On The Gospel

The fall of the demons

Lucifer fell because of pride (Is 14:13-14).

Why did the other demons fall with him?

There are a few reasons:

These are three warnings to Christians who would want to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven as well as obtain rewards in heaven:

Satan Hides the The Truth

To stop the influence of God on this earth he has to hide The knowledge of the Kingdom of God, who Jesus is as well the truths of the Bible. He also has to hide from people the truth about himself and his kingdom and what he is trying to do to the earth and the people on it.

The church has done little to stop these and at times even promoted these unknowingly these and other ungodly moral values of Satan.

Revival will only truly begin when people rediscover the Gospel of the Kingdom and are used by God to promote it on earth as that alone is the church God is promoting and not the man made denominational structure that exists these days.

Satan copies Jesus

Jesus is the Lion of Judah, Satan cannot be a lion but tries to imitate Jesus by going around like a roaring lion (I Pet 5: 8) and devouring all he can, especially the followers of Jesus who area lukewarm in following Jesus.

Satan tries to imitate Jesus and uses the things he can of The Kingdom of God for his own purposes. This is why he and his demons can appear to be good angels as they know the things of God but abuse them.

Satan has his own religion, with gifts, signs, ministries, such as the equivalent of: pastors, prophets, evangelists, priests etc to fill the roles he needs to set up a parallel religious system in his kingdom similar to that of Jesus so he can deceive people into following him and serving him.

The new age and Satanism are his version of the Kingdom of God and because he offers things similar to what God offers he has deceived many as the church has not proclaimed or demonstrated the Kingdom of God to draw these people to Jesus and perhaps in this is their greatest condemnation they said they believed in Jesus but did not do what He said His followers would because of their lack of faith in who He is.

The Gospel of The Kingdom is Holistic

Satan realizes this and how important it is so the New Age people are taught the importance of the holistic approach to life by their demon guides. You must deal with the total person: body, soul and mind - the physical, spiritual and mental not just the spiritual side of a person. They are so interrelated that all parts suffers if one part suffers.

The master stroke of Satan was to get people to concentrate on the Gospel of Salvation so that only the spiritual consequences of sin were dealt with. He hid the Gospel of The Kingdom which deals with the total freedom of the person from the ravages of the kingdom of Satan.

No wonder the church is physically sick, mentally ill and suffering.

The Gospel of The kingdom and its holistic approach means we need to look after out mind and body as well as our spirit. Remember, the state of the soul depends on how we look after out mind.

What is wrong with not preaching the Kingdom of God

If we do not preach the Kingdom of God we do not preach what Jesus preached. The kingdom involves healing, deliverance, a personal relationship with The Holy Spirit, His personal guidance and teaching and the relationship to Jesus and The Father as a citizen of His Kingdom. Salvation is a relationship with Jesus and The Father (Jn17:3). If we preach only the Gospel of Salvation then we do not preach all the above. We preach theology about salvation and little else.

What replaces the things of the Kingdom

The preaching of the Gospel of salvation alone leads to an ineffective church that is far from what Jesus wanted and which does not demonstrate The Kingdom.

Most church people have forgotten what it is to disciple and mentor a person as the leaders do it all now and they are usually to busy to do this time consuming activity. Because of this there is often little depth in the life of a Christian who is spoon fed Biblical knowledge but not usually shown how to apply it and make it an integral part of their lifestyle. This is the opposite of what Jesus did, as he lived with 12 men for two years and discipled them, preparing them to take over His work.

The church does not do this and wonders where the future leaders are and who will carry on its work. Churches usually do this form of discipling between minister and his understudies as they are prepared to take over churches in accordance with denominational principles so they can satisfy denominational requirements. This is a pity as the denomination is not The Kingdom of God which is what they really should be preaching, teaching and discipling others into its fullness and not the fullness of the denomination.

The Eight Gospels

Preface

You should be careful when you talk of ‘The Gospel’ as there are eight mentioned in the New Testament. I always thought there was only one until I looked up the words ‘gospel of’ and was quite surprised at the result of what I found.

We all know that the word ‘gospel’ means good news so preface this for all the eight gospels below.

