Scripture: Hebrews 9 v 26: "For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
We hear many sermons, and see many placards saying the end of the world is near! What if our time frame is out of sync with Almighty God? What if we need to twist our inner kaleidoscope to see the true picture?
What we read in this verse brings together the sacrifice of Jesus and the end of the world. The world system crashed when Jesus defeated Satan on the Cross. It crashed and burned. His death meant the end of the world that Satan had dominated for so long.
1 Corinthians 2 v 8: "Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
If Satan and his demons, the princes of this world, working through their puppets, the High Priest of the Pharisees in the Temple in Jerusalem, plus the Roman oppressors of Israel, had known that crucifying Jesus would end their reign, they would never have done it! They shot themselves through both feet and their head.
The world system operated on the power of sin controlled by Satan. He ruled over the souls of men until Jesus took our sins upon Himself and paid the penalty for sin which is death. Sin kills us, righteousness through Jesus Christ gives us life.
The end of the world is not some future doomsday - it has already ended. This planet's life support plug has been pulled. Our God sent Jesus, His Son, to pull off a legitimate counter move on the chess board of life that said CHECK MATE, SATAN.
When Jesus died the world ended. Satan's world. We now live by the grace of God in which for all people the choice is now to believe in Jesus' victory or not. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it - John 3 v 17 - 18: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Immediately upon the death of Jesus, Satan's dominion ended. During His life on Earth even demons asked Him if He had come to destroy them before the time! That time was His death.
They knew that it meant that the authority would shift from Satan to Jesus but did not realise that that meant the end of the world.
Matthew 28 v 18: "And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."
All power is all power. None left over for the usurper of dominion over this earth. The demonic rulers over the nations influence whichever leaders they can to bring wars, diseases, death and destruction upon us. They influence the Media to slant the news in such a way that they can stir up major incidents, blow things out of proportion, destroy careers over trifling matters, dethrone people who block their evil ambitions.
Those who have absolute faith in Jesus, pray and act to put stumbling blocks in the way of evil rulers. For instance, as long as China did not get heavy-handed with Hong Kong, their Huawei 5G network was safe in Britain. Last week China brought out oppressive laws against Hong Kong and virtually before the ink was dry, Britain had torn up the trade agreements concerning Huawei, in total protest. Christians do not stand idly by while their spiritual family is being persecuted. They use the power Jesus bestowed upon them to fight back and win.
Demonic rulers have no more power or weapons but they only have lies, deceit, fantasy and bluff to con humans out of their true inheritance. Many times they succeed because the Media and popular opinion sway even believers in Jesus into passive acceptance.
Every person who doesn't know Jesus through being born again, then baptised in water, then being baptised in the Holy Spirit, is still following Satan's lies and con and falling for his tricks. There is no grey area, no middle path, no other alternative.
Those who are born again need to be released from some areas where Satan deceives them still, because they choose to let him and may backslide into his fiery world again. It took the Israelites 40 days to come out of Egypt, but it took 40 years for Egypt to come out of them!
God did not allow any of that generation to enter into the Promised Land. They all died in the wilderness because of their disobedience. This is a lesson we must all learn. If we continue in disobedience the Lord will not allow us into Heaven.
Revelation 3 v 5: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels."
We must overcome the habits of the world, the sins, blasphemies, nicotine, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sex crimes, lusts, porn, homosexuality, fantasy, fraud, adultery, lies, bitterness, abortion, anger, false teachings, false prophets, and every form of idolatry. If we don't we will not be clothed in the white robes of righteousness and our names will be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life.
This is reality, this is truth, this is the word of Jesus. He died to set us free, every living person, no matter who or where or what colour, orientation, sexual preference or anything else. We must die to the sins of the world to show Him how grateful we are.
Soon this dead old world will pass away and those who overcame it will be left alive on it to reign with Jesus for 1000 years on the Throne of David. We are already in this 7th Millennium but the grace of God is extending the time so that many more will heed the call of Jesus.
Those who chose the alternative lifestyle to the true life of Jesus will face the Day of Judgment. The present pandemic is a clarion call from our Father, time is short, stand up and be counted Christian believers, the time of grace is almost over, its nearing time to rescue Israel.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Every human needs to hear these words and reassess their walk with You. Your Day is drawing ever nearer and many are still playing games that could end very badly. I pray for all the world to listen to Your urgent voice calling them home as it is not Your will that any be lost. I pray for Christians to overcome their worldliness to live pure and godly lives as a witness to the lost. In Jesus' name. Amen.
