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SERMONS ON PASTOR’S PAGE—WWW.WOR.ORG
Copyright © 2006 Trumpet Ministries, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
It seems that the understanding of God’s Kingdom, and also of the manner in which we are being fashioned by the Lord, is becoming increasingly clear. Perhaps these brief thoughts drawn from my sermons will be of help to the saints of the future.
The Importance of the Body of Christ
Why Our Prayers Do Not Seem To Be Answered
We Need More of the Holy Spirit
The Importance of Doing God's Will
Did Jesus Abolish the Law of Moses?
From the Old Covenant to the New Covenant
More Righteous Than the Scribes and Pharisees
Moving up to a Higher Level of Faith
Walking in Light, Life, and Love
We Are Denying the Lordship of Christ!
Judgment Has Begun in the Household of God
The Nature of the Kingdom of God
Finding Our Safety in the Lord
SERMONS ON PASTOR’S PAGE—WWW.WOR.ORG/PASTOR/PASTOR.HTM.
Introduction—Welcome to our site. You may notice some ideas that are new to you. Hopefully they will be helpful, or at least cause you to stop and think about what is being said.
We have come to the conclusion, after 60 years as a Christian, that some of our traditions need to be looked at again in the light of the Scripture. Our position is, if our tradition does not square with the Bible, then we need to change the tradition and not the Bible.
We certainly question the idea that our behavior does not affect our salvation.
We question also the doctrine of the pre-tribulation "rapture."
The "prosperity" and "faith" messages do not fit the Scripture, as far as we are concerned.
We look for the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, rather than eternal residence in Heaven. Have you ever tried to find in the Bible where we are supposed to spend eternity in Heaven?
We want to be with Jesus where He is—in the center of the Person and will of God, not stuck in an unscriptural mansion somewhere.
The Gospel of the Kingdom is beginning to be preached in all the world for a witness. After that, the end of the Church Age will be here.
You Shall Ask Anything—We have many needs in our church. Our first need is for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. A second need is for each member of the assembly to find his or her own gifts and ministry and begin to function as a member of the living Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus said we could ask anything in His name and He would do it. We are claiming that promise.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:13,
(1/2/2005) I don’t know if I suddenly have become aware of the above promise, but it is central in my thinking at this time. The congregation has responded and we prayed during New Year’s Eve, and also a great deal during both services on Sunday. I think I am seeing a difference already.
I have the feeling that God wants to send a mighty revival on the United States, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will make God’s lampstands, the churches, shine in the midst of the moral darkness that has overtaken the United States.
A friend of mine who listens to our tapes told me some people in his church have begun praying, and already they are seeing a difference in the Sunday-school children.
We have to pray fervently for specific requests, specific healings, specific help for specific families. If we are to have our prayer answered we will have to obey God’s commands in the New Testament and also what He tells us to do personally.
The design of the Tabernacle of the Congregation reveals that as we pass from the Church Age to the Kingdom Age we will have a double portion of God’s Spirit poured out on us, containing the gold of Christ’s Nature and Virtue, and the bronze of Divine judgment (50 gold rings and 50 bronze rings).
Also, the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter Eleven. When we go to the fourth chapter of the Book of Zechariah we find that the Temple of God, which is the Body of Christ, will be brought to perfection by the Spirit of God. My understanding is that the two lampstands are Christ and His Body, and, referring to Zechariah, will be receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit (the olive trees pouring oil into the Lampstand).
"Not by might but by My Spirit, says the Lord." This has been the slogan of the Pentecostal Evangel for many years, reflecting the history of the Pentecostal revival of the last century. My belief is that this slogan is speaking of today. Today is the time to pray for rain in the time of the harvest, spring rain.
Will you join your prayers with ours for a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit of God upon America that will include Divine Glory as well as Divine judgment.
You Shall Receive Power—There is no question but that America is on a moral slide down into a cesspool of sin and filth. The prevailing practice of ready abortion, and the homosexual behavior that is widespread, alone are sufficient to bring down on us the wrath of a God whose loving gifts are being warped by demons. And there are many other abominations, such as the molesting of children. It is God’s time now for national repentance. We know this. But how is such repentance to come about?
(1/9/2005) We need power. We need enough spiritual power to bring the Christian people in America to repentance. We need the power of the Spirit of God. We need another Pentecost
America ought to be a witness to the world of the Person of Jesus Christ. It is not. With its lust, perversions, fraudulent business practices, self-seeking, arrogance, it is more of a witness of Satan than it is of Jesus Christ.
And I think the nations of the world, and other religions, recognize this and are repulsed.
But what are we to do? The media are no help. They are preaching the wrong message. The entertainment productions, moving pictures, television programs, are pushing us down into the gutter. The electronic games we give to children are an absolute abomination of violence. The large corporations that should be pillars of integrity are rotten at the core. The government wrings its hands over the vulgarity of the pornographic material available to children and young people but can do nothing about it because of our worship of the "rights of people" and the "freedom of the press."
Because of the bloating of the concept of the separation of church and state, the Bible is being removed as a moral standard, leaving us with no moral standard. Everyone does what is right is his own eyes, to use a Bible expression.
The God-fearing people of America see this, and protest as much as they dare. But the ungodly are in the saddle.
The feeble effort to teach "intelligent design" as an alternative to the foolish hypothesis of random grouping of atoms and molecules into such incredibly complex organizations as the male and female reproductive systems, is discredited as not being scientific. This is nonsense. What is science if it not logical conclusions drawn from observable phenomena. We look at the various aspects of human beings and their environment and conclude that these are not the product of intelligent design?
We have become fools, while strutting about as though we understood what we are claiming. The truth is, the native in the bush understands in a minute more about life and the forces that govern us than the most accomplished of our puffed up academicians.
There is no answer for the mess we are in except the power of the Spirit of God. We must have an unprecedented outpouring of Pentecostal power. Righteousness always is a question of power. No array of education, philosophy, money, or political activism will deter the fallen cherub from his efforts to debase the image of God in mankind.
Will you, dear reader, join with us as we of Mount Zion Fellowship in Poway, California, pray ceaselessly for God to pour out His Spirit on us until we have a revival of repentance in our blessed nation?
Gifts and Ministries—We are going to have to change our perception of what constitutes a Christian church. According to the Apostle Paul, the Christians are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is a living organism consisting of many parts. Each of these parts depends on all the others for its survival and maturing in Christ. The Holy Spirit has given to each member of the Body of Christ a ministry—an opportunity and a responsibility for service to himself and to all the other members of the Body of Christ. The Spirit also has given spiritual gifts, supernatural enablements that make it possible for each member to serve by contributing to the growth of the entire Body.
(1/16/2005) At this time in our church (Mount Zion in Poway, California) we have two main burdens of prayer. The first is for an outpouring of God’s Spirit that will cause many of us to repent. The second is for each member of our assembly to seek and find his or her ministry and gifts of the Spirit.
We are not unmindful of the tragedy in Indonesia. We are not unmindful of the manner in which unrighteousness is filling our nation and the rest of the world. We are not unmindful of the need of so many people to come to know Christ as their Savior and Lord.
But we know these immense problems are not going to be solved by political schemes, by an outpouring of money, by war, by teaching, or by any other human effort. While all of these may play a part, the only true and lasting solution is for God to bring us to repentance by an outpouring of His Spirit.
We need a Pentecostal outpouring that will shake our nation, and we are praying for it. We intend to pray until we receive such an outpouring. Many believers know about what God has done in time past, particularly at Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The same God is ready to pour out His Spirit if we will pray and obey the Lord.
We are praying also for each one of us to find and operate whatever ministry the Holy Spirit has for him or her. It is only through the ministries and gifts of the Spirit that Christ can be formed in His people.
A while back the Lord told me that He is angry because of the unrighteousness being practiced in the world. Of course we realize that unrighteousness is being practiced in the world. But I had the sense that God was saying the unrighteousness is becoming worse and He is going to have to act.
For this reason I believe we who are Christians regardless of our particular persuasion need to call upon the Lord until He stops the slide downward into moral filth, into the unclean behaviors that are destroying the bodies and minds of people, particularly the children—many of whom are being sold into prostitution.
We in America are particularly guilty because of the lust and violence that pour forth from Hollywood California and pollute people around the globe. Their blood is going to be on our hands unless we Christians pray and turn from our wicked ways. Perhaps if we do, God will put a stop to the depravity that is issuing from our country.
The Body of Christ—There is only one Body of Christ. Most of the Body is in Heaven at any given time. The entire Body is being built up in Christ by that which every part supplies. We are all, in Heaven and upon the earth, moving toward perfection together.
(1/23/2005) As we stated on the previous Sunday, we are going to have to change our perception of what constitutes a church. Instead of a platform ministry and a congregation to which it ministers, the entire assembly of believers is to be invested with gifts and a ministry.
