His Witness: ... and Man's Most Important Achievement ...

By g.k. karimkhani

CONSIDER THE privilege of sharing these introductory remarks a high and sacred honor. Ive known G.K.Karimkhani for approximately twenty years. I was impressed with his testimony and his devotion to Lord Jesus Christ from the first time I met him. I am proud to have been able to invite him to give his testimony publicly and preach his first sermon from the pulpit of the Twin Cities Baptist Church, here in Temple, Texas, of which I have been the pastor for twenty three years. Watching him grow in Christ has been a blessing and challenge to my own life. Being one of the speakers at his ordination service at Immanuel Baptist Church, Temple, Texas, in 1995 was truly a pleasant, yet humbling, experience. I know of no one who loves and honors the Lord Jesus more than the writer of this book, and Im aware of numerous challenges and sacrifices he has made in order to be faithful to the Lord Jesus. I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to all Christians and the unbelievers to read it and learn more about our Savior. I highly recommend his personal testimony which by itself is worth the cost of the book alone, and it is a soul winner for the Lord. Since about15 years ago, he has served as the pastor of the chapel at the Marthas Kitchen and Shelter for the Homeless here in Temple , Texas. Well over two hundred lost and wandering souls have been saved and brought into the Kingdom of God through his ministry there. You will find that his use of the English language and grammar are unique since his native tongue is Farsi. However for millions of people to whom English is a second language, his style of expression and use of the English language will probably be more easily understood and his message even more graphic and down-to-earth. One thing is for sure: that by reading His Witness you will have to agree that this writer knows Whom he has believed and that he is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 6, 2009
• ISBN: 9781450080477

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Copyright © 2009 by g.k. karimkhani.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Preface

Second Preface

Soul Winning

Introduction

Rocky’s Witness

153 Great Fishes

Man shall not live by bread alone… it is written

The Faithful Steward

The Unfaithful Servant

We have failed to follow the Savior!

Nearer my Lord, Nearer to Thee, Nearer

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior our heavenly Father, we ask you to bless us all more than ever that as we read through this book we learn more of Christ and draw nearer to you. please bless us all to see ourselves and our sins and to repent of them and to look onto Christ and call Him our Savior.

Please bless us to live the Christ-like life and to witness your presence and your will to the unsaved in this world that they might also see your glory and believe in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ you sent us.

We ask in the holy name of Jesus Christ and for His sake only, amen.This book is dedicated to Stephen, the first martyr of the present church. The Holy Scriptures show that he gave a powerful and awesome witness of the Savior to the lost of the early church and was stoned to death for it.

This book is also

dedicated to Paul or Saul of Tarsus who persecuted Stephen, and encouraged and helped the mob to stone Stephen to death for his faith and witness of the Lord.

After about 2000 years, they are still both great soul winners for the Lord.

Preface

I CONSIDER THE PRIVILEGE of sharing these introductory remarks a high and sacred honor. I’ve known G.K.Karimkhani for approximately twenty years. I was impressed with his testimony and his devotion to Lord Jesus Christ from the first time I met him. I am proud to have been able to invite him to give his testimony publicly and preach his first sermon from the pulpit of the Twin Cities Baptist Church, here in Temple, Texas, of which I have been the pastor for twenty three years. Watching him grow in Christ has been a blessing and challenge to my own life. Being one of the speakers at his ordination service at Immanuel Baptist Church, Temple, Texas, in 1995 was truly a pleasant, yet humbling, experience. I know of no one who loves and honors the Lord Jesus more than the writer of this book, and I’m aware of numerous challenges and sacrifices he has made in order to be faithful to the Lord Jesus. I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to all Christians and the unbelievers to read it and learn more about our Savior. I highly recommend his personal testimony which by itself is worth the cost of the book alone, and it is a soul winner for the Lord. Since about15 years ago, he has served as the pastor of the chapel at the Martha’s Kitchen and Shelter for the Homeless here in Temple , Texas. Well over two hundred lost and wandering souls have been saved and brought into the Kingdom of God through his ministry there. You will find that his use of the English language and grammar are unique since his native tongue is Farsi. However for millions of people to whom English is a second language, his style of expression and use of the English language will probably be more easily understood and his message even more graphic and down-to-earth. One thing is for sure: that by reading His Witness you will have to agree that this writer knows Whom he has believed and that he is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Excellent book for anyone who wants to learn how to witness for the Lord. My prayer is that you will read his book and thousands of you will come to know the God of Heaven through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, Who came into this world to pay the death penalty for your sins in order that you might have eternal life.

