STOP THE HARD WORK,YOU DON’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!

STOP THE HARD WORK,YOU DON’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!

Hard work; a word every excellent student is familiar with. Hard work, the key to success whether in business, sports or academics.To succeed in any field of endeavour, you must work hard. There is no great person on the face of the earth who is not hardworking. To achieve anything great in life you must work hard. 


However, when it comes to attaining righteousness as a christian, I charge you to stop the hard work. Stop the hard work! Yes hard work can give you everything else except God's righteousness. When it comes to becoming righteous your hard work cannot achieve it.The reason is because your hard work cannot meet God's required standard of righteousness. 


The most hardworking christian on the face of the earth, the best of us(if any) who has obeyed all the commandments of God can only achieve a filthy rag. I mean the righteousness he will get by his hard work is just a filthy rag in the eyes of God. Hence I say stop the hard work. It can only beget a filthy rag. 


There is an error I have seen in the body of Christ. An error that has been for many generations and this error proceeds from the preachers. Preachers who have changed the truth concerning Christ and have preached a lie to the people. I see Christians who are depending on the laws of Moses for justification. They seriously think that the laws of Moses can guarantee them righteousness. A greater percentage of today’s Christians have no hope of salvation except that built on morality and self-righteousness. They meticulously observe the Ten Commandments thinking that the entry ticket into heaven is predicated upon the Jewish laws.

If only they know that they are inviting God’s curse upon themselves

If only they know that they are trying to carry a load only Christ can carry

I wish someone had told them that they are struggling to get a righteousness that God already gave to them as a gift.

But how are they bringing God’s curse upon themselves when they are actually trying hard to obey God’s laws? Aren’t they doing God a favour by obeying the Jewish laws? Well! Let God’s word answer that question:

¹⁰ Yes, and those who depend on the Jewish laws to save them are under God’s curse, for the Scriptures point out very clearly, “Cursed is everyone who at any time breaks a single one of these laws that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” ¹¹ Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever win God’s favor by trying to keep the Jewish laws because God has said that the only way we can be right in his sight is by faith. As the prophet Habakkuk says it, “The man who finds life will find it through trusting God.”{Galatians 3:10-11 TLB}

The verse 10 above says “You come under God’s curse when you depend on obedience to the Jewish laws for salvation” In other words, whenever you look at yourself and approve yourself as a candidate of heaven just because you haven’t committed any sin, that same moment you bring God’s curse upon yourself. But why is this so? I thought it’s a good thing to obey God’s laws. You see, the God who gave the laws to Moses through the hand of angels, is the same God who is saying now that you can never be righteous by obeying those laws. And if you still go ahead to still want to depend on obedience to those laws, then you must be the most arrogant person on the face of the earth. This is not an arrogance against man but against God himself.

But wait a minute is this not heresy? No sir it’s not. It’s the very word of God. I know someone is wondering why he/she should be cursed while trying to do the right thing to become righteous. The truth is that what God sees as the right thing is very much different from what you are thinking is the right thing. Let me show you what God says the right thing is when it comes to righteousness and salvation. God has said “The only way we can be righteous in His sight, is by FAITH”. The prophet Habakkuk had written that the only way to find life is to trust God. But the average Christian out there trusts in his/her adherence to Jewish laws.

³ I’ll say it again. Anyone trying to find favor with God by being circumcised must always obey every other Jewish law or perish. ⁴ Christ is useless to you if you are counting on clearing your debt to God by keeping those laws; you are lost from God’s grace.{Galatians 5:3-4 TLB}

Did you notice that trying to be justified by keeping the law is a dead trap?  The verse above says, once you choose to obey one Jewish law, then you must obey all other Jewish laws or you die. Now you have entangled yourself under a yoke that you cannot bear. Why is it an unbearable yoke? The answer is simply because no man born of a woman whether born again or not, Holy Ghost filled or not, fire brand or not can obey all the Jewish laws without faulting any. Again I say no man!

Perhaps there is somebody somewhere who has or who can obey all the Jewish laws, I dare Him to write me and Identify himself.

But if there is no such one then we all need help from God to make us righteous and in fact He has made us righteous already when we accepted Christ Jesus. Not only did he make us righteous, but also made us righteousness. Now we are righteousness and it will take ignorance to start struggling to become what you already are. It is this ignorance which is at work in a greater percentage of Christians that made Apostle Paul pray thus” That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,  that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,” Again He cried out saying “ Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”.

