DEWITT
TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES
THE
PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMETH
AND
HAS
NOTHING IN GOD’S BRIDE
By
C.W. Wood
January/February
2007
John 19:28-30, “After
this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled, saith, ‘I thirst.’ Now there was set a vessel full of
vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put
it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, ‘IT
IS FINISHED,’ and bowed His head and gave up the Ghost.”
The death of Jesus Christ of Nazareth on the Cross is the most remarkable
event in the history of the world! It is the most important subject that can
engage the human mind! This is so because our eternal destiny hinges on what we
believe happened there. Not only does our future depend on what we believe about
the Cross, but also our well-being here and now in these flesh bodies depends on
it. Just exactly what did our Lord mean when He cried, “IT
IS FINISHED?”
Did
He mean that His six hours of suffering was finished? Perhaps that is part of
the meaning, but, oh He meant so much more than that! He meant that the
incredible plan of His Father God, which had been formulated before creation,
was now fulfilled and FINISHED. The full redemption of His creatures that He had
“Subjected to vanity” (Rom.
He further meant that man, who in his flesh body could never keep His
Holy Laws perfectly, would now be able to believe in the Perfect Life that
Christ had lived, and have it credited to their account. That is to say, a man
can now through the exercising of his faith, be counted as RIGHTEOUS before God
while he is still guilty of failures in his flesh! It is as though we,
ourselves, had always lived a perfect life, adhering to all points of the Law.
Can we understand that our Christ had no need to make the sacrifice for Himself,
but it was all done on our account! God’s plan was to credit His perfect
obedience to our account. We can live a victorious life without condemnation!
Referring now to the title of our sermon, we will quote a statement the
Lord Jesus made in John 14:28-30, “You
have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved
Me you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for My Father is
greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is
come to pass, you might believe. HEREAFTER I WILL NOT TALK MUCH WITH YOU, FOR
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMETH, AND HATH NOTHING IN ME.”
Jesus
said, “The prince of this world has
nothing in Me.” This statement is loaded with Spiritual dynamite! We know
that the office work of Satan is to “Condemn
the brethren” and not only so, but he dared to try and condemn the Son of
Man also. But our Lord was in no wise afraid of the Devil’s accusations, for
He knew that He was sin-free and being sin-free, the enemy had no ground on
which to stand and condemn. What a powerful truth the Lord Jesus had with which
to resist Satan, the fact of His sinless-ness before the Father!
We rejoice in the truth of the above statement that our Lord was sin-free
and was therefore victorious over all the attacks of Satan. But we dare not let
the matter rest there. The Bride of Christ must, at some time before the
Rapture, stand boldly before the enemy and MAKE THE SAME STATEMENT THAT OUR LORD
MADE! She must testify by saying, “The Prince of this world comes daily to
condemn, BUT HE HAS NOTHING IN ME.” When the Trumpet sounds for the glorious
Rapture, the Bride must be sin-free, standing before God with “The
breastplate of righteousness” buckled securely in place. (Eph. 6:14) She
must have the revelation that her sins of the flesh are not being charged
against her! Rom. 8:33, “Who
shall lay ANYTHING to the charge of God’s Elect?”
It
behooves us to study the Scriptures concerning the Cross, and pray for a
revelation of what actually was accomplished there. The death on the Cross was
the great, Earth-shaking subject on which the Apostles were commanded to preach.
And so they did, even though it was offensive to the lost world. “I determined, Paul said, “not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (I Cor.
2:2) In the Scriptures, the death of Jesus Christ is represented as the single
most important event that has ever occurred. It is the one fact upon which
Christianity rests, the only ground of hope for guilty mankind! Our debt paid by
God Himself.
What was the Saviour’s plan in submitting to die on the Cross, why was
it that Jehovah smote Him, and what has been accomplished by His death? We, who
have been given the revelation of an End-Time Prophet, have a distinct advantage
in that God gave this Prophet the answer to the above questions. To try and
enter into the full revelation of the meaning of the Cross, we need the teaching
of a Word Prophet. Some will say, we understand the meaning of the Cross, but
let me ask you, do you ever find yourself under condemnation for some sin
or other? Do you have days that you feel a wall between you and your God? Are
you at times unsure of His Love encircling you, so that you know His
thoughts are always good toward you and not evil? Do you ever wonder if it is
truly His will to heal you from every affliction?
