The Cross, Repentance from Sin, and the New Birth

You are a Christian. You want to win souls to Christ. But what is the exact message that you need to deliver? Christ is our example. What did He say to them?

Christ did not mince words. The first words out of His mouth were these: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Abrupt, perhaps. Straight to the point. Yet that short message is packed with meaning. He is saying, You must repent of your sins because God’s kingdom is right here, right now, waiting for you to enter. But you must make a spiritual entrance. If you do not change your old ways, you will miss this opportunity to be with Me in My kingdom, for I am its King.

The Spirit of Christ in the apostle John continues explaining what He is talking about. Unless you are born from above—born again—you cannot see nor enter the spiritual kingdom of God. This is being born of the Spirit. Except a man be born again [born from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3: 3-5.

Everybody has heard that, but few know what it means. In order to be born of the Spirit, thereby guaranteeing your entrance into His kingdom, there must be a dying of the old seed within us. And that old seed is the old heart, the old Adamic sinful nature. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 24).

Our old sin nature is like a bad seed that keeps producing sinful actions. And there is only one way to rid ourselves of it, and that is to surrender it to the death of the cross with Christ. That will bring the change of heart when we believe that He plants a new righteous seed in our hearts. This new seed germinates by faith in His resurrection. It sprouts forth love, joy, and peace. This is the born again experience. It comes out of repentance from sin. When a man gets this right, then he will have seen and entered the kingdom of God.

The Cross Experience

Many preachers speak about Christ suffering and dying on the cross for us. They say that He was our substitute; they say to just believe in His death and resurrection and you are saved. Many speak of this, but few explain what God requires of us concerning the cross. Just acknowledging Christ’s death is not enough to get rid of the old sinful nature. The old nature that we are born with has to die, or it will keep sprouting up. That’s why so many people back slide into sin. They back slide because their old sin nature is still there.

What the preachers fail to realize is that when Christ died on the cross, mankind’s old sinful nature died with Him. We are to examine ourselves. God is now asking, Has your old sin nature died on the cross with Christ? As professing Christians, have you laid down willingly your old sinful life, letting it die with Christ? Or have you just felt sorry for your sinful ways and “walked the aisle” like they encouraged you to do? Most mistake this experience as being “born again.” It is good to feel sorrow for the sinful way we have lived. “Godly sorrow leads us to repentance.” However, it is not repentance from sin (II Cor. 7: 10).

To the Cross

Godly sorrow leads you to the cross, the spiritual place of your repentance, which is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. Next, you must realize that Christ took upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and He died as a lost man. For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. II Cor. 5: 21.

When Christ died on the cross, the sin of all mankind died with Him. In God’s eyes, everyone’s  old sinful self died when He died. He could take all the sins of the whole world on Himself because He is the only man in history who was perfect–a perfectly sinless human being. He was the only One pure enough to be the sacrificial “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). He was the only One pure enough to wash away your sin and mine.

This is how the shedding of His blood cleanses us of all sin. The life is in the blood. When Christ bled out on the cross, the life of sin, the strength of sin, the force of sin died. That is the power of the blood of Christ—because sin’s life force, sin’s blood, drained out, leaving sin lifeless within us. God just requires us to believe it, to believe His word about it. It is through belief that we become new creatures whose life force is restored by the power of His resurrection.

Our old nature died with Him on the cross. It is a spiritual death, not a physical one. Our old selves are already dead in God’s eyes. Why would any one knowing this continue to go on sinning? “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And they won’t come to the light lest their “deeds should be discovered” (John 3: 19-20).

But I Am Baptized

Yet, some believe that after they are baptized in water, somehow mystically they are okay. But baptism is an outward symbol of a spiritual event called the cross experience. Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6: 3-6.

Our sin nature died on the cross. We are free! Free from the guilt, the shame, the mental torture, the indignity, the pain, and the fear. Free!

Sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, and it is the written record of what the old sinful nature can and will do (I John 3: 4). Sinning is the old nature still manifesting itself through actions that break the law. “And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5). By dying with Him, we are freed from the bondage of sinning!