Pastor Elton Lawson

Second Preface

G OUDARZ K. KARIMKHANI came to America from Iran as a young man, intent upon pursuing the medical profession. God had other plans for his life and the Holy Spirit changed Goudarz Karimkhani from his Muslim faith and background to an ardent follower of Jesus Christ. His hospital work has given Goudarz an opportunity to witness about Jesus across the years. G.K.has pursued studies in theology, receiving his B.A., M.A., and Th.D diplomas. For the past 15 years Dr. Karimkhani has carried on a far-reaching ministry in a Homeless Shelter where hundreds have been led to personal faith in Christ. Like the Apostle Paul who had a fervent desire to win his Jewish people to Christ, so the desire in Karimkhani’s life is also to have a great outreach to Muslims and all unsaved people across the world. For a long time Bro. GK has labored on the manuscript, His Witness. The subtitle is Man’s Greatest Achievement. The chapters point the way to Jesus, to Calvary, to the Empty Tomb, to Christ’s ministry as the Ascended Lord, and to His Return. The chapter on the conversion of this former Muslim is worth the price of the book. Challenges face the reader on every page to be a personal witness for Christ. The non-Christian has the way of salvation made plain. May God bless this book as it goes forth for His glory and His kingdom cause across planet earth.

Preston Taylor, B.A., B.D. Th.M. D.Min.

Soul Winning

D EAR CHRISTIAN FRIEND, if you are for the lost and the perishing then you will need the Word of God to edify you and prepare you in following the Savior to win the lost souls. The Lord Jesus says, If a man loves Me he will keep My words. The man who does not live the whole Truth and does not witness the whole Truth is certainly a liar and dishonest and has no part with the Christ of God. Here are a few glorious verses from the Holy Scriptures to motivate you to be obedient to the call of the Lord and His Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of Righteousness; a tree of Life and he that wins souls is wise.

Daniel 12:3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

Psalms 126:6 He that goes forth and weeps, bringing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Matthew 4:19… follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.

Acts 5:42 And daily in Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Phil 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becomes the Gospel of Christ…

Every Christian is a witnessing light for the Savior while in this dark wicked world, and other than being a witness of Life nothing else is required of the follower of the Christ of God. We must live and breathe for our Lord only, for this is our only duty forever and ever, amen.

Here are a few soul wining verses from the Holy Scriptures to learn, memorize and use while here serving our Master, our teacher the Lord Jesus.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:18 He that believes on Him is not condemned but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:8 But God commands His Love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

Introduction

O NE DAY AS I was preparing for a sermon to be preached at Martha’s Kitchen Homeless Shelter Chapel, here in Temple, Texas, I came across Isaiah 1:3 where our Lord says; the ox knows his owner, and the ass knows his master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. I had read this passage many times in the past, however this time it looked so different, and it really impressed me. It seems there is so much truth in the depth of this verse, and one must be blessed to know it.

I read this passage several times. The more I read it, the more I was taken into it, into the mind of the animals in the manger, at the foot of the crib of the glorious Baby of Bethlehem, the Son of God. I realized that it was the first time since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden that animals came to see God face to face again, and for a while they must have thought they were in Heaven looking at Him again. However this time they were seeing Him as the Baby in the crib, and praising Him. What an awesome moment in the history of time when Baby Jesus was born into this wicked world, and the Heaven of God, the Immanuel came to start living with us, and within us.

