Category Archives: false teachers

December 15, 2012 · 3:39 pm

Add to Knowledge Temperance–On Being Puffed Up

Someone on this earth will sit down on the throne of God alongside our Savior and will be a ruler in the government that the King will establish in all the earth.  In fact, a whole company of over comers have been “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8: 29).  Fully matured, they will stride this crippled earth after the Great Tribulation.  In God’s stead as His ambassadors of the literal Kingdom of Heaven will they rule with Him, for they will have His Spirit fully developed within them.  These are the “partakers of the divine nature” who will do the King’s business after the disasters that will smite the earth.

“No man takes this honour unto himself” (Heb. 5: 4).  It is God’s doing.  He has a plan and He is quite capable of helping them carry out His own plan.  And that plan and purpose is to share Himself with His creation.  He is Love, and all Love can do is love and share and give.

Those of us who have been called to this “high calling of God in Christ” have been left a textbook explaining how to receive immortality.  We now are in the process of studying it and taking it to heart.  We need this instruction in order to receive the proper training and education to be an effective ruler with Christ in the soon coming Kingdom of Heaven right here on earth.  That textbook is found in the “scriptures of truth,” the Holy Bible, which is God’s letter to us, a guidebook He showed to His prophets and apostles.  And He is now showing it to us who believe, who have faith.

Adding to our faith

The apostle Peter instructs those of us who have been called to “partake of the divine nature” (II Peter 1: 3-4).  He relates that God  promised us immortality, and it is by these promises, that we can get rid of our old sinful nature and receive His divine nature.   And God’s nature grows and matures in us to the point that in the end, it will be all Him.  The divine nature grows in us through receiving more true knowledge of Him and His plan.  And part of that is the additions to our faith.

“Add to knowledge temperance”

The apostle Paul wrote that “knowledge puffs up, but charity (agape love) edifies” (I Cor. 8: 1).  This puffing up is the sound of an inflated ego that has no place to go with the knowledge; there is no desire to flow the knowledge on out to others.  Agape love, conversely, flows out of its heart of love and shares and builds up fellow Christians, helping them in their walk with God.

The novice in Christ will get the bighead after gaining some of the true knowledge of God.  There is an innate tendency in the old nature of man and spiritual babes in Christ to have one’s pride inflated upon receiving this knowledge, which has “been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 13: 35).

This knowledge flows out of the mind and heart of God and sheds light on the very mysteries of the acquisition of immortality.  This information is precious–so rare and fine a treasure, in fact, that “few there be that find it” (Matt. 7: 14).  A beautiful four lane highway is leading many to destruction.  “But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (v. 14 NLT).

Knowledge of these things will puff a person up.  Why?  Because they are still thinking that they are the object of God’s blessing and not the channel of it.

Therefore, knowledge of the holy things must have temperance added to it.  Self control must be added.  And the major lesson we must learn is that our little powerless self did not come up with this knowledge on its own.  It was not delivered to us for any great thing that we are or have done.  No.  It is pure grace flowing out of God’s heart to us.  It is all Him, favoring and having “mercy on whom He will have mercy” (Rom. 9: 15).  It is all Him.  It is our privilege to be a channel of this knowledge on out to His people.

Beware of False Teachers

Paul warns in another place about getting “puffed up” by knowledge.  He warns new Christians not to get entangled by men who teach a  “philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Col. 2: 8).

He is saying that men will deceive young Christians through all kinds of worldly earthly thoughts.  But Christ is all you need, which is knowledge about who He is and what He has done for His people.

“You are complete in Him” (v. 10).  You don’t need mumbo jumbo bells and whistles and gimmicks of worship, as it were.  “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily.”  And through His sacrifice of Himself, you have been circumcised spiritually.  His Spirit invisibly cuts out your old sinful Adamic nature, and He gives you a new heart.  “Buried with Him by baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the  faith of the operation of of God, who has raised Him from the dead (v. 11-12).

False teachers are “puffed up”

One who teaches false doctrines tries to “beguile you,” and is “vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2: 18).  Remember that they “come to you in sheep’s clothing.”  They appear as “messengers of light.”  They have a little smidgeon of truth, and it has puffed them up as they imagine vain things about God and ways to worship Him.

How does a false teacher or preacher first go astray?  He gets all “puffed up by his fleshly mind.”  “Fleshly” here is from the Greek word sarx.  It is a mind controlled by the “flesh” (sarx).  This denotes the old nature, natural thinking man, unregenerate man.  He has an earthly mind.  “He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth; he that comes from heaven is above all…for He whom God hath sent speaks the words of God” (John 3: 31, 34).

The phrase “of the earth” points to the same origins as Adam in the garden, made of the dust of the earth, clueless as to the heavenly destiny for mankind.  These false teachers are puffed up with a bit of God’s knowledge, yet remain Spirit-less when it comes to the truth of God.

So, yes, temperance must be added to knowledge.  This entails, of course, self-control in all areas of a Christian’s life.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 6, 2012 · 9:25 pm

“The Day of the LORD” (YAHWEH)–The Fall of Mystery, Babylon the Great

Endtime Prophecy on Mystery, Babylon the Great

The “day of the LORD” (Yahweh) is a day not to wish for.  It brings desolation, cosmic collisions with the earth, utter upheaval and destruction of man’s status quo.  Suffering, “pangs and sorrows…pain” fills the faces of mankind.  It is “cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it” (Isaiah 13: 1-10).

Many will stop here and claim that this prophecy written in 713 B.C. was fulfilled when the Babylonian Kingdom would fall many years later.  It was on one level, but the prophecy has a deeper, more far reaching force that takes those ominous words and thrusts them into our modern day scene.  These inspired words of Yahweh through the prophet Isaiah take on a universal worldwide scope when God warns in the very next breath: “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…” (v. 11).

God goes cosmic in vision and scope while at the same time outlining the demise of  the ancient Babylonian Empire.

