Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin. Romans 6.6.

The sin here points to that sinful nature which reigns in man. The old man speaks of the self which delights in listening to sin. And the body of sin means this body of ours which is sin’s puppet and which actually sins. Thus sin reigns within as master. It directs the old man to cause the body to sin. The old man represents all which comes from Adam; the old man naturally inclines toward sin. He it is who steers the body to sin. In order for us not to sin, some have suggested that the root of sin needs to be eradicated from within; whereas others have expressed the thought that we must harshly suppress the outside body. Yet God’s way is totally different from man’s. He neither eradicates the root of sin nor ill-treats the body; instead, He deals with the old man. "Our old man was crucified with him."

If you ever wonder why you are unable to defeat and overcome your selfishness it is because you have not appropriated God's salvation. You may have thought in your head these things but they have not touched your innerman. Why is that? Because there is a necessary condition that needs to be fulfilled which is consecration and trust in these accomplished facts. I have really died with Christ. My old man has really been crucified. Therefore, I can really put to nought the deeds of the flesh.

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Mark 8.34.

We do not know what the way of the cross is. We do not realize that all which comes our way is permitted by God. Whatever is against our will, whatever causes us to be misunderstood, makes us suffer, blocks our way, or shatters our hope is a cross given by God to us. Yet how do we face such a thing? Do we resist in heart? Do we complain to people? Do we long to avoid these difficulties?

Whenever God allows a cross to fall on us, He has a particular reason. Each cross has its spiritual mission, that is to say, it is sent to accomplish something special in our life. If we endure according to God’s will—as the Lord Jesus endured the cross (noting, however, that His cross is to atone for sin whereas ours is not)—our natural life will be further dealt with and we shall have a greater capacity for being filled with the resurrection life of the Son.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. James 1.22.
We often misunderstand the word "do." We take it to mean that after we have heard and known the word of God we must try our best to do what we have heard and known. But this is not the meaning of "do" in the Bible. True, we need to will to do what we have heard. Yet the "do" of the Scriptures is not the doing with our own strength, it is ...

In order to understand Matthew 24 and 25, it is essential to have a clear knowledge of the subject of rapture. For it is one of the most important matters in this last hour. Unfortunately it is greatly misunderstood by many. Rapture is the same as the word “receive” found in John 14.1-3. It does not signify the idea of “climbing up” to heaven but of the Lord receiving us to heaven. Hence rapture is a specific term used to denote His receiving us at His soon return.

There are different views on rapture among believers. Some say (1) that the whole body of the saved will be raptured before the Great Tribulation; others believe (2) that the whole body of the saved must go through the Great Tribulation before they are raptured; while still others feel (3) that a part of the saved will be raptured before the Great Tribulation and a part of them will be raptured after the Great Tribulation. There are mainly these three schools of interpretation on the subject; yet merely because any one of them is different from the one you hold to does not give you any warrant to denounce the different view as heresy. It is wrong to withhold fellowship simply for this reason. Well-known believers are found in all three schools.

Of the first school mentioned, names can be cited such as J. N. Darby, William Kelly (C. H. Spurgeon once said that Kelly’s brain was as large as the universe), R. A. Torrey (who later changed to a post-tribulation rapture view), Phillips Brooks, James Gray, Arno G. Gaebelein, J. A. Seiss, C. I. Scofield, and so forth. Of the second school, there could be listed such names as George Muller (who first believed in pre-tribulation rapture), A.J. Gordon of Boston, A. B. Simpson, W. J. Erdman, W. G. Moorehead, Henry Frost of Canada, James Wright, Benjamin Newton, and so on. And as to the third school, we have names such as Hudson Taylor, Robert Chapman, Robert Govett (Spurgeon praised his writings as having light a century ahead of his time and as being full of gold), G. H. Pember, D. M. Panton (the “prince of prophecy”) and others. None of the three schools can completely ignore the others, yet only one is correct. Let us therefore examine them with fairness, having the attitude of a judge and not that of a lawyer.

I. Reasons given by the first school - that is to say, by the adherents of a pre-tribulation rapture - are presented in the following paragraphs.

A. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 “The wrath to come” - This is the Great Tribulation. Since the Lord Jesus will deliver us from the wrath to come, we must be raptured before the Great Tribulation. Also, 1 Thessalonians 5.9 “For God appointed us not unto wrath” - Once again this “wrath” has reference to the Great Tribulation. Let me say, though, that such an interpretation of “wrath” here as being the Great Tribulation is incorrect. How do we know that this wrath must necessarily ...