NT Intercessions & NT Repentances
POINTS TO PROVE
1) Christians can fall into damnable spiritual conditions. 2) The OT phrases like, “it may be”, were used to acknowledge that God can repent of a damning purpose of wrath into a saving purpose of mercy, or vice versa, but at present the people don’t know what God will do, and there are NT phrases of the exact same meaning use. 3) If there are no NT repentances in God, then there will not be any reference of NT intercessions in the present progressive salvation of saints, because intercession is a standing against wrath which is alive in the heart of God, until it is pacified. If it can be proven that there are NT intercessions, it is therefore proven that there are NT repentances. 4) Not only does Christ intercede in heaven, but, Christ, in Christian men, does intercede on earth. This further verifies that wrath is alive in God over NT, regenerate saints, and they have a need to recognize it when it is kindled. |
Many Golden Chains: The Golden Chains Throughout History The PURPOSE & INTENT for Salvation NT Intercessions & NT Repentances Called - Elect - Chosen - Foreknown "Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen" The Marriage & The Called, Chosen, and Faithful The Epistles: A Commentary, Echo, and Practical Application of the Parables of Jesus Christ A Pastor's Sermons to Make Sure Biblical Mercy |
1) Christians can fall into damnable spiritual conditions.
Christ’s salvific work which was prophesied to come was declared in the terms that He would bring - light to darkness, water to desolate regions of desert, sight to the blind, and understanding to the foolish. If this is salvation at the first, and thus this is the experience when a man is saved, so also when a man falls from salvation then he falls from these experiences into the former spiritual state of their condemnation, which is a fallen state from salvific love to wrath, and thus it is into: à darkness, waterlessness, blindness, and foolishness. A denial of light, water, sight, and understanding, in NT and OT doctrine, is a denial of Christ. Oh, how we need to understand this! These are NT realities!
Damnable spiritual conditions mean spiritual deafness and blindness. Jesus Christ spoke the fearful words – “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches” (Rev. 3:13) – which grounds to the foundation a single question which does discern if your faith saves – do you hear His voice today? I am not asking you if you heard His voice yesterday. I am not asking you if you have ever heard His voice, or if you did hear His voice for a certain amount of time in the past right after you were saved. This question is the remaining truth which judges the reality you have with God – and your worthiness to bear the name Christian – do you hear Christ speak to you? For Christ to say this to the seven Churches in the province of Asia, it is to question the genuineness of their Christianity by these terms. The reader should walk away with question in their heart, “do I hear?” Or, “how would I know if I cannot hear?” But how many people today believe that they always hear, that they are never in danger of not hearing, and that hearing is an eternally insignificant concern for a regenerate Christian? We can so easily worship the victories experienced with God in time past, and so like Gideon, you worship a golden ephod which was made by the spoil of salvific victories wrought in the Lord. Do you know that you can go “blind” (Rev. 3:17)? You acknowledge that Jesus used the terrifying word, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9), when He spoke to the multitudes of Israel which were mingling of two kinds of people - many reprobated and a few elect persons. Those that were reprobated had “eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear” (Rom. 11:8), but it was said of the elect, “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matt. 13:16). Many amongst these multitudes sought after Christ, salvation, and obedience, but they could not understand the words of Christ, so that, “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” (Rom. 11:7). Therefore we must understand, there would be no reason to speak the word, “he that hath an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 3:13), unless there are persons, still now, yet in the multitudes of the audience of regenerate persons of the Church who were once regenerate themselves, and who have fallen into blindness of eyes (Eph. 4:18) and dullness of hearing (Heb. 5:11), so that now they cannot hear or see, and thus, what happened to the Jews in the 1st century was a type of what is happening to the regenerate Church in the last days (Rom. 11:18-23).
2) The OT phrases like, “it may be”, were used to acknowledge that God can repent of a damning purpose of wrath into a saving purpose of mercy, or vice versa, but at present the people don’t know what God will do. The NT parallel to these OT phrases are: -->
Christ’s salvific work which was prophesied to come was declared in the terms that He would bring - light to darkness, water to desolate regions of desert, sight to the blind, and understanding to the foolish. If this is salvation at the first, and thus this is the experience when a man is saved, so also when a man falls from salvation then he falls from these experiences into the former spiritual state of their condemnation, which is a fallen state from salvific love to wrath, and thus it is into: à darkness, waterlessness, blindness, and foolishness. A denial of light, water, sight, and understanding, in NT and OT doctrine, is a denial of Christ. Oh, how we need to understand this! These are NT realities!
