By
Pastor Mike Taylor
6”Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.
7If
ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)
10That
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in
earth, and things under
the earth;
11And that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
11”For
it is written, As I
live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue
shall confess to God.
12So
then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Romans
14:11-12)
7 “And
shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him,
though he bear long with them?
8 I
tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son
of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)
Of
all the names written or spoken of in all of man's history on this
earth, none has caused as much division among men, than the glorious
Name of JESUS Christ, my Lord. Jesus was a historical, real person
who lived in the occupied land of Israel by Rome some 2000 years ago,
and since His birth, life, death, and resurrection, the secular world
has tried unsuccessfully to marginalize the blessed Name of this
God/Man who came into the world for one reason, to die for your sins
and mine.
The
secular world has a real problem with the only sinless man that ever
lived and established His Church on this earth on the Day of
Pentecost in every believer that receives His Holy Spirit. I know
this is a broad subject, so let me in a few words try and express why
the Name of JESUS causes so much conflict in this world and makes
unrepentant mankind angry just at the mention of His Name and why YOU
need Him in your life.
BELIEVE
IN AND FOLLOW JESUS, OR ALLAH?
Note
that there are two monotheistic religions that dominate the so called
“modern” earth we live on, that being Christianity and Islam.
Christianity in all its forms, some true, some not so true, comprise
nearly 2.2 billion or 31.5% of the population and Islam (totally
untrue) 1.6 billion or 22.3% of the population according the numbers
posted on Wikipedia. Since Jesus ascension into heaven, men have
attempted to suppress the “faith once delivered” to our fathers,
but if you say the name of Allah, there is not even a peep from the
secular world and they promote it as a religion of “peace and
love”. Really?
The
world and its leaders take great pains to forward this message about
Islam even as the adherents of this so called “religion” murder
and rape all who will not follow their beliefs and embrace the false
god, Allah. Right off the bat, there is a clue that this “religion”
is not about peace and love, as all men claim God is love. But
understand that religion is not God. Religion is man's attempt to
explain what they think God wants, or their attempt to make
themselves acceptable to God. I”ve often said that religion would
be a great thing, if man were not involved in it. Why? Because men
pervert the message to their own self interest and make a mockery of
Who God really is. The so called religions of this world are man's
attempt to get to God, but Jesus Christ is God's attempt to get to
man.
WHAT
GOD DO YOU FOLLOW?
You
can make anything your religion in this life. Any old god will do.
Just pick one and make it your focus of worship. The world is full of
false religions or man's attempt to justify himself, such as
Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, or about every “-ism” you can name
or you can just make up one of your own to suit yourself. You can
even worship humanity. But its not about religion, as even the Lord
Jesus emphasized when He met the Samaritan woman at the well.
"Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. .
. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh
such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John
4:21.23-24)
Jesus
came to change all the religious traditions that had distorted the
true worship of a Holy God and when on earth, although He was a God
of love, His message did not promote “peace and love”. He came
not to bring peace, but a sword.'
"Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace,
but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household." (Matthew
10:34-36)
Why
is that so? Because mankind's flesh wars with his spirit to follow
the true God of the Bible and sinful men just don't want someone
telling them how they should live their lives. They revel in their
unrighteousness, much to their own damnation.
During
His ministry on the earth, Jesus railed at the established religion
of His day when He blasted the religious authorities for their
hypocrisy and their “traditions”.
9”And
he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God,
that ye may keep your own tradition.
10For
Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth
father or mother, let him die the death:
11But
ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It
is Corban
( sacrifical offering: my explanation), that is to say, a gift, by
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he
shall be free.
12And
ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13Making
the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have
delivered: and many such like things do ye.. (Mark 7:9-14)
27” Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's bones,
and of all uncleanness.
28Even
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27-28)
Followers
of Jesus Christ are anything but a religion or traditions. It is a
personal relationship with THE God that created the universe, based
on the knowledge that all men are sinners are in need of a Savior.
