WHEN GOD DRAWS A LINE IN THE SAND

WHEN GOD DRAWS A LINE IN THE SAND

                When Jesus came to this earth He drew a line in the sand and planted His cross right in the middle of time. Being the very Creator of the universe and the sovereign Master of all of history, His line forever divided B.C. from A.D. …   Old covenant from New Covenant… Law from Grace… types and shadows from living realities. From slaves He has made us into sons and daughters of God and all of this by the magnificent and infinite and eternal blood of Jesus.

                When we sing that there is power in the blood, we are making a gross understatement of the facts. The song is true of course, but even the whole world could never contain all that it means in terms of cosmic history… and in our little religious games we rarely if ever plumb the depths of what has been cut off from us as well as what has been given.

                “For unto us a child is born, a son is given and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:6-7

                The god of this world thought to destroy this infinite gift not realizing that he would actually take part in bringing about the promised kingdom of Christ.

                “Yet we speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:6-9

                In recent years there has been a mad rush to understand all things Jewish. People seek what they feel like might be a more tangible relationship with God such as it was on the other side of the cross. They go back to types and shadows and feast days as if there is some divine mystery there that we have left behind. Millions of “Zionist Christians” contribute to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and the re-establishment of the Old Covenant as if there is salvation in types and shadows. What are they thinking?

                Read these words carefully: “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the FLESH and the son by the free woman through the PROMISE. This contains an allegory; for these woman are TWO COVENANTS, one proceeding from Mt. Sinai bearing children who are slaves; she is Hagar.”

                “Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.  BUT THE JERUSALEM ABOVE IS FREE; SHE IS OUR MOTHER. For it is written” Rejoice barren woman who does not bear; break forth and shout you who are not in labor; for more are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.”

                “And you brethren, like Isaac are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. But what does the Scripture say? Cut out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman. So brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free woman.” Gal 4:22-31

                So given this knowledge, why would we who are children of the free woman and children according to promise, why would we seek to go back to Mt. Sinai and to Jerusalem from below, when we belong to the eternal New Jerusalem that is from above? Do we really want to give up our freedom in Christ Jesus to become slaves again?

                We often think of this text as talking about Jews verses Arabs, but it is not. Isaac and Ishmael contain in allegory. They represent two covenants, (the Old Covenant and the New Covenant) one coming from Mt. Sinai and corresponding to present day Jerusalem in Israel, which corresponds to the Old Covenant; while the other, the child of promise born to the free woman, Sarah, represents the New Covenant as brought to us by the child of Promise Jesus Christ the divine Son of God.

                Whatever Jesus came to earth to bring us, it was not a covenant of slavery. Jesus came to bring many sons to Glory. He did not come to remodel the covenant of slavery. He came to replace that covenant with a completely New Covenant with a new eternal High Priest and new laws and a new resurrected life in the Spirit. He came so that we could die to the covenant of slavery and to be born again as sons and daughters of Promise. Instead of buildings, we ourselves become the temples of the Holy Spirit.

                When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we become the legitimate sons of Abraham and heirs according to promise. Gal. 3:29

                Can it be any clearer? And so Paul says to us that the Law which came 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.” Gal. 3:17

                So why are we Christians so enamored with Judaism and why are we seeking to help them rebuild the Old Covenant with its temple and its Laws and its Levitical priesthood? Do we understand what an affront this is to God? This in itself is an ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION even before the antichrist steps in and claims to be God. And even common sense will tell us that since they have rejected Jesus, they are not building this new temple for Him. The god of the Kabbalah is none other than Lucifer and if you study into the Kabbalah it becomes very apparent in their Sefirot Tree that they worship the Serpent that is in the tree of knowledge and their religion is the sorcery, the cup of abominations and as Revelation 11:8 tells us, the two witnesses will lie dead in the streets of the city which is mystically called Sodom and Egypt where also their Lord was crucified.” This is none other than Jerusalem.

                So the big question remains: Why is Christianity so attracted to that old covenant which stands on the other side of the cross… on the other side of the line that God drew in the sand? Why are so many Christians now seeking security in a covenant of slavery? There can only be one reason: It is because many Christians are not actually living in the power of the New Covenant.