Free! Free from sin and sinning! Free now to grow spiritually to the point where we will bear much fruit like Peter, James, John and Paul. Free! Are you kidding me? Believe this truth in Christ, and you’ll be walking in a new life, freed from sin, for He has given us a new heart (Ezek. 18: 31).

This is true repentance. This is being born again of His incorruptible seed, the word of God (I Peter 1: 23). By faith we have to reckon our old self dead and gone with Christ on the cross, and also reckon ourselves alive unto God by faith in Christ’s resurrection. He said it; we believe it, and now we walk in its light. He gave His word on this. He is way ahead of us. He already sees us as righteous before Him. He is just waiting on His elect to believe His word, to believe like He believes. He with great patience waits for His chosen ones to awake unto righteousness, thus fulfilling His purpose of reproducing Himself.

This freedom from sin and sinning is the fruit of repentance wrought at the cross. It is the key to being born again and entering into His kingdom. This is why, to win souls, Christ spoke these words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If this article helped you, hit the “like” button. Comment, share if the Spirit moves you. And be sure to send for my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book you desire to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com }

…With Me from the Beginning

(from journal entry, 12-8-21)

It was early morning, and I was still in bed. I opened my eyes, and the first thought that crystalized out of the foggy dream mind was – “The Beginning.” The “beginning?” Why was I thinking that? Then another thought came that answered the question: “… with Me from the beginning.” With ME. I was with Christ. I knew that it was the Spirit speaking to me through thoughts. I began then to ponder these cryptic words. What did the Spirit mean?

So, I looked the word “beginning” up in the Greek. The “beginning” comes from the word arche, #G746 in Strong’s. It means “the origin, the active cause, used absolutely of the beginning of all things.”

Christ said, “I am the beginning and the end.” Christ is the “active cause.” He is our origin (Revelation 1:8-11,17-18). “In the beginning was the Word.” Christ is the beginning. Therefore, in Christ was the Word. Word = Logos [the purpose and plan of God]. Christ is the “active cause” in the creation of heaven and earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).

Our Savior, the “Word made flesh,” came to earth to bear witness to the truth, that He is the truth. And we, too, are to bear witness to the truth because we were with Him in the beginning. Christ said, “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27). This is not speaking of the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. The Greek word arche is used for the beginning of all things. It is used as such in this verse: “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1).

 We are a part of the record in heaven of the things that will occur on earth. We were with him in the beginning. He knew us before because He created us as a member of His body in heaven before the earth was formed. Then He dipped us into the earth as we slid out of the matrix of our mothers’ wombs, and then we were cast out into the sea of lost mankind.

We, who had once basked in the glorious light of our Father in heaven, were now left to grow up, barely afloat in the treacherous rip tides of sin. Sin was our task master, and we obeyed his desires. The bondage to sin weighed heavily to the point of us drowning, and then we cried out in anguish and disillusionment, and then a hand reached down, a strong hand of love, and He pulled us up out of the quagmire.

He cleaned us up at the cross. He allowed us to identify our sinful selves with the Lamb, the sin sacrifice, and we died with Him. With the death of our old man, we believe that we are now buried with Him and raised with Him, now to walk in a “newness of life.” We now know and believe that “he that is dead is freed from sin.” We now spiritually step out on the water and walk in the Spirit (Rom. 6:1-11).

And then our earthly past died, and we began to grow as a seedling, tasting its first rays of light. Through study and communication with the Spirit, we grew and grew until He showed us that we had a special calling to fulfill, a special job to do. We are to share the love that saved us, by telling others the story of deliverance through His great love.

As we grow, we become a part of the witness in the earth of the record in heaven. God already knew that we would respond to His voice. He knew us and knew what we were made of. He made us, before the things we can see with our earthly eyes were made. For we were with Him in the beginning. And He has chosen us and given us a destiny way back there at the “Beginning.”

“…God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30). Yahweh predestined us, not to just be saved, but to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” At Christ’s return to earth, He will change our weak, earthly body, “that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).

We are talking about being like Christ and His apostles! Nothing less. But before this greatest of honors is bestowed upon us, we must “arm ourselves with the same mind.” We must know and do the apostles’ doctrine and add to our faith seven spiritual attributes of Christ.

