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The Last Call To The Kingdom Approaches
Be aware
The kingdom of God is a fast approaching future kingdom where every inhabitant will have been given eternal life. This eternal life will be granted by none other than Jesus Christ. Those to whom Jesus gives life are chosen from people sent to Him by God the Father. There is no other way or any other name by which one can be saved but by Jesus Christ.
John 6:44 (NASB)
No one can come to Me (Jesus), unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Acts 4:10 to 12 (NASB)
10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name this man stands here before you in good health.
11 He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.
Let me give you some examples that clarify that we must be saved in no uncertain terms.
Revelation 18:4 (NASB)
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ^Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues;
We are in the last days of this age or era and so this passage is very relevant today. ^Come out of her^ is a commandment, a calling from God to His people, for them to come out of religious confusion, out of Babylon the ancient pagan religion which today constitutes primarily, but not necessarily exclusively, the Roman Catholic Church and its many offshoots. ^That you may not participate in her sins^ in other words that you not believe false religious teachings, habits, rituals, traditions and observances like Christmas, Easter, Sunday worship, profaning the Sabbaths, breaking any or all of the ten commandments, vain repetitions, even false humility and practicing ignorance. And ^that you may not receive of her plagues^ means that self righteousness, false beliefs, deception, good intensions, wishful thinking, vanity, etc. will be dealt plagues. The community of pagan worshipers will be punished, even severely punished.
The fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience or perseverance, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, found in Galatians 5:22, are not to be mixed with paganism, practices that are not from God. It is as ridiculous as shooting fruit from canons or trying to mix oil and water.
Jesus taught how to attain the kingdom of God, what to strive for, what to aim for, where to set our priorities, what to do and even what not to do.
Luke 13:24 to 30 (NKJV)
24 Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
This is a very serious warning. It is not to be taken lightly. Even though the burden on a Christian is light there are many unacceptable ways many false ways. There is a wrong way and basically only one right way. The right way is to follow the example of Jesus and His apostles, the way of obeying the commandments of God, of holding fast to the truth of the Bible, the word of God. It is the way of careful reading and studying and reasoning and deciphering and applying truth and the way of God to your every moment in life.
verse 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ^Lord, Lord, open for us,> and He will answer and say to you, ^I do not know you, where you are from,^
Does God know you? Do you have a personal relationship with Him? Do you talk to Him all day long every day, at work, at play, in good moments and bad? Do you constantly seek His guidance? Do you habitually ask for forgiveness of your impatience and doubts, your self righteous judgments and ill thought out sense of fairness?
Luke 13 verse 26 then you will begin to say, ^We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.^
Verse 27 But He will say, ^I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.^
Those who are not at one with God in knowing and doing His will are workers of iniquity. God does not know them.
verse 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
Again, this is a very serious warning to those who refuse to believe and obey God, they will be thrust out of His kingdom.
verse 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.
People from all corners of the world will be gathered to come and sit in the kingdom of God. There is no place from which God cannot call and chose someone for eternal life in His kingdom.
verse 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.
There will be a God directed execution of events in a planned and organized fashion that no man has any control over except in doing his best to please God by doing His will and by accomplishing works to His honour throughout his discipleship.
Jesus emphasizes this again in
Matthew 7:21 to 23 (NASB)
Not everyone who says to Me, ^Lord, Lord,^ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
God is the same yesterday today and forever. He set the laws and will enforce the laws.
He gave us the ten commandments to keep not to change.
Matthew 19:17 (NKJV)
So He said to him, ^Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.^
1 Timothy 6:11 to 14 (NKJV)
verse 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.
verse 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
verse13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
verse 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Revelation 14:12 (NKJV)
Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
His law is forever. It will not be altered.
Matthew 5:18 (GNB)
Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with, not until the end of all things.
2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 (NKJV)
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
God appointed the Levites as priests for a time and He took back the reigns at an appointed time. The leadership was changed but the law was not. The sign of His people remains the Sabbath. And the proper keeping of it holy remains a requirement.
Exodus 31:13 (GNB)
to say to the people of Israel, ^Keep the Sabbath, my day of rest, because it is a sign between you and me for all time to come, to show that I, the LORD, have made you my own people.
Matthew 7:22
Many will say to Me on that day, ^Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?^
There are many people using the name of Jesus and of Christ. There are many using the name of God and of His Son in vain. The festival Christmas is a prime example. Look it up, it is a pagan custom, it is non Biblical, non Christian in origin. Those who observe it are poor, wretched, blind and naked.
Revelation 3:17 to 19 (NKJV)
verse 17 Because you say, ^I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,^ and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,
verse 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
verse 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
This applies to members of the true church as well as to other deceived ones as best as I can tell. God does not have double standards to my knowledge.
