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Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:1) |
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The Servant of the Lord is Messiah. Messiah (Christ) is the One anointed with the Oil of the Holy Spirit. In ancient times it was customary for the Jews to anoint kings and priests with olive oil as a sign of their high position. |
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Christ is not Jesus' last name. Christ is the title Jesus has as the Anointed Deliverer from God. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. |
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The Servant of the Lord also is Israel, the people God has anointed with His Holy Spirit to reveal His Person and law to the nations of the earth. |
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The Messiah (Christ) and Israel are closely related, except that Jesus Christ is the One who has been with the Father from the beginning. |
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The great revelation of the Bible is that Christ, the Messiah, includes not only the Divine Head, Jesus Christ, but also a Body. We are going to capitalize the Body of Christ because it is an inseparable part of the Lord Jesus Christ and also to distinguish it from the physical body of Jesus Christ. |
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Christ, the Messiah, includes the Lord Jesus the Head and also the members of His Body. Please note that Jesus is not merely one member of a many-membered Christ. Some have fallen into this error. Jesus Christ is the Lord and supreme Head of the entire universe of God let alone of the Church. The Lord Jesus is the Center and Circumference of all the works of God and all shall be summed up in Him. He alone is the slain Lamb and the Bridegroom. |
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Having established this rock forever let us proceed to describe the nature and destiny of the Servant of the Lord Christ, Head and Body. |
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Messiah (Christ) is coming. The Jews know this. The Christians know this. "When Messiah comes . . ." is the song of Jews and Christians. |
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What Jews and Christians do not always understand is that the term Messiah includes all who are anointed with the Spirit of God to bring deliverance to God's elect and justice to the saved nations. |
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You may notice in our writings that we make a difference between the elect and the saved nations. Let us hasten to explain. God's elect are Israel, the physical people of Israel of the Old Testament and the Christian Church (including Jews and Gentiles) of the New. All of these are the one Bride of the Lamb, the elect of God, Israel, the Church, and in the sense in which we are speaking, the Messiah of God. They are not the Lord Jesus but they are His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. |
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The saved nations are the remaining peoples of the earth who have been accepted of God because they have believed the testimony of God's elect. |
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Until you come to realize that God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the Head, and that they as a governing priesthood are forever separate from the saved nations of the world, you will understand neither the Old Testament nor the New. I know this sounds arrogant of me to make such a statement but I am too old and tired to waste time trying to be humble. |
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It is fashionable in science to test a hypothesis by assuming it is true and then examining the consequences of your position to see if they line up with the relevant phenomena. Assume that the statement in the preceding paragraph is true and then read the Bible to see if your hypothesis covers the bases. |
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To be continued. |
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He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. (Isaiah 42:2) |
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Dear friends and gentle hearts, let us proceed with our description of the Servant of the Lord. |
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The Servant of the Lord, the Christ, the Messiah proclaimed in the Book of Isaiah, includes the Lord Jesus Christ, the exalted Head, and all who are an integral part of Him. We become an integral part of Christ, of Messiah, by first being born of Him and then by abiding in Him throughout our discipleship until He comes to maturity in us. |
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He, Christ, is the Vine. We are the branches from the one true Vine. We are not a bunch of little christs running around, we are part of the one true and only Anointed Deliverer from God. |
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The Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver the members of His Body and to make them oaks of righteousness. When we grow up in the Head our job will be to serve as rulers and priests of those whom God has spared from destruction, that is, the members of the saved nations. They are our inheritance. Without the saved nations we would have no inheritance. Right? |
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Fruit does not appear on the Vine but on the branches. As we abide in Christ His Life causes righteous, holy, and obedient behavior to be seen in our personality. When the nations see our good works they will glorify God. |
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We are the moral light of the world because the one true Light of God is being formed in us. |
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It is the plan of God that Jesus Christ, and we as an integral part of Him, fill all of the creation so that righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God is seen everywhere. This is the Father's solution to the rebellion of Satan and his angels. |
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We are the one Seed of Abraham if we are part of Christ. There are not two seeds, a Jewish seed and a Gentile seed, there is only the one Seed, that is, Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, only Christ, only one new Man. |
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The Church is looking for Christ to come and whisk us away to Heaven. How ridiculous! How utterly illogical and unscriptural! How mythological! (I just ran out of adjectives.) |
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Take the light, the witness, the branches of the Vine, to Heaven? Why? This is crazy! |
