Redemption of The
World
Tape
Three - Created in Christ
Listen Online
This Gospel
is a wonderful, wonderful Gospel. After many years I began
to see why they call it Good News. This is good news; it’s
good news to everybody. I remember when Keith Green, a
popular Rock/Gospel singer, several years ago came out
with a song called "Bad News for Man". "Bad
news for modern man, bad news for the human race, God’s
comin he’s gonna judge this place", something like
that, a very uplifting song anyway. He had a lot of those
songs, a lot of judgment. Another case in point, not
criticizing, it was also one that taught that if you did
everything right, preached just right, and lived right,
that God’s protection was on you. He got in an airplane
one evening, a number of years back and because the plane,
I think was overloaded, went down. Everyone on board
including Keith was killed. It was quite tragic accident,
not to point that Keith had fault and failure; it’s
obvious that he did and we all do, but that is not
what made the plane go down. It was overloading the
airplane. No telling what the mindset could have been.
Wouldn’t
it be tragic though, if they over loaded the airplane,
believing that God would protect them no matter what, so
many people were suppose to go, we know we’re
overloading the plane, but it’s God’s will that we go
there so everything’s going to be alright. We don’t
know that but obviously the mentality in that doctrine was
there for that to have possibly been. But there’s no
need in speculating about that. It’s just the fact that
modern day Evangelical Christianity struggles so hard to
come up with the answers for why things happen. To the
good and to the bad and it is virtually always placed in
to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I was
thinking of the ‘Columbine incident’. There was a
young girl who confessed that she believed in God, was
shot, and now of course has become a martyr. The fact of
it is, they just asked if anybody there believed in God,
which most Christians would normally say that’s not good
enough anyway.
She
confessed that she believed in God, there was not a
reaction, do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and
Savior of your life. It wasn’t like she came to an alter
call and denied Christ or confessed Christ either. It’s
funny because something I remembered about that story made
me remember something I saw on the 700 Club. They were
talking about if you had enough faith that God would
protect you. You of course know all of those doctrines.
They had a lady on, who was in a hostage situation in a
clothing store. The man had a gun and he came through, she
stepped out of the dressing room, trying on a dress, and
was confronted by a man wielding a gun. She called upon
the name of the Lord and the man tried to lift the gun,
couldn’t lift the gun. He was paralyzed, couldn’t do
anything and he was incapable of doing anything because of
her belief. Her faith was so good that she was saved from
a gun driven man. Yet, at Columbine they say that she was
killed because of her faith. AAGGH!
It’s
like, somebody get some sanity here as to what’s
what. What we’re going to look at is the Gospel that’s
in Ephesians. This Gospel of the redemption of the world
is very clearly brought out in Ephesians. What we’re
going to do, since we can’t cover the entire book is
look basically at the introduction and then we are going
to cover Chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians. Ephesians
Chapter 1 beginning with verse one 1 Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the
saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus: 2 Grace be to you, and
peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.3 Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
So where are all spiritual blessings? They’re in
heavenly places. That’s important because a little bit
later on he will reveal to us, how many people are in
heavenly places. That is the issue of the teaching and
what we’re dealing with in this little series that we’re
doing.
3 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ: This is in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world… predestination teachers of course visit this
verse and it says that God hath done what, he hath chosen
us in him before the foundations of the world. Of
course, without seeing that Jesus redeemed the entire
world by the power of his blood, then predestination
teaching would tell you that God chose whoever’s going
to heaven and who ever he didn’t choose is going to
hell, that that’s all predetermined. It’s obvious that
something was predetermined before the foundation of the
world. The consistency of this never varies all the way
through this teaching. 4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love: that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love: Wow.
This
selection of being in Christ that was made, it says,
before the foundation of the world would qualify you for
being what, Holy and without blame before God in love.
That’s interesting because that is the characteristics
of love. Love always sees the best and never finds fault.
This is very, very conducive and in agreement of what we
know about the love chapter that is taught, that we stand
before God holy and without blame before him in love, 5 Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will. There is the term, predestination, according to the
good pleasure of his will. Now this predestination is
based on what? Is it based on survival of the fittest?
This predestination is based upon the pleasure of His
will. Can anybody think of any verse that talks about how
many people God wants to be redeemed? It is the will of
God and we can visit so many places where it let’s us
know what God’s will is and was about the redemption of
the world, For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten son.