For the Babylon of old is a symbol of the one world system of false religion, government, and education.  The prophet Daniel in chapter 2 speaks of the Babylonian Empire as the head of gold of a much larger all-encompassing beast image.  All Bible scholars concede that the great image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed was a glimpse into the future of four great world Gentile governments.  These would rule the earth in successive waves from c. 600 B.C. to our present day.

Nebuchadnezzar forgot the dream, much less the interpretation.  Contained in the dream was a secret from the Almighty.  “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.  Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven” (v. 19).  Daniel proclaimed before the king that God “reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness…” (v. 22).  Daniel goes on to say that the wise men of Babylon cannot reveal the secret of the dream, “but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (v. 28).

The God in heaven “reveals secrets.”  And what are these secrets?  The Spirit in Daniel says it another way in the very next breath.  Revealing secrets is the same as making known now what will happen in the future– “in the latter days,” the time of the end.  The time when the “day of the LORD (Yahweh)” comes.  The time when God “will punish the world for their evil.”  That is the time we are living in.

This passage in Daniel is profound and rich with meaning for us.  The religious wise men of ancient Babylon, of the world system of their day, could not reveal the secret to the king.  They prided themselves as fortune tellers and soothsayers predicting future events, but they could not really see into the future to our day.  They were “blind, leaders of the blind,” not knowing the extent of their parts in the false worship system.  The secret of what will happen in our latter day era was not revealed to them, for God withheld it from them.  They did not know that the secret of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is an astounding prophecy that takes us to the very latter days of end time happenings.

The dream, of course, was that of a “great image…whose brightness was excellent…and the form was terrible” (2: 31).  First, it was an image.  It was not the real deal.  The people were in awe of it, for it was bright and excellent.  It had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of both iron and clay.  Then he saw a stone from heaven crash into the feet of the image and destroy it.  And the stone “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel by God’s Spirit interprets the image as four world empires, beginning with Babylon.  It is universally recognized that they are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  The last kingdom that smashed them down is the kingdom of God, and “it shall stand forever” (v. 44).

Daniel told the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold.”  The head of any body contains the brain, the thoughts, which dictates the actions of that body.  The thoughts of the head resonate on down through the ensuing kingdoms.  The Babylonian religions were the Eastern Mystery Religions that would permeate the West, finally lodging securely in Rome [for much more see The Two Babylons by Hislop here: http://www.biblebelievers.com/babylon/ ].  These mystery religions flourished so much that they became the very source of papal catholic worship to this day.

This is why the apostle John saw in Revelation that the world religious system at the time of the end would be called an evil woman, “a great whore that sits upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication…”  And the woman sat on “a scarlet colored beast…and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17: 5).  “An the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” (v. 18).  And that city is Rome.  And those teachings out of Rome have come down to modern man through the mother Catholic church and her protestant daughters.  I does say that Babylon the Great is the mother of harlots and abominations.

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September 15, 2012 · 5:44 pm

Miracles–When Will the Body of Christ Perform Them?

Miracles.   We’ve all prayed for them.  A sick loved one.  A need that we wanted to see met.  We Christians have all wanted the power to do what the early apostles did after Christ’s resurrection–heal the sick at will, restore limbs, cure cerebral palsy, and raise the dead.

That’s power from on high.  And I’ve wondered, Why not miracles and healings like the early apostles?  God, why not now?

The answer: Timing.  God, the Spirit, will move through us in His own good timing.

We must be aware that the above miracles are just some of the “gifts of the Spirit” that the apostle Paul writes about in I Corinthians 12.  He lists nine of them.  And I cannot help but think that they are listed in order of their intended presentatation to mankind, according to the needs of man coming into the kingdom of God.  Paul is, after all, a “wise master builder” and lays the foundation of the house of God in the right order.

The first gift that God gives to man through His people is the “word of wisdom.”  “Wisdom is the principal thing” (Prov. 4: 7).  It is the first thing that we need, and it is to be in reverential awe of God (Job 28: 28) [for more see my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”].

The second gift of the Spirit listed is the “word of knowledge.”  Very important for our day.  It did not say, “My people are destroyed for lack of miracle workers doing wondrous acts.”  They are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge of God’s true word and will.  How can a Christian work miracles when he is eaten up with old leaven and false doctrines.  He first needs wisdom and knowledge, and those that He gives these two things to are the ones that He will use to give them through.

There is a famine of the word of God in the land.  The world is full of false doctrines spewed out by false teachers.  The truth is what is needed first in anyone’s life–true wisdom from above, true knowledge of the holy.  That is understanding; that is departing from evil.

No.  His body is not ready for the reaction to miracles flowing through us right now.  I personally could not handle the reactions of the world.  I am not strong enough physically, mentally, or spiritually to handle the all-invasive eye of the media, which would detract from getting the truth out.  Christ drew thousands on a hillside.  Can you imagine at this moment what satellite TV would do with a true apostle doing the miracles of Christ?

Better to “wait on Yahweh…with patience wait for it…let patience have her perfect work…with much longsuffering” let us serve Him.

God obviously wants more truth to flow to the people.  He is in the process of calling and choosing His “little flock.”  The gifts of the “word of wisdom” and the “word of knowledge” are what the people need right now.  And they are gifts of the Spirit, just like the “working of miracles” is a gift from God to mankind.

Those in the body who have truth must serve as channels of the gifts of the Spirit, starting with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.  All Christians are capable of letting these flow through them to others once they have purged themselves of false concepts. The other gifts like healings and miracles will come when He needs and wants them to be presented.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 25, 2012 · 6:12 pm

God’s Chosen People–The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel

In these latter days, God is searching for His people.  The unenlightened will respond, saying that the people known as Jews today are His people, so no problem finding them.

But they are wrong.  85% of today’s Jews did not spring from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel [1].  They are not the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” that Christ was only sent to, but are of a Turko-Mongol tribe known as the Khazars who converted en masse to Judaism at the heighth of their power during the Middle Ages.