Damnable spiritual conditions mean spiritual deafness and blindness. Jesus Christ spoke the fearful words – “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches” (Rev. 3:13) – which grounds to the foundation a single question which does discern if your faith saves – do you hear His voice today? I am not asking you if you heard His voice yesterday. I am not asking you if you have ever heard His voice, or if you did hear His voice for a certain amount of time in the past right after you were saved. This question is the remaining truth which judges the reality you have with God – and your worthiness to bear the name Christian – do you hear Christ speak to you? For Christ to say this to the seven Churches in the province of Asia, it is to question the genuineness of their Christianity by these terms. The reader should walk away with question in their heart, “do I hear?” Or, “how would I know if I cannot hear?” But how many people today believe that they always hear, that they are never in danger of not hearing, and that hearing is an eternally insignificant concern for a regenerate Christian? We can so easily worship the victories experienced with God in time past, and so like Gideon, you worship a golden ephod which was made by the spoil of salvific victories wrought in the Lord. Do you know that you can go “blind” (Rev. 3:17)? You acknowledge that Jesus used the terrifying word, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9), when He spoke to the multitudes of Israel which were mingling of two kinds of people - many reprobated and a few elect persons. Those that were reprobated had “eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear” (Rom. 11:8), but it was said of the elect, “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matt. 13:16). Many amongst these multitudes sought after Christ, salvation, and obedience, but they could not understand the words of Christ, so that, “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” (Rom. 11:7). Therefore we must understand, there would be no reason to speak the word, “he that hath an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 3:13), unless there are persons, still now, yet in the multitudes of the audience of regenerate persons of the Church who were once regenerate themselves, and who have fallen into blindness of eyes (Eph. 4:18) and dullness of hearing (Heb. 5:11), so that now they cannot hear or see, and thus, what happened to the Jews in the 1st century was a type of what is happening to the regenerate Church in the last days (Rom. 11:18-23).
2) The OT phrases like, “it may be”, were used to acknowledge that God can repent of a damning purpose of wrath into a saving purpose of mercy, or vice versa, but at present the people don’t know what God will do. The NT parallel to these OT phrases are: -->
“if God peradventure” (2 Tim. 2:25)
“if God permit” (Heb. 6:3) “prove your own selves…except ye be reprobates” (2 Cor. 13:5) |
When a man no longer has eyes to see and ears to hear, he has lost saving faith which grants such things; therefore the man cannot find repentance, because God is not giving it to him (2 Tim. 2:25, Heb. 6:6, 12:17). In all the preaching of the NT pastors, there was a believing and hoping of all things (1 Cor. 13:7), that the flock would be saved to the uttermost, that they would persevere to the end, but this never took away from their acknowledgement that this hope was underneath the Sovereign Judgment of a Holy God Who has the capability to cut men off from Christ – thus they would say things like, “if God peradventure” (2 Tim. 2:25), “if God permit” (Heb. 6:3), and “prove your own selves…except ye be reprobates” (2 Cor. 13:5).
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20)
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20)
“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (1 John 5:16)
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“pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee.” (Jer. 7:16, 14:11, 15:1)
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“There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). Likewise, when a regenerate man who is backslidden is saved from the damnable condition they were backslidden into, they do not say that the man was not in eternal danger, but rather, “let him know” that he was “converted” and “saved” “from death” and “a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). They had a continual hope for their salvation (Heb. 6:9-10, 10:33-36, 1 Cor. 10:13) right beside and around legitimate conditions to the promises of God, which were acknowledgements that they can be lost. There was a time when a man could not repent anymore (Heb. 4:1, 6:6, 12:17), and when a man cannot repent anymore then God will not answer intercessions for that person anymore. What NT scripture better reinstates what God said to Jeremiah when He said, “pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee” (Jer. 7:16, 14:11, 15:1), than when the apostle John said, “I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16)? There is a time where there is no more atoning forgiveness left (Heb. 10:26-29) in the NT, even though this sacrifice was of the eternally sanctifying kind (Heb. 10:14). As I have proven already, the forevers, nevers, eternals, and everlastings do not change the castaway capabilities in the holy righteousness of God’s justice.
Men today don’t even believe that God’s wrath can be kindled over a saint, but all these spiritual experiences I have cited above are experiences which are ordained upon men because of the kindled wrath of God over their sin – blindness, deafness, desertification, darkness. If our prayers were of no significant intercession against the wrath of God then neither would our deeds be, yet scripture claims both to be changing eternity for souls. If there was no such thing as NT intercession, then, whether we preach or not, our words would not “save a soul from death” (Jas. 5:20), and certainly, the blood of such a one who is not saved – the same one that we should have preached to, but didn’t – his blood would never be required at our hand because we had no real responsibility in the slaughtering of his eternal soul (Ezek. 3:18, 20). Is there no NT blood-guiltiness for silent preachers? Paul said to some unconverted men who refused the gospel when it was preached to them, “your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean” (Acts 18:6), so obviously Paul understood that he would have been a red-handed, guilty murderer in the sight of God if he failed to preach to them, but what about when regenerate Christians are not preached to in their hour of need; the hour they need salvation from the ever-present danger of backsliding into a damnable state?
