detestation of the sin which nailed your Saviour to the tree. It must be so;
deeper love to Christ will breed greater grief and a yet more bitter bitterness
on account of sin.
There will also be, in your heart, a more
intense bitterness arising from the dread of grieving your Lord. I believe
that, the higher your joy in Christ, the greater will be your fear lest you
should bring disgrace upon Him.
I have a great fear concerning your condition
if you never felt anything of this bitterness – this dread lest, in thought, or
word, or deed, by omissions or by commission, you should grieve the sweet and
tender love of Christ. It is thus that the holy soul feels the bitterness of an
inward jealousy lest she should be treacherous to her Lord, or that anything
should occur to grieve Him.
Then, again, I am sure there is another
bitterness that will always accompany a true sight of Christ, and that is, an
intense horror at man’s rejection of Him. With those who love Christ most,
there comes to be, after a time, sympathy with Jesus rather than with men.
But, brethren, there is an intense bitterness
in your heart when you come truly to see Christ on the cross, as you realize
that all people do not believe in Him, that His kingdom has not yet come, and
that His will is not done on earth as it is in heaven. Still do men reject Him;
they scoff at His gospel, they despise His cause, they set up idol gods and
false saviours, and all this is as a dish of bitter herbs to those who really
love Him.
This bitterness has the most gracious effects
upon us.
1 This
bitterness works great hatred for sin. We dread the fire of sin because it
burned the Saviour; that is why we hate it so intensely. Sin murdered Him; so,
can we ever tolerate it? Could anyone ever play with the knife that had killed
his best friend? Could he preserve it as a choice treasure? Nay, he would, if
he could, fling it into the depths of oblivion; and sin, that cruel murderous
thing that slew our Saviour, we would take revenge upon you! We abhor you; God
has made you bitter to us; and there dwells, in that bitterness, a power
that helps to sanctify us.
But next, that bitterness makes Christ very
sweet.
2. It makes all worldly things lose their
taste. The world loses its charm for true believers.
3. It removes the bitterness from the things of
this life.
4. It takes away all bitterness against your
fellow men.
5. In this bitterness with Christ, there is an
unutterable sweetness.
I think that mourning for sin is as sweet a flower as blooms outside
heaven. I do assure you, from my own experience, that the still, calm, quiet
joy which does not well up out of yourself, but comes into you direct from
Christ by the way of the cross, is the rarest and most roseate dew that ever
charms us this side of the glory-land. God give you all to know, to the full
extent, the sweet bitterness – the bitter sweetness – that comes of a sight of
Christ crucified, for His dear Name’s sake! Amen.”
Is this not wonderfully put? Does this not also stir your heart?
Does this not bring sadness and bitterness and wonderful hope? It is when we
admit to Jesus with each sin that that sin has pierced Him and has spilled His
blood, and if we mourn for what we have done to HIM and if we repent from that
sin, that He forgives us and that He uses that blood to cleanse us from that
sin. If we don’t do this, we remain guilty of His body and His blood and we
never find cleansing and deliverance. When we realize and accept we have
wounded Him, His wounds heal us.
From Spurgeon’s book:
“12 SERMONS ON THE CRIES FROM THE CROSS” I quote the following:
Chapter 2 “Christ plea for ingorant sinners.” “Then Jesus said: Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Luk.23:34. I think too that we did not know all that we were doing in our
rejection of Christ, and putting him to grief. We refused and rejected Christ.
We did not know that, in that rejection, we were virtually putting him away and
crucifying him. We were denying his Godhead, or else we should have worshipped
him. We were denying his love, or else we should have yielded to him. We were
practically, in every act of sin, taking the hammer and the nails, and
fastening Christ to the cross, but we did not know it.
The fact is, we were refusing Christ, and choosing the pleasures of
sin instead of Him; and every hour of delay was an hour of crucifying Christ,
grieving his Spirit, and choosing this harlot world in the place of the lovely
and ever-blessed Christ. We did not know that.
.. and we did not know that we were even then perpetrating the
highest insult upon Christ.
He prayed for you when you were crucifying Him.
Chapter 4. “Lama Sabachthani?”
What an accursed thing is sin, which crucified the Lord Jesus!
Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will
you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love
it? Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’s misery, that I might at
once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought
to light again! Be gone, O sin! Thou art banished from the heart where Jesus
reigns! Be gone, for thou hast crucified my Lord, and made Him cry, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” O my hearers, if you did but know yourselves,
and know the love of Christ, you would each one vow that you would harbor sin
no longer.