The concept of a "local body" is not scriptural, I believe. Too much stress on the local body tends to promote a self-contained kingdom. Rather all true disciples of the Lord are part of the one universal body.
When a believer receives a ministry from the Lord, that ministry will operate wherever the believer is—even on occasion in the world. Perhaps the gifts of mercy and encouragement are notable among those gifts that can help meet the needs of the people in the world.
We must revise our thinking about our own life. In America we view ourselves growing up and being educated; being married; working at one or more jobs and supporting our family; retiring; and then dying and going to Heaven.
For the disciple of Jesus, this is an incorrect viewpoint with incorrect goals and priorities. We must seek God until we discover what our role is in the Body of Christ. I mean, every one of us, not just the pastors and elders. Then we are to build our life around our service to Christ. We derive our goals and priorities in terms of our God-given assignment. Otherwise we are lukewarm church members, and we know the end of that!
If we do not turn to God in the present hour and begin to function under the guidance of the Head of the Body, we are going to be of no use to people during the age of physical and moral horrors that even now is on the horizon.
We minister first to ourselves, and then to our fellow members of the Body of Christ. When we are built up in Christ we are a light to the people in the world. Then the entire Body is the Lampstand of God, revealing the Person, will, and ways of God, and His eternal purpose in Christ, to the nations of the earth.
When we view the possible outcomes of the current clashes in the world, considering the hostility of many nations toward the United States, we are faced with the possibility that in the not too distant future we may be defeated by a coalition of Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, and other countries.
Such disaster may come upon us because of widespread abortion, and homosexual practices and other perversions. It may be true of us, as it was of King Josiah, that America already has gone past God’s mercy.
Whether or not such is the case, our response should be as that of Josiah. We should do all in our power to obey God, calling upon Him to send a mighty revival of repentance that will sweep across America. Perhaps if we will be obedient and pray, turning from our sinful ways, God will hear us and delay what appears in the present hour to be inevitable destruction.
Preparing for Revival—We are praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit, and also for God to bring forth gifts and ministries in each member of our assembling. We believe God has heard us. There are some steps we have to take to prepare ourselves for works of unprecedented power as they take place in our midst.
(1/30/2005) If God is to use us in a mighty way, we are going to have to learn not to touch the glory, the girls, or the money. We must never point to ourselves or seek personal aggrandizement. We must be totally pure in the realm of morality. We must not covet material wealth. Any one of these three pitfalls can make our testimony worthless.
We always must look to Jesus Christ to take the initiative. We are to do only what He directs us to do, without exception. No matter how great are the needs around us, in the church and in the world, the Lord Jesus must lead the way.
The Holy Spirit gives the gifts and ministries. The Lord Jesus always is to direct their use. It is God the Father who empowers that which Jesus directs.
We are to petition the Lord ceaselessly for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and for ourselves that we may be led into the use of our gifts and ministries.
Our general calling is as a saint, a holy one. Once we are called to be a saint we have no other calling, although we may work diligently at some secular occupation.
Our special calling concerns gifts and ministries. Gifts and ministries are not an interesting appendage we add to our busy church life. Our gifts and ministries define our role in the Body of Christ, the Body of the Christ. We are to look constantly to Christ for the use of our gifts.
Gifts are not given to a local body of believers but to the universal Body of Christ in Heaven and on the earth. They operate everywhere we are. But we have to be walking with Jesus to know where and when to put to work what God has given us.
The Body of Christ cannot come to full maturity apart from the functioning of every part of the Body.
Gifts range from the visible, spectacular working of miracles to the quiet giving of encouragement. None is more highly esteemed than the other in the sight of God. God is interested in our faithfulness, not how visible or dramatic our ministry may be.
We absolutely must assign our gifts, no matter how seemingly insignificant, the highest priority in our thinking and the organizing of our activities. We must covet earnestly what we esteem to be the best gift for us at this time. Prayer will help us with this decision.
The day of the idolized minister is over. We are to be prepared to use our gifts only as the Lord Jesus directs, regardless of any pressure put on us. Then we are to retire into anonymity until the next occasion, as the Lord leads.
All that God has given us in this present life is a talent to be used in the building of the Kingdom of God. If we are industrious with what God has given us, whether a spiritual enablement, or our family, or wealth, or health and strength, God will add to us opportunities for service. But if we are not diligent in the use of what God has given us, do not employ what we have in Christ’s service, seeking with all our heart to build the Kingdom of God, then our talents shall be removed from us and given to another. We shall be placed in spiritual darkness. This can take place even in the present life.
What a marvelous day we live in. It is the time of the harvest rain. Unprecedented works of power shall take place. The worldwide witness of the coming of the Kingdom of God shall be given. The thrones of glory await those who care enough to seek the Lord.
Don’t miss your one chance in all of eternity to justify the Father’s wisdom in directing the Lord Jesus to purchase you with His blood, to pay the awful price that you might have eternal life.
The Importance of the Body of Christ—As we are praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit, and also for God to bring forth gifts and ministries in each member of our assembling, we are becoming aware of the what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ, of the Body of the Messiah who is to come and establish justice on the earth.
(2/6/2005) As far as I know, the concept that the promised Messiah, Christ, consists of a great Head, and then a Body, which is His fullness, was given only to Paul the Apostle. We do not see this idea in the other New Testament writings.
I dare say that to be a member of the Body of Christ is an assignment so utterly important that all else of our life becomes insignificant by contrast.
The Holy Spirit gives various gifts and ministries to the Body. Although these gifts appear to be temporary, limited to the Church Age, it may be true that if we are faithful in using our gifts they may grow into a larger enablement that then defines what we are as a member of the Body. For example, we may use the gift of prophecy, giving ourselves to it, until we become a prophet. Perhaps this office will carry over into the coming Kingdom Age.
In other words, the gifts and ministries of Romans, Chapter Twelve, and First Corinthians, Chapter Twelve, may be much, much more than appendages we add to our business-as-usual discipleship.
The Lord Jesus Christ has been made a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This means Christ is King of righteousness (His scepter is one of righteousness); King of peace (the Prince of Peace); and also the eternal Priest of God.
If this is true of Christ, then it is true of each member of His Body, in that the Head and the Body form one Divine Organism.
I am not indicating that we are as great in rank as is the Lord, nor were we with God from eternity. We did not create all things, as did He. Nevertheless our office is that of a king-priest.
It if my point of view that the 6,000 or so years of the history of the world have been for the purpose of bringing forth God’s king-priests, the brothers of the Lord Jesus. God has purchased the whole field, as it were, the whole drunken, insane debauchery we term the "world," because there is a treasure in the field. The king-priests are that treasure.
There may be a billion professing Christians in the world, including all denominations and persuasions. Within this mass of believers there may be but a few who are worthy to walk with Christ in the white robes of the priesthood.
To attain to the high calling of the king-priests requires every bit of dedication we can bring to the effort. Small is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to the crown of life.
Whoever reads these words can choose to be a king-priest of God after the order of Melchizedek. But you will have to trust in the blood of the Lamb; you will have to follow the Spirit each day as He makes you a testimony of God’s Person, will, ways, and eternal purpose of God in Christ; and you are going to have to love not your life to the point of death.
There will be people in these last days who will attain to this goal. It can be you.
We are different from Melchizedek in that he was not a son of God. We who follow Christ have been born sons of God. Now we are pursuing the priesthood that is empowered by indestructible life.
As I said previously—nothing, absolutely nothing—in this world compares in importance with being a member of the Body of Christ. When we are saved and baptized with the Spirit we have the potential to become one of those who will return with the Lord Jesus and install the Kingdom of God upon the earth. Whether we develop this potential depends on whether we choose to follow the Apostle Paul in laying aside all else that we may gain Christ.
A Change of Priorities—When we begin to grasp the awesome importance of being a part of the great Body of the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, our understanding of the reason for our existence begins to change. We perceive we are an integral part of the one Body, most of whose members at any given time are in the spirit realm. We all are growing together, I believe, and shall be made perfect together at the coming of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with the holy angels.
(2/13/2005) I have been on the subject of the Body of Christ for several weeks. The concept keeps expanding in my mind.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that the Christ, the Messiah of God, consists of a Head and a Body. This does not mean that the members of the Body are equal to the Head in many instances. We were not with the Father from the beginning and did not create all things. People do not pray to God in our name. No one is baptized in water into our name. Jesus is Lord and the Father has made Him so. This fact is established for eternity.
Having thus safeguarded us from the error of thinking that Jesus is but one member of a many-membered Messiah, or Christ, we can continue to emphasize how utterly important it is that we are members of this illustrious Deliverer who will come down from Heaven and establish justice on the earth.
What is man that You are mindful of him? In the case of God’s elected royal priesthood, man is an indivisible part of the revelation of the invisible God. He is the chariot of God, the eternal temple in which the fullness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shall dwell forever.
It ever has been God’s plan to have a dwelling place through which He can govern and bless His creatures. To do so from the temple in Heaven has not proven to be satisfying to the Father. He wants to come down among us, and that is the reason for calling out the Church from the ranks of mankind.
