Condemnation. This is a word we do not like to entertain. We want to believe that Jesus condemned no one because we've been taught condemnation is not of love. Did Jesus offer forgiveness to all? Yes. Jesus associated with all manner of sinners, and the sinners He saved from their sins, He did not save the in their sins. More than once He told them to go and sin no more- didn't He mean what He said? He did not forgive them and encourage them to keep sinning, not ever. He forgave over and over, but never to condone the sin saying the sin was okay to commit. He knew our frailty and even said to forgive seventy times seven times, but He did not say to sin. We are to turn from sin, strive against sin, not embrace it, not call it good just because we are too weak to keep from sinning. We don't want to feel the weight of guilt which can be heavy, so very heavy, so we in turn try to make our sins acceptable. Sin can never be acceptable, never. We are corrupted beings, sinful beings filled with lusts without number, and Christ would have us be His, not filled with self. He was NOT filled with self, and we are not to be filled with self. He did NOT please Himself, and we are NOT to please ourselves yet for some reason we think that's ALL we are to do, live to be happy, live to be pleased, live to enjoy ourselves, live to feel good about ourselves. We feel slighted and robbed when we aren't happy. Our happiness is to be found in CHRIST! Our treasures are to be in HEAVEN, yet we want our treasures now and we want them right here on earth. The treasures of happiness, pleasure, self-satisfaction, self-indulgence, self-everything, we want it now. We want to feel GOOD about ourselves, not self-loathing and when we loath ourselves we despise that loathing thinking we should be happy with ourselves. We've made it ALL about ourselves! When we think of Christ even then we think in terms of - are we pleasing Christ, are we failing Christ, that WE is SELF! LOVE CHRIST in spite of EVERYTHING - good, bad and all in between!
Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Christ did NOT live a life of selfish pleasure in lusts, nowhere in the word of our God will we find any selfish lust being fulfilled by Jesus, nowhere! So WHY WHY WHY do we believe we are to live to be self-serving, why? Why? Because Satan has corrupted us into believing that we deserve to be happy here and now in ways that our personal lusts whatever they may be, will be fulfilled and give us happiness and pleasure as if this is what our happiness should be found in… self-pursuits. These are ALL UNPOPULAR truths! So unpopular they have been discarded by the vast majority of people. And those who uphold the truths are UNPOPULAR as well. We are called liars, haters, Christ-less- because Christ is all about LOVE not hate and people say we hate when we don't condone their choices.
Christ was unpopular… the rich young ruler left unhappy… not ALL who encountered Jesus accepted His truths especially when they were contrary to the self-serving, pleasure seeking, parts of them. God help us ALL to live for HIM and not for ourselves as we are prone to do.
CHRIST first, not SELF first, TRUTH first… Christ is the WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE.
All through our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRSIT NOW AND FOREVER!!!!!!! Amen!
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"We Would See Jesus" A. T. Jones
"And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast; the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus."
The desire of these Greeks was certainly a very natural one. They had come up to Jerusalem to worship, and had found the name of Jesus upon everybody's lips. From the highest to the lowest, from the proud and courted Pharisee to the outcast leper, from the high priest and the chief priests, supposed to be the purest in the nation, to the abandoned sinner, all, all were talking about Jesus.
Of course, all were not praising Him; all were not glorifying Him; the chief priests and the Pharisees were most bitterly opposed to Him, and were only waiting impatiently for an opportunity to kill Him, while the common people were anxious to make Him a king. But whether it was to praise or to condemn, whether it was to kill or to make a king, the sole subject of it all was Jesus, and it was the most natural thing in the world that these Greeks should want to see the Person about whom so much was said.
The Name of Jesus
From that day to this the name that has been used most in this world is the name of Jesus. The one Person about whom more has been said, and of whom more has been made, than of any other person this world ever saw, is the Man Christ Jesus. True, as at the first, some have praised Him, and some have cursed Him; some have worshiped Him, while others
have sought to kill Him, and often He has been wounded in the house of His friends; still the name more than all others that is used in the wide world to-day is the name of Jesus. And with those Greeks of old we now say, "We would see Jesus;" not, however, as they, simply because much is said of Him, either for or against Him; not because there are even now those who would kill at least His name out of the earth; nor yet because there are those, as the religio-political reformers, who would take Him by force and make Him king of earthly governments. Not because of any of these things would we see Him. But we
would see Him as He is.
We Would See Him, for We Love Him
For even as saith the Scripture, having not seen Him, we love Him (1 Peter 1:8); and, because we love Him, we would see Him. Having not seen Him, we love Him, because He first loved us. We love Him because He loved us and gave Himself for us. We love Him for His gentle pity for sinners such as we are. We love Him for His cheerful mercy to men so fearfully undeserving as are we. We love Him because, in "the great love wherewith He loved us," He "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." We love Him for His lofty humanity. We love Him for His "profound reverence for infinite goodness and truth." We love Him for the moral
force and the benign influence of His mighty character. We love Him for His perfect goodness. For this cause would we see Him. We would see Him because of the character He bears, And all the forms of love He wears."
Yet We Would Not Now See Him as He Was
We would not now see His visage so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. We would not now see Him a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We would not now see Him oppressed and afflicted. We would not now see Him taken as a lamb to the slaughter. We would not now see Him in His travail of soul. We would not now see Him in His dreadful agony on the cruel tree.
No; We Would See Him as He Is
We would see Him "that liveth," though once dead, yet now "alive forevermore, Amen," and who has "the keys of hell and of death." We would see Him as the disciples saw Him, "His face did shine as the sun," "and His raiment became shining," "white as the light," "exceeding white as snow, so that no fuller on earth can white them." We would see Him as Stephen saw Him, "in glory, standing on the right hand of God." We would see Him as Paul saw Him, shining in light "above the brightness of the sun." We would see Him as John saw Him "His head and His hairs white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes as
a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters;" "and His countenance as the sun shineth in his strength." We would see Him as Isaiah saw Him, "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," and the train of His glory filling the heavenly temple, about Him standing the bright seraphim shading their glorious faces from His ineffable glory, and crying one unto another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Isa. 6:1-4 with John 12:41.
We Would See Him Coming in the Clouds
...in heaven with power and great glory, and would hear His mighty voice saying to His angels, "Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." And then and there, in the midst of the church, would we see Him and hear His glorious voice singing that song of promised praise to the Father. Heb. 2:12. Oh, 'tis thus that "we would see Jesus"!
And we thank God, not only for the hope that we shall see Him as He is, but also that the signs are abundant all about us that soon this "blessed hope" shall be fulfilled.
And We Shall Be Like Him
And the blessed promise is that we shall not only "see Him as He is," but "we shall be like Him." "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." We would see Jesus. In this hope we live. For its fruition we wait. But, while so living and waiting, we would never for a moment forget that he "that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." 1 John 3:2, 3.
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