This
redemption was for the world. This predestination, to take
this out of context and say some are predestined, it is
obvious that term predestined is in predestination, but to
divide the human race on this say some are predestined and
some are not, you’d have to decide that the
predestination was made according to the Will of God. It
was not God’s will that any should perish. I don’t
have the right to reduce the predestination to what I
think would qualify before God for being predestined
before God, for redemption. I must accept the premise for
that predestination being that it’s based on the
pleasure of His will. There is no place that the prophets
foretold of that God would be real pleased with redeeming
part of the earth. There is no place that any prophets
spoke of anything except the pleasure of God’s will
being fulfilled in the fact that Jesus was coming to this
earth to redeem the world from the condition of sin.
6 To
the praise of the glory of his grace, … wow, this is
what causes praise to His glorious grace. To the praise of
His glorious grace, His perfect will was that none should
perish, therefore he predestined that all would be in
Christ. And this is to what? This is to the praise of his
glorious, undeserved, unmerited favor toward man. This is
good news. I’m already at that point to where it’s
like, okay, it’s time to turn Pentecostal here and just
stop and have a dance. This is "Good News". 6 To
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us accepted in the beloved. He made us accepted in the
beloved. We did not make ourselves accepted. There is
no indication that man’s will; man’s active
participation was required for this to be done, for us to
be accepted by God. 7 In whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace; who all did he
say was predestined? Everyone was predestined according to
the will of God.
We know His
will. I hate to be redundant about this but this is such
an issue for some people. They see the issue of
predestination here but then because they cannot accept
that Jesus could have done this for the whole world, they
start saying that some are and some aren’t. We were
chosen before the foundation of the world to be in Christ.
Good news, we were chosen before the foundation of the
world to be in Christ and in Him then is where we find the
acceptance in the beloved. 7 In
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace. So far, can
anyone see anyone left out of this redemption? There is
not a list of who’s left out and who’s not. People say
‘I read that list Paul gave. There’s no liars, no
thieves and no …’ they forget the one about people
being in strife also aren’t going to make it. All three
lists in the New Testament are different. The one in the
book of Galatians is completely open ended. It says and
many such things.
So add
whichever sin you want to add, there’s nobody that by
the law is going to qualify. That is the reason that God
predestined to free us from the law, the entire world even
though the law was only given to the Jews. The Gentile
Paul said became a law unto themselves. They didn’t even
need it. It is such human nature. Guilt creates laws and
eventually control, at least attempted control, certainly
not self-control. 7 In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace;8 Wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Amazing. 9 Having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: Here we go in
to this issue of His will. It is being defined even
clearer, the issue of God’s will. There’s only one
subject talked about here and it’s predestination. What
was the selection of predestination? It was done by God,
it was done by His will and it was done according to the
pleasure of Him who purposed it in himself.
Whatever was going to happen all God had to do, how many
of you believe that all God had to do was purpose it and
that’s the way it was going to be. It’s obvious. If
God couldn’t purpose something and then couldn’t do
it, he wouldn’t be God.
Can anyone
think of any logical reason why God wouldn’t purpose to
redeem part of the human race, His creation? The
human race was his creation why would He purpose in
himself to redeem part. Whatever anyone would say, this
redemption is based on predestination. That is what we’ve
been reading through here. This redemption is based on
predestination, predestination is based upon the will of
God, the will of God is based on what he purposed in
Himself to do. Whatever God decided in Himself to do
became His will; His will then was applied to this issue
to be predestined. What did He say? He said we were
predestined to be in Christ. Wow, good news. What do we
find in Christ, redemption. What else, forgiveness of
sins. What does this cause from the human being, praise to
His glorious grace. That’s the result. We’re trying to
become a part of it and it’s causing praise to go to
men, not praise to His glorious grace. Even our testimony
sessions wind up with praise to glorious man.
My whole
"quote" ministry was built on me giving my
testimony of just how bad I was and how much I changed. It’s
like a ‘trophy’ of God’s grace. No human being is a
trophy of God’s grace. Jesus is the trophy of God’s
grace. There is nothing about me that will make me a
trophy of God’s grace. When we say that, what we’re
saying is not ‘oh look he was redeemed without his
works. We are saying ‘oh look, how drastically his works
are changed, that is the trophy of God’s grace.’ By
the statement even being made, ‘a person is a real
trophy of God’s grace’, what we’re saying is grace
is based on works, that it’s a performance. Think of
everyone that you’ve ever heard of that’s said, ‘that
is a real trophy of God’s grace,’ it’s based on how
bad they use to be and how good they are now.