We have so much knowledge to receive. Knowing His mind will finally drive out every thought that is contrary to His purpose and plan. The mind is the battlefield where we conquer the enemy’s errant desires for us. Amid the battle, it is easy to forget that we have already won, for “we are more than conquerors through Christ.” In Him lies our power, strength, and will.

O, let us shower Him with thanks for granting us the exit visa at the cross. Repentance from sin comes when we realize that we “are dead and our life is hid with Christ…” We are a part of His body now, unencumbered by that spiritually corrupt old life. We now believe that we are a part of Christ, and the Father’s heart of love dwells within us. All this happens because He mercifully allowed us to be with Him in the beginning.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Forgiveness Is at the Heart of Repentance

(from Journal,  5-11-15)

Repentance is the first step on the path of righteousness. “Unless you repent you shall all likewise perish,” (Luke 13:5). Repentance is a grave concept, not to be misunderstood. A seeker of God must not get this wrong.

Nevertheless, the way to repentance is guided by the warm arms of forgiveness. For had not Christ forgiven us all, we would never be able to come to the altar of repentance from our sins.

Many believe that past sins are forgiven them by God, but they don’t believe that the sin nature within them—the old nature that produced the sin—is gone away for good. And therein lies the problem—the recurrence of sin in a person’s life. Why does sin keep cropping up? It is because of unbelief that our old sinful self has died with Christ on the cross. Through this unbelief, the old heart will still produce sin, the breaking of the Ten Commandments.

Sins Sent Away

The word “forgiveness” is translated from the Greek word aphiemi, a verb which means “to send away or depart.” Christ has sent our sins away.

We see this in the types and shadows of the old Mosaic law. One remembers how the Aaronic priest laid his hands on the scapegoat, transferring the people’s sins onto the goat. And then the goat was sent away into the wilderness, taking their sins with it. The scapegoat was a type of the Lamb of God “who takes away the sins of the world.” Christ had the heavy responsibility of being that Sacrifice. Christ took upon Himself all the sins of humanity. Shockingly for some, He died as a lost man that day; I say, in the similitude of a lost man. “For He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

He was our scapegoat offering. He has forgiven us in that He has sent our old selfish heart away. He is saying to us, Thy sins are forgiven. Your sins are sent away; they are departed and gone. They are no longer there. “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).   

Forgiving the Debt

The Greek word translated “repentance” has another nuance of meaning. It means to “to forgive a debt.” When we owe someone money, for example, we have a debt until either it is paid or until the debt is forgiven. When forgiven, the debt is gone, poof! It is no longer a reality; it no longer exists.  

It is the same with the old heart that sins. That person has a debt to love his fellow man, for God has said, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8 NIV). That is our debt: to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And yet, sin is the opposite of love, and it resides in unregenerated man. These are those that Christ has commanded us to love. We are to love the unlovable, those who have hurt us. We love them by forgiving them. This is how our debt is paid.

But our debt can never be paid by trying to do good works in our own strength. Yahweh takes away our sin through the sacrifice of His Son. We can repent through His grace to us.  This happens when we identify our sinful nature with Christ. Then the sin dies with Christ, and by belief/faith in His resurrection in us, we now walk in a “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

Once this revelation sinks in, then we can say as Paul did that it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me (Gal 2:20). We need only read and believe Romans 6:1-15 and not question it.

When we do this, the sin will depart forever. The debt is paid. Our sins are forgiven. For good. All gone. Departed. Christ is big enough to make this happen. No more sin in our lives. It is a wondrous thing. This is His doctrine, and it is astonishing!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Forgetting, Reaching Forth, and Pressing

The mind is a funny thing. It seems to have its own, well, mind. It seems to have a keen desire to dwell on the past—either to lounge in nostalgia or shudder in regret and shame.

We will never be transformed into the image of the invisible Yahweh if we dwell on our past actions. As long as guilt, regret, and shame are the fruit of the garden of our minds, we will never bear the “much fruit” that Christ foresees for us.

That is why our Father has provided the way to put a finality to all sins, faults, and recriminations sourced from our old lives. This finality Christ has already done for us at the cross. When we acknowledge and believe that our old selfish nature died with Christ, then we are freed from all negativity and become new creatures in Him.