Men today don’t even believe that God’s wrath can be kindled over a saint, but all these spiritual experiences I have cited above are experiences which are ordained upon men because of the kindled wrath of God over their sin – blindness, deafness, desertification, darkness. If our prayers were of no significant intercession against the wrath of God then neither would our deeds be, yet scripture claims both to be changing eternity for souls. If there was no such thing as NT intercession, then, whether we preach or not, our words would not “save a soul from death” (Jas. 5:20), and certainly, the blood of such a one who is not saved – the same one that we should have preached to, but didn’t – his blood would never be required at our hand because we had no real responsibility in the slaughtering of his eternal soul (Ezek. 3:18, 20). Is there no NT blood-guiltiness for silent preachers? Paul said to some unconverted men who refused the gospel when it was preached to them, “your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean” (Acts 18:6), so obviously Paul understood that he would have been a red-handed, guilty murderer in the sight of God if he failed to preach to them, but what about when regenerate Christians are not preached to in their hour of need; the hour they need salvation from the ever-present danger of backsliding into a damnable state?
“Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” (Ezekiel 3:20-21)
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“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
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What was said to Ezekiel, “thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezek. 3:19), was a NT reality for Paul, and he preached this to the regenerate elders of the Church at Ephesus, because he knew that some of them would fall away and perish in their sins (Acts 20:29-31). Paul preached burdens, just like his Master Jesus did, in the light of a “Great Falling Away” which would come. If saved men could never be eternally lost, then Paul would never seek to be “pure from the blood of all men” (Acts 20:26), and he was specifically referencing regenerate men’s blood in the chapter, and therefore, in the fear that blood would be accounted to his charge, he gave the complete and full message of salvation, which was all that they needed to hear to be present-progressively saved (Acts 20:27). But people today believe that what we do has nothing to do with the eternal destiny of regenerate persons. Therefore, what the preachers preach to regenerate persons will never “hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20), but God would have men “know” the opposite message – “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
3) If there are no NT repentances in God, then there will not be any reference of NT intercessions in the present progressive salvation of saints, because intercession is a standing against wrath which is alive in the heart of God, until it is pacified. If it can be proven that there are NT intercessions, it is therefore proven that there are NT repentances.
3) If there are no NT repentances in God, then there will not be any reference of NT intercessions in the present progressive salvation of saints, because intercession is a standing against wrath which is alive in the heart of God, until it is pacified. If it can be proven that there are NT intercessions, it is therefore proven that there are NT repentances.
Christ in Heaven -->
Christ in Christians --> |
“maketh intercession for us” – Rom. 8:34
“maketh intercession for us” – Rom. 8:26 “maketh intercession for the saints” – Rom 8:27 |
Intercession is against the wrath of God, and if it avails, it is against the
wrath of God until He repents of His purpose which was in His heart.
wrath of God until He repents of His purpose which was in His heart.
As it is with preaching, so it is with prayer: there is intercessory prayer (Rom. 8:26-27) like as there is intercessory preaching, which saves a sinning saint from death, but if there was no wrath in God over sinning saints, then what would we be interceding against? There is only one kind of intercession that exists in the Bible, and it is when a man stands in between a threatened soul and an Angry God, and the intercessor stands against the wrath of God to try to turn it away! When God is minded to destroy a soul, then the NT intercessors do cry out… then God gives the saints “life for them that sin not unto death” (1 John 5:16). God was minded to destroy unto the second death, imprisoning the saint in spiritual death, but God changed His mind from that and gave life to the sinning saint, so that the man was, genuinely, a saved “soul from death” by a deliverance from “a multitude of sins” God was imputing into the man (James 5:19-20). This is the repentance of God at work! The regenerate man was sinless in the righteousness of Christ, so that God remembered his sin no more (Heb. 10:17), and then, God was imputing a “multitude of sins” upon the man, being angry with him, and he was then under the spiritual plague of darkness (1 Jn. 1:6) until, peradventure, repentance would be granted to the man. This spiritual darkness is a place which is not covered by “the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:7), therefore God is seeing the sin, angry in destroying wrath, and only minded to save again by a holy repentance! Thus it is written that there is such a thing as NT “intercession” (Rom. 8:26-27)! Now remember, intercession did prevail to change the mind of God, because God was minded also, simultaneously, to save the man through the spiritual chastening of darkness, and God was minded to save the man the whole time – at the same time He was minded to destroy him – and these two desires in God wrestled with each other, like two Persons of the Trinity wrestling one another, and saints were included in the wrestle as workers together with God in mystical union, and behold, the sovereign, eternal, predestinated, changeless will in God prevailed in the end over the condescended will of God! The theology of Calvinism asserts that, after a man is regenerated, then God can never be angry with that saint again! It is no wonder that Calvinistic circles are so confused about prayer! I knew one brother who, when he was a Calvinist, he chose to pray only for the lost. Why? He said that he would rather pray for sinners who are under the wrath of God rather than spending his time praying for saints who can never be under the wrath of God. He thought it strange to occupy his time to pray for the greater and lesser rewards of saints, and neglect praying for sinners bound for hell.
4) Not only does Christ intercede in heaven, but, Christ in Christian men does intercede on earth. This further verifies that wrath is alive in God over NT, regenerate saints, and they have a need to recognize it when it is kindled.