These people are not God’s chosen people who He scattered in 721 B.C. and 603 B.C.–the House of Israel (ten tribes) and the House of Judah (two tribes), respectively.  Yahweh likens His chosen people to sheep, the sheep of His pasture.

And although they strayed and sinned against Him and He scattered them, He is jealous in His watching care over them, having something wonderful planned for them at the end of this age.

Our job as His elect, is to sift through all the information out there, both true and false, and share the truth with those who are slated to come into His government, His kingdom.

But some teachers are persisting on teaching falsehoods and lies about God’s plan and purpose, about the endtimes, and about just who His people are.

In the scriptures, He refers to the religious leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel down through the centruies as “the shepherds of Israel.”  These shepherds–the rabbis, pastors, ministers, priests, evangelists, prophets, teachers, and pastors–have not fed the flock of Yahweh with His truth.  In fact, they have hidden the truth about Yahweh’s identity, His name and its significance and meaning, and His plan and purpose in reproducing Himself in this earth in His elect.

Another Gospel

They have substituted “another gospel,” another name, and another false vision that does not agree with the prophets’ and apostles’ vision of Yah in His kingdom glory.

Furthermore, these false shepherds grow rich from His people.  They fleece the people of their money, deceiving them into supporting a system that churns out falsehoods, misconceptions, and myths about the Creator.

Because of all this, Yahweh through the prophet Ezekiel prophesied against these shepherds.  “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (34: 2).  He is saying, You profit from my people, but you don’t do anything good for them.  You don’t feed them; you don’t comfort the sick or gather the lost.  “But with force and cruelty have you ruled them” (v. 3-4).

And because of you wicked pastors, my sheep were scattered and “wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill…upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them” (v. 5-6).  No one eaten up by the world system cares about the “lost sheep of the House of Israel,” who Jesus/Yahshua said He was only sent to.  What great importance He placed upon them!  Christ’s Spirit through the apostle James wrote his book to them!  “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”  To the twelve tribes that were already by then, 700 years 0n, scattered “north and west” of Jerusalem.  James’ mind was thinking the same thoughts as his Master Jesus/Yahshua.  He knew that he was sent to the lost sheep.

Should we think that all the other apostles were any less mindful of these “lost sheep of the House of Israel”?  This proves that the above message delivered by the Holy Ghost through His prophet Ezekiel about His sheep and their false shepherds was far-reaching, spanning many centuries, even to the end of our age!

And so the Spirit has a message for the sheep and their false shepherds today.  “O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD (Yahweh)…Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand…”  And the false pastors will stop feeding My people, and they will stop making their living from them.  “For I will deliver my flock from their mouth” (v. 7-10).  Falling into the hands of the living God is a fearful thing!  I would not want the Creator to be angry with me and be against me because I was teaching false doctrines!

God Is Searching for His Lost Sheep

Yahweh goes on to say that “I will search my sheep, and seek them out.”  God will find them where they are scattered all over this world.  He will feed them with truth, seeking out His lost ones.  They are lost, for they know not who they are; they do not know that they are the descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  They not only do not know who they are, they do not know that God Almighty is seeking them out.

Yes, He is seeking them out by first placing in them a hunger and a need to know their spiritual roots.  Meanwhile, God is placing in the hearts of true shepherds the true knowledge of His plan and purpose, and they will with the Great Shepherd at the helm teach the lost sheep about Him and His kingdom and how He is regathering and restoring His people to the original prominence they once had with Him.

God will find them where they are scattered all over the earth.  He will heal them and save them, and will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even His servant David (v. 23).  Yes, King David in his new spiritual body will be over us in the kingdom.  Christ is coming back to establish His government of the entire earth.  There will be peace in His kingdom and “showers of blessing” will fall on the land for His people (v. 26).

To be a part of this, we, the sheep of His pasture, must prove all things out that are taught to us.  Question everything and pray for God’s guidance in proving a teaching–whether it is true or false.  We must dig deep, very deep into the spiritual matters if we want to reign with Him at the end of this age.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See Arthur Koestler’s The Thirteeneth Tribe

http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/koestlerindex.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Tribe

2.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars

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August 4, 2012 · 9:30 pm

No Rapture–Further Proof

Many Christians feel that, well, God would just not allow His true people to go through the Great Tribulation Period.  God would just not let us suffer like that because He loves us.

Many reason that God is too merciful and through Christ’s sacrifice we have been redeemed.  So God would not allow His Christians of the modern era be killed during Tribulation and waste, as it were, His redemptive work in us.

God did say, “I change not…I am the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Mal. 3: 6; Heb. 13: 8).  So we need to find out what He has done in the past; that will be the key to gain understanding about this mystery.

He also said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways” (Isa. 55: 8).  Man thinks with man’s wisdom.  But God’s ways are grounded in precedent that He has laid out throughout history, telling “the end from the beginning.”  We all need to get this one thing: God is sovereign and will do things His way, not how we would do it. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14: 12). It seems right that God would not let His followers suffer through the tribulation period. But that is man’s thinking.

I recently had a comment supporting the rapture.  It was well reasoned and articulated.  In it the reader said, “God couldn’t protect them all [Christians during the Tribulation] AND fulfill what has been prophesied.” I disagree in that “with God all things are possible.” God can do with us whatever He chooses to do

He also said that “God has always removed his own from places that would receive his judgmentl.” I replied, “Where does it say that?” In fact, the scriptures reveal just the opposite.

Before the Great Tribulation Period begins, God induces the 7 year tribulation by first opening the seals of the book that contains the Great Tribulation Period in its pages. These seals include the world wars, calamity of nations, famine, and Death [seals 1-4]. To think that these God ordained catastrophes, which are the seals of the end time book opened by Jesus Himself–did not include true Christians is not thinking this thing through. I know that of the 500,000 American dead in World War II, there were several thousand American Christians who were killed.  And that was just one war since Christ started opening the seals–His doing.