10 That
in the dispensation of the fullness of times … the
fullness of times, that’s a very interesting statement
… he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in
him: 11 In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to
the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will: If this was all I knew about the
bible, were these first introductory 10 verses, it so
emphatically says that redemption is a predestined
selection that God made. It very clearly says that that
predestined selection was made based on what God purposed
in Himself to do. Whatever He purposed in Himself to do
became His will in predestinating whatever he was
predestinating. It was God’s choice, it was God’s
will, God’s plan, God’s predestination and only those
predestined are in Christ. Whoever is in Christ has
received redemption and forgiveness of since and results
in an extreme thankful heart, to the praise of His
glorious grace.
I don’t
know how you get half the world in hell, actually more
than half, because the Christian world is very small.
Then, of that, you can’t go unless you’re speaking
tongues, and then of course you women who cut your hair,
you can’t go either and of course if you ever go out and
do what you use to do then you never were really redeemed
in the first place. If you go out and sin again, you’ve
lost it. Even in the Christian community there’s very
few going to make it, according to the multitude of
doctrines defining what qualifies us for redemption, based
on thousands of different denominations and groups of
Christianity just in America, all with a different view of
it. This so far, we’re relying not on a group or their
definitions. We are attempting to rely on ‘what was God’s
will’. What was God’s will? Does or did God get His
way? Can God purpose something in His heart, decide that
it is His will and then not get His way? These verses are
very, very profound.
I heard Rod
Parsley say the other day on TBN that he got a great
revelation from God. He said that the Bible says that
Jesus is Lord. Therefore, he knows beyond a shadow of a
doubt that at least 51% of the population of the world is
going to heaven, because Jesus is Lord. If 50/50 went, it
would be a tie between Jesus and the devil. If only 49%
made it, the devil would be Lord. So, 51% makes Jesus
Lord. Once he realizes that only about one tenth of one
minute, one millisecond percent believe what he teaches,
he’s going to have a hard time believing that 51% of
them is going to make it who don’t even believe anything
that Rod Parsley preaches as to proclaiming to the Gospel.
I don’t know how he’s going to resolve that but bless
his heart.
These
verses are very, very profound. Do you know that even if
what Rod Parsley said was true, the 51%, do you realize
that even at this point in human history God would have
had to redeem people who never heard the Gospel to achieve
those percentages? God would have had to decide to take
people to heaven who never heard the Gospel, who never
changed enough to even meet Rod Parsley’s
revelation of this winner called Jesus. I think Jesus is
Lord not because he gets 51% because this is not a ball
game. This is not a political election. This is God. This
is Jesus. Jesus being Lord doesn’t mean 51% Lord, it is
100% Lord, brother Rod. I’m sure he would not want to
disagree with me at all. I’m sure if he hears this tape,
he would agree readily because if 51% means Jesus is Lord,
he would surely want to agree with me about 100%, no
doubt. Great Faith.
Ephesians
Chapter 2 is where we’re going. Isn’t it that an
amazing foundation for this book. God has predestined
this. I’ve had this taken and taught excluded. It is
either totally excluded by Evangelical Christianity or
predestinationists hold it as some are predestined and
some aren’t. Otherwise it is totally free will religion,
man’s free will based on Evangelical Christianity.
Ephesians
Chapter 2, 1 And you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; When did
he quicken whom ever he quickened? He quickened while they
were in trespass and sin. I think it’s interesting that
it says trespasses and sins. Trespasses are what violate
the law; this sin evidently is not a violation of the law.
I’d like to look it up now that I’m looking at it. It
would almost have to be the sin of unbelief; the sin, or
sins being many people of unbelief. He says, 2 Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: You walked in that, you walked in this
trespass against the law, you walked in the sin of
unbelief, in times past according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience.
Remember he
didn’t say the spirit who works in the children who
disobey, he said it’s a spirit that was working in the
children of disobedience. The children of disobedience,
was the children born under Adam. Thank God we are now not
the children of disobedience, we are the children of
obedience. We are not the children who obey. It’s a big
difference. It’s a vast difference of the emphasis as to
who’s disobedience is responsible and who’s obedience
is responsible for the condition of the human race, which
we went through in detail in a very clear description that
Paul gave us in Romans Chapter 5. 3 Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past …
our conversation in times past … do you know virtually
every time Paul says the term ‘in time past’ he’s
talking about back when we use to be under the law or
they. In fact he states it very clearly in Galatians
Chapter 1, he said, in time past when I taught in the Jew’s
religion.