The more I read this verse, the more I thanked the Lord for His love, and mercy toward man. I believe if I were there, I would probably say, well that is just another baby born into this world, and would walk away. But those beautiful innocent animals of the manger were so blessed that they were present there, and recognized Him who is the Almighty God, the Immortal One, the Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Savior of man, the Immanuel in the crib as man’s baby, the miracle of miracles. Right there I came under strong conviction to speak, and to witness through the animals, and their wisdom that man does not have, until Lord blesses him, and reveals the Savior to him. I felt God telling me to witness for the Savior through the animals that have more wisdom than man. For they all know who the Lord is, but man does not know until God reveals His Word to the man, and convicts his heart, and brings him to Himself so He may believe, and become saved. But the tragedy is that despite all of God’s work of drawing man to Himself, many still refuse Him, and go their own way.

Man is so deep in the sins of this dead, carnal world, and so saturated with it that he is naturally blind, and deaf to the call of God, and the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. The lost man lives in the sin medium as fish lives in the water, and it is his natural manner to be the denier of the glorious Good News of the Savior. The natural man would rather trust his own works of religions, and rituals, and do anything he can but to come to the narrow way, the Christ, to the Lord, and become saved. The man is blind, and dwells in the darkness of this world, and he, himself, is the very darkness. The darkness avoids the Light of the World, and feels fine being dead, and without the life of God in him, for he has not had anything better than his own natural wicked state. He does not feel any need for Christ to save him, his trust is only in himself, and his own works, and his idols, and would rather remain dead, unregenerate, and unsaved, because he does not know any better. He does not know the Christ, the giver of Life, the abundant Life. He is the natural man, the material man, he only deals with what he can see, and hear, and touch in his rituals, and his nature is sin, and he lives according to it, his own feelings and his own speculations.

In these last days before the return of the Lord, we see people of the world worry about things of the world. But people of the Lord only tend the need of the Lord Jesus, and win souls for Him. The unsaved man is the enemy of God without being aware of it himself, or herself. He or she will just do what seems to be proper to their own benefit, as King Herod did. He was so dead in sin that when he heard the Lord was coming to this wicked world to save him, he killed multitudes of infants, and used all his resources to kill the Baby Jesus, as did the Jews, even though they were the most blessed among all men for the Lord came through them to man. They were trusted with the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, and all the signs of God’s return as the Savior of man. Even knowing of their past historic miraculous, liberation from slavery to the Egyptians, and the 40 years of fellowship with God in the wilderness, and the law given to them at Sinai, still they claimed to be very righteous, and proud of the laws, and their traditions, and refused the Christ of God as their Savior. They used every effort to do away with Him, and finally crucified Him like a criminal, outside the city walls of Jerusalem on His own mercy seat, the cross.

Sin, this monster of a thousand heads, the works of the hands of the wicked Satan has totally blinded the natural man to slavery of the lost sin sick world. What a poor condition the lost man is living in without God! Certainly there is no match for Him, even the animals know the Lord, and praise Him day, and night. Sin is the ruin of man, and his key of entry to Hell, and eternal damnation. Sin has infected, and destroyed the original sinless man that was the work of the hands of God, and swallowed him into the captivity of the darkness, and death. Now man’s character is even lower that the animals, for animals are not even sinners, but man is. The work of the devil is sin, and it is all evident in this lost world we live in. Sin has made this planet the most undesirable, and the meanest place of all the creations of God, because the prince of this world is the devil, the destroyer.

All through the Holy Scriptures, we see God’s use of animals to witness to man for His glory. We also notice that the devil, the angel of light, was so crafty that he knew the nature of the animals to be very much likable to man. Therefore he presented himself as a serpent to deceive man from the beginning, and man fell into the temptations of sin, and the fall caused the great divide between him, and his Maker, the Lord.