NT intercession is done by Christ in heaven (Heb. 7:25, Rom. 8:34), by Himself alone, for He is able to turn back the wrath of God on account of His own divine powers. What is done in heaven will likely be copied on earth by the mystical body and life of Christ in the Church, and so it is so; the Church does intercede by the Holy Ghost (Rom. 8:26-27). The Church’s participation in Christ’s intercessions does not take away from the sufficiency of Christ, nor does it add any merits to humanity. It is Christ in the Christians that empowers the intercessory prayers or preaching. You must understand the mystical union of the Church on earth with Christ in heaven, and through this lens look at the vitality of NT intercession as an eternally consequential operation. The co-responsibility of saints to obey God by intercessory prayer and preaching cannot be diminished, though we know that God is absolutely sovereign, for, “how shall they hear without a preacher” (Rom. 10:14)? Therefore I repeat, it is for this reason Paul feared blood-guiltiness when preaching was neglected.
MYSTICAL AMBASSADORIAL UNION
What is desired by God in heaven is put in the hearts of saints on earth, so that, being constrained by the love of God, they do pray the will of God back to Him in heaven, thus it is understood that when God moves His people move with Him. Pray, and God gives a man life for his sins (1 John 5:16), but it is Christ Who prays to forgive him, through men. He moves His people to pray for the man to have life, like as He is praying in heaven for the very same man. Christ is “the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishments ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col. 2:19). In this way of prayer, we can see an ambassadorial calling in our mystical union with Christ, so that when we pray a man is given life, but it is not that we are praying so much, but it is Christ praying through us – “praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20). So whether we beseech a lost soul to repent, it is “in Christ’s stead” “as though God did beseech” the man “by us” (2 Cor. 5:20). We don’t merely represent Christ on earth in form, but in the very Spirit of Who God is. Thus it is said that He is alive and we are dead (Gal. 2:20). Therefore we have His mind, “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). When we have peace and joy, Jesus Christ says – “My peace” and “My joy” (John 14:27, 15:11). When we suffer, He is suffering, and when men persecute us, Christ says, “why persecutest thou Me” (Acts 9:4, 22:7, 26:14)? When sins are committed against us, it is not against us only but Him, and when we hunger, He hungers (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are lonely, He is lonely (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are forsaken, He is forsaken (Matt. 25:31-46). When we are sick, He is sick (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are preaching, He is preaching (1 Cor. 1:21), and when men hear us, they hear Him (Lk. 10:16). Therefore it is said, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). “He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me” (Lk. 10:16). “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me” (Matt. 10:40). And again, “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me” (John 12:44), and thus He also said, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). Like as God said to Samuel, “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam. 8:7), so it is with the ambassadorial presence of God’s people on earth, in Christ. So also God said of Ezekiel, “Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto Me” (Ezek. 3:7).
SUFFERING
Paul, walking out the course of his life’s calling, did suffer, but he said that his suffering was not for himself but for the elect saints that would be saved through his ministry in Christ. “I suffer trouble… Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:9-10). He described this way of suffering as an intercessory work when he said, “death worketh in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12), so that he said again in the same passage, “all things are for your sakes” (2 Cor. 4:15). Paul called these sufferings Christ’s sufferings, and that he was fellowshipping (Php. 3:10) with Christ in His sufferings, even that he was filling up in his (Paul’s) body and life that which was lacking in what was to be suffered by Christ’s life on earth, because Christ is still alive. Paul said his sufferings were for the Church when he said, “my sufferings for you”, in Colossians 1:24, but these sufferings were Christ’s in Paul’s body. Thus he said, “my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church” (Col. 1:24). In a shocking way, we can see that, for Paul, “to live is Christ” (Php. 1:21). He said again, “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me” (Php. 2:17). Paul’s work, prayers, preaching, ministry, life, and therefore also sufferings, were all a manifestation of the life of Christ saving the Church on earth, and it was through men (in the means of grace). Though a man can ever say that flesh and blood are their glory (1 Cor. 1:29), in a non-idolatrous way, Paul said that he and the apostles were the glory of the Church, and they are the Church’s rejoicing in the Day of Judgment – “my tribulations for you, which is your glory” (Eph. 3:13), and again, “we are your rejoicing…in the day of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 1:14). They are not rejoicing in Paul but in Christ, for, “who then is Paul, and who is Apollos” (1 Cor. 3:5)? “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3:7).
Who is Paul? The Church in the NT did not recognize and relate to men after their fleshly persons and names. They did not know Paul after the flesh anymore. They understood that Christ was living through Paul. This ambassadorial mentality is explained in 2 Corinthians 5:16-20, and more specifically in these words – “wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). Paul’s office and ministry to the Church is such a vital means of grace for the present progressive salvation of the elect that Paul says, whether he is afflicted or comforted, “it is for your consolation and salvation” (2 Cor. 1:6).
