Tuesday, December 6, 2011

"He came unto His Own and His Own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John 1:11,12)

FINAL CONCLUSION:
          THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS
   RELEVANT
           By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.


 The Gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant to the needs of the human race wherever it is preached in sincerity, faith and truth under the anointing of the Blessed Holy Spirit!

For 2,000 years the Word of God has brought hope and healing to multitudes of lost, sinful, sick and dying people across ‘this clod’. The name of Jesus has imparted peace, faith, joy and health to the lives of millions down through the centuries!

The Gospel continues to work bringing Christ’s SALVATION and DIVINE HEALING to all who call upon His name in sincerity and worship our Lord and Saviour in Spirit and Truth!

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the ‘Well of Sychar’: "But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, MUST worship in spirit and truth." (John 4: 23, 24)

Our Lord gave the Church the ‘Great Commission’ that authorizes us to carry His Gospel and use His Name and Power to establish His Kingdom!
                 
Jesus inHi: He instructed His disciples on how to pray: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven…” (Matt.6: 9-10)

It is God’s will that His Kingdom rule men’s hearts on earth even as it rules in Heaven. Ever since the ‘fall of man’ in the Garden of Eden, darkness has reigned in the hearts and lives of Adam’s fallen race!

GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON!

There was no sin, fear, violence, sickness or death in the Garden of Eden. It was a Paradise where the Creator walked and talked with Adam and Eve in perfect harmony, peace and joy!

Until the disastrous fall of our first parents, sin was unknown there. When they succumbed to the enticing words of Lucifer, Adam and Eve had committed the terrible and tragic sin of rebellion!  
  
Adam was guilty of High Treason against His Creator. The wages of sin was death, both physical and spiritual. In the Redemptive Plan, however, God would intervene! His Son would be INCARNATED and become a man so that He could die in our stead!

In the meanwhile, Almighty God instituted the sacrificial system that pointed to the Coming Redeemer. Adam and his sinning posterity would sacrifice a lamb in repentance and godly fear, looking forward to the coming ‘Lamb of God’.

Down through the centuries, countless thousands of innocent animals were sacrificed by sinning Israelites. And God in His mercy forgave their sins when they came with their offerings that pointed to Jesus Christ!

God knows all things and despite their tragic transgression, His grand plan for mankind continued unabated. He had created them as free moral agents with the right to choose and they had failed the test!


God’s Redemptive Plan for the human race had been put into place, however, before the foundations of the world were laid. (Heb.8: 24-26). The Eternal Son of God would rescue sinful man by paying the ultimate price to restore His fallen creation!

Our Sovereign Lord knew all about us before we were born. He knew of our carnality and rebellion, and of our willingness to forsake our sins and receive His forgiveness and mercy.

Jesus called us unto Himself and we received Him into our hearts and lives by faith in His finished work on Calvary’s Cross. He shed His precious blood for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification! (Rom.4: 24-25)

 His Word states: “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” (Eph.1: 4, 5)

In HIS INFINITE WISDOM God knows who will not believe, yet in His great mercy He continues offering salvation to all.

The Bible states: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. “For there is One God and One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”  (1 Tim.2: 3-6)  

The Lord is…longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3: 9).

JESUS CAME DOWN TO EARTH!

 The Bible says“But when the fullness of time was come, God sent His forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law; To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.” (Gal.4: 4-6)

 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten(One and Only) Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3: 16)

 The Holy Scripture declares: “Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

 “And being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name:

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongueshould confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2: 6-11)

REPENT: THE KINGDOM
OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!

                 The Bible says: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matt.4: 17)

                 “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness;and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt.6: 33); “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12: 32) 

                  “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”(Col. 1:12-14) 

                  St. Paul stated: “Wherefore we receive a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”(Heb.12: 28)

                  After His VICARIOUS DEATH on the cross for the sins of the world and His glorious resurrection from the dead, JESUS declared:

                 “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations …and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt.28: 18-20)

 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues….they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16: 15-18)

 He said: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also …because I go unto the Father.” (John 14: 11-14)

ADAM’S SIN WAS IMPUTED TO US!   
  
 When Adam sinned, he plunged the human race into bondage. His rebellion and high treason against Almighty God brought a curse upon the earth and the posterity of our first parents.   
                             
We were tainted with his rebellious spirit and automatically became sinners! There were three strikes against us: Sinners by birth, nature and choice. All hope for us was gone. The human race was under the rule of the tyrant Satan, the enemy of God and man.There was No Way out!