The animals in the Garden of Eden were all very peaceful, and friendly, and had a very kind nature, and were straw eaters. However, after sin entered into man, the nature of most animals changed. Looks like after the fall of man, most animals rebelled against man, and turned against each other. The presence of sin in the man influenced the behavior of the animals, and they grieved, and mourned for the fallen man, and some even put their guards on against man, and became wild, and ran away from him. If it was not because of man’s fall into sin, the animals would still be in the presence of God, in Eden. Subsequently, their nature, and mentality changed, and some of them became wild and carnivorous, and even poisonous in nature. The sin of man destroyed that perfect peaceful unity, and fellowship with God, and all His creation.

However, still today, the animal’s wisdom is above that of lost man. For this we know, by the Spirit of Grace that all animals know who God, and the Savior is. All the animals know God, and praise Him. All animals look at the lost, unsaved man as being foolish, refusing the Savior, and His Good News of salvation. If the animals could speak, they all would witness for the Savior to lost man, and would certainly make great preachers, preaching the Word much better than man.

Once, they were all called together under one roof, in Noah’s Ark, they all obeyed the Lord immediately. There was no doubt or fear in their hearts that God will protect them from each other, and from the deluge. They trusted the Lord’s command, and obeyed it, and they were saved. However, man knew about the coming rain, and the deadly flood, but they mocked Noah, and the Lord, and perished. That family reunion of the animals with the Lord in their midst was the last one they ever had under one roof, and all went well without any incident, because all trusted the Lord, and obeyed Him.

All through the Holy Scriptures we see God’s use of animals to teach man. Animals such as birds, lions, Balaam’s donkey, animals of the Bethlehem manger, Jonah’s whale, the rooster, the fish of the sea, the donkey colt, and many more. As we know, for God, there is nothing impossible. If He speaks through the mouth of a donkey to His glory, to minister to man, He will also use any other animal or even a saved sinner to win souls through. He will continue to use animals, and even man who is now even classified as an animal, and the most wretched one, and anything He can, and prefers within His infinite wisdom to save man. In these last days before His return, He is using all His effort to reach the lost, and to save us all. Are we one of His vessels of use?

I have a Boston Terrier dog whose name is Rocky. I also call him Rocko or Baby Boy. He is a very good boy, and very playful, very friendly toward everyone, and especially to children. He has not met anyone he has not loved yet. I have never seen a dog so friendly although I am sure there are millions out there very friendly too. Sometimes I put my hands over his head or just hold one of his paws in my hand, and we pray together. I know he is not a sinner, and naturally all animals are innocent but I ask him, Rocky, do you love the Lord Jesus? Do you want to see Him someday? Do you know He created us, and He also died to pay for man’s sin on the cross? When I ask him such questions he stands still in front of me, and moves his head from left to right while he is looking at me, as is the manner of Boston Terriers. With those big bright eyes he is always so eager to hear me talking to him about the Lord.

One day while I was studying the scriptures, I called him and asked him, Hey Rocky, why don’t you witness for the Lord Jesus to the whole world since not many Christians tell anyone about Him? Why don’t you tell the world about Him and His Good News of salvation for sinners? And there he stood silently in the front of me with those big bright innocent eyes, moving his head from side to side while I was asking him to witness for the Lord. It was not long after that proposition to Rocky that the Lord gave me the idea to call the book His witness, and to put Rocky’s photo, and the fishes of the sea on the cover to get everyone’s attention. Rocky, and I have prayed that people would buy this book, read it, and go to the Holy Bible, and learn more about the Savior, and surrender to Him whose return is very near!

Rocky, the Baby Boy is now about three years old, and most nights we go out together, and walk about two miles. He just loves to get out for a stroll, and sightseeing. During the course of writing this book, I had many people inquiring about what I am doing these days. I told them about the book, and of all the comments made, there was one that came right from the heart of God. One Christian friend said, to write a book about Him, must be the work of God, and His Spirit, otherwise man by himself cannot write about Him. I thought about it so often, and every time I got tears in my eyes that God has so blessed me so much, a man who is so unworthy of God, o’ wretched man that I am, however, He even trusted me to witness for Him. It is that amazing Grace that saved a wretched sinner long ago, and has been using him to His glory.