Chapter 5. THE SHORTEST OF THE SEVEN
CRIES. “After this, Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith:
I thirst” John 19:28
The utterance of “I thirst” brought out A TYPE OF MAN’S TREATMENT OF
HIS LORD. It was a confirmation of the Scripture testimony with regard to man’s
natural enmity to God. According to Scripture man is a fallen creature, with a
carnal mind which cannot be reconciled to God; a worse than brutish creature,
rendering evil for good, and treating his God with vile ingratitude. Alas, man
is the slave and the dupe of Satan, and a black-hearted traitor to his God. Did
not prophecies say that man would give to his incarnate God gall to eat and
vinegar to drink? It is done. He came to save, and man denied him hospitality; at
first there was no room for Him at the inn, and at the last there was not one
cool cup of water for him to drink; but when He thirsted they gave Him vinegar
to drink. This is man’s treatment of his Savior. Universal manhood, left to
itself, rejects, crucifies, and mocks the Christ of God. This was the act too
of man at his best, when he is moved to pity,.. but though he felt a degree of
pity, it was such as one might show to a dog; he felt no reverence, but mocked
as he relieved. He pitied the sufferer, but he thought so little of Him that he
joined in the voice of scorn. Even when man compassionates the sufferings of
Christ, a man would have ceased to be human if he did not, still he scorns him;
the very cup which man gives to Jesus is at once scorn an pity. For “the tender
mercies of the wicked are cruel.” See how man at his best mingles admiration of
the Savior’s person with scorn of his claims; writing books to hold him up as
an example and at the same moment rejecting his deity; admitting that he was a wonderful
man, but denying his most sacred mission; extolling his ethical teaching and
then trampling on his blood: thus giving him drink, but that drink vinegar. O
my hearers, beware of praising Jesus and denying his atoning sacrifice. Beware
of rendering him homage and dishonoring his Name at the same time.
Alas, my brethren, I
cannot say much on the score of man’s cruelty to our Lord without touching
myself and you. Have we not often given him vinegar to drink? Did we not do so
years ago before we knew him? We used to melt when we heard about his
sufferings, but we did not turn from our sins. We gave him our tears and then
grieved him with our sins. We thought sometimes that we loved him as we heard
the story of his death, but we did not change our lives for his sake, nor put
our trust in Him, and so we gave him vinegar to drink.
We may therefore come before Him, with all the rest of our race,
when God subdues them to repentance by His love, and look on Him whom we have
pierced, and mourn for Him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Chapter 12. “Mourning at the Sight of the Crucified”
“And all the people that came
together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their
breasts, and returned.” Luke 23:48.
The grades of difference in feelings were as many as the minds in
which they ruled. There were many, no doubt, who were merely moved with a
transient emotion. Ere the next morning light had dawned, they had forgotten it
all. Their beating of the breast was not a breaking of the heart.
Others amongst that great crowd exhibited emotion based upon more
thoughtful reflection. They saw that they had shared in this murder of an
innocent person. “Our race has killed its benefactor.” Such feelings would
abide, but I can suppose that they might not bring men to sincere repentance;
for a while they might feel sorry that they had oppressed the innocent, .. They
have regretted that Christ should be put to death. “I would have defended Jesus
with my life” some may say, but those very feelings have been evidence that
they did not feel their share in the guilt as they ought to have done.
No doubt there were a few in the crowd who smote upon their breasts
because they felt, “We have put to death a prophet of God.” Such mourning was an
advance of other forms; it showed a deeper thought and a clearer knowledge, ..
but it would not of itself suffice as evidence of grace.
Let us hope there were some who said: “Certainly this was the Son of
God,” and mourned to think He should have suffered for (because of) their transgressions, and been put to grief for (because of) their iniquities .. that we
may be saved.
I shall ask you first to smite your breasts, as you remember that
you see in Him your own sins. They must be infinite sins to require an infinite
person to lay down his life in order to their removal.
I will not accuse you; I will ask those dear wounds to do it,
sweetly and tenderly. I will rather accuse myself; for, alas! alas! There was a
time when I heard of him as with a deaf ear;..
O Spirit of the living God, win an entrance for the blessed Christ
this morning! If anything can do it, surely it must be a sight of the crucified
Christ; that matchless spectacle shall make a heart of stone relent and melt,
by Jesus’ love subdued.
Beloved in the Lord, if such grief as this should be kindled in you,
it will be well to pursue the subject, and to reflect upon how unbelieving and
how cruel we have been to Jesus since the day that we have known Him. What,
doth He bleed for (because of) me and have I doubted Him? Have I stood
at the cross’ foot unmoved? Have I spoken of my dying Lord in a cold,
indifferent spirit?
Brethren, you may smite upon your breasts as you look at the cross,
and mourn that you should have done so little for your Lord.
He shows that since our sin pierced the side of Jesus, there is
cause for unlimited lamentation, but since the blood which flowed from the
wound has cleansed our sin, there is ground for unbounded thanksgiving.
Lastly, there is one thing for which we ought always to remember
Christ’s death with joy, and that is, that although the crucifixion of Jesus
was intended to be a blow at the honor and glory of our God – though in the
death of Christ the world did, so far as it was able, put God Himself to death,
and so earn for itself that hideous title, “a Deicidal world,” yet never did
God have such honor and glory as He obtained through the sufferings of Jesus.
O heart of God, I see thee nowhere as at Golgotha ,..
You have but to look into the heart of Christ all crushed and broken and
bruised, and you have seen it all.
From the book “MORNING
BY MORNING” by Spurgeon, I quote:
20 January. Abel was hated by his
brother – hated without a cause; and even so was the Savior. The natural and
carnal man hated the accepted man in whom the Spirit of grace was found, and
rested not until His blood had been shed. Abel fell, and sprinkled his altar
and sacrifice with his own blood, and therein sits forth the Lord Jesus slain
by the enmity of man while serving as a priest before the Lord. Let us weep
over Him as we view Him slain by the hatred of mankind, staining the horns of
His altar with His own blood.