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What about the world? What do you think the world is going to do without the salt, the light, the Presence of God in Christ in the saints? |
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No, the Day of the Lord is not the going of Messiah it is the coming of Messiah. |
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The world is so fouled up it is incredible. "Hello to all of you from the moral cesspool of Southern California. Greetings to you in your cesspool." |
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Murder, rape, abortion, perversion, torture, cannibalism abound. How wonderful are our First Amendment rights. Let us now concentrate on football and baseball for they certainly are more significant than the trouble in the Middle East or the realignment of the super powers. Sheesh! |
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To be continued. |
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A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. (Isaiah 42:3) |
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But the debaucheries and debasing of God's handiwork will be halted soon because God and His Lamb are coming to drive all the corruption from the face of the earth into the dark fires that give no light. The tide will come in, and when it withdraws the raucous clamor of naked flesh and the jungle beat of transistor radios will be silent. The peace of God will reign supreme. |
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Christ and His saints, God's judges, will direct the invincible angels. Those of the nations who embrace the Presence of God in the saints will be brought into a new age of righteousness. Those who resist will decide their own destiny and there is no recourse. The holy will remain holy and the filthy will remain filthy. |
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The world is killing itself because it does not understand the laws that govern our relationship to God and other people. God, our Father, views with sadness the drunken orgies of His creatures. But the destruction will continue until we of the churches are willing to overcome Satan through the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and through loving not our own life to the point of death. |
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Until at least some of the believers are willing to go this route with God, Heaven will retain the army of Christ that is being prepared to descend and put an end to the murder of fetuses, to the violating and prostituting of children, to the perverting of the minds of the young, to the destroying of the environment, to the accumulating of the resources of the earth by the wealthy few, to the hordes of filthy spirits suffocating the peoples of the earth with a blanket of moral filth. |
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Messiah will not come and bring justice until Satan is overcome by the stern obedience of the saints. |
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Messiah is coming. Christ is coming. Joy to the world for the travail of the creation is bringing forth the Kingdom of God. Now will justice be brought to the meek of the earth. The power of the oppressor will be destroyed beyond repair. |
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When Christ appears we will appear with Him provided we are part of the solution and not still part of the problem. |
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Until we are totally consecrated to Jesus Christ we are still part of the rebellion against the Father. In this case we will not appear with Jesus when He returns. What use would we be? How are we to go through the earth and compel obedience to Jesus when we ourselves are still disobedient. |
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The army of Christ is composed of dead-living people. They are crucified with Christ and the life they now are living they are living by the faith of Christ. Living by faith does not mean they are holding to truths of theology. It means every thought, every word, every action of their personality is wrought in Christ and by Christ. They look continually to Jesus for every aspect of life, every decision they make. This is what it means to live by faith. |
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There are not too many who live like this, but there are some. |
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To be continued. |
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He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:4) |
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Let me put the challenge to the young people. Forget what you have seen in the churches. Just be thankful the churches have brought you this far. |
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Now get a vision of the Lord high and lifted up. He is calling you up to be with Him and to be in His image. Never mind what others do. Reach up, up, up to the full stature of Christ. |
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What we are seeing in the churches of today is not the full stature of Christ to which we have been called. There is much, much more for the believer who will allow God to prune, prune, prune, prune. Reach up again. Press upward. Let every nerve in your personality be focused on doing the will of Christ. |
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Paul at the end of His life was still seeking to win Christ. Be like that. Count that you have not yet attained that to which you have been called. |
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Climb the highest mountain in God. Others may choose to dwell in the valley of nominal Christianity. The brightest flowers, the richest fruit, are on the highest peaks. |
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Are you up for it? Will you go for God's highest? Will you get up again when you are knocked down and fight on? |
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There are some who will make it. Join the Lord's army. Every soldier has learned to march in his or her rank. Gideon's army will return with the Lord and set this world right. |
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We are surrounded with scoffers, critics, slanderers. I am speaking of believers. Never mind them. You press forward until you are ready to solve God's problem, to march against the sin and rebellion in the world. |
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God upholds His Servant. He is the Mighty One of Jacob. We have no strength at all but God has all power. The nations are as a drop in the bucket to Him. There is no way you or I are going to change the world. But God can and will change the world if we will obey Him sternly and promptly. |
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There is no disappointment, no discouragement in Jesus. God will keep us going. To overcome us the enemy would have to overcome the resurrection of Jesus Christ. |