Another Christian friend told me this book is an excellent idea because most people like pets, and when they see Rocky’s picture on the cover, they might buy it, and read it, and God will bless them. The witnesses in this book may also help the Christian believer in learning how to win the lost to the Lord. Of course anytime we speak for the Lord, it should be reinforced with prayers for His presence.

As we Christians know, anytime you want to do something for the Lord, the little, the coward defeated Satan, the destroyer, comes in to hinder it or stop it. I must say before I even start writing this book, the adversary attacked me from all sides with all kinds of problems to disable, or to even kill me in order to stop this witness for the Lord. However, I knew that through Him I can do all things, and my strength is only in Him, and for the follower of Christ all things are only His will, and none other. The dear Lord Jesus answered my prayers, and blessed Rocky, and I, and The book went on, and it is finally finished, and published.

During the writing of the witnesses for the 153 fishes, as I was studying the Holy Scriptures, God revealed one of the hidden treasures of His Word, and that is, that Christ did man’s only ultimate achievement! For He was one hundred percent man, and also totally divine, the very God in man’s flesh, and the only man that has never sinned. What else has man done that can match this achievement or equal it? He was not a sinner, and therefore God raised Him on the third day, and accepted Him as ransom for our sins. There is no other sacrifice, no other Lamb of God but the Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior. Even His executioner said, I find no fault in this man. Still, after two thousand years no one can find fault in Him, and accuse Him of sin. What Christ did, no other man has ever done or will ever be able to do. After this fact was revealed to me from the Lord, I went ahead, and asked so many Christians, including pastors, preachers, deacons, educated, and uneducated, saved, and unsaved people about what the greatest accomplishment or achievement of man is since the beginning of time? All kinds of answers were given such as soul winning (which is the great work of the Lord, Himself, and it must also be considered as saved sinner’s greatest accomplishment, for he is doing it in following the Savior’s command), the start of fire, the invention of print, the publication of the Holy Bible, the first sin, to communicate through any media, to put up with your mother in law, to raise teenage kids, to have a baby, to walk on the moon, the space shuttles, different kinds of vaccines, and the list goes on. I told them these are all great, but there is One who has done something to take the sin of man away, and give him the life of God, and reviving him from death to life, and what Jesus of Nazareth has done is man’s ultimate achievement in the history of this wicked planet, into the eternity. For through Him all believers have peace with God, and become His children, and are saved forever, and pardoned. Now if this is not man’s ultimate achievement, I wonder, what else could be? All other achievements are earthly, and temporal, the material kind. However this ultimate achievement of man, the Jesus of Nazareth gives the Life of God to the carcass of the dead man, and revives him to have fellowship with God. No man can be qualified to become the Lamb of God, but the Lord Jesus.

The entire book of His witness was written at the archives and local history room of the Temple Public Library in Temple, Texas. It took about eight months from the start to the finish to complete HIS witness. No library resources were used for writing this book. The Holy Scripture has been quoted frequently, however the scripture references are not recorded intentionally so the reader may go to the Holy Bible, and search it, and will surely be blessed God.

There are 153 witnesses after the 153 great fishes that obeyed the call of God and sacrificed their lives by jumping into the disciple’s net joyfully, so they may believe in the Lord and have stronger faith in Him. It was after that catch and the dining with the resurrected Savior that they never went back fishing again but became fishers of men. Here in this book, each fish witness also gives an invitation to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are also 66 witnesses after the 66 books of the Holy Bible, to encourage the follower of the Lord not to neglect the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures as He commanded us to do.

Dear friend, as a former Muslim, who picked up the Holy New Testament Bible, and started reading it, to learn of it, so he can use it against God, and to criticize the Savior of God, and His followers, but uncontrollably believed, and repented, and surrendered, and became saved by the Lord Jesus, I want to assure you that the living Word of God, the Holy Bible is one of the most hidden secrets in this wicked world, and it is all true, the body of the Truth. Once when you read it, you will come to believe in the Savior. No wonder it is called the Bread of Life. There will never be Life in man till he becomes one with the Savior God. We must use the Word of God to witness, and to give the Holy New Testament Bible to the lost with prayers to go with it. We must trust the Word of God to do His will as the seeds are scattered everywhere. Also let’s not forget that a Christian’s life should always witness the full transforming power of the Lord Jesus, our Savior.