If we are still in doubt about some of these things, then we need a
fuller revelation of what was accomplished at the Cross! What has Christ done in
order to secure the Salvation and Healing of us sinners? We must forsake our
human reason and replace it with the plan of Almighty God. The preaching of the
Cross is to them that perish, FOOLISHNESS, but unto us which are saved it is the
Power of God (I Cor.
The
preaching of the Cross must not remain FOOLISHNESS to those who are CALLED! It
must become the unfailing Power of God to us-ward! Here is what we mean! We must
not be foolish enough to allow Satan to condemn us for our sins and failures,
which according to God’s Word, have been destroyed forever by the Blood of His
Cross. I John 3:8, “…..For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of
the Devil.” Did He fail in His work? Never! Heb. 10:12-17, “But this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins FOREVER,
sat down on the Right Hand of God.” Verse 14, “For by one offering He has PERFECTED FOREVER them that are
sanctified.” Verse 17, “And
their sins and iniquities will be remembered no more.”
Heb.
9:12,
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by HIS OWN BLOOD He entered in
ONCE into the
Our fallen nature (that Law of Sin in our members, Rom.
There are many wonderful, deep, and glorious revelations God gave His
Prophet for the Bride of this age, and how we do appreciate each one of them. We
understand the sin in
Rom.
The
great question concerning the Cross is, “Will we believe what our natural mind
knows about ourselves, that there is no good thing in our flesh, or will we, by
PURE FAITH, take hold of God’s offer of the “FREE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?”
The will of God was to subject His Elect Angels to vanity (speaking of His
Bride) so that His desire to be a Saviour could be set in motion. We know from
the Prophet that God wanted a way in which to express His powerful Love that had
before time had no proper way of expression.
Since this was God’s plan, and since He is PERFECTLY SATISFIED with the
payment He, HIMSELF, made, will we still subject His plan to our HUMAN
REASONING, questioning whether or not we are FREE FROM SIN? Dear Bride, we must
allow the will and plan of God to be supreme and unquestioned in our minds! It
is true that our REASONING will come into conflict with WHAT IS WRITTEN, and
when it does, we are told to “Cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.” (II Cor. 10:5) Why would we reject so great and so
merciful a plan?
Rom. 4:8, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Who
is this man? Is it not one who fully accepts God’s plan that makes him
righteous? We are commanded to “Gird our loins about with truth of God’s
plan for our deliverance and buckle on the breast plate of righteousness.”
(Eph. 6:14) We are speaking of our total and complete redemption from all sin,
past, present, and future! We are searching for the full revelation of what
Christ accomplished by His Cross. We have preached and taught about the Cross,
and no doubt we have an intellectual knowledge concerning it.
But, we have now entered into the time frame when we must have a
spiritual revelation for what God has done for us on the Cross. By this, we mean
that we must be able to claim our freedom from Satan and sin while we are still
in a sinful flesh body. Our flesh man is vile, polluted, helpless and hopeless
in ourselves. Only the Holy Ghost which renews the mind can convince us to, by
faith, lay aside our natural condition and stand firmly on what God has written
concerning our Redemption and Righteousness. Our pardon must be received as a
pardon!
We are to say what Jesus said, “The
Prince of this world comes but he has nothing in us.” With no unrepented
sin in our lives, he has no ground to stand on from which to condemn us. He has
no legal authority over us at all. We refuse all condemnation. We are free!
QUOTE: ONE MORE TIME LORD, PAGE 3, “Satan has no more power,
only as he can bluff with it. If he can bluff you into it, alright, you will
have to have it. BUT LEGALLY HE HAS NO MORE POWER AT ALL. EVERY POWER HE HAD WAS
TAKEN FROM HIM AT
I John 3:8, “For this
purpose the Son of Man was manifested that He might destroy the works of the
devil.”