Huge numbers have favourite passages, like John 3:16 (GNB) For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life, while disregarding large parts of the rest of the Bible. Many insist on their poorly interpreted or erroneous understanding of many verses taking them out of context and teaching them to children who have no knowledge with which to defend themselves. Such teachers would be better off with a millstone tied to their necks and to cast themselves into a sea.
Matthew 18:6 (NKJV)
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Let this warning echo in your bowels also.
Matthew 7:23
And then I will declare to them, ^I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.^
Can any reader or student of the Bible, disciple of Jesus, not take these verses seriously? Can anyone not check or examine themselves honestly and thoroughly to see if they are or are not guilty as charged? You (we) are commanded to examine yourselves to see if you are worthy to partake of the gift of the bread of life and the blood of forgiveness of Christ, that is to accept Jesus Christ as part of you, living and acting in you to prepare you for your transformation into an image of Himself and of His Father at His second coming, to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Passover.
1 Corinthians 11:28 (NKJV)
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
1 Corinthians 11:31 (GNB)
If we would examine ourselves first, we would not come under judgement of God.
2 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed you are disqualified.
Is the Passover living in you? His second coming draws near. The end of this age draws near. The great tribulation draws near. Time is running short and time will be cut even shorter. The door or gate will not be left open much longer. The time to answer the call from God is now. The time to turn to and to start trusting God is now. Nor is it time for those who have been faithful to God for many years to start to slacken off. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.
Luke 10:2 (NKJV)
Then He said to them, ^The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
My people are being lost or destroyed for lack of knowledge God says in
Hosea 4:6 (NASB)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
I will add, His people are being lost because they believe their teachers and not the Bible, not God, not Jesus, not the teachings or example of Jesus.
Traditions of men
Look a little closer at this Babylon religion adopted by the Romans. Its prime and original purpose was to dethrone God, to disempower God, to replace God, to overrule God or to render Him meaningless or irrelevant. Ditto for the Bible. The Roman Catholic church is doing just that. It wants people to respect it, its Papacy and its clergy more than God, more than the Bible. When you look at their supporters they have been very successful at this. They practice many traditions that do not have their origins in the Bible. These traditions are not from God and are therefore pagan.
What are some of these traditions? What is now called Christmas was originally the birthday of a pagan sun god that was observed in ancient times, since the time of Nimrod, during the winter solstice time, the dark days of winter. Jesus was not even born yet and the celebrations had nothing to do with Christ. The name of Christ is just being used to support their ancient pagan traditions.
It reminds me of this passage:
Matthew 15:6 to 9 (NASB)
And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
^^You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
^THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.> >>
Another Roman Catholic tradition is Easter. The word Easter has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ or Christianity. Easter was an ancient pagan goddess of the dawn according to my dictionary. She was an idol of some sort, made of wood or metal. Anyone can look it up. You don^t have to have a degree in history to find this information. You just need a common dictionary. Easter is pagan. Again the name of Christ is being used to support the ancient custom and tradition of observing this pagan image or idol.
The third tradition that I want to bring to your attention, and perhaps the most common one, is observing Sunday as a holy day or a day of worship. Sunday, as the name indicates, was a sun worshipping day. Observing it as a holy day is pagan and the breaking of the first commandment as well as the fourth because the first commandment of God is to worship no other God but He, in other words obey Him not someone else, and the fourth commandment tells you to keep the seventh day of the week holy not the first day.
These pagan customs have no backbone, no depth of meaning, no value, no validity and no future. They are void and desolate. They are lawlessness. And changing the days of the week to start on Monday is ordered by men not by God and only makes things worse, it doesn^t fix anything.
For much more detail about pagan idols and traditions of false religions you should read ^The Two Babylons^ by John Alexander Hislop.
The word of God
The Bible on the other hand is a large text of instructions, guidelines, commandments, ordinances, statutes and historical stories all focused on assisting you to attain the kingdom of God and eternal life. It is consistent in its teachings, examples and traditions. God has a plan and will see it through regardless of anything that mankind or any man might do.
His plan begins with the requirement of obedience. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God they were cast out of the garden of Eden and eventually died. Those are the consequences of disobedience to God. All false religions and vain philosophies lead to death.
Here is a short list of the observances that God wants you to adhere to on top of the ten commandments that are almost accepted:
1 ~ The weekly seventh day Sabbath which we know as Saturday. It is to be remembered, kept holy and no servile work is to be done in it. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and it is the sign that its observers are the people of God. There is no fooling God.
2 ~ The Passover, to commemorate yearly the sacrifice by death of Christ when we eat of His body and drink of His blood which symbolically represent the bread of life and the blood of forgiveness.