How wonderful to be a part of God’s eternal Temple? This concept is to assume first place in our thinking.
When we pray for gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit we will receive them. Then they are to be guarded and nourished, being given the place of first importance in all that we are and do, twenty-four hours of every day.
What a transition this is from the concept of being a member of a Christian church! We are that, but so much, much more! At all times we are serving the Body of Christ, as well as all people with whom we come in contact, as the very Presence of God.
We all are to be witnesses of the living Christ. We bear witness primarily by what we are. When we are filled with the Spirit, the people around us can sense this. Some will reject Christ. Some will begin to glorify God in us; and in some instances we may be able to lead them to Christ. Or maybe just be a friend, or a counselor. The Spirit always will guide us if we keep looking to Jesus for wisdom.
A prayer: "Lord today—right this minute—cause me to be thinking God’s thoughts; to be speaking God’s words; to be acting as God is acting. By your infinite glory, make me the representation of Your Being, just as our Lord Jesus is."
When Our Prayers Do Not Seem To Be Answered—The Lord Jesus promised us that we could ask, in His name, whatever we wanted and it would be done. It was the Son of God who made this promise. Every one of His words is heaver than all the sand in the world. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ simply cannot be changed in any manner. They shall come to pass. When they seem not to come to pass, there is a good reason.
(2/20/2005) Many of us have prayed for the desires of our heart. Jesus promised us that we would receive the answer. Yet time—sometimes a long time—goes by and the answer does not come.
How can this be, when we know God has heard us and is bound by His Word to answer. There are at least two reasons.
The first reason is that God may understand that what we are asking will not bring us love, joy, and peace, which are the goal of all of us if we are mentally healthy.
A good example of this is the young man or young woman who falls madly in love with another person.
Then he or she begins to pray fervently: "O Lord, please cause this individual to be attracted to me so we can be married and live happily ever after." But God sees that such a marriage will bring hatred, misery, and anxiety. So He does not answer.
If the petitioner is wise, he or she will keep looking to the Lord and waiting, but not forcing the answer. The unwise person will rush off and do what his flesh is urging, and end up in total misery. "Patience, and the Kingdom of God!"
We simply have to believe that God is good, has all power, and is seeking our welfare. This Eve did not believe, apparently.
The second reason God does not seem to answer our prayer is that He has to prepare us to receive and maintain the answer. There have been times when God has answered a prayer, and the answer has destroyed the one who asked. The prayer was righteous and came from the desire that God had placed in the individual; but he or she could not maintain successfully that which had been given.
Adam and Eve in the garden possessed love, joy, and peace. But they were not prepared sufficiently to maintain that which had been given.
There have been believers who have been given powerful gifts of miracles and healing. Yet they became covetous, or proud, or unwise in their family responsibilities. Thus their gift destroyed them.
Sometimes we have superficial desires which are transitory. If we wait long enough they will weaken and disappear.
On other occasion there are deep desires that God has placed in our heart. When we pray for these to be fulfilled, God hears, because this is what He has in mind for us. Then God sets about to prepare us to profit from the answer.
Satan will tempt us to take a shortcut to the destiny to which we have been called, as he did with the Lord Jesus. Because of this, much patience is required. Like Abraham, we have to keep the birds off the sacrifice.
If we hold out to the end, we shall be saved and we shall receive the full destiny to which we have been called.
Also on yesterday morning’s file on the Audio Page (Joseph probably has it posted already) I went into the need we have to prepare for the future. Satan, the fallen angels, and the demons are going to become increasingly manifest, as they are already in the children’s toys. Then the casual Christian will become terrified and succumb to their seductions, just as so many Christians are watching the pornography on the Internet. If they could see the slobbering ghouls who are prompting them to watch the flesh on the Internet they would drop to their knees in prayer.
And—people believe me!—it is going to get much, much worse. So go to the Lord today so you may be found in Him when the spiritual darkness increases.
We Need More of the Holy Spirit—I believe the Lord Jesus wants us to pray for more of the Holy Spirit. Our nation is in an ever worsening moral condition. The only answer for the current depravity is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There is no program, no political party, no educational effort, that will cause Americans to turn from sexual lust and perversion. Only God’s Spirit has the power to do that.
(2/27/2005) In our church we are engaged in unified prayer for an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our country. We intend to keep praying until Christ sends the Spirit upon America in an unprecedented manner.
We cannot bear witness effectively apart from the power of the Spirit.
This morning we took a look at the passage in Luke where the Lord told us to pray persistently and boldly for the Spirit. Jesus said if we would ask we would receive; if we would seek we would find; if we would knock it would be opened to us.
I know this is true. I have a witness in my spirit, faith if you will, that God will pour out His Spirit on our nation, although it may be during a time of great trouble.
A friend has come to us in his or her journey. Who is this friend? It is the people of America. They do not know it but they are hungry for the Spirit of God.
We can give them words, but these will not meet their need. Only the power of God’s Spirit will bring back the transvestite, the lesbian, the gay, the girl ready to abort her baby, the man ruining his health on amphetamines, to the days long ago when he or she was a youngster in Sunday school; to the dad and mom who prayed and had high hopes for him or her.
And for those from dysfunctional families, who never had a godly bringing up—the Lord Jesus will draw near and tell them they are precious to Him, that He died that they might have a better life now and a joyful homecoming when they die and enter a better world.
The only answer is God’s Spirit! "You shall receive power!"
If we are to have God’s Spirit to the extent we desire we will have to ask for the Spirit, and then be totally obedient to God in every detail of life. Once we begin to pray for the Spirit, Christ will come to us as individuals and test us to see if there is any wicked way in us. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit concerning all that we are shown about our personal behavior.
At night we spoke about the fact that the 2000 years of the Church Age may prove to have been primarily for the development of rulers for the ages to come. Perhaps the most important virtue of a future ruler is stern obedience to God. In order to develop this stern obedience in us, God must bring us through many tests, some of them quite difficult
Also, we must pray for the strength to forgive everyone who has harmed us. No person can hope to rule with Christ who does not forgive everyone who has harmed him.
The Importance of Doing God’s Will—As I understand it, there is nothing in the universe as important as doing the will of God. Under the Mosaic covenant, doing God’s will meant, for the most part, obeying the written commandments and statutes. Under the New Covenant, we also must obey the commandments issued by Christ and His Apostles.
As we obey Christ and His Apostles, Christ enters us to a fuller extent. The Day Star rises in our heart. Then we know God’s will for us moment by moment. As we follow God obediently, it becomes ever more true of us that God’s will and our will are brought into perfect harmony. To live in such harmony with God’s will is the greatest good we ever will experience; and we are wise if we pray each day that that such harmony will be brought about.
(3/6/2005) There are three major aspects of redemption. They are the blood of atonement, the Presence of the Holy Spirit in our life, and finally the dwelling in us of the Fullness of God.
The first two, the blood and the Spirit, are means to an end. The blood gives us the authority to enter the Fullness of God. The baptism with the Holy Spirit provides the wisdom and power by which we enter the Fullness of God. The Fullness of God is the supreme goal, the Omega of salvation.
How do we move past Pentecost to the Tabernacles experience, to the fullness of God? The issue is that of our will versus God’s will. After we have been forgiven through the blood atonement, we still can behave according to our own will. After we have been filled with the Spirit, have spoken in tongues, perhaps have exercised other gifts of the Spirit, we still can behave according to our own will.
But the Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven. God is seeking an eternal temple, a place of rest for Himself. God cannot rest while we still are behaving according to our own will.
Therefore we are to pray that God might move us into this final experience. As we do, we begin to be challenged in many different ways. The common aspect of our challenges is the issue of God’s will versus our will. Are we going to resist the Spirit, following our own ideas, blaming people and circumstances for our pain, yielding to the lusts of our flesh, or are we going to pray "not my will but Yours be done" in each and every test?
You probably are being stretched today, for it is God’s will in our day to find as many believers as He can who will devote themselves to the moment by moment doing of the will of Christ.
There will be four great institutions of evil in the last days: the Antichrist government; Babylon; the false prophet; and the church of Laodicea. Each of these institutions will be guided and driven by the human mind.
The Antichrist government is civil government that ignores God and proceeds according to the wisdom and strength of man.
Babylon is religion, including Christianity, that is organized and guided by the wisdom and strength of man.
Laodicea is the lampstand of God that is keeping Christ outside the door, as we see today in the numerous programs and seminars that ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The false prophet is the attempt of religious people to exercise power by various metaphysical means, such as imaging, speaking creative words, and employing faith in faith instead of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the last days we will have the mark of Antichrist in our head and hand, or the name of the Lamb and His Father written on our forehead. To have the mark of Antichrist means we are living according our own will. To have the name of the Lamb and His Father written on our forehead means we are living according to God’s will.