CHURCH JUDGMENTS
The intercessory, ambassadorial relationship of Christians is at work in the evidences – suffering, preaching, comfort, and praying – even so, it is with Church judgments. The Church is a living representation of the Kingdom of God in heaven, so that, whatever is happening in the Kingdom of God in heaven should be executed on earth, in the Church, which is the Kingdom of God on earth. Therefore, if God is angry with a saint so as to damn him, and He is holding sin against him, then he is to be excommunicated from the Church. The evidence that God is holding sin against the man is in the fact that God is withholding grace to repent of sin. Such men are to be thrust out of the Church (the Kingdom of God on earth) because they are thrust out of their citizenship in heaven (the Kingdom of God in heaven). The Church is a representation of God’s ruling grounds! If you are not forgiven by God Who dwells in heaven, at this time, the Church authority in the apostles will be ambassadors of this heavenly edict, and, they would not forgive your sins on earth, but they do this “in the Person of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:10). So, Christ did not forgive them in heaven, and His Person which dwelt in the apostles on earth, He also did not forgive them, but as individual Christians the apostles did not have a grudge against any man. The anger and unforgiveness is God’s! Therefore they thrust the man out of the Church fellowship (God’s grounds). This is called “judging” in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. The apostles would, in this way, judge in the Person of Jesus Christ for excommunication, which is, holding the person’s sins against the person to deliver them over to Satan (1 Cor. 5:3-6). Paul did this, he said, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 5:4). Also the opposite work is done upon a soul when he is received back into the Church. Paul calls it forgiveness, which means that the person who was previously excommunicated because Christ did not forgive him is now received again because Christ has forgiven him. Again Paul acts as an ambassador of Christ when he said, “forgave I it in the Person of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:10), and so the man who was excommunicated in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is received again at the later time (2 Corinthians 2:6-11). Note: the evidence that Christ forgave the backslidden, formerly damned, and excommunicated man was that God gave the man repentance evidenced by the proper fruits (2 Cor. 7:10-11), therefore such a one passed the test that Christ is still in him and he is not reprobated (2 Cor. 13:5). If God never gave the man repentance again unto life, it is by this men can see that God has reprobated him (2 Tim. 2:25-26), therefore he would never be received back in the Church. The Church ministers are to walk in Christ to do His will on earth, “as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). These awfully fearful, ambassadorial powers were called keys to the Kingdom of God, and were shown to be, primarily, the sole ambassadorial honor to the apostolic ministers, and during times of excommunication the powers are exercised by them (or the elders presiding over the Churches). Verses which show this peculiar power which I speak of are as follows:
4) Not only does Christ intercede in heaven, but, Christ in Christian men does intercede on earth. This further verifies that wrath is alive in God over NT, regenerate saints, and they have a need to recognize it when it is kindled.
NT intercession is done by Christ in heaven (Heb. 7:25, Rom. 8:34), by Himself alone, for He is able to turn back the wrath of God on account of His own divine powers. What is done in heaven will likely be copied on earth by the mystical body and life of Christ in the Church, and so it is so; the Church does intercede by the Holy Ghost (Rom. 8:26-27). The Church’s participation in Christ’s intercessions does not take away from the sufficiency of Christ, nor does it add any merits to humanity. It is Christ in the Christians that empowers the intercessory prayers or preaching. You must understand the mystical union of the Church on earth with Christ in heaven, and through this lens look at the vitality of NT intercession as an eternally consequential operation. The co-responsibility of saints to obey God by intercessory prayer and preaching cannot be diminished, though we know that God is absolutely sovereign, for, “how shall they hear without a preacher” (Rom. 10:14)? Therefore I repeat, it is for this reason Paul feared blood-guiltiness when preaching was neglected.
MYSTICAL AMBASSADORIAL UNION
What is desired by God in heaven is put in the hearts of saints on earth, so that, being constrained by the love of God, they do pray the will of God back to Him in heaven, thus it is understood that when God moves His people move with Him. Pray, and God gives a man life for his sins (1 John 5:16), but it is Christ Who prays to forgive him, through men. He moves His people to pray for the man to have life, like as He is praying in heaven for the very same man. Christ is “the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishments ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col. 2:19). In this way of prayer, we can see an ambassadorial calling in our mystical union with Christ, so that when we pray a man is given life, but it is not that we are praying so much, but it is Christ praying through us – “praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20). So whether we beseech a lost soul to repent, it is “in Christ’s stead” “as though God did beseech” the man “by us” (2 Cor. 5:20). We don’t merely represent Christ on earth in form, but in the very Spirit of Who God is. Thus it is said that He is alive and we are dead (Gal. 2:20). Therefore we have His mind, “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). When we have peace and joy, Jesus Christ says – “My peace” and “My joy” (John 14:27, 15:11). When we suffer, He is suffering, and when men persecute us, Christ says, “why persecutest thou Me” (Acts 9:4, 22:7, 26:14)? When sins are committed against us, it is not against us only but Him, and when we hunger, He hungers (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are lonely, He is lonely (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are forsaken, He is forsaken (Matt. 25:31-46). When we are sick, He is sick (Matt. 25:31-46), when we are preaching, He is preaching (1 Cor. 1:21), and when men hear us, they hear Him (Lk. 10:16). Therefore it is said, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). “He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me” (Lk. 10:16). “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me” (Matt. 10:40). And again, “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me” (John 12:44), and thus He also said, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). Like as God said to Samuel, “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam. 8:7), so it is with the ambassadorial presence of God’s people on earth, in Christ. So also God said of Ezekiel, “Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto Me” (Ezek. 3:7).