                About 30 or so years back the church moved from making disciples to a program of church growth using Madison Avenue strategies. But in order to build and to maintain these mega churches they had to lower their standards… to pander to the highest tithe payers… to follow the money so to speak. The message changed from the Gospel of the Cross, to self- help and prosperity. Even repentance has largely been dropped and so, even though many revel in this self-imposed “freedom” they somehow find themselves longing for accountability and control and security.

                So the laws and the rituals and the liturgies and the structure of the Old Covenant seem to provide that sense of security which they have lost in watered down Christianity. Today a surprising number of Christians are even abandoning Christ and going back to Judaism and now many are seeking their sense of belonging in the Jerusalem below rather than the Jerusalem that is above. Evangelical churches everywhere are being festooned with Menorahs and shofars and other Old Covenant paraphernalia as if to provide structure to structure-less churches.

                What we really need, rather than returning to Old Covenant structures is to enter more fully into that which Jesus Christ brought to us when He drew His line in the sand. We need to become more than members. We need to become disciples… and we need to stop being mere spectators and to become students of the word. We need to own our own salvation and to study to show ourselves approved unto God. More than mere membership, we need to be born again into the family of God.

                “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” 2 Tim. 2:15

                Today we want to be spoon fed and entertained. We don’t want to dig into scripture to see if what we believe is the truth. WE don’t want to ask questions. We want a belief system that doesn’t require any changes, or discipline, or dying to self or taking up the call of Christ on our lives. We don’t want to soil our egos by witnessing to others, or to cramp our style by seeking to live righteous and holy lives. But even as we avoid all forms of discipline, we also tend to despise weak authority even as children despise their parents who do not discipline them.

                So now many disillusioned Christians are seeking the discipline of the Old Covenant to fill in that which has been missing from their own form of Christianity. Unfortunately, even as we do that we are walking right into the arms of the antichrist that is more than glad to take the place of Christ in our lives.

                There are people who are risking their lives to warn us about Kabbalah and the coming global religion of the beast as it is currently being built by the Pope of Rome and the Cabbalists of Jerusalem and the secular world powers and money brokers.  They are literally building the kingdom and the structures and laws of the antichrist that will soon dominate the world. All of the secret societies in this world are based upon cabbalism and its sorceries. The Masonic Lodge and all of the other secret organizations such as the Jesuits and even the New World Order people, with their secret handshakes and their symbolism are all connected and they are forming a global kingdom from which there will be no escape and no buying or selling.

                The surveillance technologies are in place… the tracking technologies are in place… the cashless society is soon to be sprung upon us in which every penny will be controlled and tracked… and yet many are falling away and ignorantly joining forces with the beast system itself. Noahide laws will soon be passed that target Christianity as a form of idolatry and punishable by beheading. Therefore the prophecies of the bible are about to come true in real time.

                Paul warned us in every way that he could and yet today Christians are falling once again for that same old line of adding Old Covenant laws back into the New Covenant as if that which Jesus brought to us by His blood is not sufficient for our salvation.

                The problem with the New Covenant is that it requires a death to self and to the world and a new birth into the kingdom of Christ, there to live by His Spirit and His power and His Word rather than by our flesh with its carnal desires. So the problem is that if you don’t go all the way with Jesus then you are left in the class of the foolish virgins who had no oil… so rather than die to self, you seek some other alternate form of security and the Old Covenant stands waiting to take us back in.

                But Hagar cannot produce the child of promise. The slave woman can only produce slave children. Only the free woman can produce children of promise… sons and daughters of God by birth.

                The line has been drawn in the sand and the tension is increasing as we near the end, for every soul on the planet must choose whom they will serve. Don’t take it for granted that just because you are a member that you are a son or a daughter. Sons and daughters are born into the Kingdom… not merely added. So there is a cross for us that provides that death and a resurrection that provides life and a new priesthood that reconciles us to the Father through Jesus Christ and we have been called to be His disciples. Selah