Make your decision today whose name you desire to be written on you, for the age of moral and physical horrors is fast approaching.
Christ In You—The parable of the sower may well be the fundamental parable of the Kingdom of God. The parable of the sower reveals to us that the Kingdom of God is not a matter of religion, liturgy, and doctrine, although in our ignorance we have made it so.
(3/13/2005) There is both an outer Kingdom and an inner Kingdom of God, of Heaven. The outer Kingdom will come down from Heaven. It is the visible rule of God in Christ in the saints. However, it is the inner Kingdom that is of supreme importance and is the issue today.
The inner Kingdom is the subject of Jesus’ parables. The inner Kingdom is a Seed, a Seed that comes from God. The Seed is of the Divine Nature. The Divine Seed contains in itself all that is of God, just as the seed of a flower or a tree contains within itself all that is of the organism from which it came.
We cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God until we have been born again. First we are born of water, of a woman. Then we are born of the Spirit of God. It is the new birth that itself is the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom from Heaven. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Once that Seed from God is planted in us and begins to grow, our entire life must be oriented toward insuring that we do not let anything else in our personality and behavior crowd out that seed. It is possible to have the Seed germinate, and then wither and die, as we see in the parable of the sower.
Today the Lord is seeking for those who are willing to become of first rank in the Kingdom of God. They reap the growth of the Seed (Christ) to a hundredfold extent. If I am hearing from the Lord correctly, it is right now that the Spirit of God is moving through the entire Body of Christ, on earth, and in the spirit world as well, to determine who will yield himself completely to the Lord so that Christ may become All in all in him.
Day by day Christ is crucifying what we are in order that His Life may be formed in us. Will we patiently cooperate with the Spirit of God so that we reap the fullness for which we have been ordained? Some will, and you can be among them if this is what you desire above all else.
Those who, because of their willingness to submit to pruning and thus to bear abundantly the fruit of the image of Christ in their personality will, as a result, turn many to righteousness. These lights of God will shine, in the Day of Resurrection, like the stars. The stars give forth light and heat because of the inconceivable energy developed by the nuclear implosions within them.
So it is that those who care to fight through to total victory in the Lord Jesus Christ will wake in that Day to find the fullness of Divine energy serving as the source of their life. These are the sons of God, the brothers of our Lord, and they shall govern God’s creatures for the ages of eternal ages.
This is the Glory of Christ who is being formed in us in the present hour.
At night the emphasis was on faith, from the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. The point was made that the faith by which the righteous live is the abandonment of our life to Christ, holding back nothing. Complete abandonment is necessary if we are to reap Christ a hundredfold. This is available on audio tape.
The division in the new covenant is not between faith and works. The righteous have lived by faith from the time of Abel. Rather, the division is between the works of the Law of Moses, and the grace of God. Grace is defined as our means of obtaining righteousness apart from the Law, as we are forgiven through the blood atonement and transformed morally by the Presence of God in Christ.
Hope—Most of the Christian pilgrimage consists of minor frustrations and irritations—minor compared to the awful tragedies that fall on some people. But once in a lifetime there may come a defining moment. Like Jacob, we are faced with terrible fear; or we may suffer the loss of our treasures; or there may be a seemingly endless denial of our fervent desires. Gethsemane in one form or another enters our heretofore reasonable life.
(3/20/2005) Today’s sermon addressed the idea of the righteous living by faith. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews is one long definition of what it means to live by faith.
It is interesting that the Holy Spirit teaches us faith from the lives of the patriarchs. We mistakenly believe the new covenant is distinguished from the old by its emphasis on faith. This is not the case. No one under any covenant has pleased God other than by faith. The new covenant is distinguished from the Mosaic covenant by issuing righteousness to us by means of the blood atonement and life lived in the Spirit of God, rather than by obedience to the laws given by Moses.
The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ. The distinction is between the Law and grace, not between the Law and faith.
As we seek to understand from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews what is means to live by faith, the first item we come to is hope. Faith is the substance or assurance of things hoped for.
Hope is ranked along with faith and love as being among the highest values in the Kingdom of God. Why is this? It is because the opposite of hope is despair. Indeed there are occasions when we despair even of life. But then we reach up and take hold upon God’s Character and realize that such experiences are for the purpose of teaching us to trust in Him who raises the dead. Thus our hope is renewed. Faith actually is our grasp on God’s unchanging Character.
God is not pleased with pessimism or self-pity. Neither of these reveals that we believe God knows about the details of our life; has the power to bring us to joy; and is bringing us to joy.
Certainly the Father chastens every son whom He receives. Assuredly He wounds us and then heals us. He brings us down to the Valley of Achor; but the place of judgment becomes a door of hope for us if we do not turn away from the Lord.
I have noticed that today many believers are being brought down to the Valley of Decision. I believe a period of great glory is approaching. God is looking to see who really loves and trusts Him. Like Jacob, once our integrity has been established beyond doubt, we will receive a name that is our name in place of the arbitrary name given us by our father and mother.
Who are you anyway? Who am I? Do we actually know? Perhaps we are well established in Bethel, the house of God. But it may be time for us to come face to face with El-Bethel, the God of the house of God. In that Day we will say with Job: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." It at this point we learn our true name.
Much pruning is going on now as God prepares us for a revival of repentance in the United States. Are you being pruned now? What a blessing! Gather up the strange ashes—all that is left of your hopes and dreams. Hold them up before God and say, "You yet shall give me the desires of my heart. Therefore I will continue to trust and obey you, knowing that my end shall be glorious."
Never, never, never give up. The best is yet to come. You yet shall have the desires of your heart if you do not turn away from the Lord and yield to hopelessness. This is how the righteous live.
At night we continued in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. Faith includes offering our sacrifice to God with a loving heart, unlike Cain who hated and was jealous of his brother.
By faith we walk humbly with God at all times, as did Enoch.
Noah portrays to us the believer who prepares himself for years as he awaits the fulfillment of the vision the Lord gave him. So we must labor for years as we await the vision God has given us. This is how the righteous live.
It is of note that Noah’s sons did not belong to a "youth group." If they did they would not have worked alongside their father. In order to gain favor with their peers they would have scorned their father as being a crazy old man
Recent experiences are suggesting to me that we should not be dividing our families by age groups. When Satan can manage to split off the youth from their parents, such that the youth are gaining their values from their friends rather than from their family, he readily is able to lead them astray.
There are youth leaders today who seduce their charges away from their parents by entertaining them with fun and games. Each pastor needs to watch out for this and put a stop to it. It is destructive.
It is my conviction that the Lord Jesus want to turn the hearts of the young people to their parents and the parents to their children. If we continue to foster "youth groups" we are going to bring the curse of God upon us.
See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:5,6)
I think the prophets are warning us today to withdraw from the teaching of the American culture that would create generation gaps. Let us look to Shem, Ham, and Japheth as our models as they worked side by side with their dad for so many years as he obeyed God. It is time for the family unit to be emphasized.
Two Resurrections—We just celebrated Easter, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps because of the teaching of Gnosticism, which emphasizes the superiority of the spiritual rather than the physical, we have lost sight of the central hope of the Christian Gospel—the bodily resurrection of the Christians.
(3/27/2005) The Lord Jesus told us that everyone who is in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to condemnation.
Our bodily resurrection is important for two reasons: first, what we receive at that time will determine what our true name, our true character is and our destiny for eternity; second, we will be able to live once again on the earth. Paradise on the earth shall be regained. The Lord Jesus is redeeming for us all that we lost at the beginning.
The influence of Gnosticism has influenced Christian thinking to the extent we do not look forward to bodily resurrection but to life in a mansion in Heaven. Eternal life in a mansion in Heaven is not the inheritance of God’s people. Our inheritance is physical life once again on the earth, although in a superior body.
We cannot be "raptured" (caught up to meet the Lord as He comes to install His Kingdom on the earth) until we first have been resurrected. It is the resurrection that is the victory over the last enemy, physical death. Right now, by the decisions we are making, we are deciding the kind of resurrection we will have, whether to contempt and corruption, or else to eternal life and glory. It may be true that there is no truth more needed to be restored to us.
We must remember there are two resurrections, both set forth in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation. There is the first resurrection, the bodily resurrection of the members of the royal priesthood. No books are opened at this resurrection for the people thus raised have passed through the Judgment Seat of Christ prior to their restoration to life on the earth.
After a thousand years (literally or figuratively) have occurred, the remainder of the people on the earth will be raised. Each individual will be judged according to his or her works. Those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Those whose names are found written in the Book of Life, when the sheep are separated from the goats, will enter life in the new heaven and earth reign of God and the Lamb. These "sheep" are the inheritance of the Lord and His priesthood.
The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians, listed the requirements for participation in the first resurrection. We must set aside all else, counting it rubbish, that we may gain Christ. In this manner we attain to the resurrection (Greek: resurrection out from) the dead (Philippians 3:11). Those who attain to this early resurrection, which shall take place at the next coming of the Lord, are His priests, His mighty men, His soldiers who will work with Him in the installation of the Kingdom of God on the earth.