SUFFERING
Paul, walking out the course of his life’s calling, did suffer, but he said that his suffering was not for himself but for the elect saints that would be saved through his ministry in Christ. “I suffer trouble… Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:9-10). He described this way of suffering as an intercessory work when he said, “death worketh in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12), so that he said again in the same passage, “all things are for your sakes” (2 Cor. 4:15). Paul called these sufferings Christ’s sufferings, and that he was fellowshipping (Php. 3:10) with Christ in His sufferings, even that he was filling up in his (Paul’s) body and life that which was lacking in what was to be suffered by Christ’s life on earth, because Christ is still alive. Paul said his sufferings were for the Church when he said, “my sufferings for you”, in Colossians 1:24, but these sufferings were Christ’s in Paul’s body. Thus he said, “my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church” (Col. 1:24). In a shocking way, we can see that, for Paul, “to live is Christ” (Php. 1:21). He said again, “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me” (Php. 2:17). Paul’s work, prayers, preaching, ministry, life, and therefore also sufferings, were all a manifestation of the life of Christ saving the Church on earth, and it was through men (in the means of grace). Though a man can ever say that flesh and blood are their glory (1 Cor. 1:29), in a non-idolatrous way, Paul said that he and the apostles were the glory of the Church, and they are the Church’s rejoicing in the Day of Judgment – “my tribulations for you, which is your glory” (Eph. 3:13), and again, “we are your rejoicing…in the day of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 1:14). They are not rejoicing in Paul but in Christ, for, “who then is Paul, and who is Apollos” (1 Cor. 3:5)? “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3:7).
Who is Paul? The Church in the NT did not recognize and relate to men after their fleshly persons and names. They did not know Paul after the flesh anymore. They understood that Christ was living through Paul. This ambassadorial mentality is explained in 2 Corinthians 5:16-20, and more specifically in these words – “wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). Paul’s office and ministry to the Church is such a vital means of grace for the present progressive salvation of the elect that Paul says, whether he is afflicted or comforted, “it is for your consolation and salvation” (2 Cor. 1:6).
CHURCH JUDGMENTS
The intercessory, ambassadorial relationship of Christians is at work in the evidences – suffering, preaching, comfort, and praying – even so, it is with Church judgments. The Church is a living representation of the Kingdom of God in heaven, so that, whatever is happening in the Kingdom of God in heaven should be executed on earth, in the Church, which is the Kingdom of God on earth. Therefore, if God is angry with a saint so as to damn him, and He is holding sin against him, then he is to be excommunicated from the Church. The evidence that God is holding sin against the man is in the fact that God is withholding grace to repent of sin. Such men are to be thrust out of the Church (the Kingdom of God on earth) because they are thrust out of their citizenship in heaven (the Kingdom of God in heaven). The Church is a representation of God’s ruling grounds! If you are not forgiven by God Who dwells in heaven, at this time, the Church authority in the apostles will be ambassadors of this heavenly edict, and, they would not forgive your sins on earth, but they do this “in the Person of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:10). So, Christ did not forgive them in heaven, and His Person which dwelt in the apostles on earth, He also did not forgive them, but as individual Christians the apostles did not have a grudge against any man. The anger and unforgiveness is God’s! Therefore they thrust the man out of the Church fellowship (God’s grounds). This is called “judging” in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. The apostles would, in this way, judge in the Person of Jesus Christ for excommunication, which is, holding the person’s sins against the person to deliver them over to Satan (1 Cor. 5:3-6). Paul did this, he said, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 5:4). Also the opposite work is done upon a soul when he is received back into the Church. Paul calls it forgiveness, which means that the person who was previously excommunicated because Christ did not forgive him is now received again because Christ has forgiven him. Again Paul acts as an ambassador of Christ when he said, “forgave I it in the Person of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:10), and so the man who was excommunicated in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is received again at the later time (2 Corinthians 2:6-11). Note: the evidence that Christ forgave the backslidden, formerly damned, and excommunicated man was that God gave the man repentance evidenced by the proper fruits (2 Cor. 7:10-11), therefore such a one passed the test that Christ is still in him and he is not reprobated (2 Cor. 13:5). If God never gave the man repentance again unto life, it is by this men can see that God has reprobated him (2 Tim. 2:25-26), therefore he would never be received back in the Church. The Church ministers are to walk in Christ to do His will on earth, “as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). These awfully fearful, ambassadorial powers were called keys to the Kingdom of God, and were shown to be, primarily, the sole ambassadorial honor to the apostolic ministers, and during times of excommunication the powers are exercised by them (or the elders presiding over the Churches). Verses which show this peculiar power which I speak of are as follows:
“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:19)
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:18-20) “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23) |
NT intercession exists in individuals of the Church upon the same principles as these ambassadorial powers. I find that all of these biblical principles of intercessory labors through NT Christians do all resemble the very same intercessory powers of the OT prophets who did, in like manner to the spiritual saints in the NT, stand before an angry, destroying God to plead for the salvation of God’s people – though salvation is always, and will always be the work of God, and Him alone! I account of all these things to doctrinally justify the necessity of NT intercessory prayer for saints under the wrath of God and the existence of NT repentance in God’s condescension. When God is desirous to destroy and damn saints by holding their sins against them, a saint must intercede against the wrath of God just as the OT saints did! God is, as He was in Ezekiel’s day, saying again: “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out Mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 22:30-31). Even as Elijah prayed until salvation came to Israel, so we are to pray for salvific rain to fall (Heb. 6:7), and like as Elijah, whose like spirit we now have in Christ, we are to intercede for our brethren who are overtaken in error, who are under the wrathful penalty of a multitude of sins. This is the shocking and compelling context of James 5:14-20! Read it carefully please.