We know that we are in the very last days before the return of the Lord. Therefore now, more than ever, we must become concerned about the Lord’s need, which is soul winning through the proclamation of the Good News of salvation for man. God says, . . . compel them to come in… Please note, and be aware that every soul leaving this lost world of sin without the Savior is a tragic loss to God. For to God, every soul is worth more than the whole world.

If you recall, our Lord only gave us one prayer request. Let’s be obedient to Him, and His need.

Pray you therefore the Lord of harvest, that will send forth laborers into His harvest.

G.K. Karimkhani, AA, BA, BS, DPM, MA, ThD.

Rocky’s Witness

H I, MY NAME is Rocky and I am a 3 year old Boston terrier dog. I was born on 7-10-2006 in Belton, Texas. I have three other brothers and a sister. In the den of the house we were living in, on one wall there were so many crosses, and I knew my owners were Christians. When I was about four weeks old, one day my adopted daddy, gk came to our house in Belton and bought me from my former owners.

I remember when he walked in to the house I walked towards him. He picked me up and looked at me in the face and kept me on the palm of his hands close to His chest for awhile. He talked to me very gently and patted me on the head and neck. Right then I loved Him and knew that we would get along just fine and that he would take care of me.

Since I was still too little he left me there for 2 more weeks and then he came and picked me up. From that time on I have been living with him.

As I grew up with him, I noticed his strong faith in the Lord, His prayers, His bible studies, His church attendance. I was so thrilled when one day He put his hands on my head and prayed for me. He does that often!

I remember one day, for the first time, he witnessed to me for our Lord Jesus Christ. I was so happy He did that and I licked his hands and face.

I know that He knows that I know our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of man so that man may be saved, if he believes.

My daddy prays for me regularly, for my good health and that I don’t get in trouble and will stay out of harm’s way! I also know that He knows of my strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our God and Creator. And certainly Lord the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of this knowledge for believers.

One day my daddy gk took me to Killeen a town near here next to the Fort Hood, and we went to an army surplus shop and he had them make me a dog tag with my name and address and phone number on it and he also had them to engrave John 3:16 on it. I am very proud of this dog tag, and have been wearing it since then. This way if anyone reads it, I will be witnessing to them for our Lord, and I will have a part in preaching the His Good News while passing through this world.

As a dog I can assure you that all dogs and cats and other beings know this fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of man. The word of God also says even the rocks and stone may witness to you that Christ is the Lord and Savior! God also says that the ox knows his owner and the donkey knows his master’s crib but man does not consider.

As a 3 year old and 26 pound Boston Terrier Dog, I thank God everyday for creating me and providing me with a Christian daddy.

My greatest accomplishment as a dog is to respond to the high call of God and witness to you about the Good News of the free, unearned, undeserved gift of salvation from sin and death and punishment of Hell. Instead He offers, eternal fellowship with God through the works and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb of God for the sins of man. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross, outside the city walls of Jerusalem and was resurrected the third day and is more alive than ever since about 2000 years ago!

He has paid for the sins of men if one believes and repents and asks our Lord Jesus to save him, He will do it right away!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the savior of the man. No one else has used the name Savoir or can use it!

Now let’s look at the word of God and have a little Bible study here. May the Holy Spirit be the spirit of knowledge and conviction in your heart today.

When God created man, He created him in his own image-above all other creations and beings! This means that God did not stop at anything to bless man and created him like Himself with holiness and a free will! There was no sin in man, he was holy and of a free will just like God himself.

God provided for man and gave him authority over all other creatures and things. He told man; this is all for your use and benefit. But one item you should not eat, for if you do, you shall surely die.