The United States Marine Corps has need of a few good men, they say. The Lord Jesus Christ has need of a few stalwart believers who will press forward until they stand with the Lord on Mount Zion. These compose Gideon’s army, and they shall destroy the enemy so that all Israel may be saved.
Abiding in the Vine—If there were no other chapter in the Bible, we might be able to get along with the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Actually, the key idea of the Christian discipleship is that of abiding in the Vine, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
(4/3/2005) There are many religions in the world, aren’t there? Religion kind of runs parallel to salvation. Sometimes religion assists our salvation, sometimes it hinders it. But we must never permit religion to interfere with our walk with God or our knowledge of God.
Jesus Christ is the only true Vine. He is vastly more than a religion. He is the Tree of Life from God. There are many religions, as I have stated; but there is only one Tree of Life.
Whatever our religion may be, the one essential action we must take is to abide in the one true Vine, in Christ. How do we do that? We do that by entering the eternal dialogue. The eternal dialogue operates as we continually look to the living Lord Jesus all through the day and night.
Our life, as you think about it, is a series of problems and decisions. From the time we get up in the morning until we lie down at night, we are faced with problems and decisions of various kinds. These problems and decisions vary according to our culture.
In the wealthy Western nations we decide what to eat and how much to eat. What clothes to wear. Then we arrive at work and are faced with the problems of our vocation. The people of the poorer countries encounter the various problems of survival.
We can face each problem and make each decision according to our experience, wisdom, and strength. Or we can keep on looking to Jesus for wisdom and strength.
We are late for work. We jump in the car and the battery is dead. Our teenage son left the lights on. What do we do now?
We can rave and swear, rush in the house and berate our son. Our we can stop for a moment, look up to Jesus, and ask for His wisdom, His solution.
Just then a friend stops by. "Dan, remember we were going to car pool today. Hop in."
Every time we yield to our adamic nature we remain dead spiritually. Every time we subdue the adamic impulse and look to Jesus we abide in Christ. Pretty soon our entire day is filled with prayer for help concerning the things that go wrong, and thanksgiving for the things that go right.
When we thus remain in Christ, we begin to bear fruit. The fruit we bear is the Life and Character of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fruit we bear is for the people of the world. When they come to us and receive what we are, do, and say, they receive God's life. "The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’"
We have been called to be saints so we can bring God’s Life, His love, joy, and peace, to the people of the nations of the earth. It is God’s will that Israel blossom, bud, and bear fruit; that righteousness and praise spring forth before earth’s multitudes.
There are two factors that work to determine your rank in God’s Kingdom. One factor is the Divine election directed toward you. The other is your willingness to be pruned.
As you are willing for the Divine Farmer to cut away parts of your personality and accomplishments, you will bear fruit, more fruit, and then much fruit. To grow up to the rank of much fruit means you will shine as a star in the firmament of God. Your righteousness and wisdom that have come to you from Christ will result in the winning of many souls, a splendid banquet for the Lord’s table.
Two Kinds of Love—There are two basic kinds of love. The first kind is emotional love, the kind of love we feel. The second kind is behavioral love, love that is expressed in what we say and do.
(4/10/2005) The burden yesterday was on John, Chapter 15, verses 9-17. How often did the Lord Jesus tell us to love one another?
There are two kinds of love, there is the love we feel, and then there is the behavior of love that operates whether or not we feel loving.
There is romantic love, which usually is nothing more than a somewhat disguised sexual attraction. It is highly prized in America. It actually is a device of nature to insure the growth of the population. It consists of how you make me feel and how I make you feel. Since romantic love may not last longer than six months after the wedding, it is not a good basis for marriage.
There is the love of parents for their children. There is the camaraderie that used to exist between friends in the armed services; but now such friendship often turns into lust and perversion.
There are many additional kinds of emotional love, such as the love of a teacher for her students.
Then there is behavioral love. Behavioral love consists of what we say and do. We are to act kindly and constructively toward others whether or not we like them or love them.
When Jesus commands us to love one another He is not referring to emotional love. We cannot produce emotional love upon demand. Christ is referring to behavioral love, because this is the kind of love we can produce upon demand, although sometimes we have to pray diligently and patiently before we overcome our hatred toward another person.
We must never yield to hatred, bitterness, or unforgiveness. To do so is to injure ourselves spiritually. We pray until we can give our enemy a cup of cold water. To do so may cause us to die inside, but it is this kind of death that produces resurrection life in us.
We love our enemy by assisting him or her when we have an occasion to do so. But we do not have to have a good feeling toward him when we do so. Christ told us to continue in His love. His love is sacrificial.
I don’t believe Christ left the ivory palaces because He felt emotional love for us. Perhaps He did. But the Bible says He came to die for our sins. He laid down His life for us, just as we must lay down our life on occasion for another individual. But I do not believe He enjoyed doing so. After all, He wanted the cup to pass. He drank it in obedience to the Father. We also must obey Christ whether or not we feel like it.
The husband is the priest of the home. He must sacrifice himself for his wife and children, as the Lord leads him. If he expects his wife to make him happy, constantly giving in to his desires, he is a self-centered baby. He never will have a happy home unless his wife is an unusually mature saint.
This passage in John reminds us that if we would be the friend of Christ we must obey His commandments given Personally and through His Apostles. The current teaching of lawless grace and unconditional love is Satan’s device to keep the believers in sin. If we do not keep His commandments and those of His Apostles we do not love Him.
We will not remain in Christ’s love if we do not keep His commands. This is what Christ said, although current Christian teaching is to the contrary.
Christ chose us; we did not choose Him. We speak of people "accepting Christ." This expression is not found in the Scriptures. Why do we preach what is not scriptural?
The truth is, Christ accepts us. He choose us. Then we have to confirm the wisdom of His choice by keeping His commands and those of His Apostles. This is the fruit we are to bear. When we do not keep His commands, showing His love toward those we love and those we detest, we are cut off from the Vine, from Christ.
Then there are the Alexander the Coppersmiths. We turn these over to the Lord, as He directs.
Let each one of us continue in Christ’s sacrificial love. As we do so we will remain in His love, and whatever we request of the Father in His name we shall receive.
Pastor Stan spoke at night about his three major prayer requests: that God would come to Him in a greater way; that the Father would charge Michael to throw Satan out of Heaven; and that the Lord would hasten His coming.
Without Condemnation—We are being taught today that if we will take the four steps of salvation we now have our ticket that proves we are without condemnation and will go to Heaven when we die. However, this is not what the Bible teaches.
(4/17/2005) The burden today had to do with Romans 8:1: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
This verse was written to Jews who were troubled over the idea of leaving the Torah and placing their faith in Christ. Paul was telling them that they could look to Jesus and still be counted righteous, without condemnation, even though they were not adhering to the statutes of the Law of Moses.
We Gentile do not understand this background. We have fastened on the idea of making a profession of faith in Christ, and thus receiving a permanent freedom from condemnation whether or not we behave righteously.
We interpret the verse as follows: "There is now no condemnation for those who take the four steps of salvation." This is not what Paul said. Paul taught, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Is there any difference between taking the four steps of salvation and being in Jesus?
Yes, there often is a world of difference between the two.
The first is a doctrinal position, often accompanied by an affirmation of faith in Christ.
The second is a way of life. Being in Christ Jesus means exactly that—living in Christ.
There are millions of people in the United State who have taken the four steps of salvation, who have professed faith in Christ as their Savior and Lord, but who are not living "in Christ."
To be in Christ means we are not obeying the sinful impulses of our flesh and spirit. We are looking to the Holy Spirit for all things. The Holy Spirit becomes our law—the Law of the Spirit of Life.
Numerous believers today are oppressed with various bondages. Some are alcoholics. Some are addicted to narcotics. Some are bound with gossip, lying, stealing, arrogance, unbelief, unforgiveness, bitterness. They know these are sinful practices. One response is to try to overcome and then fail to gain victory. Another is to claim we are saved by grace so it does not matter how we behave.
Neither response is the salvation Jesus Christ came to bring to us. Christ came to destroy the power of Satan in you and me. It is up to us to press into Christ until we gain full release from the power of darkness.
Our nation is dropping into a moral cesspool because the good works of Christ are not always being revealed in the Christian churches. Isn’t that the truth?
We can and we must be delivered from the works of the sinful nature if we expect to remain without condemnation. We are without condemnation as long as we are abiding in Christ. We abide in Christ by praying every day, reading our Bible, gathering with fervent saints, looking to the Lord for help in making the decisions we are faced with each day.
Listen: "In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." Can you hear what Paul is telling us? He is saying that the righteous requirements of the Ten Commandments are fully met in us if we do not yield to our sinful nature but follow the Holy Spirit at all times.
Is it possible to follow the Holy Spirit at all times? Absolutely. We just have to make up our mind that this is how we want to conduct our life.