Look at the fifth seal in Rev. 6: 9-11: the souls of Christians killed are crying, Revenge us. And they are told to wait until their fellow Christians that should be killed should be fulfilled. Should be killed?

And what about the sixth seal–the mother of all natural disasters–great earthquake, “stars of heaven” falling into the earth [asteroids, meteorites], the “kings of the earth and the great men” say to the mountains, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come…” (6:15-17).

Christ even alludes to this time of the opening of the sixth seal when He spoke to those women, mourning for Him because of the imminent  death by crucifixion.  “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.”  Why? Because of the hardships on the little children brought on by the sixth seal.  “For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren…”  For the barren women won’t have children that will suffer through tribulation.  “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us” (Luke 23:  28-30).  These are the exact words used by the “rich men” in Rev. 6 when earth wide disaster hits.  And He said that to His followers!

So God’s wrath has already started; it is all His doing and His followers are still on the earth. With all of these seals opening, Christians unfortunately may be killed.  But for us, “to die is gain.” And this is just the preview of the trumpets and vials to come during the actual 7 year Tribulation.

Moreover, Christ is speaking directly about the Great Tribulation Period in Matt. 24. At the time of the abomination of desolation, “there shall be great tribulation…and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24: 15, 21-22). We are talking about the real flesh bodies of the elect of God, perishing right along with the rest of humanity except that God would intervene and cut the wrath time short.

Historical Proof

Furthermore, here is biblical historical proof that God’s followers perish along with the unrighteous–done by God’s own hand: God is warning Jerusalem through Ezekiel. “Behold, I am against thee, and will draw out my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked…against all flesh…” (21: 2-4). What was Yahweh’s sword? The Babylonian army. “…That the sword of the king of Babylon may come” (v. 19). At the time of the fall of Jerusalem about 600 B.C., God still had “7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal,” and some of them perished by the sword of the LORD–Babylonia.

So we see that Christians have been and may be slain through God’s auspices; He is sovereign and can do His plan exactly the way He wants to. Perhaps this is what it means when it says, “You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations…You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us…All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant” (Psm 44: 11, 13, 17, NIV). And, yet, “as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom 8:36).

God is sovereign, and His way of doing things is not our way.  He has His reasons why His followers will not be raptured, why no one will be raptured–a concept foreign to the early church apostles and fathers–a concept literally born in a dream by a woman in the 19th Century.

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June 16, 2012 · 5:03 pm

“Let Us Go on to Perfection”–Spiritual Maturity Begins with Repentance from Sin and Faith Toward God

We cannot go on to a maturity of growth in God’s plan until the spiritual foundation is laid and secured in a person’s heart.

We are indeed urged by the apostle Paul to “go on unto perfection.”  But this cannot come to pass until the foundation, or “first principles of the doctrine of Christ” is laid (Heb. 6: 1).

Now Paul’s exhortation begs some questions.  What does “perfection,” or maturity entail?  What are these “first principles” of Christ’s doctrine, and how do they serve as a foundation for the glorification of His body to follow?

If Christ’s teachings outlined in this passage are the very foundation of building this “holy habitation,” this “temple of the Holy Spirit,” then what will the finished spiritual edifice look like?  If the church is “His body” and the very temple of God, and if we are to “grow up into Him,” then what will He have us doing in this spiritually mature state during these latter days?

Your Ways Are Not My Ways

To get to the answers to these questions, we must look at the spiritual things of God though His perspective.  Because His ways are not our ways, we have to see His things through His eyes (Isa. 55: 8).  But there is a “catch–22” here.  We cannot look through God’s eyes while we still have our old sinful nature.

This is the reason that there are thousands of theologians, pastors, priests, and preachers who just cannot see God’s vision of perfection for us because they have not had the foundation of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ–the first two of which are “repentance from dead works (sin) and faith toward God.”

They cannot see through God’s eyes, whose vision He has elucidated in plain language  in the Bible for us.  They don’t get it because they have not repented from works that bring forth death in their own lives.  In other words, they are still in their sins; they haven’t repented from sin in their lives.  In fact, most of them teach that a person cannot be free from sin and sinning.

Repentance from Sin and Sinning a Must for Growth

And why?  Because they will not believe that it is possible to be rid of sin and sinning.  They don’t believe that God can do it in this life.  So they continue to teach and preach that you cannot stop sinning.  They teach that you can be saved and go to heaven if you believe in Jesus, but that He cannot save you from  sin and sinning.  They are called to maturity, but the spiritual temple that they could be cannot “grow up into Him” because of a lack of the righteous foundation that true repentance and faith provides.

This saddens me greatly in writing this, for I know that there are many sincere preachers out there who have not been taught the true doctrine of Christ.  They have run with hand-me-down rags of man’s reasonings about Christ and have not been clothed with the true robe of righteousness found in His truth.  It saddens me that they have been duped into thinking that whatever biblical training they have received is all there is.  In reality they have been fed stale crumbs of doctrine which are unable to nourish them up into full grown men of God!  And so Christ’s question to us resounds: “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” (Matt. 24: 45).  What will it take for us to wake up and seek the “meat” of the word?

So these preachers, some very well-meaning, have been purveyors of poisoned promises, which can never nourish the children of God into growing up into the mature spiritual temple.  Fed false doctrines, the children of God cannot “grow up into Him,” personally or corporately, because they have not repented from actions that bring forth death–sin, in other words.

Spiritual death hovers over them, and they are lulled to sleep by false promises of “the sweet by and by” on “the beautiful shore” of man’s imaginations of what heaven is.  And they never come to grips with the fact that the soon-coming King Jesus/Yahshua “is an austere man,” who expects to find a “glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing” (Luke 19: 21; Eph. 5: 27).  Those “spots” are false teachers, false prophets, and false doctrines (Jude 12; II Peter 2: 13).