This is the preliminary step that triggers not only real spiritual growth, but also clarifies our minds today as we walk with Him. The cross experience is the end of our old adamic nature; it also is our beginning a new life when we believe that we are raised from the dead with Christ.

Remembering these things cleanses our mind. It is deliberately thinking on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy, “think on these things. Those things, which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me [Paul], do, and the God of peace shall be with you” (Phil. 4:8-9). It is thinking on His eternal purpose that will drive our mind’s thoughts out of the  garden of our mind.

This subject is the lifeforce of the apostle Paul’s being. In all humility, he knew that he was not “there” yet. He, therefore said, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus [Yahshua]”. Forget the past and embrace the things to come in the future. That’s past and future.

What about the present? What do we do now? We keep on pressing; keep on growing spiritually through studying the apostles’ doctrine, through adding the seven attributes of the Spirit to our faith, and obeying Christ’s New Commandment to love like He loves. Doing all these is how we love Him. We must “cast our care on Him.” We do this by caring about what He cares about. It is all about Christ.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Come Out from Among Them and Touch Not the Unclean Teachings

Most Christians feel like they have had an epiphany. God has shown them something that has convinced them that God is real and that He is their Father. And they know that it is through His Son Jesus Christ [in English speaking realms] that our salvation is possible. All of this is a good beginning.

But that is about it in most denominations concerning spiritual growth. Oh, we have the charismatics and Pentecostals who try to experience what the early apostles had. Some of them, however, are soon shipwrecked by storms of sin and lack of His knowledge.

And we have those who are the legalistic brethren, whose leaders provide hoops to jump through for the laity–pay your ties and offerings, come to church regularly. However, they fail to see that they are “buying a stairway to heaven.” And then, there are those who fall for the scam of the prosperity doctrine, as if God’s physical blessings can be bought with a hundred dollar bill. And many more.

So, there some sit. Frustrated and alone in a religious crowd. Stilted and stunted. Not knowing what God wants them to do. They are stymied because their pastors, priests and preachers have led them astray–because they do not know the way themselves. “If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch,” Christ said. They do not see God’s purpose nor his plan to accomplish his purpose. They know that Christ and His love plays a big part in life’s story, but they are blind to the bigger picture–the vision that God has for his world. This does not surprise God; He is the Author of the book.

It is all written down in the scriptures of truth, the Holy Bible, the best seller of all time. This sacred book says that Christians all over who seek God will find Him. And He will break the chains of sin that holds their hearts in frustration and captivity. And He will reveal Himself to certain seekers. But they will not be reached in cavernous church buildings that reverberate with “Christian rock music” [oxymoron of the year]. Nor will they be reached in the hushed tombs of Catholic cathedrals nor Protestantism’s church houses.

No, the true seekers will be reached by the quiet words spoken and written down by His teachers, pastors, evangelists, prophets, and apostles. Not the Sunday school teachers who sincerely endeavor to please God but are stifled by doctrinal errors.

Yah’s teachers know His purpose. They know His plan to accomplish His purpose. They are sent by Him to explain that purpose and plan; that is their job. And His purpose is this: He is Love, and He is reproducing Himself—in us, His chosen ones [His elect].

Teaching truth is a thankless task. Just ask Peter, James, John, and Paul. I remember an early truism taught us at the beginning of our missionary days: “There is nothing in this for you.” Meaning: “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” That was some heavy words for a “babe in Christ” some fifty years ago. But “I can see clearly now.”

May we all continue to seek Yah’s face. His face is the Anointed One’s face. The prophet Daniel saw His face. It was “as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire” (Daniel 10:6, 5-9).  The apostle John saw His face, also. “His eyes were as a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14, 13-16). If we seek Him, we will find Him, and He will change us in a mighty way.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Sowing the Seed, the Word of Our Testimony

Several of my readers have wondered, “How do I get this truth out into the public square? How do I find the sincere seekers of truth? The most effective and exhilarating is face to face. One on one is fine if you’re not fighting the cell phone and other interrupters. There is another way, a way that I have witnessed as an observer and a testifier.

