CHRIST'S
CROSS AND
THE FINAL SOLUTION!
By
Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
Watching
the almost apocalyptic
beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Christians by hate-filled, demon
possessed
Islamic
Terrorists
- following in the steps of their genocidal
seventh-century leader -
almost makes any normal person sick!
"They
are not human; worse than beasts",
you say! Yet, the Bible says that God loves them and Jesus died for
their sins, as evil as they are. By looking into their eyes you see
what happens when the devil takes control of a soul! Pray
for their salvation!
Remember
that Saul of Tarsus
was a Jewish Terrorist who killed believers in Yeshua Ha Maschiach
(Jesus the Messiah)
and how Jesus changed him! He changed his name to Paul and
under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, wrote nearly one-half of the
New Testament! Can
these evil men change? Yes! With God all things are possible!
(Mark 9: 23; 10:27)
Having
said that, "Would
you want these inflamed criminals, who have innocent blood on their
hands living in your neighbourhood? To be free to molest, rape and
brainwash your children and take over the country?"
I think not!
These
barbarians are taught from early childhood to hate, rape and murder
defenseless people who do not bow their heads to the ground in
worship to their 'moon
god'. They are
slaves to a politically dangerous system of cruelty and inhumanity!
Yet,
as children of God and believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are
commanded to love them, pray for them and to win them for Christ and
His Kingdom.
JESUS
CAME TO SAVE SINNERS!
The
Good News is that Jesus Christ came into the world to "seek
and to save that which was lost."
(Luke 19:10) He didn't come for the righteous, but He came for
sinners. The Holy Bible states: "All
have sinned and fallen short of the Kingdom of God."
(Rom. 3:23) That includes us all, no exceptions!
The
Scriptures declare: "God
hath concluded all under sin",
so that we are all guilty and without excuse: “…That
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God.”
(Rom. 3: 19). Again, St Paul writes: "The
wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Rom. 6: 23)
We
are saved by Grace alone,
through Faith alone,
and in Christ alone!
It is not by works of righteousness, but by His grace that we are
saved. (Eph. 2: 8, 9). Christ alone suffered, bled and died
for our sins to bring us to God.
The
Bible says: "Being justified freely by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation (satisfaction,) through
faith in His BLOOD, to declare His righteousness for the
remission of sins that are passed, through the forbearance of God;
"To
declare, I say at this time His righteousness: that He might be just,
and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom.
3: 24-26). The Sovereignty of God demanded punishment for SIN and the
CROSS provided the FINAL SOLUTION.
For
four thousand years, God, in His great mercy and kindness allowed the
sacrifice of innocent lambs, goats and bullocks (occasionally a
red heifer) to suffice.
When
the ‘fullness of time’ had come, Almighty God gave Himself in His
SON, to be the propitiation for our sins. The word propitiation means
the covering,
satisfaction and expiation.
The only RIGHTEOUS ONE, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, had to die to cover
our sins and satisfy the demands of Divine Justice!
Our righteous,
just and merciful God had to bring judgment upon all sinners
through the VICARIOUS death of a righteous man. No man could qualify
for all are born in sin, therefore He had to pay the sin debt
Himself.
The
INCARNATION of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, settled the sin
question for time and eternity, through His sacrificial death on
Golgotha!
BORN
TO DIE IN OUR PLACE!
That
is why Jesus of Nazareth had to be crucified. He was born to die;
to be crucified in order to
pay the sin debt for all unrighteous humanity, to meet the demands of
Divine Justice for our awful sins against the Almighty.
This
is possibly the Bible’s greatest verse: "He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom.
8:32)
In
1978,
I was preaching in Ghana,
Africa in a large
Gospel Crusade. I became very homesick. I could not eat their food.
The netting around my bed was broken and since I had forgotten to
take my anti-malaria pills, I didn't get much sleep.
I
was very unhappy even though we were seeing many souls come to Christ
and powerful miracles were taking place. I was studying Romans
when suddenly it jumped out at me with such force that I was shocked.
Our Heavenly Father let me know what it cost Him to provide the Great
Salvation that I was proclaiming so freely!
JESUS
WAS SMITTEN OF GOD!
I
had read that verse many times but never fully understood it. I was
torn to pieces as I saw how the Father had ‘TURNED
OVER’
His only
begotten Son to murderers who would mock Him, spit in His face,
scourge Him and nail Him to the Cross of shame for us.