In His mercy, however, God sent His Son Jesus Christ, Who is called the Seconand the Last Adam, to redeem Adam’s fallen race. By this act of MERCY He became our substitute and bore our sin and shame on the cursed tree’ to meet the demands of divine justice on our behalf. (Gal.3: 13)

OUR SINS IMPUTED TO CHRIST!

 All our sins and transgressions were transferred to Jesus Christ, the‘Sin Bearer’, removing the crushing burden of enslavement from the human race! By shedding His innocent BLOOD, Jesus Christ had purchased our redemption from the Kingdom of Darkness. (Col.1: 13)

A fountain for sin and uncleanness was immediately opened for us all, through the vicarious and efficacious death of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour! (Lev.17: 11; Heb. 9: 22; 1 John 1: 7)

The shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, effectively destroyed the power that Satan wielded over a lost and rebellious world of sinful men! (Heb. 2: 13-15; 9: 12-14)

And when Jesus Christ arose from the dead He declared: “All power is given me in heaven and on earth.” (Matt.28: 20)  He was saying: “Take My Gospel; Take My power; Take My Name and Go into all the world and change it for My glory! (Mark 16: 15-20)

        CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS IMPUTED TO US!

Adam’s sin was imputed to the human race. Our sins were imputed to Christ. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to every repentant sinner! (Rom 5:12-21)

Jesus Christ alone knows what is in the heart of man and what it takes to remedy it. He ALONE has the ability, desire and authorityto destroy the darkness and place within a sinner His OWN nature and the Spirit of Almighty God! (John 2: 23, 24)

The Bible says: “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things: who can know it?” (Jer.17: 9)

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

 “And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.”(Ezek 36: 26, 27)

 St. Paul stated: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” (2 Cor.5: 17)

                          WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME!

In the book, ‘When The Spirit Came’ written in 1928, Rev. John Greenfield shares some of the amazing miracles of the great‘Moravian Revival’:

 “Exactly what happened that Wednesday forenoon, August 13th 1727, in the specially called Communion service at Berthelsdorf, none of the participants could fully describe. They left the house of God that noon ‘hardly knowing whether they belonged to earth or had already gone to Heaven.”

 He writes: “Sprung from the labors and martyr-death of the great Bohemian Reformer, JOHN HUS‘the Brethren’ had passed through centuries of persecution. Many had sealed their testimony with their blood.  

 “Imprisonment, torture and banishment had caused them to forsake the homes of their fathers and flee for refuge to Germanywhere a young Christian Nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, offered them an asylum on his estates in Saxony. They named their new home Herrnhut, the Lord’s Watch.

“And from this place after their Baptism with the Holy Spirit, they became the world’s evangelists and missionaries.” 

He chronicled: “Of the APOSTOLIC CHURCH in Jerusalem a certain writer has said: ‘Before thirty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, His followers had spread from Palestine throughout Syria; throughout almost all the districts of Asia Minor; through Greece and the Islands of the Aegean sea, the coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome.’

 “And at the close of the First Century JUSTIN MARTYR could truly testify‘There is not a nation either Greek or Barbarian or of any other name, even those who wander in tribes or live in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the Universe in the name of the Crucified Jesus.’

Similar testimony could be given for the Moravian brethren. During the first 30 years after their spiritual Pentecost, they carried theGospel of Salvation through the blood of the Lamb not only to nearly every country in Europe but also to many pagan nations in America, North and South, Asia and Africa, the West Indies and Greenland.”

 MORAVIANS LED THE WAY!

Greenfield continues: “Fifty years before the beginning of modern Foreign Missions by WILLIAM CAREY, the Moravian Church had led the way into pagan countries both by precept and example.

 “Their English Missionary magazine, ‘Periodical Accounts’ inspiredDr. Carey and in a meeting of his Baptist brethren he threw a copy of the paper on the table with these memorable and historic words:

‘See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world and preach the Gospel to the heathen?”

“Here are the words of the sainted Moravian Bishop Evelyn Hasse:‘Just as the Infant Church in Jerusalem in apostolic days had its Pentecost, from which its members went forth to be Christ’s witnesses ‘both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth,’ so had this church also its own experiences of the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, when in 1727 He came upon its members gathered at the table of the Lord, and baptized them all into one body, and filled them with a strong, unquenchable passion to execute the Saviour’s Great Commission, and to let all mankind know of His Cross and of His salvation.’

GREENFIELD states: “Such then was the thirteenth of August seventeen hundred and twenty seven. Count Zinzendorf, the one outstanding human leader and spokesman, called it, ‘the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation’- ‘its Pentecost.’

He continues: “The Saviour permitted to come upon us a Spirit of Whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge. Hitherto We had been the leaders and helpers. Now the Holy Spirit Himself took control of everything and everybody.”