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God delights in us because we have chosen to serve Him. We stand for righteousness in a world filled with wickedness. |
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God has put His Spirit on us so we can be part of the royal priesthood, the Servant of the Lord. By God's Spirit we build up one another and by God's Spirit we bear witness to the world of the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of Christ. We can do nothing at all apart from God's Spirit. |
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Our role is to bring justice to the nations. The nations already are in confusion and pain but today's agony is nothing compared to what is ahead. There is no solution for mankind apart from the return of Christ Head and Body. It is they who will bring righteousness, peace, and joy to mankind. |
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To be continued. |
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Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: (Isaiah 42:5) |
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We do not have to strive to bring the Kingdom to the earth. Our efforts should be directed toward pressing into Christ. Then when Christ is ready to move we shall move with Him. Nothing can resist those who are moving in Christ! |
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Jesus will work with each individual, no matter how weak, until the person is able to serve God. |
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Messiah, Head and Body, will bring truth with Him. (We are speaking of the entire Christ as one Person, which it is one new Man.) Truth is rare in our day. But Christ is Truth and will bring truth with Him. |
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Truth does not merely tell us what a thing or event is. Truth tells us why the thing is or the event took place. Science collects facts but only Christ knows the reason behind the facts, what everything signifies. |
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Justice is yet to come to this world. That which the most optimistic of Utopian dreamers have visualized is a pigsty compared with the new world of righteousness and glory that lies ahead. All things are working together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to His purposes in Christ. |
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The peace and joy that are to fill the earth will not drop down from Heaven. They will proceed from the personalities of Christ and those in whom Christ is living. The reason we go through the training we do is that we might be prepared to bring peace and joy to others. Those who are living in the flesh, following their self-will, are of no use in the grand plan. They are still part of the problem. It is those who have given all to follow Christ, as did the Apostle Paul, who will be able to appear with Jesus and bring Paradise back to the earth. |
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Righteousness, peace, and joy will follow the sons of God wherever they move through the earth. All demon powers will be driven to the underworld where they belong. The mountains and hills will begin to sing and all the trees of the field will clap their hands and break forth into singing, Isaiah says. Perhaps this animation of nature will be more literal than would first appear. A dead nature will come to life. |
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The sons of God will be revealed and a creation cursed with corruption will emerge from its chains. The massive gates will begin to open and the blind prisoners will gasp as the first rays of light penetrate their cells. The material creation is to be loosed. The Jubilee is at hand. |
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But first there must be those who will give all to Christ that He may enter them and prepare them for the Day of days that is at hand. |
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God has called each believer in righteousness, not imputed righteousness but an actual righteousness that proceeds from the forming of Christ in him or her. By forming His Word in us God is making us His covenant with mankind. We ourselves, having the Word engraved in our personality, are the new covenant. We are the light of the nations. |
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God is holding our hand. There is little we can do except seek Christ with all our might, day and night, night and day, and then obey Him implicitly. |
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Make the seeking of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness your chief interest. Then God will use you to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from their prison. |
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He has kept the good wine until now. |
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But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. (Philippians 3:7) |
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Antichristianity is the employment of every means, of anything that appears to work, including the power of God if available, to enable ourselves and certain other people of our choice to enjoy a secure, happy, and successful life. We take for granted that it is morally right and God's will for people, especially us and our loved ones, to be happy and healthy now and to enjoy "nice" things in this world. Our goal is our own betterment and sometimes the betterment of others. Also we would like to have as much fun and money as possible. |
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True Christianity is found in seeking God in order to work with Him to accomplish His goals in our own life and in the lives of others. We must lean as completely as possible on our ever-increasing union with God in order to determine what God's methods and goals are, not taking for granted what we are to do or how we are to do it. We seek God because we love Him and desire to glorify Him. |
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God's wrath is on Antichrist because the Antichrist spirit is man making himself God, man preserving his individuality against God, man striving to use what God has given him and God Himself if possible in order to gain security, pleasure, and achievement. |
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Before the peoples of the centers of civilization become fully aware that the plagues of the last days are coming from God's hand they will persecute viciously any who would dare suggest it is sin that is causing their problems. When the inhabitants of the cities finally recognize that the plagues and disasters of the end-time judgments are coming from God they will curse God and blaspheme His name. People will band together against God and His saints, becoming part of the adversary, Satan. The wicked will be the body of Antichrist. |