But
religion is a practice of trying to make yourself acceptable to God
by your own endeavors by balancing the scales of good and evil by
doing more good than evil. So when religious or political leaders use
the phrase “peace and love” when they speak of Islam, they reveal
they don't know what they are speaking of.
ISLAM
IS HOLY???
During
the past administration of the “usurper in chief”, he never
failed to promote the “religion” of Islam. He could say that
Islam is holy and the Koran is holy legitimizing “Allah” as holy
and his “prophet” Muhammad as this “god's” messenger. Even
with the belief of “separation of church and state” you didn't
hear not a peep out of the ACLU.
All
the organizations that battle Christianity and the mention of the
very word “Jesus” in our schools and the Ten Commandments on any
government property, promote Islam all day long without fear of
lawsuits. Indeed, there exist in the American school system,
MANDATORY curriculum that amount to immersion courses in
Islam, complete with the taking of an Islamic name, studying the
Koran, and practicing Islamic rituals. but goes bananas when they
attempt to profess America “One nation under God”. Why is that?
Well,
the obvious answer to that question why Jesus and anything or anyone
that mentions the God of the Bible producing a visceral response, is
that Allah is nothing but a false god and its “religion” is
nothing but a political movement. It doesn't really make much sense,
when you realize that this false religion of Islam is promoting
murder and mayhem all over the world, but you mention the name of
Jesus and you get immediate revulsion that you even breathed His
Name. Muslims world wide are planning at this very moment their next
murderous attack on the infidels that they hate so much for not
bowing the knee to their hateful ideology.
Further,
because Islam and its god is false, there is no threat from speaking
or teaching about Islam...not to the world, and especially not to
Satan as they are on the same side. Not so with the Name of Jesus,
because Jesus is real and the True God of the Bible. To the secular
world all the different gods are more or less the same,
so who cares?
Except
for Jesus. There is something about Jesus and they can't stand it.
JESUS
IS THE ONLY WAY
True
blood washed Christians are condemned by the political and secular
world, because we make Jesus and the salvation He provides as
exclusive. Since we know that is their reason, “I can identify with
that condemnation on their part” because I concur with their
assessment. Men don't like that Jesus as the only Way, and being so
exclusive. They want to have many different ways to justify
themselves. They push the idea, just like Oprah Winfrey did on her
now canceled show, when she expressed that there were many ways to
come to God. She likened it to a hub with its many spokes on the
wheel. Just as there are many spokes, or ways to come to the center
of the hub, there are many ways to come to God, “Just be a good
person” she quips.
Problem
is with her analogy, is Jesus (for lack of a better explanation) is
an exclusive way to God, or an “exclusive club”. As the opening
verse so aptly explains:
“....I
am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me.” (John 14:6b)
That's
exclusive. There is no other way. No amount of good works, no belief
in some other god or spoke in that wheel, no amount of giving to the
church, no amount of confession before your priest, so exclusively
there is NO other way, but Jesus.
The
apostle John explained is so easily and completely when he wrote in
his Gospel of John beginning with the 1st verses:
1:1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
1:2 The
same was in the beginning with God.
1:3 All
things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that
was made.
1:4 In
him was life; and the life was the light of men.
1:5 And
the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
(John 1:1-5)
50 “Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
The
apostle Matthew tells us that Jesus was raised from the dead and
showed Himself to about 500 people at one time, and after His
resurrection, the rocks were rent and many who had fallen asleep
arose and went into the city...Did these people just die again? No, I
believe they were given new bodies that Jesus took with Him when He
presented Himself to God our Father on the first Sunday morning after
Passover and became the “First Born of the dead” on what was
called the “wave sheaf offering” given in the temple on that day.
And Jesus paid for sins by shedding His own blood, and sprinkled on
the Mercy seat of the Tabernacle in heaven as payment in full for the
sins of the world, and all who believe and come to repent of their
sins and put their trust in the One who was raised from the dead.
51 And,
behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
53 And
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy
city, and appeared unto many.