“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (Jas 5:14-20)
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Who more than the lonely man Elijah did bring a damned nation to its knees again? It was him, and him alone, in God’s Spirit, who stood against the 400 prophets of Baal, and so, by the intercession of judgment he did do again what he had done for 3 years up to that day. He prayed intercessory prayers, that God would end the famine, with fervency and 7-time persistence just as he prayed for three years that God would bring the famine. The same fervency and persistence seen that day was done every day, to bring and take away the famine. Do you think God is trying to speak to us something of our responsibility to intercede, seeing that we have the same spirit as Elijah? When God’s NT Israelites are under a spiritual famine, when the desertification of the soul and fruitlessness are laying waste regenerate men on every side – what will you do? Nothing, because God is sovereign and you can’t do anything? Pray for rain, NT Elijah, God says to all NT Christians! And God will bring forth the RAINS to end the spiritual desertification of souls, causing fruit to spring up within them, ending the famine, the dehydration, reviving life in them that were sitting in death! A dry season is a sin season, a cursed condition, thus let the spiritual saints pray for the rain of God’s salvation to return, and so, God’s damning powers of wrath will be turned away. The multitude of sins which He is holding against them can be forgiven!
The Covenant is in desolation, the earth in spiritual devastation.
False prophets are intoxicated by the promises of God while a godly man can scarcely be found.
The multitudes are in fetters – in false confidences they are bound,
And they are emboldened to un-repentance by indoctrinations unsound.
Oh, that one man would remember God and in faith look around,
By a truth laden heart may the breach be found.
It is the Last Days and God has hidden His old ways,
Yet men do stand in the gap and for the Covenant they do pray,
To finish the chapter of time by resurrecting Josiah’s days.
Surely Revival God would send if faith did impart a river parting wind.
Elisha bids his master bye with a hopeful, loud, uplifted cry.
Eyes raised up, he looks up high, watching chariots of fire making Elijah fly.
Scene is over; Elisha’s heart in unrest, his prayer was answered – double portion is blessed.
Elisha surpasses Elijah’s spiritual crest, he lays hold on Elijah’s mantel and approaches the test.
His mind memorable of Elijah’s God, Elisha’s memory is with preparation shod.
Elisha’s hand does grip the mantle tight while the river approaches and is nigh in sight.
Mantle going forth, no doubt of any sort, the call to God is lifted up as the prophet’s first and continual resort.
“Where is the LORD God of Elijah”, was Elisha’s cry,
And echoing in my heart is a perpetual like sigh.
As the moving life and a rushing river in my veins
My eyes ever behold the Bride of Christ in her stains,
That throughout all the personal suffering I undergo now, and in every change, my eyes widen in a stedfast looking for the subsequent revelatory glory to brighten the dark glass, and in part or whole, make this grief assuage:
That with a more open face I may behold His shining face,
Comprehending the labor-sufficient, gloriously powerful, resurrection grace,
And so find the knowledge of God empowers in His perfecting, cleansing, Bride-baptizing praise.
Thus I would be: Tried in His holy fire, clothed in His precious, majestic, warlike attire,
Seated in the heavenlies I would be sufficient and entire,
To wash the Bride under the perfect influence of His governing Empire.
And thus, bear the mark of His perfect signature ensuring a daily Son-rise to brighten the world with the fullness of the stature of Christ. Thus is the Covenant, to outshine the physical world declaring the reality and “at hand” illumination of the Kingdom of Heaven for the world to understand. That, in likeness to the sun, its rays to shed abroad to the whole world the touch of His life-giving power, that to the ends of the world none have been exempt from the merciful nearness of the gospel of God interrupting some facet of the dark and hopeless society and time, by the momentary passing of The Presence, work, and Person of eternal life. Namely, Jesus Christ the Lord – Amen and let it be Lord.