11 March. “Sin… exceeding
sinful.” Rom.7:13. Beware of light thoughts of sin. Sin a little thing? It
girded the Redeemer’s head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made Him
suffer anguish, bitterness and woe. Look upon all sin as that which crucified
the Savior, and you see it to be “exceeding sinful.”
17 March. “Remember the poor.” Gal.
2:10. Why does God allow so many of His children to be poor? There are many
reasons: one is to give us, who are favored with enough, an opportunity of
showing our love to Jesus. Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, “inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me.” Surely this assurance is sweet enough, and this motive strong enough
to lead us to help others with a willing hand and a loving heart – recollecting
that all we do for His people is graciously accepted by Christ as done to
Himself.
23 March. “His sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:44. This proves how
tremendous must have been the weight of sin when it was able to crush the
Savior so that He distilled great drops of blood!
31 March. “With His stripes we are
healed.”
See how the patient Jesus stands,
Insulted in His lowest case!
Sinners
have bound the Almighty’s hands,
And spit in their Creator’s face.
With thorns His temples gor’d and gashe’d
Send streams of blood from every part;
His back with knotted scourges lash’d,
But sharper scourges tear His heart.
We will first pray our
Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts
all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with Him, and sorrow
that our sin should have cost Him so dear.
8 April. “If they do these
things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luke 23:31. What whips of burning fire will
be yours when conscience shall smite you with all its terrors, Ye richest, ye
merriest, ye most self-righteous sinners – who would stand in your place when
God shall say, “Awake, O sword, against the man that rejected Me; smite him,
and let him feel the smart forever”? Jesus was spit upon: sinner, what shame
will be yours. We cannot sum up in one word all the mass of sorrows which met
upon the head of Jesus who died for (because of) us, therefore it is
impossible for us to tell you what streams, what oceans of grief must roll over
your spirit if you die as you now are. By the agonies of Christ, by His wounds
and by His blood, do not bring upon yourselves the wrath to come!
9 April. “And there followed
Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented
Him.” Luke 23:27. Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom,
there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and
lamentations – fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in
imagination, see the Savior bearing His cross to Calvary ,
she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause
for grief – cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed
innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to
die; but my heart was a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins are the
scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorns those
bleeding brows: my sins cried “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and laid the cross
upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for
one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief
than one poor fountain of tears can express.
Why those women loved
and wept was not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for
love and grief than my heart has. Nain’s widow saw her son restored – but I
myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter’s wife’s mother was cured of
the fever – but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils
were cast – but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favored with
visits – but He dwells with me. His mother bore His body – He is formed in me
the hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be
behind them in gratitude or sorrow.
Love and grief my
heart dividing,
With my tears His feet
I’ll lave –
Constant still in
heart abiding,
Weep for Him who died
to save.
A.W.TOZER
In his book “WHO PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS?” we reed the
following:
Chapter One. Who Put Jesus on the Cross?
There is a strange conspiracy of silence in the world today – even
in religious circles – about man’s responsibility for sin, the reality of
judgment, and about an outraged God and the necessity for a crucified Savior.
Let us not eloquently blame Judas nor Pilate. Let us not curl our
lips at Judas and accuse, “He sold Him for money!” Let us pity Pilate, the
weak-willed, because he did not have courage enough to stand for the innocence
of the man whom he declared had done no wrong. Let us not curse the Jews for
delivering Jesus to be crucified. Let us not single out the Romans in blaming
them for putting Jesus on the cross.
Oh, they were guilty, certainly! But they were our accomplices in
crime. They and we put Him on the cross, not they alone. That rising malice and
anger that burns so hotly in your breast today put Him there. That basic
dishonesty that comes to light in your being when you knowingly cheat and
chisel on your income tax return – that put Him on the cross. The evil, the
hatred, the suspicion, the jealously, the lying tongue, the carnality, the
fleshly love of pleasure – all of these in natural man joined in putting Him on
the cross.
We may well admit it. Every one of us in Adam’s race had a share in
putting Him on the cross!
I discover that repentance is mainly remorse for the share we had in
the revolt that wounded Jesus Christ, our Lord. That painful and acute
conviction that accompanies repentance may well subside and a sense of peace
and cleansing come, but even the holiest of justified men will think back over
his part in the wounding and the chastisement of the Lamb of God. A sense of
shock will still come over him. A sense of wonder will remain – wonder that the
Lamb that was wounded should turn His wounds into the cleansing and forgiveness
of the one who wounded Him.
ROY HESSION
In his book “THE CALVARY ROAD” we read:
P45. God wants, moreover, to take us back to that Cross and show us
our sins wounding and hurting the Lamb. “Were you there when they crucified my
Lord?” asks the old Negro spiritual. The answer is, ‘Yes, we were.’ By our
willingness to ‘break’, we show that we were part of that crowd slaying Him at Calvary . For it is only when we have seen these sins
of ours in the heart of Jesus, so that we are broken and willing to repent of
them and put them right, that the Blood of the Lamb cleanses us from them and
the Dove returns with peace and blessing to our hearts.