Unfortunately, the majority of Christians have their eyes blinded by the veil of Moses’s laws and they do not know the things that God has freely given to them. They know the laws of Moses but do not know the God of the Cross. The God of the gospel of Christ they do not know yet they claim to gather every Sunday unto Him. They do not know the God that hung on the tree of Calvary to deliver them from the law of sin and death. They do not know that the way God operates now is by faith.

¹² How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says that a man is saved by obeying every law of God, without one slip. ¹³ But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed” (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross^[a]).{Galatians 3:12-13 TLB}

The difference between the way of faith and the way of law is so clear. The way of faith says “Believe that Jesus paid for your sins and made you righteous and you shall be righteous” while the way of law says “obey all God’s laws without breaking any and you will become righteous” Should you have forgotten, I would remind you that breaking just one law is counted as breaking all laws. This is such that a man who broke 9 laws and obeyed one is as guilty as the man who obeyed 9laws and broke one. Need I remind you that there are about 613 commandments for man to obey to become righteous? Yes 613! The way of law says you must obey all of them, if you break one, you have broken all and you are doom to death.

That is an impossible way to go. Thanks be to Christ who has bought us from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself.

It will be foolishness for any man to want to return to that impossible system of the law bringing a curse upon himself again. Sadly, many Christians are back into that cursed system without even realizing it. They have cut themselves off from Christ and fallen from grace without knowing it. Christ has become useless to them. They feel good about their self –righteousness not knowing that their morality is no match for God’s standard. They do not understand that their goodness is not good enough before God’s eyes. I wish I could scream in their ears that their self-righteousness is far below God’s requirement. Only Christ is enough to satisfy God’s wrath against sin. Only His death on the cross perfectly atoned for sins and makes men perfect. Only by placing our faith in His finished work on the cross can we please God because without faith it is impossible to please God.

Many Christians are trying to help themselves, flexing their muscles as though they have what it takes to be righteous. If we could help ourselves, Christ wouldn’t have come to die for our sins. If obeying the laws could make us righteous then Christ died in vain. Could it be that Christ came to help a people who didn’t need his help? Could it be that the ones he came to lead are trying to lead themselves?

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am {Matthew 16:24 MSG}

Why can’t the church trust the finished work of Christ. Why can’t we just allow him take the driver’s seat. Why get into His car when you don’t believe he can drive you safe to your destination {heaven]. He saw how helpless we were and then came to our rescue. How come we have suddenly become stronger than Him? At what point did our morality become stronger than his blood. When did our rule keeping {even though we keep faulting} become more potent than His life on that cross? Where did all this self- help originate from? Why can’t we just sacrifice our lives and let Him live through us?

Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? {Matthew 16:25-26 MSG}

Perhaps someone is thinking “God will love me more if he sees that I'm trying so hard to help myself and become righteous”. You see, he loved us when we were still helpless in sin. He didn’t die for us because we were good. He didn’t die because we kept all the Jewish laws. In fact he died because he knows we can never keep those laws. He died to take the punishment for our weaknesses and propensity to sin.

                   
⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.{Romans 5:6-8 NLT}

What he wants from us now is just simply to believe that we were the ones he died for. That it was our sins that took him to the cross. He wants us to accept the salvation and righteousness that he has won for us and not going about establishing our own righteousness. We can only be counted righteous if we accept His righteousness.

⁴ Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, for his own sins!⁵ But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed! ⁶ We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!

⁸ From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people of that day realized it was their sins that he was dying for—that he was suffering their punishment? 

¹⁰ But it was the Lord’s good plan to bruise him and fill him with grief. However, when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again,^[b] and God’s program shall prosper in his hands. ¹¹ And when he sees all that is accomplished by the anguish of his soul, he shall be satisfied; and because of what he has experienced, my righteous Servant shall make many to be counted righteous before God, for he shall bear all their sins{Isaiah 53:4-6,8,10-11 TLB}

If only we could believe these verses of scriptures. If we could only accept what God has prepared already for us, we would drop all our self –righteousness and never try to justify ourselves by the law. We would lean on Christ alone like apostle Paul did.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. {Galatians 2:20-21 TLB}

I will like to end this article by stating that until we believe like Abraham did, we can never become righteous. Abraham accepted what God did for him. He didn’t try to do what only God could do. He realized that the task of becoming righteous was bigger than him, so he had to depend on God alone. Read what the bible said about accepting what only God could and did for us.