In
I John 1:5-9, we see some very important Scripture concerning what we are
teaching. “This then is the message
which we have heard of Him (Christ) and
declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say
we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness (still believing our sins
are charged against us, after repentance) we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the Light as He is in
the Light, we have fellowship with one another (with God) and
the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from ALL SIN.” Let us
claim our righteousness and move out for God!
QUOTE: POSSESSING THE ENEMIES GATE, PAGE 13, “And now we just
STAND AS CONQUERORS. See, there is no fighting to do. The fight is over, we own
it. He was wounded for our transgressions; with His stripes we were healed. To
know that it’s EXACTLY IN LINE WITH THE WORD.” (End quote)
James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore unto God, RESIST the devil and he will
flee from you.” (Because all he has is a BLUFF) (Satan knows this but
dreads for us to find it out!)
QUOTE: POSSESSING THE ENEMIES GATE PAGE 11, “Aren’t you happy
this morning to know that we stand more than a CONQUEROR. There is nothing to
fight (the devil) about. The fight is over, the whistle has been blown. The
(Victory) flag has been raised. In the midst of every sin-pile, THE OLD RUGGED
CROSS IS PLANTED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, A CONQUEROR. THE ONLY THING WE
HAVE TO DO IS BELIEVE IT. LOOK AND LIVE.” (End quote)
Rom.6:22, “But now, being MADE FREE FROM SIN, and become servants to God, you
have your fruit unto HOLINESS, and the end everlasting life.”
If
we believe the full benefits that Jesus earned for us on the Cross, our lives
will show them! We will accept our full pardon and walk in victory day by day.
Let us examine further the plan of God that has set us free. If there was
to be any kind of a payment made for the sins of man, then the plan would have
to originate in the Mind of God, Himself, so that God, Himself would, for all
Eternity, be completely satisfied with it! We have listed a few of God’s great
Mysteries revealed in our day, but also, as we have said, we are now entering
into the Highest Mystery of all. I Tim. 3:16, “Great
is the Mystery of Godliness.” Yes, indeed, it is mysterious for a man to
claim the righteousness of God, but we are!
Amazing beyond our ability to understand it is that spectacle that
happened on
Where can we go in our search for understanding of this Mystery? Who can
give us a proper understanding of what our God did on
We will now look at this Word and see that it was not only evil men that
were willing for Jesus Christ to die such a death, but IT PLEASED GOD TO BRUISE
HIM! (Isa. 53:10) It was, in all truth, God, Himself, that put His Christ to
grief. In Zech. 13:7 we read, “Awake
O sword against My Sheppard, and against the Man that is my Fellow, saith the
Lord of Hosts; Smite the Sheppard and the sheep will be scattered….” The
human sentence of death to Jesus was only the fulfillment of God’s own plan
as, “The Kings heart was in the Hand of
the Lord, and as the rivers of water He turned it withersoever He will.” (Pr.
21:1)
The death of Christ was a great instance of Ps 76:10 being
fulfilled, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, the remainder of wrath
shalt Thou restrain.” The wrath of man against God’s Christ was made to
praise God, in that it fulfilled His mysterious plan to put His Sheppard
(Himself) to grief, and by it, be eternally satisfied that man’s sin had been
paid for. The powerful, true statement delivered by the Lord to His disciples,
is now being revealed to those of this last age, “The Prince of this world cometh and has nothing in us.” Rather
than being afraid to claim our gift of righteousness, we are now seeing what a
terrible sin it is to reject it. Rather than being CONDEMNED by the devil for
testifying that we are sin-free, we are now being CONVICTED by the Holy Ghost
for not saying it. We are seeing that by continuing under the dominion of sin,
we are making the Cross of none effect in our personal life.
The revelation is that our refusal to walk in the light of our total
freedom from all sin and condemnation is the worse form of unbelief. It is the
root cause of all unbelief. It is, in this writer’s opinion, the final
revelation, sent to perfect our Faith into the kind that will get us up in the
Rapture.
Our fervent prayer is that this writer and our readers will from this
time forward refuse to “Frustrate the Grace of God; for if righteousness comes
by keeping the Law, then Christ died for nothing.” (Gal. 2:21)
Lord Jesus, we wrest our total well being from Satan’s hands, and give
you all the praise and glory. Amen!