A saintly African Christian once told a congregation that as he was
climbing the hill to the meeting, he heard steps behind him. He turned and saw
a man carrying a very heavy load up the hill on his back. He was full of
sympathy for him and spoke to him. Then he noticed that His hands were scarred,
and he realized that it was Jesus. He said to Him, ‘Lord, are you carrying the
world’s sin up the hill?’ ‘No,’ said the Lord Jesus, ‘not the world’s sin, just
yours!’ As that African simply told the vision God had just given him, the
people’s hearts and his heart were broken as they saw their sins at the Cross.
Our hearts need to be broken too, and only when they are, shall we be willing
for the confessions, the apologies, the reconciliations, and the restitutions
that are involved in a true repentance of sin.
OSWALD CHAMBERS:
From his daily
devotions, “My Utmost for His Highest” 23 June, I quote:
“We have to
recognize that sin is a fact, not a defect; sin is red-handed mutiny against
God. Either God or sin must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right
down to this one issue. If sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if
God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but
that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus Christ, and what was true in
the history of God on earth will be true in your history and in mine.”
SELWYN
HUGHES
From: Every Day With Jesus esubscription March/April 2007 [mailto:edwj@cwr.org.uk]
Sent: 06 April 2007 01:12 AM
Subject: Friday 6 Apr…‘I did that!’
Sent: 06 April 2007 01:12 AM
Subject: Friday 6 Apr…‘I did that!’
Every Day with
Jesus e-subscription March-April 2007
Issue Title: The Cries from the Cross
Selwyn Hughes
Issue Title: The Cries from the Cross
Selwyn Hughes
'And when the
centurion ... heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man
was the Son of God!"' Mark 15:39
Friday 6
Apr.'I did that!'
For reading
& meditation - 1 Corinthians 1:10-25
Haven't got your
Bible?
'For . the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is
the power of God.' (v.18)
On this Good
Friday we pause to remind ourselves of something that is so often overlooked,
namely, that Jesus Christ was not only crucified for our sins, but also by
our sins. We should never allow ourselves to forget that Christ was done
to death, not only by a few peculiarly atrocious sins committed by a small
number of evil men, but by every sin, including 'ordinary sins' - the sins that
you and I have committed and maybe are committing still. There was, for
instance, the bigotry of the Pharisees, the self-seeking of the Sadducees, the
dismissiveness of Pilate, the angry clamour of the crowd. Those were the sins
that nailed Jesus Christ to the tree - and we have committed those very sins.
Who can stand up
and say he or she has never been prejudiced, self-seeking, dismissive or angry?
Not one of us. Perhaps you feel that you have never been a bad person and have
no responsibility for putting Jesus Christ on the cross. You have lived a
fairly decent life and have never deliberately harmed anyone. Then travel with
me to Calvary and let the consequences of
'ordinary' sins come home to you. That is one of the purposes of the cross. It
makes us see plainly what is normally hidden - the awful foulness and horror of
what we so often describe as 'little' sins.
My friend, there
are no 'little' sins. Every sin is a violation of God's law, however small it
may seem to us, and it strikes deep into His heart. That's the awful thing
about sin - even the offences we may consider very trivial; it doesn't just
break His law, it breaks His heart. Today, as you focus on the cross, pause and
think and say to yourself, 'I did that!'
Lord Jesus
Christ, contritely I look at Your cross and confess 'I did that!' Please help
me to break with all sin - the 'little' sins I commit as well as the 'big'
ones. Amen.
CWR, Waverley
Abbey House,Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, England
SP
LANCASTER & JM MONSON.
Isaiah’s Exalted
Servant in the Great Isaiah Scroll, Messiah Journal, Issue 107, Spring
2011/5771
p26 Human agency
(Assyrian violence or the crucifixion) is not the cause of the servant’s
oppression; human depravity is. A direct object indicator, et follows bo (“upon
him”) at the end of statement 7and leaves no doubt that “the iniquity of all of
us” receives the force of the verb: The LORD “brings the iniquity of all of us”
upon the servant. All humanity is responsible. …
The above leaves us dumbfounded, like the
non-Israelite kings in statement 1.
We begin to understand the full force of
the metaphor often used by the Apostle John, “Look! The Lamb of God, who
carries the sin of the world!”
PERSONAL COMMENTS:
WHEN AND HOW
ARE WE TRULY SAVED?
HOW ARE WE
SET FREE AND CLEANSED FROM OUR SINS?
HOW DO WE
FIND A HOLY LIFE WITHOUT WHICH WE WILL NOT SEE GOD?
It is clear from scripture that it is only through the cross and
blood of Jesus that we are forgiven, saved, cleansed and delivered from all sin
and by which we are justified (made just) and sanctified (made holy) Matt. 26:28; Acts
20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; 1Cor. 1:18; Eph. 1:7; 2:13-16; Col. 1:20-22; Hebr. 1:3;
9:12,14,22; 10:10, 14, 19, 22; 13:12, 20-21(see KJV); 1Pet.1:18-19; Rev 12:11.
Most people say it and know it, but most never experience it. Why? How do we
find salvation to the uttermost and holiness?