Count Zinzendorf prayed to Jesus: “Lord our High Priest and Saviour, pour fire and Spirit’s fervour on all our priestly bands. When we are interceding and for Thy people pleading, give incense, and hold up our hands.”

   PRAYER CONTINUED
ONE HUNDRED YEARS!

 On August 27, 1727 an around-the-clock prayer chain was started that lasted for 100 years! The well-known German historian of‘Protestant Missions’ Dr. Warneck testifies:
     “This small Church in twenty years called into being more Missions than the whole Evangelical church has done in two centuries.” 

A MORAVIAN HISTORIAN writes: “A great hunger for the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three services every day, viz., 5:00 and 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M.

“Everyone desired above everything else that the Holy Spirit might have full control. Self-love and self-will as well as all disobedience disappeared and an overwhelming flood of grace swept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love.”

Scottish preacher DR. THOMAS CHALMERS wrote on the Moravians:The efficacy of the Bible alone upon simple and unfurnished minds is a fact; and the finest examples of it are found in almost every page of the annals of Moravianism.

“When the Apostle Paul went about among the Greeks and Barbarians, charged with the message of salvation to all who would listen and believe, he preached nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Neither do the Moravians.”

ONE PASSION ~ JESUS ONLY!

 “Matthew Henry’s comment on this passage was fulfilled in their case: ‘When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them a praying.’

He also sent them a human leader and deliverer in the person of the young German nobleman, COUNT ZINZENDORF, who so kindly offered this persecuted Church a place of refuge on his own estates.

 “This godly youth and pre-eminent genius had been divinely prepared for his great work of spiritual leadership.

“Converted in early childhood he composed and signed at four years of age the following covenant: ‘Dear Saviour, do Thou be mine and I will be Thine.’ He had chosen as his life-motto the now famous confession: ‘I have one passion: It is Jesus, Jesus only.’

So effective and fruitful was this leadership that nearly two centuries later PROFESSOR BINNIE of Scotland declared: ‘It would not be going too far to affirm that Count Zinzendorf did more than any other man to redeem the Eighteenth Century from the reproach of barrenness, in relation to evangelical teaching and work.’

SECRET OF PREVAILING PRAYER!

Count Zinzendorf had learned early the secret of prevailing prayer. So active had he been in establishing circles for prayer, that on leaving the College at Halle, sixteen years of age, he handed the famous Professor Francke a list of seven praying societies.”

 “FREDRICH MARTIN, one of the first Moravian Missionaries to the Negroes on the Island of St. Thomas, was one of the Lord’s chosen vessels and a typical Moravian. He and a fellow worker were put in jail for preaching the Gospel to the Blacks.

 “More than three months are spent in a miserable prison; but the Spirit filled missionaries gave themselves to prayer like Paul and Silas in the Philipian dungeon.

 “Their faithful Negro congregation, nearly 700 communicants, gather daily as near the jail as possible to join in singing and hear the sermons of their captive Ministers. A great revival follows and large numbers are converted. Suddenly Count Zinzendorf arrives on his first Missionary journey, accompanied by two couples to reinforce the over-worked and imprisoned missionaries.

 “As the ship draws near the beautiful island the Count said to his fellow workers: “What if we find no one here? What if the missionaries are all dead?” To this one of the young workers quietly replied“THEN WE ARE HERE,” whereupon Count Zinzendorf uttered the oft quoted exclamation, ‘Gens aeterna, diese Maehren!’… ‘An eternal race, these Moravians!’

The Count soon secured the freedom from jail of the sick and half-starved missionaries. He was amazed at the greatness of Frederich Martin’s work and wrote back to GermanySt. Thomas is a much more wonderful miracle than our own Herrnhut.”

After fourteen years of most sacrificial service FREDERICH MARTIN has reached the end of his earthly pilgrimage. More than fifty of his fellow workers have already laid down their lives.
THE GOSPEL IS RELEVANT!

“To his weeping wife the dying missionary says: ‘My dear heart, I shall probably soon go to my Saviour. Do thou always be happy in Him. With me it is unspeakably well, and if my spirit flies away to Him, please ask the Governor to permit my earthly tabernacle to rest on the plantation beside our Chapel.”

JOHN WESLEY, who founded the Methodist Church, was converted to Christ through the powerful testimony and ministry of the Moravians! May we follow their example and begin praying earnestly, fervently and effectually!

CHARLES DARWIN visited Tierra del Puego in 1833 and found a people whom he thought were incapable of being civilized. He wrote:“The Fuegians are in a more miserable state of barbarianism than I ever expected to have seen any human being”.        