The Gospel of The Kingdom

The Gospel of Jesus

The Gospel of God’s Grace

The Gospel of God

The Gospel of Peace

The gospels of circumcision and uncircumcision

The gospel of your salvation

They are all different aspects of God’s Love manifested through the finished work of Jesus.

An Analogy

As I meditated on our relationship to God I was awoken in the morning and given the following analogies, all of which are about relationships - examples to try and illustrate our relationship to God!:

In a sense we are like a pet, being obtained (created) for the owners pleasure, placed in a perfect environment, the owner taking complete care for us, giving us everything we need, coming regularly to check on us to see if we are well and also to talk (fellowship) with us. Doing everything the owner of a pet does for it, meeting its every need: emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, and when the pet gets lost He comes looking for it giving every help He can for it to find its way back into the Love the owner has for it.

Hence the purpose of Jesus was not to condemn but to save (restore) people to the relationship the owner originally had with His pet.

The good news is that God Loves us and meets our every need above the extent we allow Him too. The needs we don’t know are not a problem as He meets them regardless of what we think or do (unless He needs to deal with so we can accept them His provision in these areas). The ones we do know is where we have a choice that affects the way God can work in our life and possibly our eternal salvation as well!

Our hope is with Jesus and His restoration of the relationship mankind had with God in the beginning. In the work of Jesus is also found our hope of not being judged by God as well as the hope (promise) of eternal life resulting from the fellowship we have with Him and The Father, which is continuously developed in us if we let them.

He meets the needs we don’t know as well as the ones we do know (if we let Him). This results from a decision to place ourselves under His Mastership (Lordship) so He can once again be the owner (master) He was before the rebellion when one man (Adam) decided He did not want Him as master and chose another (Satan).

Adam made this choice by rejecting what Jesus had commanded him to do and in this gave the example of how we are separated by God through rejecting what He commands us to do. This rebellion is called ‘sin’ and if unrepented leads to eternal damnation.

The Gospel is restoration with, forgiveness, peace with God, the meeting of our needs by God through Jesus now as well the hope of a place with Him forever where none of the effects of rebellion can be found.

It is God in His Love seeking our best and helping us any way He can (according to the degree we let Him) with the aim of restoring the master/pet relationship that was in the beginning.

The Love of the master is greater than any Love we can imagine, after all, what pet owner lays down his life for a pet and is willing to risk everything to have the pet come back and love Him?

God is Love.

God is Love and His nature is that of a servant.

This means that everything He does for us as a Master is done in Love. So we should never doubt or question the motives of God – only our own reactions and the corruption that the devil tries to place on us. Whatever God does for us is done in Love and is for our best.

Just as people steal pets, so does the enemy seek to remove us from the master’s kingdom and to destroy us, as it is only away from the master’s protection that the devil can destroy us. It is only as we stay close to the master that we will be safe, unless the master thinks we need some training or development, in which case He will allow Satan to attack us but limits what he can do to us and will always ensure there is a way of escape to defeat the temptation or bear the trial (1 Cor 10:13).

When we are a disciple the master disciplines His pet (us) as He loves it and does not want it to hurt itself or to do things that offends Him.

The pet does not know its needs except through instinct (for its physical/fleshly needs). It enjoys the love and provision of its master for its basic needs and for anything above this (rewards) it especially delights in him and the relationship.

The pet has an implied responsibility to defend the owner and in this sense is his servant. The pet is also able to meet the some of the emotional needs of the owner and be a comfort and companion to him as well.

The pet is free to roam as it wills and to do what it wants to in the area controlled by or owned by the master as longs as it does so within the limits set by its master. All the pet has to do to enjoy the provisions and delights of the master is to be obedient and faithful - no matter what the master does.

We are more precious to the master than pets - He treats us as His own child!

Your relationship with God is richer than any master/pet relationship which is why the symbolism of marriage is used to go and show its depths. Hence we have the relationship of Lordship and the relationship of the bride to Jesus.

The example of the Love of Jesus for the church as an example of how a husband should love his wife. This Love is a result of the good news that Jesus exists and Loves us.

Another result is that we are in the Kingdom of the owner. We are in the yard of the master and should behave properly, doing the will of the master, enjoying the yard of the master as He provides our every need. It is only as we leave his yard and provisions (his area of control through disobedience) and enter into the territory of danger (his enemy) that we must provide for ourselves (as helped by His enemy).