People who were and are sincere and honest towards God, the Almighty
Creator, have been asking these questions since beginning of time. Some indeed
found the answer, like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, John, etc. The answer
to this question is found in the Bible but one must search for it with one’s
whole heart. But even if it is spelled out as clear as daylight as Jesus
showed, taught and lived, people who do not sincerely want to perfectly obey
God and who do not want complete deliverance from all sin and a holy life, will
not see it and will not accept it. In fact, they will fight it as the plague
itself. They will try and destroy it and kill it – as has happened to Jesus and
almost all the holy prophets of God who spoke these things.
The clearest answer to these questions is found in Zechariah 12 and
13 and no wonder Zechariah was also killed between the temple and the altar.
Even today this portion is hardly preached on or is discarded as only applying
to the Jews in the end times. Zechariah told the Jews and wrote to us:
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem Jerusalem
In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and
for the inhabitants of Jerusalem
“And it shall be in that day that every prophet shall be ashamed of
his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to
deceive. But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me
to keep cattle from my youth. …”
I will bring the one-third through the fire. Will refine them as
silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name,
and I will answer them. I will say. “This is My people’; and each one will say.
‘The Lord is my God.’” Zech.12:10 - 13:9.
When we sincerely want to obey God and stop with our sin, God will
send us His Spirit of grace and supplication / pleading. The Holy Spirit will plead
with is to look up and see it is Jesus we were hurting and piercing with every
sin. He bore our sins like wounds in His body on the cross. We see every sin
pierced and crushed His heart, caused spilling of His blood (life) and grieved
and quenced His Spirit.
This will cause us to mourn bitterly for HIM and we will repent
utterly with deep grief and sorrow. Then God will open that fountain of Jesus’
blood which will wash us and cleanse us and work mightily against all our sins.
Every time we sin again, the Spirit pleads us to again look up to
Him whom we have pierced by that sin. If we obey the Holy Spirit, we will again
confess and repent with deep sorrow and mourning – and in grace He will forgive
us, deliver, cleanse and free us from that sin - THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.
So eventually we will be fully cleansed and sanctified – and sin no more. Oh,
His grace and love!
Zecharriah says GOD will now cause the idols, false prophets and
unclean spirits to depart from our hearts and lives. If we now hear someone
telling lies in the Name of the Lord, we will tell him he may no longer live
doing that and even if it is our own child, we would rather loose him through
death than that he continues to tell lies about Jesus because we know how sin
pains and pierces Jesus. The priests and prophets will now see the truth of
what sin is and what it has done to Jesus and they will be ashamed of the lies
they spoke and of the way in which they have deceived the people. They will
admit they were and are no prophets, but earthly and like people tending to
cattle. The sword will also awake against Jesus and strike at Him and scatter
His sheep and little ones. And so He will utterly purify and test everyone. The
true ones will be purified and call on God and God will answer and show they
are His and these ones will in truth worship and acknowledge the true God.
Is. 53:10 says: by this
knowledge of Him shall My Righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear
their iniquities / sins. Knowing He bears our sins like wounds will
work mightely in our hearts and minds and we can excuse sins no more. We
confess it with deep sorrow, repent seriously form it – and by grace He
forgives and cleanses us and makes us just and righteous. Oh, glory to Him!
When are we then saved? When we stop piercing Jesus by stopping our
sins.
Sonder (die erkenning van) bloedvergieting (van Jesus deur elke
sonde) vind daar geen verlossing of vergifnis van sonde plaas nie. Hebr. 9:22.
Without (acknowledging and confessing) the shedding of the blood of
Jesus (through each sin), there is no forgiveness or deliverance from sin.
Hebr. 9:22. Without the remorseful admission and confession that you have shed
the Messiah’s blood with every sin, there is no forgiveness or deliverance from
that sin.
1Pet.2:24 says: “…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on
the tree, that we may die to sin / stop with sin, and might live for
righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.” He bore our sins like
wounds to show us how hurtful, evil and inexcusable sin is and His overwhelming
love for us, to utterly condemn all sin in the flesh – so that we may stop with
sin and that we may live righteously and justly. Those terrible wounds our sins
have made will now heal us from our sickness of sin.
Ps. 69:9 and Rom.15:3 confirm this. “And the reproaches of those
who reproach You have fallen on Me.” Ps.69:20 says: “Reproach has broken
my heart and I am full of heaviness / sickness.”
Logically then, if we continue with sin, we are damned and doomed
because of murdering Jesus. That is why we will still surely die if we eat of
the forbidden tree and why the wages of sin is death and why the soul that sins
will surely die. But thank God, there is forgiveness AND cleansing and
deliverance from all sin – that we may stop disobeying, hurting and piercing
our own loving Father. In view of the cross, we have no excuse for our sins
anymore. If we continue with sin and excuse it, we are guilty of killing God
and Jesus and we will pay in hell for that. But if we admit and confess and
repent from it all, then we will experience the wonder of the mercy and
salvation of Jesus Christ namely that it is His blood that indeed is the power
of God to cleanse us for all sin and that makes us holy and righteous.