A Sad Day

And when He returns to set up His kingdom, He is going to deliver to somebody this terrifying retort: “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matt. 7: 23).   And He will be speaking in that day to people who claim to know Him well.  And they will persist and say to Him in that day, But, Lord, did we not prophesy and teach in your name?  Didn’t we do great things in the ministry?  We built this fine sanctuary and dedicated it to You, and we planted churches and sent missionaries all over the world to help the poor.  We saved many lives feeding the poor people of Africa, and we did it to glorify You!

And then Christ is going to say, Yes, but you ran with the wrong vision.  I did not send you.  You ran with what some natural thinking man said about Me.  You believed a man who had not even died on the cross with Me, who did not have enough faith toward God to receive a new heart after the death of his old sinful heart–who did not experience being  baptized into My death, much less being immersed in My Spirit and fire–who did not dig deep and build his house upon the Rock, who wiped his mouth, content he had done no wrong, and settled into his own house built on the sand of man’s traditions (Jer. 29: 9; Rom. 6: 1-6; Matt. 7: 24-27).

Oh, it will be a sad day when millions, who were called, find out that they were not chosen due to their lack of study and prayer and preparation (Matt. 22: 14; II Tim 2: 15).  Had they studied to “prove all things,” then God could have shown them the deeper walk, away from the crash and crescendo of Sunday morning’s man-musings about God, and into the quiet whisper of God’s “still small voice” that leads His elect down a narrow road that few will trod, for few there be to find this way of truth (Matt. 7: 14).

I personally know preachers today who will not listen to anything “new”–anything that does not agree with their denominational line and pre-conceived concepts–that does not line up with what grandpa and grandma and mom and dad taught.    They just will not “prove all things,” both things that they believe to be true, nor things they already think to be false.  I do not condemned them.  It just saddens me, is all.  For they do not realize that much more light is being shed during these latter days–light that grandma and grandpa did not have.

Without the foundation as outlined in Hebrews 6, a Christian cannot grow spiritually, for they will never be rid of the bondage to sin.  For this concept of sin that is so “incorrect” to talk about in our society today is at the heart of the matter.  Christ and all His apostles and prophets spoke of sin continually.  The apostle John even says that “whosoever sins has not seen Him, neither known Him” (I John 3: 6).

The whole plan has God’s Spirit coming down and taking up residence in us.  But He will not dwell in an unclean temple (I Cor. 3: 16-17).  So He has made a way for us to get rid of the old sinful heart at the cross, and by faith receive a new heart that can receive His Spirit.  Wonderful news.  But that is just the first steps on the road to immortality.  There’s so much more as we learn about how we are to walk in preparation to literally become the kings and queens in God’s soon-coming kingdom to be set up shortly right here on earth.  Remember: He is the King of kings.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[I appreciate your comments.  For more on these topics, be sure to read my two books found at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

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April 21, 2012 · 5:48 pm

“Whoever Commits Sin Is a Slave of Sin”–Who Shall Deliver Us?

You hear Christ’s words quoted all the time: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  But free from what exactly?  People rarely go on and finish the quote.  Christ did not stop expounding after that thought in John 8: 32.

The Pharisees retorted, We have never been in bondage to any man.

Then Christ spelled it out which bondage the truth would free a man from.  “Whover commits sin is a slave of sin” (v. 34 NKJV).  A slave of sin.  If a man is committing sin, he is sin’s slave.  He is bound to do sin’s bidding.  These are heavy words.

Sin is a harsh slavemaster to the natural unregenerated man, which is old man Adam, the nature we inherited when we were born into our earthly existence.  Without Christ’s Spirit coming into our hearts, mankind is prey to every whim of sin that the devil, the prince of the air, wants us to do.

Sin Is the Transgression of the Law

So just who is this slavemaster that Christ called Sin?  Sin is a spiritual state of a human being that breaks the ten commandment law of God.  And it is these ten laws that the evil one entices lost man to break.  Lying, stealing and cheating, committing adultery, murder, having other gods before the One True God, idolizing anything or anyone–these are just some of the sins that man not only does but is in slavery to.

Sin enslaves people; it has them to a point that the sinner can’t fight it.  The little demonic voice says, Take it, and the body obeys as the hand snatches something just that fast.  The voice whispers, Go ahead and take her; your wife won’t find out.

Paul the apsotle described this bondage to sin.  Describing that time in the past when he was a slave to sin, he wrote, “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature…” (Rom. 7: 5 NIV).  The rest of the chapter describes how sin enslaves a person.  Paul makes this experience immediate for his readers by shifting it into the present tense.  This is a literary technique used by writers for centuries.

Yet, sadly, most preachers erroneously teach that Paul was a sinner and was a slave to sin.  How utterly preposterous and ignorant these preachers are!  Do they really know what they are saying?  They are saying that Paul raised the dead and healed the sick one day and then lusted after another man’s wife the next; That he “spoke with the tongues of men and angels” and preached the everlasting gospel, and was transported to the third heaven one day, and then was capable of having other gods before Him the next?  Please.  It is impossible, for Christ settled the issue with this statement: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit…By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7: 18, 20).  Trust me.  Paul was a good tree.

I pray that God will be merciful to these ignorant teachers, for I know that He has intense grief and misery in store for them that do not repent: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” (Isa. 5: 20).

In Romans 7 Paul was making it immediate for his readers.  “When we were in the flesh (the sinful nature)”–the “flesh” here in the KJV being the old sinful nature, not Paul’s earthly body.

When he had the old nature before his incredible conversion on the road to Damascus, he was a slave to sinning, doing things that broke the ten commandment law.  In fact, he said that the bad things that he did not want to do, he did, and the good things he wanted to do, he could not do (Rom. 7: 19).

Who Will Deliver Me?