We are in need of revival in America. We have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. The handwriting is on the wall. The Spirit of God is calling for a revival of repentance. We shall have such a revival, but it will be in the midst of trouble.
The wise individual will set his house in order to the best of his ability. Ask Jesus to help you. The darkness is coming, and only those who are living "in Christ" are going to be able to save themselves, their families, and those friends who will listen to them.
You can be a deliverer throughout the age of moral and physical horrors that is approaching, but you will have to be abiding in Christ at all times.
You can do it if you really want to!
Hearing From God—Most of us want to hear from God. We want truth, for only the truth will set us free. But we go our own way so often. We do not ask God what he is thinking.
(4/24/2005) Dr. Dianne McIntosh spoke at both services today. She emphasized that we need to hear what God is saying.
She brought out the point that Christ continually is making intercession for us. We need to ask the Lord what His prayer is for us; what His prayer is for other people. When we pray for ourselves and others as Christ is praying, our prayer always is answered.
As she always does, Dianne emphasized repentance. The Lord Jesus said we are to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It is vain for us to go to church and pretend we are living a righteous life, when this is not the truth. When we find we are doing this we need to repent and confess to the Lord that we are not being sincere.
Dr. Dianne feels as many of us do, that she no longer wishes to "play church." We want to hear from the Lord. We want to know what Christ is saying, not what we think He might be saying as we play our little church games.
There is no question in my mind but that the Lord Jesus wants to do a deeper work within us, and within many other congregations as well. We need to permit Him to speak to us so all that is not sincere in our life will be renounced as we draw closer to Him.
She told how in her own family that if they fought on the way to church, and then pretended while in church everything was lovely, they then would have their own prayer meeting on the way home from church as each family member repented of his or her behavior.
It certainly is time to make straight the way of the Lord!
Dianne remarked, concerning the woman at the well, that she had had five husbands and now was living with a new man. Dianne remarked that sometimes we or our children have to live in the pigsty for a while before we are ready to drink of the water of eternal life; and for this reason we should not despair concerning a wayward young person.
What a wonderful time we are living in as the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us and shows us our need of Him, and how we should be conducting our life. Without doubt the coming of Christ in His Kingdom is near at hand, and He is preparing us to work with Him as He establishes justice upon the earth.
At night Dianne elaborated on training people to hear the Lord. She pointed out that we sometimes hear Christ in our inner man, but when the message reaches our brain we may misunderstand what God is saying because we have "itchy ears." By this she meant we select what we want to hear and screen out the rest.
She brought out several passages of Scripture that speak of our having ears to hear. She emphasized that God’s sheep hear His voice but the lambs do not. Therefore we have to teach our children how to listen to the Lord.
Pursuing Life—Perhaps the most common concept of the Christian salvation is that we are saved so we will go to Heaven when we die. This is a tradition. It is not the concept presented in the New Testament. While assuredly there is a literal Heaven and a literal Hell, the topic of the New Testament is the pursuit of the Life of God that comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.
(5/1/2005) Well, if making our eternal residence in the spirit Paradise is not the reason be get saved, is not the reason we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then exactly what is the goal of the new covenant?
The goal of the new covenant is to move us from the sinful bondages of the adamic nature to the love, joy, and peace of the Holy Spirit.
But aren’t eternal life and Heaven basically the same thing? No indeed they are not! The Heaven where God, Christ, and the saints live is a place in the spirit world. Heaven is an actual place where the saints go when they die.
Eternal life is not a place. Eternal life is a form of life, just as is true of flesh and blood life. One can be in Heaven and have eternal life or not have eternal life. For example, Satan never had eternal life, so far as we know. Yet he was one of the cherubim that guarded the very Throne of God. The angels are in Heaven and they do not have eternal life.
How do we know that angels do not have eternal life? Because eternal life is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is not given to angels to possess Christ.
Adam and Eve were not created with eternal life, only the life of flesh and blood. In order to have possessed eternal life they would have had to eat of the Tree of Life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only Tree of Life; although if we lay hold on eternal life as we should, faithfully following the Holy Spirit, the day shall come when we also are trees of life, life-giving spirits.
Into the midst of dead mankind strides the Tree of Life. Mankind is dead because the only life the people have is the corruptible life of flesh and blood. Their bodies burn cells in the presence of oxygen, and from this burning they derive warmth and energy.
"Eat My flesh and drink My blood," invites the Son of God. "These are true food and true drink. Those who learn to live by My body and blood shall live by Me as I live by My Father, and I shall raise them in the last day."
Flesh and blood cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of God. We enter the Kingdom of God as we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus. There is no other source of Divine Life.
I say all this to emphasize that our whole purpose in existence is to pursue the Life of God that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ we remain dead. True we are thinking, speaking, and acting. But such behavior proceeds from our human mind, which is hostile toward God and therefore prone to grievous bondages.
If we are wise we will pursue the Life of Christ every moment of every day and night of our time on the earth. The gate is small, and the way is difficult that leads to life; and few Christians find it, it appears.
The Apostle Paul had set as His goal to attain to the resurrection. This means he was laying aside all other ambitions to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings.
To know and live in the power of Christ’s resurrection—this must become our goal.
What is resurrection? Resurrection is a Person. Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life.
This means that when we have Christ we have the resurrection from the dead.
This does not mean that our flesh and bone will not be raised at the return of the Lord from Heaven. They indeed shall be. How wonderful it will be to be clothed upon with a body fashioned from Divine, incorruptible, all-powerful life! What love, joy, and peace will be ours then.
But that resurrection shall take place at the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
As marvelous as the resurrection at the coming of Christ will be, the important resurrection is that which takes place every time we deny the cravings of the adamic nature, choosing instead to submit each aspect of our thinking, speaking, and acting to the Lord Jesus.
Paul testified that he was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless he lives. But it is not Paul who lives but Christ who lives in Paul. This means that Paul’s thinking, speaking, and acting are proceeding from Christ, who is the Resurrection, living in him. This is what it means to attain to the resurrection from the dead. The bodily resurrection, which shall take place at the last trumpet, will prove to be a demonstration of that which already has been completed in the saint.
The problem with the current "ticket" doctrine (accept Christ and when you die you will go to Heaven) is that it misses the program of redemption. While we are waiting to die and then present our ticket to Saint Peter at the gate, our opportunity to pass from spiritual death to spiritual life shall have passed us by.
We may desire to live in Paradise. God desires that we first become filled with eternal life so we practice iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to Himself. We shall enter Paradise as soon as the life and laws of Paradise have been created in us.
Chastening—It is clear that the United States of America is sliding downhill morally. The Spirit of God is commanding American Christians to repent. In order to help us repent, the Lord is sending trouble upon us. We are not to be amazed at the fiery trial that shall test us but repent, so we may save our loved ones and friends.
(5/8/2005) The burden of yesterday had to do with the fiery trials that are coming and yet shall come upon God’s people—especially those who are close to Him. The text used was the first thirteen verses of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews.
We are enjoying life, having only our ordinary amount of confusions and frustrations. Suddenly we find ourselves being oppressed by various forms of suffering. There may be health problems, cancer, domestic discord, financial problems. "Where is God?" we wonder.
We may have been taught that Christians are not to suffer. "Christ suffered so we do not have to experience pain." "Christ became poor so we may be rich." "Christ was despised and rejected so we may be successful in this world." These are the deceitful messages that prevail in our day.
If we are to survive spiritually we must look to see if the doctrines we are being taught are leading us to righteous conduct. If they do not, they are of the enemy. They are of the deception that Christ told us would abound in the last days.
Then too we must avoid fretting about the evil in America. Certainly there are abominations being performed in America, and there are periodicals that tell us how awful everything is. But the Bible commands us not to fret. If there is something we can do to bring about righteousness and justice we should do it, as the Lord leads. Otherwise we are to pray that God will correct the problem area, and then look up to Christ with rejoicing; for it is certain His glory fills the earth.
Sometimes we pray for people to be delivered from problems when God has sent these problems to bring the individual closer to Himself. We need to ask how Christ wants us to pray—what He is praying for, as Dr. Dianne McIntosh suggests. You know, no one could have prayed for Job to be healed until God was through dealing with him. Isn’t that so?
According to the fourth chapter of the Book of First Peter, suffering saves us by removing sin from us. God is judging the living and the dead. When He judges us He shows His anger toward the sin and rebellion in us. If we submit ourselves to God as to a faithful Creator, the day shall arrive when we stand before Him in the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Jesus told Peter that Satan was going to sift him. Why? Because the disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom.
Jesus did not tell Peter He was going to rebuke Satan so Peter would not be sifted. Rather Christ prayed that Peter’s faith would be strengthened so he would glorify God by standing firm.