54 Now
when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw
the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly,
saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”(Matthew 27:50-54)
Even
a pagan Roman Centurion believed that this was the Son of God, as no
One could have done what Jesus did on that day, or the days that
followed. Paul spoke of this glorious event in his letter to the
Corinthian church, as Paul saw the glorified Jesus on the road to
Damascus and it was revealed to him, that Jesus had risen from the
dead.
6 After
that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the
greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
THE
GOSPEL OF JOHN DECLARED THE DIVINITY OF OUR LORD
The
root and the trunk of the born again doctrine found in the bible is
found in John's Gospel and centers on chapter 3. The other
gospel writers do not expressly say it, but provide supporting
evidence of this essential truth. In this gospel, John proclaimed the
divinity of Jesus Christ, as Jesus talks of light, darkness, baptism,
and the Temple of God in the first three chapters of the Gospel of
John. Symbolism is used to illustrate the spiritual with the
physical. Many of the symbols Jesus uses are understood by the people
Jesus spoke to.
Then
came the Apostle to the point of the whole of your Bible, when he
wrote what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3:
“For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosover believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting
life”
God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world
through Him, might be saved.”
(John
3:16-17)
When
Jesus proclaimed the spiritual truth in a physical way to the masses
in the synagogue at Capernaum
, some couldn't grasp what He was saying:
“Whoever
eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is
drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides [or
"lives," or "dwells," or "continues"]
in Me [That is, He is saying that it is a life-giving substance.],
and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the
Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the
bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the
manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”(John
6:54-58 )
Thinking
in physical terms, this idea repulsed most of the disciples and those
who heard and many left Him, as they didn’t understand the
spiritual application of the New Covenant of His death and
resurrection and symbolized when we take the bread and the wine at
the Lord’s Supper and commemorating this act of total surrender for
our redemption.
If
you want to know the man, Jesus Christ, you need to start at the
Gospel in the New Testament that proclaimed His divinity, His earthly
ministry, and His death leading to His resurrection, as the first
born of the dead. That Gospel is John. John uses the last days of
Jesus ministry leading to the cross to illustrate who Jesus was, and
what He did for all mankind. If you wish to understand how God the
Son came down from glory and became a man with only one mission, to
save mankind, then you must start at John and study the witnessed
account of the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ up close and
personal. Then read the surrounding gospels that support it, and read
into the Pauline epistles of the man Saul who became Paul, who met
Jesus in His glorified state and how it changed his life.
COMPARE
THIS WITH ISLAM
If
you start dissecting the “religion” of Islam, you quickly
discover that the basic concept is a “god of war”, death and
destruction. Led by an evil man who proclaimed this false god from
all the polytheistic gods of the Arabian deserts and narrowed it down
to one “feminine” moon goddess and made Allah male and a book of
the Koran was written many years after Muhammad's death containing
war verses of jihad, or holy war against infidels, or non-believers.
Logically, if this “allah” is “holy” then how does one, being
a mortal man come into his presence? By committing hideous acts of
murder and conquest and becoming a abomination in front of other men?
How does that logically compute? If “allah” is sinless and holy,
then how does a murderer enter into his presence? Show me one place
where this Allah was just, loving, or showed himself divine? Can't
think of one? Neither can I, because there are none. Point being,
Islam is not a true “religion”, but a political ideology of evil
men on a quest for domination of other men. What one entity that is
described in your bible would compare to this description of Allah?
12”How
art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!how art
thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13For
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most
High.
15Yet
thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16They
that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider
thee, saying,
Is this
the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;”
(Isaiah 14:12-16)
8”Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1st Peter
5:8)
You
see, Satan hates anything that belongs to God. He hates Jesus because
He saves men because of their trust and faith in what Jesus did for
them on a Roman cross. It was Satan's biggest victory, that became
his greatest defeat. So Satan inspired a false religion to lead men
astray and gave them the ability to embrace their sinful lifestyles,
all in the “name of religion”.
7
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1st Corinthians
2:7-8)
THERE
IS COMING A DAY
For
2000 years, the Holy Spirit of God has been dealing with mankind,
through all the false christs, all the false religions such as Islam
and drawing a select remnant of the world's population to Him, those
that heard the call of God and responded in human repentance and a
broken and contrite heart, but as we see the world crumbling around
us, that call for repentance during this Age of Grace we live in,
will be cut off without warning.