Recreating this lost state, Paul finally cries out to God.  “O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7: 24).  Thus Paul completes the scene of this misery in a lost man’s life and gives the answer.  It is the Lord through His sacrifice of Himself and His Resurrection.

We are freed from this slavery to sin when we submit to our own crucifixion of our sinful self.  “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom. 6: 6).  The crucifixion with Christ, “who was made to be sin for us,” puts an end to the slavery to commit sin!  We are free!  “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (6: 7).

How do you actually do this?  What’s the secret in walking in this?  How do you conquer sin in your life?  You’ve got to “reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6: 11).  Reckon it so.  Reckon it done.  Count it as such.  We might as well do it, for God has already done this.  He has reckoned it done in our lives.  He is just waiting with great patience for us to come on board.  He is waiting on us to “get it.”

This is the truth!  And you shall know this truth about getting rid of the old sinful nature, and it shall make you free from sin in your life!

What’s next?  What comes after our deliverance from sin and sinning?  “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (6: 18).  We are enslaved now to another Master; we are now “slaves of God.”

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

[Some are saying to me right now, You keep talking about this sin question all the time.  Yes, and I will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith, until His elect reach full maturity.  For I know that we cannot come to spiritual maturity (perfection) until we get this foundation right: repentance of sin that brings physical death and faith toward God who delivers us from sin.  I would like your thought and comments on this.  KWH]

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April 14, 2012 · 4:23 pm

“What’s It All About–Algae?”–Energy and the “Power of Darkness”

I’ve been seriously thinking about the energy problem, but the President’s got me singing that song (with apologies to Bacharach/David).  He really does.

We’ve got crippling gasoline prices, but algae?  Really?  Is that what it’s really all about.  Hey, Mr. President.  We need relief now–not ten to twenty years from now.

The President’s reluctance to open up federal lands and offshore waters for oil drilling confounds me.  Many experts say that it would quiet the speculators and show the world we mean business in getting hold of our energy crisis.  It would bring down crude prices much faster than all the alternative energy sources combined.

“Is it just for the moment we live?”  Not drilling–is it just to appease your base, Mr. President, for this moment of re-election?  Or should it be a government “of the people, by the people, and FOR THE PEOPLE” and their well-being?  Because people are hurting.

I mean–don’t make me go out and buy a Suzuki 250 to ride to work on.  Or worse yet, a Chinese 150cc scooter–although 83 miles per gallon is very enticing.

“What’s it all about when you sort it out, Mr. President?  Wait a minute.  That really is the question that needs answering.  What is it all about, anyway–concerning this big picture stuggle I find myself in?  For I am wrestling in my mind with members of both political parties over the future of our world.

And then a “wrestling” scripture comes to mind, and I am grateful for a word of truthful sanity because what both sides are saying just does not make any sense whatsoever.  For we are not wrestling “against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 NLT).

Wow.  You want to whip out a can of political incorrectness?  Here is a taste.  Our political and economic leaders are being led by “rulers of the darkness of this world,” as it says in the KJV.  The apostle Paul called those entities that motivated political leaders “the rulers of the darkness of this world.”

But Paul is not talking about the physical men in political power.  He is talking about the spirit in them that works through them.  He calls these spiritual powers “the wiles of the devil,” reflected in the earthly face of our world leaders (v. 11).

Some would say that Paul the apostle was too harsh.  But he was just following his example, Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Messiah).  For He said the same thing.

An example of this spiritual power of Satan working through the leaders of this world system is in the gospel of Luke.  The “chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders” came out to arrest Jesus/Yahshua, and then they took Him to “the high priest’s house.”  And these same quasi-political leaders “mocked Him, and blindfolded Him,” struck Him, and then demanded of Him, “Prophesy, who is it that smote you?”

Remember.  These are the leaders of the people.  Christ said that what they were doing to Him is “the power of darkness” (22: 52-53).  Paul in the KJV said that our struggle is not against human beings but against spiritual “powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.”  Their statements are almost identical–truth established in the mouth of two witnesses.

So, what’s it all about?  Certainly not algae, although algae, like an evil spirit, does fly under the radar most of the time.  It is about the spirit of the Wicked One working through world rulers to hinder the people and harm their immediate pocketbooks, and that same spirit working to thwart the Kingdom of God by establishing their one world government.  That is what it is all about. KWH

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April 7, 2012 · 5:51 pm

Don’t Depend on the Rapture–All Christians Going through Great Tribulation

We saw last time that The Great Tribulation Period is the “Day of the LORD,” spoken of by many of the prophets in scripture.  We referenced a few of them who wrote about this disastrous time on the earth–Daniel, Zephaniah,  the apostle John, to name just a few.

Many who read about all this destruction will say, What difference does it make?  It doesn’t pertain to us.  We Christians will be raptured out before the Tribulation starts anyway.

Many will not take this time of wrath to heart because they do not believe that it applies to them.  They believe in a rapture/reward for being good little children of God.  They do not believe that God could be that “cruel” to them and their families–to treat them just like the ungodly in that He would  make them go through the end time calamities.  God speaks about these foolish “followers” of Christ.

The Parable of the Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins

Christ was asked by His disciples what the sign would be for three things:  the total destruction of Jerusalem where one stone would not be found on another, the sign of His return to earth,  and the end of the world (Matt. 24: 1).  He answers these three questions in the next two chapters.  Everything in Matthew 24 and 25 is in answer to these three questions concerning “the end of the world.”  And this also reveals that some lukewarm Christians will be around during the tribulation.

Christ uses two parables to convey the secret answers to the mysteries of when the end will come.  In the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13), five were wise and took oil in their lamps and had eyes to see, but five were foolish and had no oil for their lamps.  They were virgins; they were little children of God, but they were lacking in the Spirit of God, the oil, within themselves.  They had not studied and prayed and were told by the wise virgins to go buy their own oil from the same place where one may “buy the gold tried in the fire…and the white raiment…and the eye salve” (Rev. 3: 18).  It was too late to pray and study for those little children, the five foolish virgins.  For the bridegroom came while they were out and they missed  the wrap up, the great marriage supper.  And they cried to Him to open the door, but He told them, “I don’t know you” for this honor.