This is something you can do. How do we personally reach those who are hungry for this light, famished for the deeper walk? We go to where they are. We go to the church houses who have an “open mike.”  They will ask for testimonies. This is where you stand up and tell them your testimony. That is what Yahshua and His apostles did. They went to the synagogues and spoke.

How does this work? Which churches do we visit? Usually in charismatic, “full gospel,” Assembly of God, Pentecostal, and “Bible” independent churches do you see this “calling for testimonies.” The goers have left the mainstream denominations, and a few are looking for a deeper walk with the Savior.

He has given us much knowledge. So, what do we share during our two minutes? Christ is our example. Christ’s opening message was always, “Repent.” Of course, to stand up and just say, “Repent,” will not do it. It is better to give a testimony of how repentance has worked in your own life, how your sins and sinful heart died with Christ on the cross, and how you were buried with Him and how by believing in His resurrection, you now have been raised to walk in a newness of life. You are telling them that you are a living example of repentance found in Romans 6:1-12.

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin…” (6:6-8 NIV). “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…” (Col. 3:3).

You have seen “Romans 6” in many of my writings. It contains the cross message, which is what the world needs. The cross is where the old selfish heart dies; it is the end of the sinful road for mankind. The message of the cross is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. It is what our Savior wants us to share. He will convict the heart that is ready. Our job is to deliver the message. The cross message is the powerful contact point for those seeking more than a religious social club. The cross and the resurrection walk [the second doctrine, Faith toward God] is the message.

Just tell them your story, your trip to the cross. And watch the miracle of another’s conversion come to you. For after you speak and the after the service, they will come and shake your hand. That is where you give them links to the reading material, perhaps a copy of one of the Immortality Road articles on the cross. Perhaps you would want to order your own business cards with your contact info along with the website address, etc. All avenues are open to you when you are doing the Father’s business. Yahshua said, “I must be about my father’s business.” and so should we be about His business. This is what He is doing. He is calling out His people to enter through the narrow gate. He is doing it through us, thus fulfilling his purpose of multiplying Himself.

Note: Most in the church houses do not want to go to the cross and let their old heart die. It is not a popular message. That is why the preachers don’t touch it. But when that one or two respond, a true ecclesia is born, as in where “two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst.”

The next step after gaining a portion of His knowledge is to share that knowledge. We do this by sowing the seed, the word, into the good ground, into the “good and honest hearts” of His people. And in so doing, we become an active part of His body, known as the Sower, who went forth to sow (Matthew 13).

This vessel is sowing right now. Through Yahweh’s grace, I have a song to sing that rushes down the corridors of light, illuminating the hearts of those He knew before the world began. “And they that impart wisdom shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3). That is our destiny and our calling, brothers and sisters. We just need to step out on the water.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Secrets of the Sabbath, Part Two

In Part One, we saw what man’s conception of the Sabbath is not. Reviewing, the sabbath commandment is not made for a righteous man (I Timothy 1: 8-9). This goes for the other nine commandments called the Law. [Much more on this in my latest book, The 11^th Commandment. Yours free. See end of article for ordering info.]

The sabbath is not a hoop to jump through to prove that we are righteous before God. Trying to keep the sabbath day holy is not the way for us to become righteous in God’s eyes.

Yet, an awakening Christian keeps on trying to keep the sabbath, always looking over their shoulder at the guilty conscience lurking close by, never knowing for sure if they have sinned or not. “Will it be a sin if I don’t go to the sabbath meeting?” many have wondered.

But God sees all; He sees the trepidations, but He is weary and tired of the lack of faith/belief. He sees those struggling in vain to obey the law that only His Spirit can keep.

He cries out to us through Isaiah: “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” Yahweh considers the sacrifices of “trying to keep the sabbath” of no profit. All the physical accoutrement that man uses in trying to keep the Law is an abomination in His sight (1:13-15).

As our High Priest, we thank Christ for obtaining for us a better covenant that has purged our “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9: 9-14). No more recriminations, nor guilt, nor shame. No more guilty consciences, for He has wiped the slate clean. We are new spiritual creatures in Christ.