52In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed.
54So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
These
describe the coming of our Lord JESUS, the One true God that will
come and remove His church from this earth. Then will begin the most
horrible time that mankind will ever experience. I have talked about
that seven years of the coming Tribulation repeatedly and I won't go
over the ramifications of missing the trumpet call that Paul speaks
of in the preceding verses in this message. I have numerous messages
covering that subject, so go there to get an explanation of what
those years will bring to sinful mankind.
But
the Name of JESUS, one day will be Lord over all the earth. My God,
my Savior will come again to reign and rule for 1000 years, but not
before He crushes all rebellion upon this earth with just a spoken
word, the bible calls the sword of His mouth.
My
Lord Jesus will come in two different times appearing, claiming those
who put their trust in Him, at the rapture of the Church, and those
who have faith in Jesus during the awful coming time, known as the
Tribulation. As mentioned in both times, that opened this message,
when Jesus comes, will He find faith on the earth?
16 “Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law:
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But
if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are
found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
20 I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galations 2:17-20)
Jesus
will claim all who have put their trust in Him, and in Him alone, and
all who have pleasure in unrighteousness, there will be righteous
indignation when my God will bring to bear the sword of His mouth on
all who have no faith in the Only Way to salvation found in the Name
that is above every name.
The
bible is most descriptive of what Jesus will do at that time:
11
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat
upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12His
eyes were as
a flame of fire, and on his head were many
crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
14And
the armies which
were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. (sign of the saints, my explanation)
15And
out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
17And
I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice,
saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and
gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18That
ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the
flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on
them, and the flesh of all men,
both free
and bond, both small and great.
19And
I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies,
gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and
against his army.
20And
the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought
miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received
the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both
were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21And
the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse,
which sword proceeded
out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
(Revelation 19:11-21)
My
God, the blessed Name of Jesus in person will come and destroy all
false religions, all evil men who have taken the “mark of the
beast” that I spoke of in past messages, and destroy the
Anti-Christ who proclaimed a “false god” and his messenger, the
false prophet. Just as the prophet Isaiah spoke of in the book that
bears his name, the prophet wrote down what those who remain and are
fortunate to escape alive through the coming Tribulation will
proclaim:
20
“Assemble
yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that
are escaped
of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their
graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot
save.
21Tell
ye, and bring them near;
yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from
ancient time? who hath
told it from that time? have not
I the LORD? and there
is no
God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there
is none
beside me.
23I
have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my
mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall swear.” (Isaiah 45:20-23)
9
“Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name:
10That
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in
earth, and things under
the earth;
11And that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)
The
two passage speak of the same glorious Person, Jesus Christ...one in
the Old Testament and another in the New Testament, to God the
Father's glory as God has proclaimed “JESUS” a Name above every
name.
WHAT
WILL YOU DO WITH THIS GOD/MAN, JESUS?
I
have briefly shown you that Jesus is God, that all other religions
are false, including Islam. In comparison, there is no other God.
Make no mistake about it. Jesus is coming, and may come very soon.
Will you continue to ignore the drawing of the Holy Spirit and reject
the free offer of salvation to your own eventual destruction, or will
you humble yourself and call out to the only Person who ever lived
that can free you from the bondage of sin and the penalty of eternal
death and separation from God Almighty? God calls all people, but
only a few will submit willingly to the call of God to repentance and
turn around from their evil ways and follow “the Way, the Truth and
the Life” ...the glorious name of JESUS. The Bible clearly states, that those who believe in Jesus and confess with their mouth that Jesus was raised from the dead, these will be saved.
8
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth,
and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.
10 For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
12 For
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
This
is Pastor Mike Taylor, proclaiming to you Jesus, in no other is there
found salvation but through Him...if you need counseling, prayer, or
just a friendly, listening ear, email me at
pastormiketaylor@yahoo.com,
God bless you all
TILL
WE MEET AT JESUS FEET
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