I
wondered how He could do that, as I personally would never allow
anyone to harm my wife or children. Only over my dead body, would
anyone molest, rape or kill my family!
Then
He took me to Isaiah: "Surely
He hath borne our sicknesses (heb.makob
) and
carried our pains (heb.nasa):
yet we did esteem Him stricken, SMITTEN
OF GOD and
afflicted.
"But
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His
stripes we are healed.
"All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way; and the Lord
hath LAID
UPON HIM the
iniquity of us all. Yet it pleased
to BRUISE
HIM; He hath
put HIM TO
GRIEF..." (Isaiah
53: 4-6, 10)
God
the Father laid our sins, sicknesses and pains on His Son. It was God
the Father Who smote His
Son for us, and what really tore me up was that God
was pleased when
Jesus suffered, bled and died for us! I prayed and wept for
several days after God had spoken to me!
Shortly
after that crusade, God opened the door to ARGENTINA.
No crusades were held there because of the Military
Rule, but God
opened the door for Omar
Cabrera and
me to reach Cordova
for Christ.
Great
Miracles happened every evening and the crowd grew to 48,000 on May
15, 1978. Omar Cabrera then continued the Crusades and his Cordova
Church grew from zero to 8,000 in 9 months and within 18 months,
Vision de Futuro
had 150 churches with 450 pastors.
Then,
Carlos Anacandia got saved and began to preach and the rest is
history as he and others have reached several millions.
I
SPOKE TO THE MILITARY!
Interestingly,
when Omar contacted me his heart was to go to Paraguay, but that
wasn't working out. The Holy Spirit put Argentina on my heart. Omar
had been forced to leave his country when his name was found on a
Rebel hit list. He said he was finished with Argentina and would
never return, but I was adamant that we should hold the crusade
there. Finally Omar said: "Okay,
we'll try Cordova."
We
started with six thousand in attendance the first night. By the
fourth night we had 10,000 and the Chief
of Police finally
came back to town and signed the permit. The Roman Catholic Church
which had opposed the Crusade, lost control over their people. Nuns
and priests attended openly rejoicing in the great things which God
did and carrying their tape recorders to get the messages I
brought!
I
had requested a meeting with the Military
Junta and
demanded that they stop their persecution of the Evangelicals and
Pentecostals to
which they agreed. From
that day onward the persecution stopped and the Revival steam rolled
ahead.
After
preaching to the four Colonels
for 20 minutes about God
and
the Devil, Heaven and Hell, the Cross and the
Blood
of Christ, the leading COLONEL said loudly, "What
do you want from us?"
I
said: "Stop
persecuting the Evangelicals and the Pentecostals!"
He said: "O.K.
What else do you want?"
I
answered: "Get
down on your knees and give your hearts to the Lord." They
were shocked. Omar let out a big laugh, I smiled and they
relaxed. I said: "I
would like to pray for you and
your
families.”
Immediately, he said: "Yes,
please do."
After prayer, thy all shook my hand and told me about the good things
they had heard about the crusade.
That
is how the official persecution stopped and how the REVIVAL
started in Argentina in May, 1978. Praise
the Lord!
GO
INTO ALL THE WORLD!
This
Gospel is for ALL
people of ALL
the world including the Muslim World! Jesus Christ commanded: "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ...." (Mark
16: 15-20)
King
David prophesied: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against
the Lord, and against His
ANOINTED,
saying, Let us break the bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us. (Psalms 2: 2, 3)
The
Apostles
prayed, quoting David: "For a truth against Thy Holy Child
Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod,
and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel,
were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel
determined before to be done." (Acts 4:25-28)
The
whole world
was involved in carrying out the will of God in the sacrificial death
of Christ for us all. King
Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and Israel
is a representation of the Entire World that stands guilty in the SIN
of crucifying the Son of God!
And
the entire world
is invited to receive God's forgiveness, peace, healing, blessing and
deliverance which has been purchased for us all through the shed
BLOOD of
Jesus Christ our Lord and His glorious resurrection from the dead!
The
Bible says: "Looking
for that blessed HOPE
and the glorious appearance of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ Who GAVE
HIMSELF for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus
2:13, 14)
"But
after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
"Which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being
justified by His GRACE,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
(Titus 3: 4-7) All glory to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen!