A Liar in the Church
The Covenant is in desolation, the earth in spiritual devastation.
False prophets are intoxicated by the promises of God while a godly man can scarcely be found.
The multitudes are in fetters – in false confidences they are bound,
And they are emboldened to un-repentance by indoctrinations unsound.
Oh, that one man would remember God and in faith look around,
By a truth laden heart may the breach be found.
It is the Last Days and God has hidden His old ways,
Yet men do stand in the gap and for the Covenant they do pray,
To finish the chapter of time by resurrecting Josiah’s days.
Surely Revival God would send if faith did impart a river parting wind.
Elisha bids his master bye with a hopeful, loud, uplifted cry.
Eyes raised up, he looks up high, watching chariots of fire making Elijah fly.
Scene is over; Elisha’s heart in unrest, his prayer was answered – double portion is blessed.
Elisha surpasses Elijah’s spiritual crest, he lays hold on Elijah’s mantel and approaches the test.
His mind memorable of Elijah’s God, Elisha’s memory is with preparation shod.
Elisha’s hand does grip the mantle tight while the river approaches and is nigh in sight.
Mantle going forth, no doubt of any sort, the call to God is lifted up as the prophet’s first and continual resort.
“Where is the LORD God of Elijah”, was Elisha’s cry,
And echoing in my heart is a perpetual like sigh.
As the moving life and a rushing river in my veins
My eyes ever behold the Bride of Christ in her stains,
That throughout all the personal suffering I undergo now, and in every change, my eyes widen in a stedfast looking for the subsequent revelatory glory to brighten the dark glass, and in part or whole, make this grief assuage:
That with a more open face I may behold His shining face,
Comprehending the labor-sufficient, gloriously powerful, resurrection grace,
And so find the knowledge of God empowers in His perfecting, cleansing, Bride-baptizing praise.
Thus I would be: Tried in His holy fire, clothed in His precious, majestic, warlike attire,
Seated in the heavenlies I would be sufficient and entire,
To wash the Bride under the perfect influence of His governing Empire.
And thus, bear the mark of His perfect signature ensuring a daily Son-rise to brighten the world with the fullness of the stature of Christ. Thus is the Covenant, to outshine the physical world declaring the reality and “at hand” illumination of the Kingdom of Heaven for the world to understand. That, in likeness to the sun, its rays to shed abroad to the whole world the touch of His life-giving power, that to the ends of the world none have been exempt from the merciful nearness of the gospel of God interrupting some facet of the dark and hopeless society and time, by the momentary passing of The Presence, work, and Person of eternal life. Namely, Jesus Christ the Lord – Amen and let it be Lord.
A Liar in the Church
“Because with lies ye have… strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver My people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezek. 13:22-23)
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Because of eternal security preachers, men believe that there is no simultaneous will of God working contrary to the sovereign will, emotions, and promises of God, therefore there is no conception that God seeks to know a man by the trial of his faith to see if the man will fear God, and furthermore, find him out in trials, fires, visitations, or finally, at Christ’s appearing. Men do therefore conclude, there is nothing that Abraham, David, nor any saved man could commit as a sin, so that God would turn upon them to “make void the Covenant” (Ps. 89:39) rather than “make it” (Gen. 17:1-2). They are persuaded that because God “said…forever”, that always, inevitably, and without exception this means forever (1 Sam. 2:30), “perpetual”, and “everlasting” (Ex. 29:9, 40:15), for every saved individual. Today it is tragic! Men don’t even know what biblical perfection is! And no wonder – they are lulled to sleep by false doctrines. God’s beloved saints are turned into “sinners” “at ease in Zion” (James 5:20, Amos 6:1)! Even in this state, men don’t fear damnation. Men cannot tell when or if they are in a damnable condition! David, Hezekiah (Jer. 26:16-19), Jonah, Josiah, Jeremiah, and Jacob were saved by seeing this – that when they were under the wrath of God as regenerate men, they saw it, they recognized it, and so they “cried” (Jonah 2:9), and God heard the voice of their “weeping” (Ps. 6:8) when they “wept” (Hos. 12:4). Remember how God said to Hezekiah, “I have seen thy tears” (Isa. 38:5), and again to Josiah, “because thine heart was tender, and thou didst…weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD” (2 Chron. 34:27). We have fat, faithless, fearless, and tearless Christians today, and let the blame be put upon eternal security! Again, God said to David, “the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping” (Ps. 6:8), but you are too spiritual to weep for fear of damnation? You just love God so much that you don’t need to fear? Maybe your false “god” that you have made up in your own mind will name himself after your name, but the God of the Bible named Himself after David’s name – and he wept in fear for damnation as a regenerate man many times! Moses, Jonah, David, Lot, Hezekiah, Joshua, Jeremiah, Jacob, Josiah, even all of them returned to God because they knew that God was promising them condemnation – this truth made them free at a time when the promise of life would have damned them forever! Oh my reader, I beg you to hear and understand it!