The Parable of the Five Talents

Another example of spiritual unproductivity is this parable in the very next verse (Matt. 25: 14-30).  Three servants were given talents by their master, “according to his own ability”–five to one servant, two to another, and one to another.  They all three were servants of the same master.  Those with five and two gained the same and were praised upon the master’s return as “good and faithful servants.”  The other servant was “afraid and …hid it in the earth.”  “You wicked and slothful servant,” said his master.  “Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then the master took the talent from him and gave it to the one with ten talents.

What went wrong with the unprofitable servant?  He had no faith; he was disobedient and did not gain anything for his master with His goods.  Of course, this parable reveals a mystery “kept secret from the foundations of the world.”  The spiritual application shows us three levels of  fruit production as in the Parable of Sower in Matt. 13–30, 60, and 100 fold.  Christ has told all of His followers to study, pray, prove all things, and carry the good news of His kingdom into all the world.  He has told us all to dig deep and build our house upon the rock, and call out others to this great kingdom soon to fill the whole earth.

Laodecean Church Age–The Condition of the Church at Christ’s Return

But do most children of God do this, really?   I don’t think so.  In this last church age of Laodecea (laity deceived) painted for us in Rev. 3: 16-17, we see that today’s average church goer is lukewarm  in the spiritual works of God and is about to be “spued out of His mouth.”  Why?  Because they  say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.’  And they do not know that they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”  Pride in one’s denomination [‘our church is a Bible church, rich in the word of God], a particular church father, one’s pastor, priest, saint, pride period–all these lead one to say, ‘I am rich [in faith] and have need of nothing.’  Many denominations actually say that they are the only ones who have the truth.

In their heart they will say, Hey, we’ve got the rapture.  God will take care of us.  He wants us to prosper, to be materially well off while we are waiting for His return.  He’ll take us out of the hellishness of the tribulation period.  We don’t need these doctrines (teachings).  Mom and dad didn’t believe this new stuff.  Besides, all we need is Jesus.  And they go one as  sheep to the slaughter never realizing that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).

And they will go on their shallow ways, having never proven the “rapture theory” from the scriptures–having never seen that they base it on 1/2 of one verse, never even quoting the other half of the verse: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  They never realize that Christ is coming back HERE–not ‘up in heaven somewhere”!  In our new spiritual bodies, we will rise up into the “air” [look it up in the Greek and see that it is where the birds fly] but we won’t get too far, for He’s descending to earth, touching His feet on the Mt. Olivet, cleaving it, and we will be with Him in that wonderful moment!  “And so shall we ever be with the Lord!”  [I Thess. 4: 16-17].

And so I have to ask the rapture believers: Since Christ is coming back bodily to earth at the time of the “catching away,” who will you be with when your imagination carries you away?  Most have never considered what the scriptures really say in this one verse that they use to base the rapture on.

The Bridegroom comes here!  If this rapture illusion is not straightened out in a person’s heart and mind, if they are counting on something erroneous that is not happening, do you think He may cast them “into outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

And why will all of this misery land on so many people?  It is because of their unbelief.  Christ said it with a broken heart as He looked on the people of His pasture.  “O ye of little faith.”

Unbelief–Just Like with Moses and the Children of Israel

But there’s nothing new here.  The children of Israel just would not believe the word of Yahweh. “So we see that they could not enter in [to the Promised Land] because of unbelief.”

So, whose voice were the children of Israel listening to?  They listened to Aaron,  a voice from a false god, who led in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  They murmured and complained and said, God would not put all this deprivation and sacrifice on us.  We are God’s people.  Out of 2-3 million people, only two, Joshua and Caleb, made it into the Promised Land.  And what happened to all of those millions of unbelievers?  Their “carcases fell” in the desert outside of Canaan land.  They had a false conception about how that era would end.  And they paid the price.  They died never glimpsing God’s glory.  And the things that happened to the children of Israel “are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” [3].

The consequences of their unbelief admonishes those living at the “end of the world”!  That’s us.  And we should take the warning to heart.  To be one of the few to get into the promised land of His presence when He returns, we must throw away “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” [4].

The little children of God are mostly alive for what they can get from the Father.  That’s why they are children and not spiritual adults in the Lord.  They have consequently believed that the Father will miraculously deliver them in a supernatural “rapture” before tribulation breaks out.

The rapture is based on wishful thinking.  It is an imagination and a lie  that will not only disillusion millions of professing Christians, it will also alienate them from God.  When they are not “raptured out” before the tribulation, many will turn against God and will be part of those who “gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores” (Rev. 16: 10-11).  They will blame God for the wrath that He is wreaking, and not the liars that told them they would escape all of the bad things.

But even as just two people, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land, even so very few will denounce the rapture theory, one of the most addictive sugar stick false doctrines out there.  Most will not believe.  Consequently, they will not prepare, both physically and spiritually, for the tribulation period.  And the sad part is, they are the ones who will be most disillusioned and upset at God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/no-pre-tribulation-rapture-gods-elect-on-earth-during-tribulation/

2.  Hebrews 3: 13-18

3.  I Cor. 10: 11

4. II Cor. 10: 5

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March 14, 2012 · 3:43 am

What Prevents Christian Growth–The Deceitfulness of Sin

As the sons and daughters of God, we are called to do one thing– “to  fulfill the word of God” (Col. 1: 25).  That is our destiny and what we are to do.

God has spoken from the beginning His word about what will transpire on this earth.  And it is a mystery to unregenerate natural man.  It is also a mystery to babes in Christ whose senses have not been exercised “to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5: 14).  What God has spoken and written down for His earthly creation is a “mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,” but now it is being made known to His elect, the ones He has chosen for the end time happenings (Col. 1: 26).