3 Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. We were children of wrath, even as
others. When he’s talking about ‘we had our
conversation in times past, based on the lust of the flesh’,
what is this conversation? Are people sitting around and
talking about naked people and sex? What was this
conversation about? Paul included himself in this. Paul
said that we use to all sit around and have these
conversations that were fulfilling the lusts of the flesh;
the lusts and the desires of the flesh and the mind. What
was the flesh, the mind, lusting after under the law? It
wanted justification. It wanted through it’s own
obedience to be justified. Paul said, we all had our
conversations in this in times past. I don’t care what
anybody says to me, there is no way that I will ever be
convinced when he said, ‘we all had our conversations in
times past in the lusts of our flesh’, you’ll never
convince me that he’s talking about people saying …
‘Yeah man, I want to do this, Yeah man I’d really like
to go out and do this, my flesh is just lusting after that
woman’ … there is no way, there is no context of that.
The issue
is law and grace. Paul said the flesh will never be
justified by the law. The flesh has always wanted to be
justified in itself. This conversation in the lusts of the
flesh, fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the mind,
these are self-righteous conversations of being right with
God based on their performances, under the law. There is
something the flesh has always wanted much more than
hot-fudged cake. The flesh has wanted justification. The
flesh craves it; the flesh lusts after it. Still to this
day this is no justification for the flesh. That is the
reason that in God’s eyes, the bible says that Jesus
nailed your flesh to the cross. You’re dead and your
life is hid with Christ in God. A tremendous, tremendous
thing has happened to us. Do you know that most Christian
conversations, most Evangelical Christian conversations
are this: They are conversations in the lusts of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind.
I didn’t
say conversations at the ‘bar’; I said conversations
at ‘church’, amongst Christians. Lustful
conversations, the lust of the flesh, trying to quench the
desire of the mind. Paul teaches on this very extensively
in the book of Romans, especially chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8
and tells us what that flesh is wanting. The flesh has
always wanted it, it has always wanted justification. It
can’t have it. It’s time that the conversations about
it, Paul says, it needs to be in times past. Thank God
when that day comes huh? 4 But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us, 5 Even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;). When were we quickened? We were
quickened with Christ. When was Christ quickened, the term
quickened literally means brought back from the dead, to
be brought to life. We were brought to life when? When you
went up for the alter call? You were dead in sin and
whenever Christ was quickened was when YOU were quickened.
Good news.
It didn’t
say that Jesus was quickened and then a quickening,
quickening would be continued to quicken until this earth
was quickened out. There’s no progressive quickening.
When Christ was quickened, the human race was quickened
with him before God. Well what does ‘believing’ have
to do with all of this? Folks, this is what creates
believing; finding out you’ve been quickened, finding
out you’ve been redeemed, finding out that you have the
cleansing power of the Blood of the Lamb already in your
life. Not because you believed but because of the faith of
Jesus Christ. Even it was based on our belief, how good
did you believe? Did you believe good enough? Did you
believe in the right church, under the right doctrine? The
reason most folks get so very defensive about questioning
doctrine is because we have found our security in the
group we belong to rather than in Christ. We’re afraid,
if we have found our security in our group, whatever our
group is persuaded of, then to have another idea
introduced is very, very frightening because it may mean
that we could be wrong. You see, to the person who could
be wrong who’s found security in the group, if the
groups wrong, they doubt their salvation.
It’s been
wonderful to be free to be wrong. If you’re not free to
be wrong, you’ll always be wrong because you can’t
change your mind. If you can’t be wrong, you can’t
change your mind. Proverbs says only a fool never changes
his mind. Then I hear that the greatest glory that some of
our teachers in the movement that I was in have preached
the same thing and it hasn’t changed for 60 years. To
have learned nothing, I don’t think I’d go around
bragging about that. I’ve learned nothing in 60 years.
The Gospel of the grace of God is so glorious, it’s
infinite, it is awesome, constantly learning more about
it, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. To brag that we have taught the same
thing for 60 years, I don’t think deserves a Sunday
school badge.
5 Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus: In Chapter 1 it told us
how many people were raised together in Heavenly places.
Remember when I asked you to remember that term ‘heavenly
places’ and we went through this predestination issue of
Chapter 1, how many were predestined. How did they get
predestined, it was by the Will of God. God purposed it in
His heart and it’s in those heavenly places in Christ
Jesus that this revelation then comes to the praise of His
glorious grace. By the time we get in to Chapter 2, we’ve
already had told to us in Chapter 1 just how many people
it was God’s will to be in heavenly places. It was God’s
will for everyone. God purposed it that way. To say it’s
not that way is to say that God’s will is not done in
the earth. Well of course it’s not done in the earth,
look around. Now you don’t look at things you look at
Jesus to see whether or not God’s will has been done on
the earth.