Thirty six years later Darwin revisited the same people and was astounded by the change wrought by the power of the Word of God preached to them by missionaries!
   
He wrote: “I should have predicted that not all the missionaries in the world could have done what has been done. It is wonderful and it shames me, as I have always prophesied a failure. It is a grand success.”

In a letter to the London Missionary Society, together with a gift the equivalent of U.S. $125, Darwin wrote: “I shall feel proud if your committee shall think fit to elect me as honouary member of your society.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ had transformed the village, spiritually, morally and culturally!

In our own experience, I had the privilege of preaching the Gospel to the headhunters of Northern Luzon in the Philippines.

We were given a pledge of safe conduct before entering the village ofEli north of Tabuk for a Gospel Meeting. It was Easter Sunday in 1966. Pepe Mayam, a grandson of a famous head - hunter, arranged the first ever Gospel Meeting among their tribe.

After my message the Chief of the tribe with spear in hand, leaped to his feet with hands lifted in surrender to Jesus Christ! Reportedly, there have been no more incidents of tribal head decapitations there since!

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
OVERPOWERS NAZIS!

 One of the great acts of God’s mercy in recent times is the almost certain conversion of Nazi S.S. officers before their execution after the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Recently, a Jewish bookstore ownerin Los Angeles dealing in Nazi memorabilia discovered a German New Testament with the signatures of 19 Nazi officers.

Their signatures have been authenticated and it appears that the puzzle may have been solved. In his article, ‘The devil’s Bible’,Benjamin Rosendahl writes: “There seemed to have been a religious awakening process within most of the Nurembergdefendants. Faced with death, the creators of hell on earth for millions of people feared just that - eternal damnation.

“Most of them started going to religious services, one of them started carrying a New Testament with him at all times and almost all of them confided in a Lutheran US Army chaplain named Henry Gerecke.

Perhaps the most important account of Gerecke's time as chaplain of the (Protestant) defendants at Nuremberg is an article he wrote in the Saturday Evening Post (September 1, 1951) titled, ‘I WALKED TO THE GALLOWS WITH NAZI CHIEFS!’

He writes: "It is five years since I served my stretch in Nuremberg prison - as chief chaplain during the trials of the Nazi leaders by the International Military Tribunal and spiritual adviser to the 15 Protestant defendants

 “My assistant, Catholic chaplain Sixtus O' Connor, and I spent 11 months with the perpetrators of Word War II. We were the last to counsel with these men, and [made] 10 trips to the execution chamber. The world has never heard our story."

Only Gerecke has left a detailed written account of the experience. O'Connor maintained silence till his death.

Gerecke had legitimate grounds to have refused the Nurembergassignment - his oldest son had been "literally ripped apart in the fighting," his middle son had been wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and his third son was about to enter the army.

“Nevertheless, he decided to accept the task, and succeeded in convincing almost all of the defendants to take part in church services.

U.S. LUTHERAN CHAPLAIN
LEADS NAZI CHIEFS TO CHRIST!

The bond between Gerecke and the prisoners was so strong that hearing rumors that he would be sent back to the US in the spring of 1946, the prisoners wrote a letter to his wife urging him to stay, since it would be "impossible to break through the walls that have been built up around us; in a spiritual sense even stronger than a material one."

GERECKE decided to stay on.

He also discovered that some prisoners were religious Christians to begin with: "Former Field Marshal [Wilhelm] Keitel, Hitler's pet general, was also deep in a book when I entered... [Keitel was convicted of war crimes and hanged.] I asked what he was reading.

He all but knocked me speechless by replying, 'My Bible'... Keitel said he had carried his Bible through both world wars and in between."

Was this the smoking gun? Is Gerecke referring to the New Testament that turned up at a Jewish book dealer in Los Angeles 60 years later? Was Keitel the initiator of the "book-signing" as an act of reverence to Gerecke? It's possible.”

CHRIST HATER MEETS
JESUS IN BLINDING LIGHT!

 The popular old Gospel song, ‘I Saw the Light’ has its origin in the amazing story of the conversion of the ‘Christ Hater’ Saul of Tarsus, who was apprehended by Jesus Christ Himself on the Damascus Road and converted and healed three days later in Damascus, through God’s servant Ananias!

Saul of Tarsus was a religious fanatic who had worked ‘hand in glove’with the High Priest and the Elders of the Jewish Sanhedrin in their desperate bid to stop the intense forward march of the fledgling Church which Jesus Christ had founded on the Day of Pentecost not many years earlier.