3 ~ The Feast of Unleavened Bread which symbolises the unleavened bread of truth and sincerity which is Jesus that we eat for seven days. This feast also incorporates the wave sheaf offering of the first fruits, Jesus, offered to God to become the first to receive eternal life and to become ruler over the kingdom of God.
4 ~ Pentecost when Jesus established the church when the apostles received the holy spirit to help them in the work that they would accomplish.
5 ~ The Day of Trumpets which anticipates the return of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords with the loud sound of a trumpet.
6 ~ The Day of Atonement which portrays Jesus putting away Satan and Jesus^ sacrifice. It shows the taking away of sin and the paying of the death penalty for sin.
7 ~ The Feast of Tabernacles which for now is a foreshadow of life under the rule of Jesus Christ, that is under the government of God.
8 ~ The Last Great Day which looks forward to the Great White Throne Judgment, a time of final teaching and instruction in showing the way of God to all who have ever lived and where Jesus Christ will make His final choices for His gift of eternal life and entry into His kingdom.
See Exodus 12, 20, 31, 35, Leviticus 16, 23 and Numbers 28 and 29.
What to do
Colossians 2:8 (NASB)
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
We puzzle and marvel over the fact that so many reject the truth, that so many are deceived and that so many simply do not understand or will not take Biblical truth to heart. The simple answer is that God is not choosing to reveal the truth to them at this time. Their hearts are hardened. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have eyes but they do not see. It is the will of God. But should we give up on everyone who offers resistance? Should we stop offering our knowledge and help? If the church will not stop evangelizing why should we give up on our family, relatives, friends and neighbours? As long as they don^t wear us down with their evil, as long as we are not aggravating the relationships, as long as we don^t compromise the truth, we should persevere.
So how does one get himself ready for the Kingdom of God? Here are some basic steps.
1.
Repent. That means to admit your errors, your deceptions, your false assumptions, your gullibility, your following unproven ideas, concepts and traditions, to be sorry for your weaknesses and to start searching for truth in honesty and accepting it, taking it to heart, to be sorry and then to let Jesus forgive you of your sins.
2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV)
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2.
Stop disregarding the Bible and start to read it and to prove it right and to believe it. Put your thinking cap on, realize the power and authority of God and let the Bible interpret itself, explain itself. It is the Word of God. It is the good news from God. Seek counselling, guidance and instruction.
Proverbs 11:9 (GNB)
You can be ruined by the talk of godless people (like false ministers of Christ), but the wisdom of the righteous (the true people of God) can save you.
3.
Get convicted. Get determined. Get genuine. Get real. See the greatness of God and of Jesus. Want Jesus to rule in you.
Romans 14:5 (NKJV)
Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
4.
Commit yourself to God, follow His will, get baptised, give yourself over to Jesus. Let Jesus forgive you of your sins.
Acts 2:38 (NASB)
And Peter said to them, ^Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
5.
Receive and accept the gift of the holy spirit of God. Embrace it and keep it foremost in your mind. Let no one take it away from you. Protect it with your whole heart.
Revelation 3:11 (NKJV)
Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
6.
Grow in the grace, knowledge and way of God. Put into practise all that you learn.
Colossians 1:9 to 14 (NKJV)
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
7.
Stay on the straight and narrow. Check yourself constantly with prayers for help from God. Speak truth in sincerity.
Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV)
Therefore, putting away lying, ^Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,^ for we are members of one another.
Closing
And so we carry on in our Christian walk always searching for greater understanding and greater applications.
Philippians 2:12 and 13 (NKJV)
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Romans 12:1 and 2 (NKJV)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Matthew 7:7 (NKJV)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Psalm 119:2 (NKJV)
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
James 5:19–20 (NKJV)
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Most of Israel, the ten lost tribes and Judah, Benjamin and Levi have wandered from the truth. Christians in countless denominations have wandered from the truth. We all falter in the truth now and again. So let us continue to turn sinners from the error of their ways just as God continues to pour rain on the good and the bad indiscriminately.
John 8:36 (NKJV)
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
But take heed,
Psalm 26:4 (GNB)
I do not keep company with worthless people; I have nothing to do with hypocrites.
Psalm 94:20 (GNB)
You have nothing to do with corrupt judges, who make injustice legal,
Proverbs 4:24 (GNB)
Never say anything that isn’t true. Have nothing to do with lies and misleading words.
Ephesians 5:11 (GNB)
Have nothing to do with the worthless things that people do, things that belong to the darkness. Instead, bring them out to the light.
and many other such warnings and advice.
Just one more thing,
1 Thessalonians 5:16 to 18 (NKJV)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
And remember, The Last Call To The Kingdom Approaches.
2015 Jacques Gauvin
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