Month: August 2023

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 30, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 33

THE EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL AND EXTREMELY CORROSIVE NATURE OF THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY REVEALED IN ITS TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES

The story and history of the fall in Eden recorded in Genesis reveals this truth, among many others: all it took was just one seemingly “little sin,” each by Eve first, then Adam, to bring down the successive train of curses, woes, decay, and death (as it’s “wages”) upon mankind and whole earth itself.

As Paul wrote: “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam], SIN ENTERED into the WORLD and death by sin; and so DEATH PASSED UNTO ALL MEN, for that all have sinned.” (See Rom. 5: 12-19, KJV).

As a result since then, he wrote:
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in PAIN together UNTIL NOW. And not only they, but OURSELVES ALSO, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, EVEN WE OURSELVES GROAN WITHIN OURSELVES, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 7:22,23).

Iniquity or sin, is “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Its first manifestation on earth was in the first disastrous experiment with disobedience of the creature towards his Creator’s command, even while in their yet original sinless, uncorrupted, innocent purity, “living, moving, and having their being” within the safe confines of their Eden home on fair earth.

Adam and Eve failed mankind’s first test of probation whereby the freedom of choice — based on their yet-untested power of the will, which is the governing power in the nature of man, having been created as a free moral agents to worship his Creator only according to the dictates of conscience. The plan of redemption “which was prepared before the foundations of the earth were laid,” instantly kicked in when man sinned and fell. So that “the moment there was a sinner there was a Savior.” This mercifully granted undeserving mankind the second and last probationary time, which will soon end as the signs of the times clearly warn all who will take heed!

God Creator’s very first recorded words immediately after the fall of Adam in Eden was not an inquiry seeking any knowledge, understanding, or explanations for the Omniscient “Word, who in the beginning was with God, and was God who made all things and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1: 1-3) infinitely knows and sees the end from the beginning, such that “His word is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there ANY CREATURE that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are NAKED and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4: 12, 13).

God’s first inquiry to fallen man, immediately revealing His divine love and mercy, was unrewarded. Notice: “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Gen. 3: 9, KJV. But instead of humbly and quickly emerging from hiding in vain behind the trees of Eden because of their physical nakedness caused by their spiritual guilt and shame, repenting and confessing their sin and pleading forgiveness, which would have been instantly granted by the loving Creator, they quickly launched into self-justifying, blame-shifting, accusing others for their sins, in effect, blaming and accusing God Himself, “adding sin to sin, transgression to transgression.” Prayerfully and thoroughly study Gen. 3: 1-24 again.

Had not God immediately “put enmity between the serpent (Satan) and the woman (Eve) and her Seed who would “bruise the head of serpent,” and carry on this enmity, hatred, great controversy, and war between the respective “seeds” of Satan and the faithful followers of Christ down through the long centuries to this our day and time, culminating very soon in its prophesied stupendous climax—all mankind from the first Adam was hopelessly doomed to eternal damnation and death!

But “thank be to God for the victory in Christ Jesus,” the “second Adam” to whom all who have been genuinely and thoroughly re-born again by the twin baptisms of the water baptism of repentance, followed by the daily, fiery, purifying baptism of the Holy, can now retrace their spiritual genealogy, not to the first fallen man Adam, but to the sinlessly victorious “second Adam,” God incarnate in human flesh and blood in ultimate and infinite condescension, who was “tempted in all points as we are tempted yet without sin.”

He loves righteousness in perfection and hates sin with perfect hatred! See Heb. 1: 9. This is the only way we can “overcome even as He overcame” and “please Him” as the simple life testimony of Enoch’s 300 year walk with God resulted in His translation!

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 23, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 32

LIKE CHRIST’S PEACE, REPROACH IS A PART OF THE TRUE DISCIPLE’S LEGACY

“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven [not on earth].” Matt. 5:11-12, KJV. 

The last-day messenger bearing the “the Spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus” in the remnant church (Rev. 12:17; 19:10) wrote and we quote:

“Ever since his fall, Satan has worked by means of DECEPTION. As he has misrepresented God, so, THROUGH HIS AGENTS, he misrepresents the children of God [the ‘commandment-keeping saint’ in contrast to the ‘children of disobedience’].

 "The Savior says, ‘The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon Me.’ (Ps. 69:9). In like manner they fall upon His disciples. There was never one who walked among men more cruelly SLANDERED than the Son of man. He was derided and mocked because of His UNSWERVING OBEDIENCE to the principles of God’s holy law [cf. John 15:10]. 'They hated Him without a cause.’ [John 15:25].

Yet He stood calmly before His enemies, declaring that reproach is a part of the [true, not apostate] Christian’s legacy, counseling His followers HOW TO MEET the arrows of malice, bidding them NOT TO FAINT UNDER PERSECUTION.

 “While slander may blacken REPUTATION, it cannot stain the CHARACTER. That is in God’s keeping[!]. So long as we DO NOT CONSENT to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a STAIN upon the soul [the whole living person]. 

 The man whose HEART is stayed upon God is just the SAME in the hour of his MOST afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in PROSPERITY, when the light of and favor of God SEEMED to be upon him. [see Job’s experience]. 

“His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has GREATER INTERESTS at stake. [what a powerful reminder for all faithful co-laborers with Christ!]. Like Moses, he endured as ‘SEEING Him who is INVISIBLE,’ [Heb. 11:27]; looking ‘not at things which are  seen, but at the things which are unseen.’ [2 Cor. 4:18]. 