It is then to His elect that He is revealing this mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27).  To get Christ fully formed in His elect–to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus/Yahshua”–that is the work of His called out ones.  That is the “word of God” that we are “to fulfill.”

What Hinders the Spiritual Growth to Get to “Christ in You, the Hope of Glory”?

What hinders the new Christian’s growth?  In a word–sin.  For they are taught by their pastors, preachers and priests that they will never stop sinning. But that is a lie. The apostle Paul urges new Christians to “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4: 14).  The way of growing from a spiritual child to a spiritual adult is not be deceived any longer by cunning and crafty men who teach false doctrines.

Paul already has said in this same chapter that God has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints”!  Perfection of Christians sounds like a stupendous growth in God.  You mean it is possible?  I mean, to grow up and be just like Christ?  Paul believes so.  In fact, he says that this perfecting through the teaching of the truth will continue “till we all come…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!”! (4: 11-13)  And we know that this perfection cannot be attained if one is still sinning.

Paul spends most of the rest of the book of Ephesians urging new followers to put away sin out of their lives and “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (4: 24).  No more lying, selfish anger, no more stealing, filthy talk, and malice (4: 25-31).  In other words–No more sinning.  “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no man deceive you with vain words” (5: 5-6).  How can a man deceive the new Christian with vain words? By

telling him that he can do all these things and still have an “inheritance in the kingdom  of Christ and of God.” Or to put it another way: You can be a Christian in good standing and still sin.

This Is a Hard Saying–Who Can Hear It?

Many reading this will stop and say that I’ve gone too far.  That’s fine.  “They that have ears to hear, let them hear.”  This message is for the few–like I stated in the previous post last time.  But this is crucial for those wanting to grow all the way in this thing.  It is to you I am writing anyway.  All others with God’s help will be what they are meant to be.  My job is to teach the truth to the elect so that they can grow.  And He has shown me that this concept is what will hinder the elect from growing.  This is crucial.  Bear with me, and let me explain more fully.

Faith (Belief) Is the Key

Now this growth process inside of a believer is an invisible spiritual happening.  It takes belief without seeing first.  Faith is believing, having not seen the evidence as yet (Heb. 11: 1).  It is believing what God said, not what some man said He said.  And this goes for the sin question, too.  It is all about believing His word as to how to get rid of sin (and sinning) in our lives.

Sin is deceitful.  It is born in deception and it breeds deception.  It was born of a lie and it spawns more lies.  And its most powerful lie tells new Christians that they can’t escape its clutches.  Organized religions keep people in the prison of sin through the lie that they can’t live without sinning–that you are a sinner and will die a sinner.  Ironically enough, some preachers pridefully preach this every Sunday!  They say that you will always be held captive by sin–that you cannot escape its bondage!  In other words, they tell the people that God is not strong enough to break sin’s hold on you.  But be not dismayed; God will accept you even though it is impossible to stop sinning against Him, if you just accept Christ.

But wait a minute!  I thought “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27).  And, “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1: 37).  And, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23).  I mean, even the LORD, Yahweh Himself, answered Sarah’s incredulity about having a baby with this question, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD/YHWH?” (Gen. 18: 14).

And so He is asking every one of us: Which is easier for Me to do?  Grant Sarah a child in her old age, despite the “deadness of her womb,” or grant unto you a new heart that does not sin against Me?  Which is the “easier miracle” for Him to perform?  To God it is all the same.  If it is in His will, He makes it happen.

The preachers say that you are in bondage to sin; you can’t escape.  But God says “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7).  The preachers say, “I sin every day.”  But God says, “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because He is born of God” (I John 3: 9).  If we are not saved from sin, then what have we been saved from?

You won’t hear the message contained in Romans 6.  “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  Shall we go on sinning, breaking the Ten Commandments, so that His grace can be exercised to its fullest extant?  Answer:  “God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6: 1-2).  Since the true salvation experience begins at the cross, baptized into His death, how can we continue to sin when sin has died inside of us (6: 3-11)?

Of course, very, very few will be preaching on this come next Sunday morning [or Saturday, for that matter].  Even if they know about this message, very few understand it, and fewer yet believe it, so they stay away from Romans 6 like the plague.

But it is this very message of the death of our old sinful self that opens the door.  What door?  The door to the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The door to the secret of Christian growth.  The door to the overcoming of sin in our lives  and growing up to be like Him.

This “hope of glory” is not just a ticket to heaven, which is what the little babe in Christ wants from the Father.  No.  This “hope of glory” is our hope that Christ would be fully formed in us during these latter days–that the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do–that would be fulfilled in and through us!  That we could actually walk like the early apostles and the prophets of old!

That we could be the “called according to His purpose.”  That we could actually be those He knew before we were ever born, those who He gave a destiny before we were  born “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  And so He pre-destined us, called us, justified us, and soon, oh, so very soon He will glorify us! (Romans 8: 28-31).

And there is nobody that can separate us from Christ’s love for us.  And there is nobody who will succeed in stripping away our glorious growth into His manifested sons through lies and deception.

But this vision of full spiritual Christian growth hinges on getting past the deceitfulness of sin.  “The counsels of the wicked are deceit” (Prov. 12: 5).  Or, in other words, The words of the sinner are deception.

Their unbelief in God’s power to deliver keeps people in bondage to sin and sinning.  This is where the deception lies.  A Christian cannot grow when they believe that they cannot keep from sinning with God’s help.  This is the key that will unlock the door to Spiritual growth.

Through Christ we receive a new heart; the old heart is passed away once and for all.  Man says that it is impossible to be rid of sin in your life.  But God says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18: 27).  Christ’s own words.  Hallelu Yah!

[If you find someone that teaches these things, you have found a very precious thing.  Hold them near and dear and never let them go.]  KWH

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