What the Sabbath Is

And with new clarity, we now see what the sabbath really is in God’s sight.

First, the sabbath, as we know it in this earthly dimension, is a shadow. This is mankind’s conception of the sabbath. It is not the reality. It is a physical metaphor for a spiritual reality. The sabbath day was instituted under the Old Covenant, which is a physical representation to lead us to the spiritual reality.

The sabbath is a shadow. It has never been the real deal.  Shadows are made from a lack of light.  Shadows are in the shape of things or people, but they are not the real thing; they are not a part of reality. Shadows merely imitate reality; they simulate what is real; they intimate that which is true; they suggest obscurely as to what or who made their image possible. But they are not the real thing.

The Spirit of truth tells us that the sabbath is a shadow. After believing our cross and resurrection experience with Christ, the Spirit says to us, “Let no man therefore judge you… in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come…” (Col. 2:11-17). They will judge you concerning the feasts of Yahweh and for using or not using the lunar calendar. And they will judge you for keeping or not keeping the seventh day sabbath (the way they would have you keep it). Pay them no mind. The sabbath is a shadow. [See more about this here: Feasts, New Moons, Sabbaths–Mere Shadows of Christ in Us | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)].

So, What Then is the Real Sabbath?

The real sabbath is Yahweh’s sabbath. “Sabbath” means “rest.” So, the true sabbath is Yahweh’s rest. We first see His rest in Genesis 2:1-3. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.”

And He has promised us that we can enter into His sabbath rest, too. However, we must not do what the children of Israel did. They could not enter into His sabbath rest because of their unbelief. Christ appeared several times to them, led them, performed many miracles, and yet their hard heart of unbelief prevented them from joining God in His rest (Heb. 4:1-2).

We keep Yahweh’s Sabbath when we believe the gospel good news that Christ’s sacrifice has washed away our sins. Gone. And that only happens when our old self dies with Christ, is buried with Christ, and is resurrected with Christ (Romans 6:1-12). When we believe that, then “there remains therefore a rest [“a keeping of the sabbath,” a sabbatismos in the Greek] for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:9-10).

Yahweh entered into His sabbath rest after completing His work. We enter into Yahweh’s “rest” when we “cease from our own works, as God did from His” (v. 10). We “cease from our own works” when we complete the cross, tomb, and resurrection experience IN OUR OWN HEARTS. That was our old sinful selves up there on that cross. Christ took our sin upon himself. And when He died, we died. “And he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6:7).

Many professing Christians believe that Christ died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. But in order to be like Him, we have to do what He did. And that is to “present our bodies a living sacrifice.” We “are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12).

We cease from our own works when it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.” We must let it go and surrender to the cross experience. That is the key. And that is the message to both Non-Christians and Christians. The cross experience is where the old self ends and where Christ’s Spirit begins to reign in our hearts. Ceasing from the actions of self and then entering into the dimension of His rest and peace—this is walking with Christ. This is doing His will. This is holding His hand and walking through this corrupted earth. This is us crying to Him, asking Him to lead and guide us and speak through our vessels the Word of life. This is entering into His Sabbath Rest. This is one of His precious secrets. Embrace it. Never let it go.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[To further study this, I recommend my second book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, pp. 1-20. It is free with free shipping to all seekers of the truth. Ordering info below.]

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback]

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

My latest books are The Apostles’ Doctrine and The 11^th Commandent. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings. And the early church walked in those teachings. These books reveal just what they are and how to walk in them.

Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com 

Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

Secrets of the Sabbath, Part One

Men have fought and died over which day is the Sabbath day and how to keep it holy. They died not knowing the spiritual secrets of the sabbath.

Most denominations say it is Sunday. Several claim that it is on Saturday, most notably of which are the Jews. Saturday is the 7th day of the week, after all. But their angst is misdirected; sadly, they are all missing the boat.

Most Christians will tell you that the Sabbath day is important, for God gave the 4th Commandment to men: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). Christians endeavor to keep all Ten Commandments the best they can. But they fail, and by their own volition declare that after their conversion to Christ, they still sin, which is breaking the Ten Commandment law (I John 3:4). God, of course, knew that natural man could not keep the law; He made him that way. And yet, spiraling down through the centuries, sincere men and women have tried unsuccessfully to keep the law in their own strength.