Is
God able to save and fill with His Holy Spirit, the tough, evil,
perverted Muslim terrorists? Read Acts chapters 9, 22 and 28. If He
can reach a Jewish terrorist He can reach a Muslim terrorist! Nothing
is too hard for our God!
A
GREAT MIRACLE IN NORWAY!
In
late August, 2001,
I was preaching in a small town in Norway
and learned about a refugee camp where hundreds of Muslim
refugees from the
Kosovo War were being housed. I asked if anyone was reaching them
with the love of Christ. They
answered, “No”.
I
challenged the pastor’s wife who was teaching them Norwegian, to
invite them to our Revival Meeting. She answered that it was against
the new school rules to talk to students about Jesus!
I
countered: “St.
Peter said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than man’. It seems
rather strange to me that a Pentecostal Pastor’s wife would not
have the courage to obey God rather than
rules put in place by some political hack”
She
said: “O.K. I will ask them.” She did and eight people accepted.
The Pastor picked them up and brought them to the meeting. All
received Jesus Christ as their Saviour and since August 2001 until
now that Church has baptized more than 1,000 Muslims to Jesus Christ.
The
Holy Bible says: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God
our Saviour; Who
will have all men to be Saved, and to come to the
knowledge
of the Truth. For there is ONE GOD, and one Mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave Himself a ransom for ALL, to be
testified in due time.”
(1
Tim. 2: 3-6)
THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST AVAILS!
The
hymn writer penned the life-giving words: “The
Blood avails, the Blood of the Bleeding Lamb. Just like in Olden
Days, Praise God the Blood avails!”
The
Cross of Christ has been referred to as the 'Axis
of Salvation'
and the climax of the cosmic conflict between God and Satan, between
good and evil on Golgotha.
What happened there on the 14th
of Abib in
ca. 33 A.D. forever marked our Heavenly Father as the God of Majesty
and Power, of Compassion and Love, of Righteousness and Justice!
Early
that morning the stage had been set for the 'Greatest
Transfer of Mercy and Grace',
ever known in the universe, and will endure throughout Eternity. Adam
had committed gross sin against his Father and God, and had been
ejected from the Garden of Gethsemane. God
the Son,
had been incarnated to die as God's Paschal Lamb to liberate the
human race from sin, sickness and the devil!
At
9:00 o' clock on the great Day
of Atonement
the high priest tied the paschal lamb to the Altar in the temple. At
that very hour, Jesus the Lamb of God, was nailed to the Cross on
Golgotha. For six hours they both waited for death. At
3:00 o'clock, the high priest, having transferred the sins of Israel
onto the head of paschal lamb, cut it's juggler slaying it.
At
precisely the same moment, Earth's great High Priest tore the veil
from top to bottom and LEFT the temple. Instantaneously, He stood on
Golgotha's Hill and laid the SINS
OF THE WORLD
on the head of His Son. At that moment Jesus shouted His Victory Cry,
“It
is Finished.”
(John 19:30)
Jesus
spoke in Greek, saying, Tet-el-estai,
taken from the Greek verb teleo
which has three essential meanings: to finish something, to bring
something to an end; to fulfill something; to pay that which is
owed.”
Jesus
had finished His mission and brought to an end Satan's domination
over the human race. He had fulfilled all the O.T. prophecies about
the Messiah and paid for all our sins, sicknesses and pains! The
fountain was open, His blood was flowing and there is no longer any
need for the Holy of Holies or the blood of bulls and goats!
“And
the sun was darkened, and veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He
said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said
thus, He gave up the ghost.”
(Luke 23:45, 46)
He
had purchased Eternal
Life
for all who would receive Him as their Lord and Saviour! The Bible
says: “And He (Jesus Christ) is the propitiation (God
is satisfied with Christ's Sacrifice)for
our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE
WORLD.”
(1 John 2:2)
That
takes in everyone from all the nations of the world, including the
Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists, Communists, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah
Witnesses and Christians!
Clearly
stated, there is but ONE God and Father, and ONE Lord Jesus Christ
Who is both Creator and Sustainer of the world and sole Saviour and
Redeemer of the human race, and ONE Blessed Holy Spirit who draws all
men to Christ.
All
other so-called gods, goddesses and deities are mere counterfeits,
imitators and pretenders!
It
is Christ and Christ alone who saves, heals, delivers and liberates
from sin, fear, sickness, disease and all the powers of Darkness and
Satan!
Praise
the Lord forever and ever! Hallelujah and Amen.
