345. The Teachings of Jesus Christ

Why do people not discover the teachings of Jesus Christ? Simply because they do not have any use for them! Unfaithfulness in the beginning stages hinders further progress. For most Christians, the entire work of Christ begins and ends with Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for the sins they have committed. In their minds the forgiveness of sins includes justification, sanctification, and redemption. When they read that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, they believe they can attain to this fullness through the forgiveness of sins. When they read about the hundred and forty-four thousand who follow the Lamb wherever He goes and who are redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, they believe this all takes place in an instant by the forgiveness of sins.

Oh, no! I’m afraid you are the one who is going astray. Your sin deceives you. Your aversion to the sufferings of Christ makes you an unbeliever. The religious masses deceive you. Your slackness, slothfulness, laziness, and your reluctance to exert yourself makes you incompetent, just as an ill-behaved student becomes a “dunce” yet brags of his knowledge in the midst of his ignorance.

What do the teachings of Jesus Christ tell us?

“He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

Who among the religious masses does not love his father and mother more than Jesus? They cling to them and are far from being free.

“And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

Here the same “amputation” is needed, and who is able to bear it?

“And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Who does that? Who loves Jesus Christ so much that he keeps His commandments? It costs something for a person to take up his cross daily and follow Him.

“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matt. 10:37-40.

Have you found your unfaithfulness, your unbelief and slothfulness, your lust to control others, your lack of love toward the brothers, your imagined cleverness concerning the Scriptures, your covetousness and honor-seeking? You have probably found the way to the forgiveness of sins for all this, but tomorrow you are still a slave of sin. Why?

Because you do not take up your cross daily. You love your lusts more than Christ!

And you want to teach the others! Do you know exactly how everything should be? No, you are probably a professor in ignorance. Those who have the words of Jesus and keep them are the ones who will get to know the teaching that is from God. They live their way into the doctrine. Here it is unacceptable to sin, counting on grace. Rather we must use grace to get victory over sin.

Just a few words from the Scriptures are enough to knock you out completely. Why? You do not judge yourself. It has not become a habit for you to judge yourself. “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God”—with us. 1 Pet. 4:17-18. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the ones who belong to Him.

The Spirit of God must compel us

“You shall also make a lampstand [the church] of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece.” Exod. 25:31. [Emphasis added].

The bowls, the ornamental knobs, and the flowers on the lampstands were to be almond-shaped. The almond tree is called “the watchful tree.” Jer. 1:11. [Norw.] It blossoms earlier than other trees.

It is the same with the elect, those who hear the Word of God and act according to it. They blossom before other trees. They do not need two years to quit smoking tobacco, four years to decide that they need to pay their debts, etc. They blossom quickly in God’s garden. They crucify the flesh right away, with its lusts and desires. They are alert and attentive to Him who speaks from heaven. They do not remain in a denomination for twenty or forty years, because they know that sectarianism is a work of the flesh.

As with gold, they are hammered into the lampstand and become one with it, whether they are beginners (blossoms) or more advanced (mature almonds).

There were seven lamps in the lampstand. Exod. 25:37. “And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually.” Exod. 27:20.

It is the same now in the new covenant. If our lamps are to burn, we must provide crushed olives. There are things in our life that must be crushed. We find our life and lose it. If we take it like that, we walk in the light as He is in the light. Then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.

This is the starting point in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Do this, live according to this, and you will soon recognize whether the teaching is from God or from the devil.