 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”

^4-5 If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

^6-9 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,
    whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
    whom the Lord does not keep score.

Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don’t we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?{Romans 4:1-9 MSG}

WILL YOU ACCEPT WHAT ONLY GOD CAN AND HAS DONE OR YOU WANT TO BE A HARD WORKER?

DO YOU PREFER SELF-HELP TO GOD’S HELP?

DO YOU WANT THE GIFT OR YOU WANT TO WORK HARD AND OBEY 613 COMMANDMENTS?

BELIEVE ME, YOU DON’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES.

JESUS VERSUS THE PHARISEES

JESUS VERSUS THE PHARISEES

PHARISEE….One of a group of Jews who thought they kept all God’s command. They did not like the things that Jesus taught. They thought that their opinions about religion were always right. So many Pharisees became proud {EASY ENGLISH BIBLE DICTIONARY}

I remembered back in high school how senior students dealt with proud and arrogant junior class students. Senior students, having noticed a recurring display of arrogance and disobedience by a particular male junior student, make plans on how to humble him by inviting him over to their classroom and giving him a practically impossible task to do. For example, a car is drawn on one end of the chalkboard and he is asked to push the car to the other end of the chalkboard without using a chalk. He must not wipe the original car, only to push it with his hands. That is like asking him to perform a magic. It is something practically impossible to do and they’ve got punishment waiting for him if he couldn’t do it. It was all done just to humble him until he begs and cries out for help.

The Jews are a very proud set of people whose display of arrogance was irritating to Christ Jesus in His days. They believed they were so righteous because Abraham was their father and because they’ve kept the laws of Moses all their lives that they did not need Jesus to be their savior. The most pretentious sect of Jews were the Pharisees. They thought that they were too important and clever and so looked down on Jesus and opposed him forcefully. They felt they knew all the laws of Moses and kept all of them even though the truth was that they broke the most important laws. They believed their opinion about religion was the best and so countered Jesus’ teachings and tempted Him severally to see if he would fault the laws. They were perpetually arrogant. They felt they were the most righteous people on the face of the earth and that was based on their own assessment of how much of God’s laws they pretended to have kept.

³ And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

⁴ They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

⁵ Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

⁶ This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. {John 8:3-6}

On the other hand was a meek Jesus who was sent by God the father to rescue these arrogant people from their sins even though they didn’t know they were living in sin. They were blinded by their self-righteousness and pride. They were in bondage but knew it not. When the TRUTH came to set them free from the bondage of the law of sin and death, they rejected Him and argued that they have never been in bondage and that they were Abraham’s seed. Abraham’s covenant partner stood before them in human form but they couldn’t recognize Him. They resisted Him with all the energy they had.

²¹ And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. {Matthew 1:21}

¹⁰ But although he made the world, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. ^11-12 Even in his own land and among his own people, the Jews, he was not accepted {John 1:10-11 TLB}

Jesus didn’t just come to earth to discover by surprise that His people were living in sin. He knew it before He left heaven to earth and it was because of their sins that He became flesh and dwelt among men. But surprisingly, the people He came to rescue from sin were claiming to be overly righteous. They rejected Him. He was amazed by their pride and arrogance. Listen to what they said to the One who came to set them free:

³² And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

³³ They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

³⁴ Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

³⁵ And the servant abideth not in the house forever: but the Son abideth ever.

³⁶ If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

³⁷ I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. { John 8:32-37}

They sought to kill the one who came to give them life. They were servants of sin but refused to accept the truth. They were enslaved by the inherited monster, the sinful nature but pride blinded their eyes. Jesus proved again to them that He knew they were all sinners even though they pretended to be holy by keeping Moses’s law. Here is the proof of their sin:

⁷ So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

⁸ And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹ And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

¹⁰ When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

¹¹ She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.{ John 8:7-11}

When Jesus said he that is without sin should cast the first stone, He knew they were all guilty of sin. If He didn’t know He would not have made such a statement because if peradventure one or two were righteous, they would have stoned the woman to death. But He knew there was none righteous among them all. He knew they were all born sinful from their mother’s womb. He knew they broke God’s laws every now and again. He knew sin was controlling their lives. Jesus, angry at their arrogance said this again to prove He knew they were dying in Sin.