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Indeed, God does plan to make people happy and prosperous for eternity but only as part of Himself. Sometimes it is necessary for us to be unhappy and restrained, perhaps for a long period of time as we measure time, in order for us to attain the happiness and prosperity that come as we are part of God. Any gain we make that is not part of Christ is loss to Christ and to us. |
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The individual who attains security, happiness, status, fame, ability, health, power, fulfillment, apart from union with God through Christ, who accomplishes anything at all apart from Christ, is a potential antichrist. If he does not set aside all he is, all he has accomplished, becoming nothing in order that he may be fully born again in Christ, he never will see the Kingdom of God. God will not receive him. He is another god and will dwell in eternal night. He is a source of doom to himself and those whom he influences. |
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To overcome Antichrist is to take God's side against man making himself God against our own determination to become God, to be like God apart from union with God, to maintain our own way against God. The human being who becomes angry with God, whether or not he is a Christian, is of Antichrist. He must repent of this grievous sin, humbling himself and asking God to forgive him for such blasphemy. |
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No matter what has happened to you, God is always righteous, always compassionate, always fair, always loving. |
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Consider Calvary and then say that God does not love you! (from The End-time Judgments) |
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And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. (Matthew 24:4) |
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Deception has always been a problem for Christians. In the days to come deception may prove to be an even more serious issue. |
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The Lord commanded us to be careful that someone does not deceive us. Given the nature of deception, how are we to keep from being deceived? If we knew when we were deceived we would not be deceived. |
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First we must recognize that the strongest among us can be deceived. The believer who thinks that because he reads the Bible and prays he can never be deceived, is deceived already. |
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The Lord did not say, be sure that Satan does not deceive you but rather that no man deceive you. However, deception comes originally from Satan although he works through people. |
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Satan does not possess the power to force the elect away from Christ. Satan attacks the mind. He convinces us of a lie and we then enter into one sin or another, thus placing ourselves in Satan's power. |
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In the realm of wisdom we are no match for the fallen cherub. How then are we to make certain we are not being deceived? |
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Only God can prevent our being deceived. Salvation is of the Lord. No person can keep himself in the truth except as the Lord assists. This is important to understand. |
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Notice the following: |
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Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (II Thessalonians 2:9-11) |
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Notice that the passage above is referring to a man, to Antichrist, but that the "deceivableness" that proceeds from Antichrist is actually the "working of Satan." |
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Notice also that if we do not receive the love of the truth, God Himself will send delusion upon us. |
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The expression above, "the deceivableness of unrighteousness," gives us the key to protection from deception. |
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It is unrighteousness, wickedness, that deceives us. We are living in a world that is under the Divine curse because of sin. Man has placed himself under the power of Satan. God has sent Christ so that through Him we may escape the corruption that is in the world because of lust. |
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God has commanded us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are not to strive for happiness but righteousness. This is the will of God for us. |
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We are to deny ourselves, take up our personal cross, and follow the Lord Jesus. As we do this we achieve right standing before the Lord. |
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Multitudes of believers in our day are not willing to deny themselves. They are not seeking righteousness and God's Kingdom first. They are seeking first their happiness and the happiness of their children. They are attempting to restore Paradise to the earth before the curse has been lifted. It is the pursuit of happiness instead of righteousness that makes us vulnerable to deception. |
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Remaining in the Lord's prison, carrying our cross and following after Christ, requires a lifetime of patience accompanied by a considerable amount of tribulation. Satan studies our personality. He sees where our areas of strong desire are. Our areas of strong desire are often the gifts of God to us and are the places in our personality of the greatest danger as well as the greatest opportunity for fruitfulness in the Kingdom. |
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Satan uses people to present us with an opportunity to gain what we desire fervently. Then he places in our mind the thought that what has been presented is natural, right, and must be of the Lord because it feels so good. In addition there may be signs and omens that reinforce the idea that this new experience or hope is of the Lord. |
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There is only one protection from deception, and that is to take up your cross and follow the Master. The quickest way to become deceived is to try to make a paradise of the present cursed world. |
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It is never easy to be a true Christian but it is possible through Christ if you are determined to stick it out. (from Enduring to the End) |
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