One day, Adam and his wife, Eve, took the fruit of that forbidden tree and ate. From that time on, sin entered into man and his substance and genetic makeup. At that moment the perfect image of God, in man, was not perfect any longer. That image was marred because sin entered and changed the nature of man from holiness to sinfulness. Before the fall, God was the habitation of the heart of man. But now after the fall into sin, sin is the habitation of man’s heart!

Another name for sin is death, this is the result of the entrance of sin into the heart of man. Death entered in and God also says the soul that sins shall die!

As the result of sin in man the perfect image of God in man had left, and Adam and Eve, right away, realized the change in themselves. The new nature of sin was inside where it had never been in the past. Then their nakedness became shameful to them and they took fig leaves and covered themselves.

Before sin entered in, Adam and Eve, the grandparents of all mankind had fellowship with the Lord.

But now that fellowship was ruined and ended. This happened not by God but by man’s choice! Man had disobeyed God’s word and commandment. Right away, in the cool of the morning, God came to have fellowship with Adam and his wife Eve. They ran away and hid themselves from God and did not want to have fellowship with God.

When God called them, they avoided fellowship with God and stayed hidden away. Since that time man stays away from God because man is a fugitive from his origin, from the Rock of Ages, his creator, His God!

How can the Holy God have fellowship with sinful man! Can justice dwell within injustice? Can holiness and righteousness dwell in abominations of evil? Since the fall of Adam and Eve, every man has inherited this sin nature in his genetic makeup, his DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)!

As a result of spiritual poverty in the head of the family, sin enters into the family. Now the whole man is infected and contaminated with sin. Now sin is ingrained in man the same way that blood circulates in the arteries and veins of man.

Even God says that man is corrupt from the sole of the foot to the top of the head. That is the whole man who is corrupt, lost and dead in sins and trespasses.

It was the entry of sin into man that brought suffering and death into the family of man. This was all because fellowship with the Lord was lost due to the great gap or divide that sin made between man and his God. After all, sin is the greatest separation between God and man. God also says that the wages of sin is death and the soul that sins shall die. Since the first sin, and the fall of man, all through the years, God, has patiently, tried and tried lovingly, and faithfully to have fellowship with him. But man does the same thing that Adam and Eve did. They hide away. God persistently calls for man, Where are you? God loves man, and wants man to know that he or she is in sin and must repent and ask God for forgiveness and return to him. But man stays away from God, his eyes blinded, his ears deaf and his heart’s door shut to God’s call for fellowship.

After man sinned, death became the fate of man. Man lost the face to face daily fellowship and presence of God. God expelled man from his presence in Eden and placed man on this earth.

As the results of man’s new nature, the first child of Adam and Eve became a murderer; Cain killed his brother Abel.

As the result of indwelling sin in man, man’s attitude had moved away from trust and fellowship with God to trust and fellowship with the devil within. Instead of trusting the words of God and His works, man’s attention was diverted to trust his own thoughts and the works of his own hands!

Death in man brought the nature of the world and carnality into the mind of man, all the flesh of man was infected with sin. The word of God says they that are in the flesh mind the things of the flesh. For to be carnally minded is death and the carnal mind, is enmity against God. It is not subjected to the laws of God neither indeed can it be!

God also says that they who are in the flesh cannot please Him. All men are referred to as children of wrath. The word of God also tells us that the whole creation groans and travails in pain due to the sins of man that brought death! The whole nature is upset because man, the carrier of sin, lives in the creation of God.

Man who once had the perfect image of God with his free will and was a holy creation now has the image of sin, the corrupt image, the image of death and the very death and darkness itself.

From total holiness and total freedom man fell into slavery and now his master is sin and sin rules his heart and his life !

Through the years, God communicated with man through His people of choice. God gave man about 613 laws and 10 of them came to be the Ten Commandments. God outlined His plan of mercy and salvation and restoration for the lost man through which now are the 39 books of the Old Testament. It is very interesting to note that during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness God was visibly present with man in the form of a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud during the day.