²⁴ I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. {John 8:24}

These same people who drank iniquities like water continued in their arrogance and pride. They believed so much in keeping the laws of Moses so Jesus had to focus on the Law of Moses since they didn’t want to accept His message of Grace. All they wanted was to obey the laws and reject Jesus. So Jesus needed to humble them by making the laws more difficult for them. He told them to obey laws that He knew were practically impossible for any man to obey. He needed to prove to them that they were all guilty of sin. He had to heighten their condemnation by heightening the demands of the law. He was asking them to do the impossible job of pushing the car on the chalkboard. He wanted to break their proud wings until they were humble enough to realize that they needed a savior. Now I am going to show you several instances where Jesus Christ heightened the demands of the law just to humble them and make them depend on Him.

¹⁶ Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Good master, what must I do to have eternal life?”

¹⁷ “When you call me good you are calling me God,” Jesus replied, “for God alone is truly good.^[c] But to answer your question, you can get to heaven if you keep the commandments.”

¹⁸ “Which ones?” the man asked.

And Jesus replied, “Don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie,¹⁹ honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself!”

²⁰ “I’ve always obeyed every one of them,” the youth replied. “What else must I do?”

²¹ Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² But when the young man heard this, he went away sadly, for he was very rich.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “It is almost impossible for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. ²⁴ I say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!”

²⁵ This remark confounded the disciples. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

²⁶ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, no one. But with God, everything is possible.”{Matthew 19:16-26 TLB}

Now this young man came to Jesus thinking he was already perfect because he has kept some laws. He came with pride to prove to Jesus that he was perfect only to discover that it was impossible for him to be perfect without God’s help. He hasn’t killed, committed adultery, stolen neither has he dishonored his parents nor hated his neighbors but he was still not perfect in God’s sight. Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor before he can become perfect. Now that was impossible for him to do because he had great possessions. I believe that even if he did what Jesus asked him to do, he would still not be perfect because Jesus would have asked him to do another almost impossible thing until he realizes that he can’t be perfect by himself. 

When the disciples saw how impossible it is to be perfect, they cried out “who then can be saved?” Jesus’ answer to them was profound. It is a statement you hear people make every day but not even church leaders have understood the real meaning of that statement. Here it is “Humanly speaking, no one. But with God, everything is possible”  What Jesus was saying was that for human beings, it is impossible to be perfect or be saved by yourself but when you accept Christ it becomes possible for you to be perfect. If you remember He had preached to the people “be ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect”. In fact, He made that statement at the end of Matthew chapter five after He had spent the entire chapter heightening the law and making it more difficult and almost impossible for anyone to obey. 

The most surprising part was not that He made the law’s demands almost impossible to meet but that He asked them to be as perfect as God the father. If it was possible for anyone to be as perfect as God the father by their own effort, why then did He leave heaven to come die for us? If when the law’s demand was seemingly moderate to bear, mankind was condemned to be sinners by it, how possible is it that anyone can become perfect now that its demands have been heightened and made almost practically impossible to obey. He knew what He was saying. He knew it was impossible for anyone to be perfect without God’s help. He knew He was going to make them perfect if they accept Him as their Lord and savior. Most preachers believe that He meant that we must keep all the laws of Moses before we can be perfect. No! Not all. He knew the impossibility of keeping all the laws of Moses. He knew that for Humans it is impossible, that was why He came to fulfill all the laws for us so that by having faith in Him we also would have fulfilled the demands of the law. He knew that only His death and resurrection could make us perfect. He alone perfected us and it is forever.

⁴⁸ Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. {Matthew 5:48}

¹² Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then he sat down at the right side of God. ¹³ There he now waits until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin. {Hebrews 10:12-14 GNT}

Let’s look at another scenario where Jesus heightened the demands of the law. Please notice that before Christ came people have been battling with fornication and adultery even till date. Now you must understand that before any fornication or adultery, there must have first been lust for women. You must have looked at a woman lustfully. Some men, however, have looked lustfully at women but didn’t have sex with them. The ones who felt they were righteous because they only lusted but didn’t have sex would have accused the ones who had sex of sin. Now Christ shows up and says if you look at a woman lustfully, you have already had sex with her in your heart, therefore you have sinned. That will now increase the number of sinners, not only those who had sex are sinners now but also those who lusted without having sex. Now my question is this: Did Christ come to save His people from their sins or He came to increase the number of sinners and make sin exceedingly sinful?

²⁷ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

²⁸ But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. {Matthew 5:27-28}

You can read all the other verses{21-48} of Matthew chapter five and you will see how the law’s demands were heightened and how sin was made exceedingly sinful.