“‘When men shall revile you and persecute you,’ said Jesus, ‘rejoice and be EXCEEDING GLAD.’ [How and why?] “He pointed His hearers to the PROPHETS who had spoken IN THE NAME OF THE LORD as an ‘example of suffering affliction, and of patience’ [James 5:10]. 

Abel, the very first Christian of Adam’s children, died a martyr. Enoch [the seventh righteous patriarch from Adam] walked with God, and ‘the world knew him not.’ Noah was mocked as a fanatic and alarmist. ‘Others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments.’ ‘Others were tortured, NOT ACCEPTING DELIVERANCE; that they might obtain a BETTER RESURRECTION.’ [Heb. 11: 36, 35].

 “In every age God’s CHOSEN MESSENGERS have been reviled and persecuted; yet THROUGH THEIR AFFLICTIONS, the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. EVERY DISCIPLE of Christ is to step into the ranks, and CARRY FORWARD the same work, knowing that it’s FOES [enemies, and all at enmity against God’s law] ‘can do nothing against the truth, but FOR the truth.’ [2 Cor.13:8].

“God means that truth [especially the present, testing truths for these last days] shall be brought to the FRONT, and become the SUBJECT OF EXAMINATION AND DISCUSSION—even through the CONTEMPT placed upon it. The minds of the people must be AGITATED; every controversy, every reproach, every efforts to restrict liberty of conscience, is GOD’S MEANS of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.” E. G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pp. 53-5. 

In the parable of Matt. 25: 1-12, the ten virgins represent all the churches in the midnight of earth’s history—the solemn pre-advent, investigative judgment hour preceding Christ’s second advent. If they are spiritually asleep, they cannot be the ones to wake themselves up with the midnight cry, ‘Behold! the Bridegroom [Christ] cometh; go ye out to meet Him!’ Someone, or some people wide awake as “faithful watchmen of the night’ have to do it.

Do you know who they are? And what specific messages they are proclaiming in trumpet tones for these last days? Are you one of them? If not, “examine yourselves, prove yourselves whether ye are in the faith” and “make your calling and election sure!”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 2, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 30

WHEN TO PRAY FOR ENMITY BETWEEN US AND SATAN

God’s messenger for these last days wrote: “The Lord will have A PEOPLE as true as steel and with faith as firm as the granite rock. They are to be His WITNESSES in the world, His INSTRUMENTALITIES to do a SPECIAL, GLORIOUS WORK in the day of HIS PREPARATION. . . .[Apparently faithful church members and even] “Ministers who have preached the truth with all zeal and earnestness MAY APOSTATIZE and join the ranks of our enemies, but does this change the truth of God into a lie? ‘Nevertheless,’ says the apostle Paul, ‘the foundation of God standeth sure ‘(see 2 Tim. 2:19). The faith and FEELINGS of men may change; but the truth of God, never! . . .

[Referring to the commandment-keeping remnant church of prophecy]:
“It is certain that we have the truth as God lives; and Satan, with all his arts and hellish power, cannot change the truth of God into a lie. While the great adversary [of God and man] will TRY his utmost to make of none effect the word of God [and the Testimonies of the Spirit of prophecy], the [present, testing] truth must go forth as a lamp that burneth.

“The Lord has singled us out and made us subjects of His marvelous mercy. Shall we be charmed with the pratings [idle talk; chatter] of the apostate? Shall we CHOOSE to take our stand with Satan and his hosts? Shall we join the transgressors of His law [and deniers of His character and power of godliness]? 

“Rather, let it be our prayer, ‘LORD, PUT ENMITY BETWEEN ME AND THE SERPENT [and all his demonic and human agencies]. Why? “If we are NOT AT ENMITY with his works of darkness [that has the appearance of truth], HIS POWERFUL FOLDS ENCIRCLE US, AND HIS STING is ready at any moment to be driven to our hearts. We should count him a DEADLY FOE. We should OPPOSE him in the name of Christ. . . . Let all who name the name of Christ clothe themselves with ‘the armor of righteousness.’

“The time has come when we must KNOW FOR OURSELVES  why we believe as we do. . . . Let us lay up FOR OURSELVES against the time to come, that we may lay hold of eternal life [the overcomer’s reward of immortality]. We must labor, not in our own strength, but in the strength of our risen Lord. So what will we do and dare for Jesus?” - E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 4, pp. 593-597/ Mara 127 (all emphases and bracketed words supplied). 

Have you actually enlisted “under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel,” “put on the whole armor of God” and are gallantly “fighting the good fight of faith,” “overcoming the world, the flesh, and resisting the devil” in “the battles of the Lord where champions are few?”

Then continually pray, “Lord put enmity between me and Satan and his hosts and keep its flame burning. Don’t let Satan blow it out!” We are assured that such a prayer is answered “before it is finished”, and if need be, He will send legions of angels to our aid for God sees the situations we are incapable of discerning and reads the motives of our hearts before they are rendered into audible words.

God “hears” our thoughts; that’s how personalized His omnipotence and omnipresence are toward each of His afflicted and struggling yet faithful followers on earth, as imparted through and enabled by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, let us hate Satan and sin, and never ever “grieve away” the Holy Spirit by “persistently rejecting heaven’s yet-merciful offer to repent”and forsake all our cherished, self-indulging, secret, and hidden sins. God sees them all. Presumption and procrastination are deadly enemies of our salvation.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.