NB. Jesus did
not die in your place and He did not pay your debt so that you may still go to
heaven by merely accepting it - whilst you continue sinning. Do not believe
this lie. You will loose heaven because of it. Is. 53:10 was translated and
interpreted incorrectly to fit this teaching. For the correct translation see Gesenius' Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon on
Is.53:10 Strong's numbers 2470 and 1792. The correct translation is: "Yet it pleased the Lord to be bruised /
smitten, to be made weak / to be put to grief." God allowed us to
bruise and grieve Him – for the reasons as explained.
Without holiness,
no one will see God or enter heaven BUT the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from
ALL sin, so that we may live a holy life to enter heaven. Will Jesus find this
faith when He returns? Only the Joshuas and Calebs believe God and persevere
until they receive and enter the promise. The majority fights it, rejects it,
ignores it, does not desire it - and dies in the wilderness under the wrath of
God.
According to
Jesus’ words, those who deny that they are guilty of all the righteous blood
ever shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah killed in their churches, even to the blood of Jesus, are thereby
witnesses and proving against themselves that they are the sons of those who
murdered the prophets. On top of not admitting their guilt, most even
blame God falsely for punishing Jesus in their place for their sins. However,
those who see and accept the truth, will admit and confess that their sins
killed Jesus and all the holy prophets every time they went against their
words – and they will be forgiven and changed.
SELA
THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE FILLING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE FILLING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Dear Friend,
Listen to the Word of God from the following passages:
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
“I was hurt / broken / crushed by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted after idols. They will hate themselves for the evil and disgusting things that they have done.”
“How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited / grieved the Holy One of Israel.”
If God’s creatures and own children do not love and obey Him fully and they sin against Him, He is grieved and hurt in his heart. He is our Father and we were created in His likeness and like us He also feels pain in His heart when His children do not love and obey Him but rather listens to Satan.
God then sent his heart, his only beloved Son who is in the bosom of the Father , to earth to reveal God’s will, grace, love, power and truth. When Jesus completed his work, He handed himself over into the hands of us all – the people, the heathens, sinners, elders, scribes and chief priests - that they / we may do to Him as they /we want. All our reproaches against God fell on Jesus, He bore our sins in His body on the cross, and it pierced and crushed Him. On the cross of Jesus we clearly see sin before our eyes and what sins truly are and do. So Jesus clearly revealed and illustrated the pierced, broken and crushed heart of God due to sins.
God said through the prophet Zechariah:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, …. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; … All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land."
When you now sin, the Holy Spirit comes to you with grace and with pleading / supplication that you should look up to Jesus whom you have pierced with that sin, and that you should mourn and be in bitterness for Him because He bore all your sins in his body on the cross.12
Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we may die to sin / stop with sins and live for righteousness” and to totally condemn sin and leave no excuse for it. This was the exact message of the Holy Spirit on and after Pentecost. It struck them in their harts and they repented deeply when they heard that. God then cleansed them from their sins and filled them with the HOLY Spirit. Sins stopped and even a lie was punished with death!
Oh friend, please look up to Him whom you have pierced with every sin, mourn and grieve bitterly for Him and stop and repent that you may receive grace. If you do not see it, look and look again until you see and grasp this and until you experience that bitter mourning for what each sin has done to Jesus. Then in grace upon grace, God has promised that He will forgive you all this – if you are truly sorry, have confessed all your sins against Jesus and your neighbour and if you have made restitution.
Then you will love Him much for he who has been forgiven much, loves much.
By doing this, you obey and receive the Holy Spirit. God then opens the stream of Jesus’ blood that mightily flows against sin and uncleanness. The idols, false prophets and unclean spirits are driven from your heart. You are then delivered and cleansed from every sin through His blood and you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God and with the Lord Jesus himself. That is how you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which God promised to those who obey Him.
In this way the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all and every sin and makes you pure, righteous and holy. If you keep on believing and obeying God, He will give you these wonderful promises by his great mercy and love – whilst you deserved the death penalty! Oh, His great love and mercy! How will you escape if you despise this?
If however you resist the Holy Spirit and you sin against Him by not looking up to and not grieving in remorse for Jesus whom you have pierced with every sin, you cannot be forgiven and you remain guilty of the body and blood of Jesus and for sinning against the Holy Spirit. Without the acknowledgment and confession with deep remorse of the shedding of the blood of Jesus with every sin, there is also no forgiveness or deliverance from that sin possible. The fountain of Jesus’ blood does not open for you and there is no other way to be forgiven or delivered from sin. God also does not drive all the idols, false prophets and unclean spirits from your heart and you remain a slave of sin and sin continues – even though you do not want to sin any more. The Word of God is very clear that you will not go to heaven if you keep on sinning. Do not deceive yourself and let no one deceive you. Without holiness you will not see God.
But, if you faithfully do as the Holy Spirit teaches, God will do what He said He will do. Then you will surely experience that Jesus indeed keeps you from stumbling and will present you faultless before God with exceeding joy! You will then live a holy life and the wicked one does not touch you. The holy remains holy and the righteous remains righteous. Such people, who so do the will of God, has a right to the tree of life and to enter through the gates of the city. You will be able to call out now and in heaven:
Jesus does all this for us only through His blood and cross.