His role was to arrest believers in Jesus and to bring them in for questioning and brain washing, even compelling them to blaspheme. He was involved in the brutal martyrdom of Stephen. Here is the historical record:

“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7: 57-60)

The conversion of SAUL OF TARSUS was so dramatic and life changing that he became a follower of Jesus and one of the greatest Apostles. Clearly, the proud Pharisee who changed his name to Paul, meaning little onewas called of God to spread the Gospel to the Gentile world!

Here is a part of his testimony before King Agrippa and Governor Festus: “I verily thought within myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which things I did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 

“And I punished them oft in EVERY synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I PERSECUTEDthem even unto strange cities.

“Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests; At midday O king, I saw in the way a light from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with  me.

 “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (goads)

“And I said, Who art Thou Lord? And He said, I AM JESUS OF NAZARETH,Whom thou art persecuting. But rise and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee,

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by FAITH THAT IS IN ME.

 “Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem,  and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” (Acts 26: 8-20)  

TWO MAJOR OBSTACLES
FACING HONEST ATHEISTS!

The two insurmountable obstacles facing Christ rejecters and atheists are the historically known facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and his amazing march across an unbelievably hostile world and the spread of Christ’s Gospel!

Only a terribly prejudiced or ignorant person would reject the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth was charged with blasphemy and delivered by the Jewish Sanhedrin to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate and executed by crucifixion on Golgatha outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

No one kept such meticulous records as the Jewish scribes. Their records were perfect and they refer to Jesus the ‘hanged one’. The great Jewish historian, Josephus, records His death by crucifixion and Roman historians do the same. The Roman Empire never botched a crucifixion! Only a very stupid person would say that Jesus was not crucified!

The Holy Bible states: “Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold the veil in the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and earth did quake and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of them that slept arose.

“And came out of their graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.” (Matt. 27: 50 -53)

When the Centurion who had crucified Jesus of Nazareth, witnessed the supernatural death of our Lord and plunged the spear into His side to verify His early death, felt the ground shake under his feet and saw the rocks break and the eclipse of the sun, cried out: “Surely this was the Son of God.” (Matt.27: 54)     

Three days later, soldiers guarding His tomb fell as dead men when angels appeared, broke the Roman seal and rolled the stone away from the tomb. All that remained were His linen burial clothes and head covering folded neatly nearby. And more than 500 Jews saw Him at one time after His resurrection!

Can you imagine how the Centurion felt when he saw the damage done to the temple, the Veil ripped from top to bottom totally compromising the Holy of Holies, without anyone dying. And seeing long-dead saints walking about in Jerusalem!

AN INDICTMENT ON THE HUMAN RACE!

The vanity of human sophistication, the shallowness of human pride, the stupidity and arrogance of celebrated human accomplishments, without giving thanks and praise to Almighty God!

All of these are more than enough to bring sorrow and sadness to intelligent human beings and born again Christians and remorse and revulsion to preachers of the Gospel!

In His great grace and mercy Almighty God waits for sin – blinded humanity to be awakened by His gracious Holy Spirit and in repentance and godly fear find their way to His mercy seat for forgiveness, cleansing and redemption.

How the heart of our Heavenly Father must long for His wayward sons and daughters to return to His loving embrace and to be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

The wicked Evil One, destroyer of mankind, in his perverted sense of PRIDE must rejoice in his cunning victories of enslaving so many unsuspecting souls through temptation, guile and lying trickeries. Satan’s victories are short lived, however, as the Coming of the Lord is at hand and the LIAR’S damnation draws near!

GOD OFFERS ALL SINNERS FORGIVENESS!

That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God is evident in the depravity that is the hallmark of this perverted generation which continues in the footsteps of countless millions of boastful, hate-filled, greedy and rebellious sons of Adam!

Only an imbecile or hermit who has n knowledge of this generations perverted beliefs and lifestyles would be unable to know that something is desperately wrong with our Society’s Twisted Culture!

Jesus Christ is the only ANSWER and REMEDY to this world’s incurable malady, insanity and sins! He stands ready to enter every heart and life which will open their door to Him. 

Our Lord invites: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him and will sup with him and he with Me.” (Rev.3: 20)

Again, our Master said: “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in wise cast out.” (John 6: 37): “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears My words and believes on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5: 24)

The Bible gives an invitation and a warning: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on Him.(John 3: 36)

When He came the first time, the Incarnated Son of God was born in a stable and laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the Inn. He came to show what God is like because He was God the Son in human flesh.

He showed us through His humiliation, suffering and death how much He cares for us. And then He did what no-one else could ever do, He arose from the dead and ascended to heaven to sit on His Father’s right hand as our Advocate and High Priest!

Will you not invite Him into the manger of your heart? He will meet your heart’s desire and fill you with His everlasting peace and joy! Amen.