This is why we must be content with what we have when it is provided by the master. The moment we are not content with what we have we must leave the yard (the Kingdom and its influence) to obtain it and take that which is not ours to our detriment and hurt.

Similar to the master/pet relationship is that of the sheep to the shepherd. Sheep can make good pets when raised from the lamb stage but I think the reference is more to do with sheep being animals relying completely on the shepherd for provision and direction. This illustration is to show our complete dependence on the shepherd for all that we need. If the sheep ignores the directions and control of the shepherd it gets into trouble and may end up as meat for a wild animal.

Ignoring the good shepherd (Jesus) will only cause us trouble, as Jesus is the best master or owner we can have!

The mind ‘cannot comprehend’ the Love of God behind these relationships and what the master has in store as He seeks to develop us into better creations of His!

For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to restore and guide us back into the relationship that was lost through our ignoring the master’s voice (His requirements).

We cannot blame Adam and Eve for our loss of this relationship – only for the loss of the paradise they originally lived in, but even that will be restored one day.

Each person rebels against God and thus separates their relationship with God, and each person must decide to re-enter this relationship. This is why we cannot blame others for our going to hell if we reject God’s requirements for we all have voluntarily done wrong and fallen short of God’s requirements and ignored the still small voice of the master as He tried to restore us by telling us what was required: faith in Jesus, who He is and What He done and promised.

The good news is that Jesus is and has removed all that was stopping the relationship being restored with God and that The Father accepts this restoration as a result of that we have a far better place to go to than the kingdom of darkness we are living in now, and because of all of these things we have hope!

Is knowledge of Jesus necessary for salvation?

No! Or those who have never heard of Jesus would go to hell! It was estimated that 60% of all who have ever lived have never heard of Jesus. To be saved we have to obey the voice of the master. If you know about Jesus and His teachings then you know your masters requirements. If you do not know of Jesus or His teachings then you must listen to the voice of your master as spoken to your conscience by The Holy Spirit. In either case, to ignore these is to ignore your master’s requirements (love) with the consequential effects (See Rom 2:14-16).

This is why no one has any excuse for saying that God was unjust and vindictive in sending them to hell as all will have heard the masters voice one way or another, so that they are without excuse!

The Gospel in Outline

1. Two Kingdoms

2. You are born into the territory of the kingdom of Satan but only be long to it after you disobey God

3. Whose kingdom you belong you when you die determines your eternal fate

4. Entrance to God’s Kingdom

4.2 Requires following Jesus as our Lord (King)

5. Why do we decide to follow Jesus?

6. How do we follow Jesus

7. Results of Following Jesus as Lord

8.1 God had to originate this rescue attempt as we did not know we need it.

How a person decides to follow Jesus Christ

How to become a follower of Jesus:

Law is legalism

Grace is Mercy

Escape judgment and hell

Pursue Holiness and sanctification (setting ourselves apart for the purposes of The King and living only for Him)

Jesus alone is our Judge

Jesus becomes our Lord

You are God’s Temple

Cannot serve two masters (Jesus or Satan)

Jesus must be obeyed in everything

Should have the same purposes as Him

Responsibilities of King

Holy Spirit lives in our spirit

Victory is in His (Jesus’) authority (Revelation 12:11, Colossians 2:13-16, Philippians 2:9-11)

Jesus has been given all authority by The Father

Defeated enemy at Calvary

A Warning

To be saved is not an act like going to the altar, inviting Jesus in your heart, renouncing sin in public. It is a decision to voluntarily follow Jesus as Lord. When you do this you then are placed in The Kingdom of God by The Father and become a citizen of that Kingdom and so are ‘saved’. You then are required to live as a citizen of this Kingdom which means renouncing things of your former lifestyle that does not fit in with the lifestyle of a Christian. This is a repentance and is necessary to embrace the new lifestyle and to be able to be recreated by God into the ‘new’ man you need to be to serve Jesus and The Father as guided by The Holy Spirit.

If this repentance is not there and you do not voluntarily follow Jesus as Lord do not have salvation.