The Law Is for Lawbreakers

Nevertheless, despite all their ruminations, there is a curious passage of Scripture that the followers of Christ have not discovered nor understood: “The law is not made for a righteous man” (I Tim. 1:8-9). The Ten Commandment Law was given by God to man, to reveal the sin in his heart, to show man his sin. “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners…” It is just like the law against murder in the natural sense; it is for murderers, not you and me. The Sabbath is for sinners–to show them, along with the other nine commandments, of their sins and their need for the Savior.

The Law, the Ten Commandments, is a good thing, if it is used lawfully and properly (v. 8). The way that we use the 4th Commandment lawfully and properly is to know that it was instituted for sinners. The Sabbath commandment is not a hoop that we are to jump through to prove that we are righteous before God. Nor is it a way for us to become righteous in God’s eyes. Believing Him is the only way. Believing His word that says our old sinful nature has died with Christ and that now we have a new heart that beats in concert with the rhythm of the Spirit of truth now residing in us (Romans 6:1-12).

Ironically, every denomination says that they believe every word of God. But do they believe the previous paragraph. But “without faith (belief) it is impossible to please Him.” Us working keep the sabbath law in order to please God is a bondage wrapped in a cloak of well-meaning. And it is work, not rest.

Being Made Free from Sin

Understanding the secrets of the sabbath weaves together three threads: the Ten Commandments which includes the sabbath commandment; sin, and the cross of Christ. One who has died with Christ on the cross, been buried with Him, and have risen with Him by believing in His resurrection—is “freed from sin” (Rom. 6:7). We are resurrected with Him. We believe His promises that by faith His Spirit now lives within us, and our faith in Him is counted for being right with Him.

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). Yahweh imputed, reckoned to Abraham the ability to live in an upright manner, keeping Yahweh’s laws and not sinning, by just believing His word! God accounted righteousness to Abraham because of his belief–before he was righteous. This is how our old nature is put to death on the cross. We must “reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God” (Romans 6: 11). [See pp. 154-159 in my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality available free with free shipping. See details at the end of this article.]

We have seen what the sabbath commandment is not, and how it is impossible to keep through man’s own strength. In Part Two we will see scripturally just what the sabbath is and how to enter God’s sabbath rest. It is a beautiful secret that will make the chains of worldly wisdom drop to the stone floor of the Sure Foundation.

[I know that this is new wine for many of you. Christ said that one who drinks this new doctrine will at first say that the old teachings are preferred. I implore you: Go by the scriptures of truth. Study these truths out. They will make you free.] kwh

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback]

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

My latest books are The Apostles’ Doctrine and The 11^th Commandent. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings. And the early church walked in those teachings. These books reveal just what they are and how to walk in them.

Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com 

Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

 

The Flimsy Foundation and the Sure Foundation

The additions to the faith are seven attributes of the divine nature of the Spirit of God that are added to the sure foundation of Christ.

The problem for most “babes in Christ” is that they try to superimpose the Holy Spirit onto their old unregenerated nature that they were born with. They believe that Christ died, was buried, and rose again. That is a good start. But they think that this belief makes them “born again” without their abnegation of their sinful nature at the cross.

Yet their pastors tell them that they are saved. Because they are so close to His truth and power, they do feel the first flush of change come over them. They feel sorry for their sinful life and begin to look longingly to the Savior for help.

Yet, something is missing, for many revert to old ways, old habits, old sins, and old thoughts. It recalls the proverb, “As the dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly (Proverbs 26:11).

That may seem harsh in the 21^st Century. But why does the dog do this? It is because it is in the dog’s nature to do this. His nature has not changed. Why do new converts fall into temptation, fail spiritually, and return to their old ways? Because it is in their nature. They still have the old nature inside. Their old heart has not experienced the cross and died with Christ. He is our Example, not our substitute.

“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6: 4-7 NIV). [Every Christian group claims to be going by every word of God. Well, there it is in plain English. Every version says the same thing: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” Col. 3:3]. Whether we feel it today or not.

