Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
We live in the last days, and the most challenging thing about today is the absence is the Fear of the LORD. One of the reasons nobody fears the LORD is because they have adapted to the ideology of the Omnibenevolent - All Loving God. This is a part of the New World Order and the One World Religion of Christlam If you are a Christian, or consider yourself in Christ, this ought to be very concerning... (Many pastors & Christian artists have been subliminally promoting this while the masses are unaware)
Zechariah 9:11 (AKJV) As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant; I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
To not speak of hell, and our deserving in the share of the cup of the LORD’s Wrath, would be counted as (my) hatred toward you - because I'm not warning you on how to escape it. Apart from abiding in Jesus, we are all prisoners - trapped in a waterless pit.
Revelation 14:10 (AKJV) The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
This shows us that if we are not in Christ - living the Crucified Life, we will have our share in the second death.
Mark 15:36(a) (AKJV) And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; Mark 15:37 (AKJV) And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
The spunge full of wine-vinegar represents the cup of the LORD’s Wrath. As we see here in Mark 15, Jesus drank of it just before he gave up His spirit and descended into hell. This means that he brought our sin to hell with Him and rose to give us His Power over death (death = sin – Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord). This shows us that we can escape the second death, but we must do the part that Jesus requires us to do;
Hosea 13:14 (AKJV)
I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death:
O death, I will be thy plagues;
O grave, I will be thy destruction:
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Jesus laid the groundwork for our Salvation by lifting us up, and giving us power over death; but, it doesn’t stop there... we have to do our part – which is to live (daily) the crucified life. Living the Crucified Life is to simply die to sin (life's fleeting pleasures). Now, Jesus drank the cup of the LORD's Wrath just before descending into hell. As we live the Crucified Life daily, our sins were taken into - and remain in hell - and we walk (free) in Christ's victory (over death). This is why it is necessary to teach the realness of hell; it's because one of two things will go there: one being our sin, the other one will be us - because we chose to retain our sin. (In Acts, we see that the Holy Spirit is our retainer of eternal life when we live the Crucified Life.)
Galatians 2:20-21(a) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God:
Apart from living the Crucified Life – we frustrate or cancel or prevent God's Grace – and the remission of our sin.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Perhaps some of you are not necessarily caught up in these sins, but, do you ever think upon such things? Are you entertained by them in tv, music and movies? Jesus says in Matthew 6:22-23, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Lasciviousness is the continuing of the giving of yourself over to whatever you like to “binge” on; it could be food, beverage, media, shopping – anything that prevents you from bearing fruit in your life (Galatians 5:22-26)
Heresy is distorting God’s Holy Word. It’s so easy to distort God’s Word especially with all the different translations they have now... Have you ever read something in the Bible that was too hard for you to bear - so you grabbed another Bible translation to soften it’s blow or say it doesn’t mean that? (That is sedition – changing the language or meaning so that the Bible suits you). You don’t change the Bible, the Bible changes you! If it can’t change you, than you are not a child of God!
Variance is another sin; Revelations 17:13 says “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” When you don’t have the mind of Christ, you are a part of the anti-Christ – which is at work all around us, and many are blind to it because of this. The anti-Christ is not a physical person with spiritual power, but a spiritual power at work in many. We see it at the pulpits, in (anti) Christian music and even in Bible translations...we are living in the most dangerous times and if your pastor doesn’t teach repentance and daily dying to self – he is a wolf – RUN!
The Bible says we ought to have the same mind as other (true) believers. 1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
This is all it really takes to live the crucified life.
This is why it is necessary to remind yourself that every day you wake up, that life and death (heaven and hell) are constantly before you.
“It is better to die to the sinful nature - than to die because of that sinful nature”.
