Friday, February 12, 2016

                         JESUS CHRIST IS 
                        NOT NEGOTIABLE!
                          By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
     The Gospel is Good News for Fallen Man. It is the Glad Tidings of the great love, mercy and grace of God projected toward a sinful and rebellious race! The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology states: "The Gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's activity in Christ on behalf of man." 
    We are nearing the Easter season and true believers in Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel will be heralding the amazing Bible account of the God's great mercy and grace toward sinful man. The word Gospel means Good News!
    The Gospel is the good news and glad tidings that Light has come into a world of Darkness; that Peace has come into a world of Turmoil; that Healing has come into a world of Sickness; that that Love has come into a world of Hate; that Forgiveness has come into a world of Sin; that Life has come into a world of Death; that Freedom has come into a world of Bondage; that Slaves are made free by the Liberator of the Human Race!
    And that Light, Peace, Healing, Love, Forgiveness, Life, Liberty, Freedom and Eternal Life is none other than Jesus Christ the Son of God. That He was crucified for us, Risen from the dead and Sitting on the Right hand of God as Saviour, Redeemer, Advocate, High Priest and Intercessor!
    Soon the usual liberal "enemies of the cross" theologians and their lap-dogs, the money hungry Hollywood Producers and actors, will be spreading lies and falsehoods about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. 
    I found this powerful statement on Google recently: It was my position in 1993 and it is my position today:
   The Western Report Feb. 8, 1993 story of Christian Unity in Alberta carried this excerpt: Edmonton’s Dr. Max Solbrekken is more blunt: “We can’t sit at the same table with people who presume to change the word of God - call God the Father ‘she,’ license homosexual acts, change Christ’s own words on marriage, or deny that He rose from the dead. That’s blasphemy. The only truth that unites Christians is the person of Jesus, and he is not negotiable. I’m all for Christians joining together, but Christ is the living Word, not an ‘evolving idea,’ and he doesn’t change with the times.”
                  FROM THE MANGER TO THE CROSS!
    What a journey Jesus Christ had: From the Manger to the Cross - the Cross of Calvary - the place of pain, shame and agony, where our Saviour shed His precious blood to set the captives free!
   Christ's vicarious (substitutionary) death and glorious resurrection from the dead drives us to Repentance and Faith, as we see His hand of mercy extended to a lost, fearful and sick world.
    The Cross is the expression of God's love for us. It is the very pinnacle of His mercy and grace to an enslaved people, bound by lust, greed, pride and hate. The Cross of Christ has been referred to as the axis of salvation, the climax of the cosmic battle between God and Satan, between good and evil!
    JESUS said: "As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again.
      "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command have I received of My Father," (John 10: 15-18); "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15: 13)
     "For when we were yet without strength (hopeless) in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 
    "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.        "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Rom.5: 8-10)
                             THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD!
     The Sovereignty of God demanded punishment for sin and the Cross provided the Final Solution! 
    From the Gates of Eden - after the Fall - until the death of Jesus of Nazareth on Golgotha, God used the sacrificial system to forgive the sins of His people. Innocent lambs, goats and bulls were sacrificed as substitutes for sinning man!
   When JESUS cried, "It is Finished", Almighty God rent the vail in the Temple and left the Holy of Holies. Standing on Golgotha's Hill, He laid His hands on the head of His Son, transferring the sins of the entire world (past, present and future) to His Paschal Lamb. 
    The Lamb of God had been sacrificed. He had propitiated for our sins. The Father was satisfied. The account was settled for time and eternity! The fountain of blood was opened for sin and uncleanness. His blood was flowing. JESUS had met the Demands of Divine Justice in the courts of Heaven, in payment for all our sins!
    "And he (thief) said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.
   "And the sun was darkened and the VAIL in the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having thus said, He gave up the ghost." (Luke 23: 42-46) 
    The Great Exchange was done. The sins of Adam that had been laid upon the human race had now been transferred to God's incarnated Son. Our sins were imputed to Christ and in exchange, His righteousness was imputed to us! (Rom.3:21-26; 4:6-8; 5:11-21)
    The BIBLE states: "But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His OWN BLOOD He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
     "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?" (Heb. 9: 11-14)
    Speaking to the pagan philosophers of Greece about Jesus Christ, St. Paul stated: "Forasmuch then that we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to REPENT.
    "Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will       judge the world in righteousness by that MAN, Whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." (Acts 17: 30, 31)
                        LIFE THROUGH THE BLOOD!
   ANDREW MURRAY wrote: "Reconciliation and deliverance from Guilt become the blessed entrance for us into a life in which the Blood, as it was transported into Heaven and abides there will be truly the power of divine abiding life in us." - The Blood of the Cross
    MARTIN LUTHER stated: "First, the blood of Christ remains the same blood of Christ. For we believe and hold that the blood of Christ that is now at the Right Hand of God, was shed for us only ONCE." - Church & Ministry, Luther's Works, vol. 40, p. 215
     ST. PAUL states: "But this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchanging priesthood. Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
     "For such an High Priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens: Who needeth not daily, as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did ONCE, when He offered up Himself. 
      "For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the word of the OATH, which was since the law, maketh the SON, Who is consecrated forevermore." (Heb.7:24-28)
  MY CONFESSION OF FAITH!
     Clearly stated, there is but ONE God and Father and ONE Lord Jesus Christ Who is both Creator and Sustainer of the world and Sole Saviour and Redeemer of the Human Race and ONE Blessed Holy Spirit of God, Who draws all men to Christ!          
    All other so-called gods and goddesses and deities are mere Counterfeits, Imitators and Pretenders. It is Christ and Christ Alone Who saves, heals, delivers and liberates from sin, fear, sickness, disease and all the powers of Darkness and Satan! 
      "But to us (Christians) there is but ONE God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him, and ONE Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we by Him." (1 Cor.8: 6) Amen.
                            A MESSENGER BOY FOR JESUS
  After discussing the outstanding miracle healings that had occurred under his ministry, the editor of a major Norwegian newspaper asked, “Who is Max Solbrekken?” He replied, “The boy delivering telegrams does his job and gets back on his bicycle, often without being thanked. The boy is not important but the telegram is.  Max Solbrekken isn't important but the message is very important. “I am just a messenger boy for Jesus!”  Next day's Newspaper had a large picture of the preacher, and the article covered a full page.  The headline screamed, “Max Solbrekken: A Messenger Boy For Jesus!”
      For more than 50 years, Max Solbrekken has carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ to multitudes across the world, the Lord working with him and confirming the Word with miracles, sign and wonders!
    From 1989 to 1995 he conducted major crusades across the former Soviet Union. In 2004 and 2005, Max Solbrekken preached in four Ministers Conventions with a total of 10,000 preachers, and in Parque Brasil in Paulinia, S.P. Brazil he preached to more than 300,000 people on April 13, 2005. His latest Gospel Unity Crusade was in Kampala, Uganda in 2011.
     One of his greatest joys was preaching to Muslims in Darfur, Sudan in 2006. To God be all the honour, praise and glory, through Jesus Christ the Lord! Amen.