From your brother, with love for Jesus Christ.
Gen 6:5-6
Ezek 6:9
Ps. 78:40-41
Joh. 1:18
Joh. 1:18 declared / revealed / made known / made clear
Matt. 17:22-23; 21:33-46. Mark. 9:31; 12:1-12, Luk. 9:44; 20:9-18.
Matt. 26:45, Mark. 14:41, Luk. 18:32-33; 24:7
Matt. 20:18-19, Mark. 8:31; 10:33-34, Luk. 9:22; 24:20
Matt. 17:12, Mark. 9:12-13,
Ps. 69:10 & Rom 15:3
1 Pet. 2:24, Joh 1:29. takes away = arron in Gr. = bearing away. As in Lev. 16:21-22, Hebr. 9:28 en 1Joh.3:5.
Rom 4:25 Jesus.. who was delivered up because of / through (Gr. dia) our offences.
Is. 53:5 Correct Hebrew is: But he was wounded because of / through our transgressions, he was bruised because of / through our iniquities: See Gesenius’s Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Strong’s no. 4480 (e). All the above fits in with this rendering. Is 53:12: 53:11 ( “iniquities” = sins)
2 Cor. 5:21, Gal 3:1
Joh 1:18 declared = revealed / made known / made clear; 14:7, 9
Zech. 12:10 - 13:2
Matt. 25:40 & 45
Joh. 1:14;
Eph 4:30, 1Thess 5:19
1Pet 2:24
Rom. 8:3
Acts 2:22-23, 36; 3:13-19; 4:10-11; 7:52.
Acts 5:1-11
1 Joh 1:9, Matt. 5:23-24
1 Joh 1:7
1Pet. 2:24, Is. 53:5
Luk 7:47
Zech 13:1&2
Eph. 3:19; 4:13
Acts 5:32
Zec 12:8
Hebr. 12:14
1 Joh 1:7
Rom. 3-5; Hebr. 3-5
1Kor. 11:27
Hand 7:51, Eph 4:30, 1Thess 5:19, Matt 12:32, Mark 3:29, Luk 12:10
Hebr. 9:22 (see Ampl. Gr. Aphesis = forgiveness or deliverance
Rev 21:27; Gal. 5:19-21, 1Cor 6:9-10; Col 3:5-6; Eph 5:5
Hebr. 12:14
Rev 21:8 & 27
Rev 22:18-19
Jude 1:24-25
1Joh 5:18
Rev 22:11
Rev 22:14
Rev 1:5-6
Matt. 26:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; 1Cor. 1:18; Eph. 1:7; 2:13-16; Col. 1:20-22; Hebr. 1:3; 9:12,14,22; 10:10, 14, 19, 22; 13:12, 20-21(see KJV); 1Pet.1:18-19; Rev 12:11.
Dear Friend,
Listen to the Word of God from the following passages:
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
“I was hurt / broken / crushed by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted after idols. They will hate themselves for the evil and disgusting things that they have done.”
“How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited / grieved the Holy One of Israel.”
If God’s creatures and own children do not love and obey Him fully and they sin against Him, He is grieved and hurt in his heart. He is our Father and we were created in His likeness and like us He also feels pain in His heart when His children do not love and obey Him but rather listens to Satan.
God then sent his heart, his only beloved Son who is in the bosom of the Father , to earth to reveal God’s will, grace, love, power and truth. When Jesus completed his work, He handed himself over into the hands of us all – the people, the heathens, sinners, elders, scribes and chief priests - that they / we may do to Him as they /we want. All our reproaches against God fell on Jesus, He bore our sins in His body on the cross, and it pierced and crushed Him. On the cross of Jesus we clearly see sin before our eyes and what sins truly are and do. So Jesus clearly revealed and illustrated the pierced, broken and crushed heart of God due to sins.
God said through the prophet Zechariah:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, …. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; … All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land."
When you now sin, the Holy Spirit comes to you with grace and with pleading / supplication that you should look up to Jesus whom you have pierced with that sin, and that you should mourn and be in bitterness for Him because He bore all your sins in his body on the cross.12
What you have done to the least, you have also done to Him.
When you break the Word of God, you also break Jesus because the Word became flesh.
Each of your sins affects God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit equally. It pains and grieves the heart of your loving Father, it pierces and crushes Jesus Christ and it grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, full of grace and supplication then pleads with you for Their sakes – and for yours - to look up to Him whom you have pierced, to repent and to stop with your sins because He suffers bitterly through your sins and you are going to pay an eternity in hell if you continue doing that!!
Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we may die to sin / stop with sins and live for righteousness” and to totally condemn sin and leave no excuse for it. This was the exact message of the Holy Spirit on and after Pentecost. It struck them in their harts and they repented deeply when they heard that. God then cleansed them from their sins and filled them with the HOLY Spirit. Sins stopped and even a lie was punished with death!
Oh friend, please look up to Him whom you have pierced with every sin, mourn and grieve bitterly for Him and stop and repent that you may receive grace. If you do not see it, look and look again until you see and grasp this and until you experience that bitter mourning for what each sin has done to Jesus. Then in grace upon grace, God has promised that He will forgive you all this – if you are truly sorry, have confessed all your sins against Jesus and your neighbour and if you have made restitution.