You see, people of God, all this was done so that sin will become exceedingly sinful. So that all men will be condemned under sin and realize the need for a savior. He said all that was said in His preaching so that no man can boast of keeping the entire law. He wanted the man to need Him so He had to increase conviction because until you are convicted of sin, you don’t see the need for repentance.

You only need a savior when you recognize how helpless and incapacitated you are. What Jesus did was to block every angle where their pride and self- righteousness could come from so that they would know that without Him no man can see the Father. When that has been done He can now say to them like He said unto Thomas in John chapter 14 verse 6

” I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life, no man cometh to the father except through me.”

 It is only by Him that men can get to the Father. No one can get to heaven by keeping Jewish laws.Perfection is only possible through faith in Christ Jesus.

12 How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says that a man is saved by obeying every law of God, without one slip. 13 But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed” (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross[a]).

14 Now God can bless the Gentiles, too, with this same blessing he promised to Abraham; and all of us as Christians can have the promised Holy Spirit through this faith.{Galatians 3:12-14 TLB}

IS THE LORD STILL COMING BACK?

                          IS THE LORD STILL COMING BACK?

One of the questions most atheists, Christians, Muslims and Jews are asking is this “is Jesus still coming back?”  The Jews are expecting a messiah to come, the Christians are expecting the return of that messiah{Jesus}, the Muslims are expecting the return of a saviour by name Mahdi while the atheists do not believe that there is a messiah and so have no expectations.

The atheists are saying things like “so Jesus promised to come back, did he? Where is he? He’ll never come.” Some Christians are in doubt if Jesus will still come back as he promised. Others are thinking that he is taking too long to come while yet another faction are expecting him to come any moment from now.

Amidst all these different views about the messiah’s return is one truth which should be considered, that is “the Lord’s promise”. What did the bible say about the messiah’s promised return?

1 1.     Did Jesus ever promise a return?

Jesus himself promised that he was going to come back to reap the harvest and all eyes shall see him when he returns. This promised return is not any man’s ideology. It is the very word of Jesus Himself. For all who are wondering if Jesus is ever going to come. Here are some verses for you to hear from Jesus himself.

And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.{Mark 14:62}

 "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31)

  For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ((Matthew 16:27)

2.  Why has he not come yet?

³ First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will do every wrong they can think of and laugh at the truth. ⁴ This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.”{2Peter 1:3 TLB}

Many have said that Jesus is not coming again. They think that if he was going to come he would have come since. They don’t know that the reason he hasn’t come yet is because he is merciful and wants all of them to repent first, to accept Jesus as their saviour first. He doesn’t want them to perish at his return. He is therefore giving more time for sinners to repent. What a merciful saviour we’ve got. But he will surely come!!!

⁹ He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent. ¹⁰ The day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up.{2Peter 3:9-10}

  3.  What should I do? Keep waiting for him

 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. {1Thessalonians 1:10}

The bible encourages us to keep waiting for him and not to give up. He is coming, the one who delivered us from the wrath to come. Yes! There is a coming wrath and it shall be terrible for all who have not accepted the Lord. Thanks to God for having delivered us already from that wrath. Yes, Jesus Life blood delivers us from the coming wrath.

⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. {Romans 5:9-10}

  4.  What will happen to our bodies

One of the most exciting thing about the return of the lord is that we are going to have new bodies. This dying bodies of ours will be transformed into immortal bodies, a celestial nature. Oh! How I long to put on that new body, that incorruptible body. What a joy to know that we shall have heavenly bodies that can never die.

 ⁵⁰ I tell you this, my brothers: an earthly body made of flesh and blood cannot get into God’s Kingdom. These perishable bodies of ours are not the right kind to live forever.

⁵¹ But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! ⁵² It will all happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky,^[f] and all the Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall suddenly have new bodies too. ⁵³ For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever.{1 Corinthians 15:50-52 TLB}

Dear friends I long to be clothed with this new body. Diseases can’t contaminate this body. There shall be no cancer, AIDS, hepatitis etc. neither would we need to take drugs. For our new bodies shall have divine immunity.

 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.^[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. {2Corinthians 5:1-4 NLT}

OH WOW, I LONG FOR THIS NEW BODY!!