How is it with you, friend? Have you suddenly found yourself in a dark pit where you have to look up to see the bottom? You used to arise full of joy and enthusiasm, ready to serve the Lord in the new day. Now the moment you awake you remember you are awaiting the results of the biopsy. You remember that your son is in jail for killing someone in a hit and run accident while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. You dread the fact that your job is going to be terminated. Perhaps you are being sued, having been accused of negligence. Your daughter has left home and is living on the street as a prostitute—she who once was a beautiful little blond-headed darling with her blue ribbon and her teddy bear.
These kinds of things surely can’t happen to Christian families who attend church regularly? Yes, they can and they do. Everyone suffers in this world. It is the valley of the shadow of death. If you have not found this to be true, you shall in the future.
Remember one thing: if you are not an evil doer, your suffering is for the purpose of bringing you closer to God. Pray that your faith does not fail. Every son God receives He punishes with a view to correction. Your end will be peace, and a knowledge of the Lord you did not have previously. Consider the end of Job.
It appears that many Christians are experiencing fiery trials in the present hour. These trials are to prepare us for what is ahead in America.
Holiness—Holiness is spiritual cleanliness, the absence of that which spiritually is unclean. Holiness has to do with our relationship with God. Righteousness has to do with our relationship with people. Sometimes holiness and righteousness interact. For example, a person may have an unclean spirit of lying. This is offensive to God. Also, his or her lying may cause another person to be harmed. In this instance the unclean spirit has produced unrighteous behavior.
(5/15/2005) A behavior is righteous when God deems it righteous. Our behavior and attitude are holy when God regards them as holy. It is the inability to flow with the flowing of the Godhead, in the matter of righteousness and holiness, that is the death that lies at the heart of religion and causes us always to err in our heart. Only the life of Christ is the light that gives us true understanding of righteousness and holiness. Religion usually operates in terms of mental understanding, not in terms of the Life of Christ, and therefore does not produce true righteousness and holiness.
I taught on the topic of holiness today. I usually speak very little about movies, cigarette smoking, being tattooed, body piercing, drugs, and alcohol. My main topic is the forming of Christ in us, and the need to move past lawless grace to the development of the new creation of righteous behavior.
Truly our doctrines of today need to be reexamined. But once in a while I discuss some details of Christian living that we need to consider.
One lady said the sermon was just for her. She had been thinking about the practice of tattooing permanent eye shadow on her face, and also drinking wine. She has been asking the Lord for a clear word on these two topics. She said I was clear in the morning sermon.
God is holy, free from unclean spirits. His children must be holy if they expect to see Him. We must come out from that which is unclean and purify ourselves from all uncleanness of flesh and spirit. Otherwise the Lord will not be with us; we will not be His children; He will not live in us and walk in us. This is what the Bible says.
Why must we be holy? It is because we have been called to be saints; called to he "holy ones." The Holy Spirit, whom all true Christians have, is a priestly anointing. By means of this anointing we are able to live a holy life and to bear a true testimony of God, His Person, His ways, His will, and His eternal purpose in Jesus Christ.
Apart from the Holy Spirit we can do neither of these two things.
The term "church" has nothing to do with a building. the word means "called out from." Every true Christian, and Christians are but a small part of earth’s population, has been called out from mankind in order to be a moral light to the rest of the world. God does not want to destroy mankind, so He has predestined some people to be holy, that is, closer to Himself than most people. The purpose of the holy people is to show forth in their behavior the moral Character of God. Thus our preaching of lawless grace is destructive of God’s plan in Christ.
A few hundred years the doctrine of John Calvin led many individuals to believe that some people were predestined to be saved; that it did not matter too much how we behaved. If we were predestined to be saved we would go to Heaven. If not, we were doomed to eternal punishment.
Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Christianity has become kind of a democracy in which no predestination is involved. "Whosoever will," a true biblical concept, has been enlarged until the idea of saints being chosen from the beginning of the world, which also is a biblical concept, is scarcely understood in many quarters.
If you are a genuine Christian, it is not because you chose Christ but because Christ chose you. You no longer are just another person. You have been called to be a priest of God. You are not to live like everyone else. You have been called to be holy. This means you must learn to look to Jesus Christ for every thought, every word—everything you do. You no longer are of the world, you are of Christ.
We Christians have an obligation to the remainder of mankind. We are to let the light of good works shine until people see them and glorify God. Letting our light shine is important in the day in which we are living, and shall be in the future. Divine judgment is approaching the United States of America because of our sinful ways. We have a brief space now in which to repent. If we do repent, turning from our wicked ways, we shall save ourselves and those who follow us. We shall be able to stand during the coming age of moral and physical horrors.
Faith—Faith is a noun. This means faith is a person, place, or thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. Perhaps we can think of Christ Himself as being our Faith.
(5/22/2005) We Christians use the term "faith" a great deal. Sometimes what we think is faith is not faith at all but our own effort to believe, or some kind of emotional experience.
Genuine faith is of Christ and comes down from Heaven. It cannot be worked up by human effort. It is of Divine substance.
When their boat was tossed about by the storm, Christ being asleep on a pillow, the disciples were terrified. They had faith in the storm, not in Christ. It was easier for Christ to calm the storm than to calm His disciples. Such always is the case!
How many times we place our faith in money, or our own abilities, instead of in Christ. Often we do not look to the Lord until we have tried everything else—and perhaps not even then.
We should not place our faith in anything or any person except the Lord. It may require years before we are able to look to the Lord for all that concerns us.
At night Dianne spoke on trust. She emphasized that we need to start teaching our children at an early age to trust the Lord.
For example, we might promise a child something and then forget to fulfill our promise. When the child reminds us of our promise, we can say, "Mommy (or Daddy) often make mistakes and forget. But the Lord Jesus never forgets what He has promised. In this manner the child learns we are not perfect but Christ is. We are teaching him or her to depend on the Lord.
Dianne is a great believer in repenting when we have hurt someone, even a child. She believes in discipline, but also openness in the family so that when a family member does something hurtful, he or she will repent to the injured individual. There is nothing wrong with telling a child we made a mistake!
I enjoyed particularly what Dianne said about submission. Submission has been discussed a good deal, the idea being that the wife must obey her husband at all times.
I have been a pastor long enough to know that sometimes women refuse to submit to their husbands, and the result is a disorderly household that leads finally to deception.
On the other hand, I have seen instances where the husband was commanding his wife to do things that were not God’s will, and attempting to beat her down verbally until she yielded. This obviously is an abomination.
The true relationship between a husband and wife exists when the husband loves his wife through Christ and the wife obeys her husband through Christ. When any relationship we have does not operate through Christ it will prove to be faulty and trouble may result.
She added a side note about those who work with children or young people encouraging the young person to look on the worker as their parent rather than to their true parents. Apparently this is becoming common in our day. Dianne regards this usurping of the role of the parent as being a perversion.
Those who work with youth must keep in mind that their job is to reconcile the youth to their parents rather than seeking to draw the affection to themselves. This is easy for a youth leader to do; because sometimes parents are harsh, and the youth leader can put himself or herself forth as someone who really cares for the child and wants the child to have fun and not be frustrated in any manner.
Since the last words of the Old Testament warn the fathers to turn their hearts to their children, and the children to their fathers, the youth worker (or other leader) who entices the child or young person in order to supplant the true parent is under a curse.
The Goal—The Book of Hebrews was written to experienced Christians. According to the text, they were ahead of us both in doctrine and in experience, having suffered joyfully the spoiling of their possessions. For all of this, the Book of Hebrews is one long rebuke because having come thus far they now were not pressing forward toward the goal. The goal, toward which we are to press, is referred to in Hebrews as "maturity," and also "God’s rest."
(5/29/2005) The word for today was taken from the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews. Since these believers were so advanced, it is a marvel that there are so many rebukes found in this epistle. Apparently they were in danger of neglecting their salvation.
Since they possessed all the experiences we associate commonly with being a saved, Spirit-filled Christian, of what were they coming short?
The writer warns us about coming short of the rest of God. What precisely is the rest of God?
The rest of God is that state in which we have overcome the enemies that press us into trusting in the world system; into obeying the passions of our flesh; and into exercising our personal ambitions instead of God’s will. As long as there is a door in us in which one of God’s enemies and ours can enter, we cannot find rest. Also, God cannot find rest in us.
The truth is, the Christian salvation is a reaction against the ancient rebellion in the heavens. Since that rebellion, the Lord God of Heaven has been seeking a house, a dwelling place in which He can find rest. This is why He created man—to be His resting place.
Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone of the eternal house of God. But there are to be many rooms in the house of God. We are being fashioned as living stones in that house.
If we will withdraw for a season from our pursuit of money and pleasures (I am speaking now to American believers) we will discover that the Spirit of God is ready to help us press into perfect rest in God. If we will walk carefully before the Lord He will begin to bring to our attention the forces in our personality that seek continually to prevent God finding rest in us and us finding rest in God.
