The work of the cross.

When we are baptized in water we are claiming that we have entered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From now on we are to live in newness of life. This means each day our flesh is devoted to death and our new born-again spiritual nature is nurtured.

There are three idols dwelling in our flesh that seek to guide our thinking, speaking, and acting. These three idols are the love of the world, fleshly lusts, and self-will. They are symbolized in Revelation, Chapter Eleven as Egypt, Sodom, and Jerusalem. In the last days God's witness will be overcome by Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem.

Even today the churches in America have been overcome by the lusts of the flesh, the love of the world, and self-will. The only way we can overcome Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem, is by ceasing to love and serve our self and begin to love and serve God.

The method by which we cease to love and serve our self and begin to love and serve God is that of taking up our cross and setting out after the Lord Jesus. Consider: when you choose to take up your cross, your means of execution, you are saying, "I love Jesus Christ more than I love myself." Isn't this what you are declaring?

We should be telling the Lord many times a day that we will do His will no matter what He requires because we love Him more than we love ourselves.

If you are unable to tell Jesus you love Him more than you love yourself you are not a Christian, not a disciple. You are not having a scepter of iron created in you. You are unable to govern the nations. Therefore you will not be gathered with the saints when the Lord appears, because the purpose of our gathering with Jesus and the saints is that we might descend with Him and establish by force the Kingdom of God on the earth.

We have a multitude of churchgoers, professors of Christ, in the United States of America. Out of this multitude there are not many who are willing to tell Jesus they will do His will no matter what He says. They are still rebels against God and are unfit to rule with Jesus, to meet Him when He appears. This may sound harsh to you but it is the truth. Please do not wait to find out if I am correct.

The Lord Jesus puts us in various kinds of prisons, situations we detest. He withholds from us the burning desires of our heart and mind. The disciple prays for strength to keep the word of Christ's patience one day at a time.

The churchgoer who is not a disciple wrenches himself from the Lord's prison, breaking God's laws in order to escape. This individual is so in love with himself he cannot serve the Lord. Antichrist overcomes him readily. He will never rule with Jesus unless God in His love sends such burning flames on him that his self- love is destroyed. Even then he may curse and deny God, and who knows what his end will be?