5.  When is all this going to happen?

 When is all this going to happen? I really don’t need to say anything about that, dear brothers, ² for you know perfectly well that no one knows. That day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. ³ When people are saying, “All is well; everything is quiet and peaceful”—then, all of a sudden, disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is born. And these people will not be able to get away anywhere—there will be no place to hide. {1Thessalonians 5:1-3 TLB}

The truth is that no one knows the time nor the hour when the Lord will return but most of the things that Jesus said will happen before his return are already happening. He will come as a thief in the night, that is to say unexpectedly, to the world but not to us who are born again. His coming will not take us by surprise because we are children of light. We are not in the dark about his coming. It won’t be a shocker for us when he comes because we are expecting him already. As a bride waits for her groom so we wait for the Lords return.

⁴ But, dear brothers, you are not in the dark about these things, and you won’t be surprised as by a thief when that day of the Lord comes. ⁵ For you are all children of the light and of the day, and do not belong to darkness and night. ⁶ So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Watch for his return and stay sober. ⁷ Night is the time for sleep and the time when people get drunk {1Thessalonians 5:4-7 TLB}

6. Get protected

Most times when preachers talk about the coming of the Lord, they tell us to get ready for his return without telling us exactly how to do so. The few who try to tell us how are found telling us about Ten Commandments and Jewish rituals. If he must not take us unawares as a thief in the night, then there are three things we need to have that will protect us. They are an armor of faith, an armor of love and a helmet of hope of salvation. If believers can have these triad, then his coming will not take us by surprise. God has chosen to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t choose to pour his wrath on us but to live with him forever when he returns.

. ⁸ But let us who live in the light keep sober, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the happy hope of salvation.

⁹ For God has not chosen to pour out his anger upon us but to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ; ¹⁰ he died for us so that we can live with him forever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return. ¹¹ So encourage each other to build each other up, just as you are already doing. {1Thessalonians 5:8-9 TLB}

7.  Forever with Him

There are all kinds of doctrines being taught in different churches and religious groups about what will happen after the rapture. People have said all manner of stuffs about how long we will be with Christ, and how that we will come back again to earth to reign here on earth and be separated from Christ again and so on and so forth. Well, all I want to say is that the bible says that we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we be with him forever. We are getting married to him, never to be separated again. We shall spend eternity with him. It really doesn’t matter much to me how beautiful heaven is as much as it matters to me that I will be spending eternity with the one who loves me and gave his life to die on the cross for me. I long to see him and worship him forever.

  Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. {1Thessalonians 4:17}

  8.  Will he come from the east or west?

Many false christs and prophets have already emerged in different parts of the world claiming to be Jesus. They have deceived so many people and you will be amazed at the number of followers they have. I will mention a few of them in this article.

# Seygey Anatolyevitch Torop{Vissaron}, a former traffic cop in former USSR

# Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a man who tried to kill Obama saying Obama is antichrist and he is the Christ.

# Wayne bent {Micheal Travesser}, a former pastor in 7^th day adventist in new mexico

#Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, who claimed to be Jesus and antichrist at the same time with the 666 tattoo on his arm. He is in Miami Florida

#Apollo Quiboloy, based in the phillipines.

# Ahn Sahng-Hong, based in south Korea. He believes in God the mother.

# Allan John Miller, who also claims to remember his death on the cross. He has a partner who claims to be Mary Magdalene. They are both in Australia.

# Inri Cristo, based in Brasilia.

I have only mentioned a few names here but trust me many more false christs will arise and deceive many. Now these people are all coming from different countries and most of the people in the world do not know them.

The true messiah, Jesus Christ the son of God will not come from the east or the west, neither will he appear to only a group of people. All eyes shall see him when he comes. His coming will not be a secret one.

⁷ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. {Revelations 1:7}

 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:4-5; 11; 23-27)

  9.  Do you have faith that he is coming

³⁷ For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

³⁹ But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. {Hebrews 10:37-39}

Do not draw back in unbelief, his coming is nearer than before. Keep your faith alive. If you don’t know Jesus yet, it’s time for you to accept him as Lord over your life. Only those who trust him to save them shall be saved. Only those who have faith shall live.

Everything Jesus said will happen before his return shall definitely be accomplished. To know about the signs of his return, you may want to read my article on “the coming desolations” posted December 28, 2015. The good news is that our redemption draws near.

²⁸ And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.{Luke 21:28}

so Christ, having been offered once and once for all to bear [as a burden] the sins of many, will appear a second time [when he returns to earth], not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who are eagerly and confidently waiting for Him{Hebrews 9:28 AMP}