As we become aware of worldliness, or lust, or personal ambition, we are to confess this compulsion to the Lord and ask Him in Jesus’ name to remove it from us totally. We are to give no place to the enemy, not making the mistake made by ancient Israel who neglected to drive out all the inhabitants of their land, their rest.
Do not permit Satan or people to persuade you that perfect victory is not available through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is available. We can walk in complete victory each day if we will cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
It never, never, never is the Lord’s will that we continue in known sin. There always is the power through Christ to deliver us from the chains of darkness.
It appears to me that we are entering a new day of redemption, a period during which God’s people can be delivered from the shackles of satanic bondage.
On many occasions, just before a major calamity overtook a nation, God sent a revival. I believe this is true today. The future very well way witness a major conflict in which much blood is shed and the leadership of the world passes from America to a more disciplined culture. Therefore the Spirit of God is present to help every believer get himself and his family as close to Jesus as possible
Gaining Christ—Christ is a gift to us from the Father. We are not worthy of this gift. We cannot earn this gift by working for it. He is the Father’s gift to us. However, like the gift of a piano, we only get out of the gift what we put in to it.
(6/5/2005) Someone, a rich relative perhaps, might give us a Steinway grand piano. We did not earn the gift of the piano by working for it. It is a gift, freely given.
Unless we have a large house with many rooms we might have to sacrifice a living room in order to accommodate the piano. There it sits in all its gleaming, illustrious splendor.
In that piano are the great masterworks of Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach. But the piano is silent. Why? Because in order for the European composers to yield their Divine gifts, someone will have to spend many, many hours of disciplined effort under the guidance of a qualified teacher. Time and money must be expended if the piano is to give us its treasures. Isn’t it so?
The piano was given to us without cost. But it will be nothing more than attractive furniture until we are willing to devote a significant part of our life to its mastery.
So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot earn Christ with any amount of good works. But Christ will be nothing more than a piece of furniture, so to speak, until we set out to develop what God has given to us.
They used to say that the world was waiting for someone to go all the way with Christ. I do not know if this the case. But I do realize that the Apostle Paul toward the end of his life was still pressing forward to know Christ.
Why isn’t this preached more? Why do we give people the impression they can "confess Christ" and this is all they need to do? Why aren’t we explaining to them that they will get out of Christ only what they put into Christ, just as in the case of the grand piano. Why have we made "accepting Christ" a ticket instead of what is in actuality—a gate that opens into the rugged path that leads finally to eternal life?
Where and when did the "ticket" doctrine originate? Why are we making church members instead of disciples?
Sunday morning I presented the idea that the name Son is greater than that of any angel; that God has called the Logos, God, and has given Him an eternal throne.
In addition, the point was made that when people have an outstanding gift, such as in music, or art, or athletics, or whatever else, we ought to give glory to God for the gift, and not idolize people who, apart from Christ, are nothing more than intelligent dust.
Because of the righteousness of the Logos, the Word who proceeded from the Father, the Father has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
This is two Sundays in a row that we have concentrated on the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews.
Our Great Salvation—The writer of the Book of Hebrews was writing to seasoned saints. Why then did he not congratulate them on their being saved and on their way to Heaven? Why did he issue such dire warnings to people who already had received Christ as their Savior and had been filled with the Holy Spirit?
(6/12/2005) The key to the theme of Hebrews is that of the danger of neglecting our great salvation. Since these believers already had every experience and were familiar with every doctrine that is possessed by us today, what is the great salvation that must not be ignored without severe penalties.
The answer is, we have not been called just to be forgiven and make our eternal residence in the spirit paradise. We have been called to be sons of God and brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has put His entire creation under the feet of man, with the Lord Jesus being the Chief Man. Under Christ we are to govern the works of God’s hands.
The proper order of rulership in the universe is God the Head, Christ under God, each saint under Christ, and the created world under the feet of the saints.
The problem is, there are many creatures and things over our head instead of under our feet. We have all sorts of idols that live between Christ and us and demand our worship.
Our idol may be a relationship with an individual. Our idol may be money, Our idol may be some profession or skill. Our idol may be an artistic talent. Our idol may be pleasure, or drugs, or alcohol. Our idol may even be our ministry.
We have been commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. However, in actuality we are "married" to all sorts of creatures and things.
How can we tell if we have an idol? Any person or thing that we would be unable to give up if the Lord asked for it is an idol. Any person or thing about which we are passionate, that we are grasping to ourselves, probably is an idol. A great deal of our Christian discipleship consists of God taking the idols that stand between us and Christ and placing them under our feet. As we know, this is a painful operation.
One aspect of Christian maturity consists of our yielding our desires to the Lord so He can fill us with His desires. Our desires often lead us into confusion and regret. But when God works in us to will and to do His pleasure, we are led into green pastures. We walk beside still waters. A table is set for us in the presence of our enemies.
To thus surrender the desires that motivate us, the idols that drive us, we have to believe that God is seeking our joy and has the ability to lead us into joy. None of us truly knows what is good for him. Only God knows what will bring love, joy, and peace to us. Since this indisputably is true (although Satan has challenged this truth from the beginning), the wise individual will turn over his or her desires to the Lord and cooperate with Him as He brings us into peace and joy.
If we look to Him, God will give us understanding. Wisdom is to be desired and knowledge often is helpful. But greater than either wisdom or knowledge is understanding. Understanding combines wisdom and knowledge and mixes into them compassion, sympathy, a sense of humor, an awareness of the complexity and frailties of life, and a willingness to see past the rigid rules of religion. Understanding is "salt," and it must be sprinkled on every sacrifice in order to avoid the error of the Pharisee.
When we receive Christ we gain the name of "son." We now are sons of God and must learn to follow the Spirit of God in all matters. There is no name greater than son. No angel is privileged to bear this name. Rather, the angels, as great as they indeed are, are responsible for the welfare of the sons of God, and have been given charge over them lest they stumble over the stones in their path.
Let us not stop with being saved and filled with the Spirit of God. These are the necessary orientation to the program of redemption that continues until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, a fully mature brother of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Sons of God—We have been studying the first and second chapters of the Book of Hebrews. The writer points out that it is not enough to be forgiven through the blood atonement and filled with the Spirit of God. These experiences, as important as they are, are the merest beginning of what God has in mind for His sons.
(6/19/2005) What is man? Man is God’s appointed rulers of the works of God’s hands, and also God’s appointed judges who will judge the world, and angels as well. There is no higher calling than that of man. Angels have been appointed ministers to these heirs of salvation.
In view of this nearly inconceivable inheritance, we readily can see why the writer of the Book of Hebrews was so concerned lest the Hebrews Christians should stop at being forgiven and filled with the Spirit.
We do not as yet see man in his appointed inheritance. But we do see the Lord Jesus, brought down to death for our sins, and then raised again that He might be the Firstborn of many brothers.
I wonder if we realize what it means to be a son of God and a brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. We might think of this appointment as some kind of religious designation which must be interpreted as an imitation of some sort. Surely we are not a genuine son of God, a genuine brother of Jesus Christ!
To think of such a thing would be blasphemous. Christ is Divine. We are human.
It is right at this point that we stagger at the promise of God because we are unwilling to remove the barrier between man and God. However, it never is appropriate to water down what God has said because of a false humility.
God’s unfailing Word declares we are genuine sons of God, not in some religious sense but in an actual (organic, if you will) sense. When we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord we are born of God. This is not a figure of speech. We genuinely are born of God!
What does this mean? It means that like our elder Brother, Jesus, we now are both son of man and son of God. This would have to be the case, wouldn’t it, if we are to be married to the Lamb?
Do we then vaunt ourselves because we are the offspring of God? No, we do not. Like our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, we do not regard being a son of God as something to be grasped. Rather, we humble ourselves and submit ourselves meekly to Christ as our Divinely ordained King. After we suffer we shall be revealed to the world as God’s offspring. This unveiling shall occur at the coming of Christ to the world.
The issue today is not whether or not we actually are sons of God, it is that of obedience. It is God’s will that His Life pour forth from us so that a dead mankind can be brought into the glorious liberty of those who live in the Spirit of God. But all such Life comes only from the Throne of God. So until we are willing to turn over the throne of our life to the Lord, we cannot be the blessing to mankind that God has ordained.
At night we spoke of the two heads of redemption. First, there is the sovereign plan of God. Then, in order to validate the contract, we must respond to all of the experiences into which the Spirit leads us,.
We mentioned also the two great epochs: the first lasting from the creation of the spirit and physical worlds to Calvary; the second beginning with the resurrection of Christ and extending to eternity, ages without end.
External and Internal Change—As we study the first three chapters of the Book of Hebrews we notice the actions we are supposed to take, such as "see to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart." Right here, in this admonition, is exposed the error of today’s Evangelical teaching. We are being commanded to do something. There is no indication that God will do this for us in some sovereign manner.
(6/26/2005) I will make a statement right now. We of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ have two desperate needs. One desperate need is to to bring our teaching into alignment with the New Testament. The second need