God even tabernacled Himself among man. But man persistently continued in sin. Man even tempted Aaron, the brother of Moses into making an image of a golden calf so they could insult God and worship the idols, the works of their hands. Have you ever known any tempter better than man? There is none but the devil, the master of sin who works in the heart of man himself!

What horrible sins man has committed to anger God!

Still today after all the years, man’s ambition is not fellowship and worship and serving the Lord but love and worship of the flesh and things, as idols of this material world.

Dear reader, take a look at the world and its content, all full of trouble, all social injustice, killings and wars and rumors of wars. What a tragic shape this earth is in. Man is almost at the edge of destroying himself and nature and the planets all together!

What is going on on earth is because of the works of the hands of man—directed by the master of sin in man’s heart!

Now one important question is this: Is God satisfied and happy with the works of the hands of man? And the answer is No!

From the beginning, God teaches us that He does not like what man does. Man’s works and thoughts are an abomination to God.

It was man’s thoughts and works that made the initial move to disobey God and reach for the forbidden fruit! Through the years, God has repeatedly made it clear that He does not like the works of the hands of man. How can the Holy God, the Creator of all, like and accept the works of sinful man which are the byproducts of sin? God even says, All your righteousness is as filthy rags and your iniquities, like the wind, have taken you away.

In the wilderness when God came to tabernacle with man, God told Moses to build an altar of stones of natural cut and shape and not make it of the stones cut and shaped by man. The moment a tool was used, the alter would be polluted and contaminated.

Man’s works of hands to approach God is an abomination of evil and blasphemy to God. God is so full of righteousness and holiness and man is so full of sin. How can they have fellowship with each other?

All the laws and commandments God gave man, man has broken and violated. Since the fall of man, He has been a runaway from God, a fugitive wandering in the wilderness of sin. Man’s God and master of his heart is not God but the devil. His substance, his heart, his entire flesh are slaves of sin. This monster called sin is in man and has dominated man since the fall of Adam and Eve.

This flesh man lives in, is not the same flesh God created. Man, by his own free will and choice, all of a sudden chose to change that original flesh to sinful corrupted flesh.

God gave man the laws and all the 39 books of the Old Testament, so that man could see that He is in sin and sin is in him. God tried and tried and tried to rehabilitate man for the New Covenant which is His grace, instead of the works of the laws when man proved to be a total violator of them!

It is through the laws that God gave, that man comes to realize that once he or she was the most admired creation of God above all creations and now he or she are the violators of the laws of God and enemies of God. Through the 39 books God gave man in the Old Testament or old covenant Bible, God teaches man about Himself, taking the role of the Passover lamb for the sins of man if man believes and coming on earth to die on the cross as a sacrificial offering for the sins of man.

The words of God, all through the old covenant, point to the coming of the Messiah, the anointed one who takes away the sins of the world. Who is the Messiah?

He is the very Son of God, who was not born of the lust of the flesh but the will of God, the perfect one, God’s very perfect image on earth, the image that man could not tempt into submission to man. He was God Himself in the flesh of man. God in man, the very miracle of all, the Immanuel or God with us, the baby born into this sinner’s world in the manger in Bethlehem.

At the beginning, when God created everything, after each day of creation, He said it was good but when He got to the baby in the crib in the manger in Bethlehem, He said, It is wonderful! In the whole Bible, no one has been called wonderful but God Himself!

The wonder of wonders is the very God Himself, His revelation is Christ, the Messiah, the love and mercy and the grace of God himself on earth !

It is because of Christ on earth that the Christians now feel a little or a lot of heaven themselves in this dwelling place of man, the planet earth. And, indeed, what a horrible life it would be to pass through this dwelling place of man, the earth with all its sin and lust and glamorous temptations without Christ—GOD Himself!

Dear Reader, please note that during the old covenant or the covenant of laws and works, God never invited man to draw near to him. At the burning bush meeting place, God told Moses, Do not draw near! At Mount Sinai, God told Moses, "Set boundaries around the mount that no one will