Somebody may say, “Hey, Wayneman, why do you keep on and on about the crucifixion of our old sinful self in Romans 6?” The Spirit will keep on teaching it until we all get it. How do we know if we got the message? We will be jumping up and down praising God that He in His great mercy has delivered us from sin and sinning. This is the Sure Foundation.

So, as a parable teaches us, when the winds of life blow on the house built on a weak foundation of sand, it falls. It falls because it was not built on the Rock, the sure foundation of truth.

That sure foundation is Christ. We are now in Him and He in us by faith “in the operation of God who raised him from the dead we too now walk in a newness of life.”

After going through the cross and resurrection experience, we are now born from above, as He gives us a new heart and a new nature. “Behold, all things are become new!” New King of our life! New attitude! New thoughts! New purpose in life! Can’t go back now. Don’t want to! Our allegiance is to our King.

That is the difference between the flimsy foundation and the sure rock foundation that our spiritual house is built upon. It is built upon faith/belief. For there is only “one faith,” and that is Christ’s faith. We now live “by the faith of the Son of God.” We must remember that we are dead in His eyes, and we now live by the power of His resurrection. We need to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God…” (Rom. 6:11). He has already reckoned it done; He’s just waiting on us to do the same.

We are now ready to build upon this foundation by adding seven facets of His “divine nature.”

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Renewing Our Minds Changes Us

To renew our mind—how do we do it? We do it by adding Christ’s divine thoughts to our faith.

Peter tells us to “gird up the loins of your mind” (I Peter 1:13). The first item of the armor of God is to stand, “having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14). Every Christian knows that the truth is in Christ. But the young Christian [and the old as well] has thoughts and concepts about Christ that are not Christ’s thoughts.

The apostles were writing to Christians who evidently needed to have their concepts of Christ’s gospel straightened out. Or they would not have been receiving those letters to the churches. It is the same today. The spiritual battleground is in the mind. We are led by our thoughts.

And God has given us the power to chase negative thoughts away and banish false concepts out of our minds. When our thinking has been purged and cleansed, then we will have been transformed, or changed. How is one transformed? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove [discern, reckon as genuine] what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2). We will be able to know what God’s perfect will is and how to walk in it. But our minds must be free from false doctrines. That is how the renewal begins.

Definition of Renew

To renew means “to make new again.” You mean, our minds were new once upon a time, and then they got sullied, and now they await a cleansing and a restoration to the purity they once held?

Could this “renewing of our minds” entail us thinking what Christ thought? We are admonished to let Christ’s mind be in us (Phil. 2:5). Think like Christ thinks. Let Christ’s mind be in you. You mean we must allow it to reside in us? We do this by moving out our old thoughts to make room for the new thoughts, which are Christ’s thoughts, thoughts that require faith/belief.

So what did he think about?  He thought of the invisible heavenly things, not the things consumed by the five senses. “Take no thought for your life,” your visible earthly life (Matt. 6:25-31). He was submissive to the father in all things and taught us to do the same. In so doing, he was humble, giving glory and praise to the Father.

We must “let” His mind take over our mind. To do this we must know the plan and purpose of God. Christ always said, “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). He always did those things that pleased the Father.

Knowing the true plan and purpose of God is a big chore, but what is bigger is eliminating the old desires we had for our lives– our plans and schemes, our dreams for our own little futures. And they are little “compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  Our old lives are but “dung” compared to eternally being at His side.

The Cross

Christ always taught His followers to repent from sin. This is the first step in getting rid of the false concepts about Christ. It is the cross that puts to death our old sinful selves, along with its desires, and enables us to “be raised to walk in a newness of life.” This shows us where our old thoughts were leading us and where the thoughts of God now bid us come.

First, we must get to that place of submission. We must leave the old life at the cross and take on Christ’s mission, which is establishing His Kingdom of love and righteousness throughout the earth and sharing his throne with his elect. That takes much study and prayer.

All this is for those human beings who renew their minds with Christ’s thoughts and are changed from selfish sinners into compassionate monarchs, soon ruling with Christ in His Kingdom right here upon earth. “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne…” (Rev. 3:21).