Furthermore, He will wash, cleanse and deliver you from your sins through the blood of Jesus which you confessed with true remorse your sins have spilled. In even greater mercy He will also heal you through the wounds of Jesus you confessed you have made through your sins. Oh, His endless mercy!
Then you will love Him much for he who has been forgiven much, loves much.
By doing this, you obey and receive the Holy Spirit. God then opens the stream of Jesus’ blood that mightily flows against sin and uncleanness. The idols, false prophets and unclean spirits are driven from your heart. You are then delivered and cleansed from every sin through His blood and you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God and with the Lord Jesus himself. That is how you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which God promised to those who obey Him.
In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
You can then live a holy life without which you will not see God.
In this way the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all and every sin and makes you pure, righteous and holy. If you keep on believing and obeying God, He will give you these wonderful promises by his great mercy and love – whilst you deserved the death penalty! Oh, His great love and mercy! How will you escape if you despise this?
If however you resist the Holy Spirit and you sin against Him by not looking up to and not grieving in remorse for Jesus whom you have pierced with every sin, you cannot be forgiven and you remain guilty of the body and blood of Jesus and for sinning against the Holy Spirit. Without the acknowledgment and confession with deep remorse of the shedding of the blood of Jesus with every sin, there is also no forgiveness or deliverance from that sin possible. The fountain of Jesus’ blood does not open for you and there is no other way to be forgiven or delivered from sin. God also does not drive all the idols, false prophets and unclean spirits from your heart and you remain a slave of sin and sin continues – even though you do not want to sin any more. The Word of God is very clear that you will not go to heaven if you keep on sinning. Do not deceive yourself and let no one deceive you. Without holiness you will not see God.
No fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie will enter heaven.
No one may remove or add anything to these words in Revelation.
But, if you faithfully do as the Holy Spirit teaches, God will do what He said He will do. Then you will surely experience that Jesus indeed keeps you from stumbling and will present you faultless before God with exceeding joy! You will then live a holy life and the wicked one does not touch you. The holy remains holy and the righteous remains righteous. Such people, who so do the will of God, has a right to the tree of life and to enter through the gates of the city. You will be able to call out now and in heaven:
“… Jesus Christ… To Him who loved us and washed / loosed / released / freed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Jesus does all this for us only through His blood and cross.
AMEN!
From your brother, with love for Jesus Christ.
Gen 6:5-6
Ezek 6:9
Ps. 78:40-41
Joh. 1:18
Joh. 1:18 declared / revealed / made known / made clear
Matt. 17:22-23; 21:33-46. Mark. 9:31; 12:1-12, Luk. 9:44; 20:9-18.
Matt. 26:45, Mark. 14:41, Luk. 18:32-33; 24:7
Matt. 20:18-19, Mark. 8:31; 10:33-34, Luk. 9:22; 24:20
Matt. 17:12, Mark. 9:12-13,
Ps. 69:10 & Rom 15:3
1 Pet. 2:24, Joh 1:29. takes away = arron in Gr. = bearing away. As in Lev. 16:21-22, Hebr. 9:28 en 1Joh.3:5.
Rom 4:25 Jesus.. who was delivered up because of / through (Gr. dia) our offences.
Is. 53:5 Correct Hebrew is: But he was wounded because of / through our transgressions, he was bruised because of / through our iniquities: See Gesenius’s Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Strong’s no. 4480 (e). All the above fits in with this rendering. Is 53:12: 53:11 ( “iniquities” = sins)
2 Cor. 5:21, Gal 3:1
Joh 1:18 declared = revealed / made known / made clear; 14:7, 9
Zech. 12:10 - 13:2
Matt. 25:40 & 45
Joh. 1:14;
Eph 4:30, 1Thess 5:19
1Pet 2:24
Rom. 8:3
Acts 2:22-23, 36; 3:13-19; 4:10-11; 7:52.
Acts 5:1-11
1 Joh 1:9, Matt. 5:23-24
1 Joh 1:7
1Pet. 2:24, Is. 53:5
Luk 7:47
Zech 13:1&2
Eph. 3:19; 4:13
Acts 5:32
Zec 12:8
Hebr. 12:14
1 Joh 1:7
Rom. 3-5; Hebr. 3-5
1Kor. 11:27
Hand 7:51, Eph 4:30, 1Thess 5:19, Matt 12:32, Mark 3:29, Luk 12:10
Hebr. 9:22 (see Ampl. Gr. Aphesis = forgiveness or deliverance
Rev 21:27; Gal. 5:19-21, 1Cor 6:9-10; Col 3:5-6; Eph 5:5
Hebr. 12:14
Rev 21:8 & 27
Rev 22:18-19
Jude 1:24-25
1Joh 5:18
Rev 22:11
Rev 22:14
Rev 1:5-6
Matt. 26:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; 1Cor. 1:18; Eph. 1:7; 2:13-16; Col. 1:20-22; Hebr. 1:3; 9:12,14,22; 10:10, 14, 19, 22; 13:12, 20-21(see KJV); 1Pet.1:18-19; Rev 12:11.
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