Hebrews
Chapter 10, Jesus said … 7 Then
said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 9 Then
said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. It was God’s
will to take away the first covenant, which was the law
which eliminated the entire human race to establish the
second covenant which would include all of the human race.
Folks, why would God establish a covenant that excluded
everyone and then create a new one that would include a
few? The type and shadow is just not consistent. The first
one was designed not to redeem anybody. What was the
conclusion of the first covenant, there is how many
righteous? There is none righteous, not one. If the first
one brought the absolute conclusion that there is no
righteousness, if there is a new covenant at all what did
it bring? It brought righteousness. Do you think that
becoming a Christian or becoming a believer makes you a
better acting person than the people all the way through
the old covenant? Of course it does not. Anyone who would
admit, even after your conversion experience, thank God
for conversation though that’s not what we’re talking
about, we’re talking about redemption, anyone who’s
gone through conversion knows you still have the same
dirty thoughts you had before you got converted.
I’ll tell
you what, there’s filthy conversation going on in the
body of Christ and it has nothing to do with sex, drugs or
rock-n-roll. There is vile communication going on. Paul
said this use to be a part of our lives. He said that it
shouldn’t be around us anymore. He said this kind of
communication should not be part of our lives. In context
he’s not talking about us talking about dirty things. He’s
talking about self-righteous fulfillment of justification
for the flesh through the law. He calls it filthy
communication, he calls it corruptness, he calls it
wickedness. Thank God we’re getting out of that filthy
communication aren’t we? Praise God. How many of your
recognize how filthy it is now that you’ve gotten out of
it? That self-righteousness, even the verse that says our
righteousness is as filthy rags, and it’s like we get
together and brag about our filthy rags. Paul said it was
dung. Here’s my dung, what does yours look like? I know
that’s gross, but it’s not biblical filthy
communication. The filthy communication which he called
dung was comparing each other’s righteousness. Paul said
the most foolish people on the earth are those who compare
themselves with other men. If you’re going to compare
yourself to anybody, compare yourself to God.
That’s
not even a free will anyway. They call it free will, what’s
free will about that? There’s nothing free will about
that. If I knew that I clearly had the choice of heaven or
hell just by believing in Jesus, guess how many doe doe
birds would believe in Jesus. The fact of it is that’s
not even the way it’s presented by Evangelical
Christianity anyway. It’s not just believe in Jesus.
After it’s believe in Jesus, then it’s you’ve got to
change, then it depends on which group your in, whether
you’re really saved or not. And the beat goes on. And it
just never ever, ever ends. Yes, and I say it again, the
voice of Evangelical Christianity, to Gospel will silence
the voice of Evangelical Christianity, because the Gospel
is just the opposite to Evangelical Christianity. The
Gospel that is taught by Paul was prophesied by the
Prophets. How many prophets foretold of a time when man’s
belief would redeem him? Go read Isaiah, go read Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, read all of
them, read all the prophecies about this redemption. Find
one place where man’s belief is included in God’s
redemptive power over the earth. If those things are a
true doctrine, the prophets were not privy to them. The
prophets were not privy to modern day Evangelical
Christianity because the prophets never foretold of what
we now preach.
In fact the
prophets foretold that God would by His own arm, by His
own salvation, by his own will, by His own right hand, by
His own righteousness redeem the world. Who would He
redeem? He would redeem the ungodly, the unbelieving. He
said He would redeem everyone, all of these groups. In
fact everything we say is required, the prophets foretold
that God would redeem those people who didn’t do those
things that Evangelical Christianity says is required.
Yeah but Mike it says in the New Testament that for God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. Yes, He sent his Son in to the world and
gave the world one last chance to have a part, or prove
actually that they have no part in redemption, including
believing. As Jesus taught and preached and walked about
this earth, it started out that throngs followed, the
groups followed, and then one day He got up and said, you’ve
got to eat my flesh and drink my blood and some said, see
you later Jesus. In fact it said many went their own way
then. It said that he that believeth to the end shall be
saved. How many believed right to the end? Not one.
Does it
strike you strange there was no one rallying around Jesus;
we are believers during the crucifixion? In fact, even the
guy who said, I will never deny you, Jesus you’ll deny
me three times before the nights out. The fact of it is,
if they could doubt with viewing all of the miracles,
wouldn’t we have a little room to doubt. Believing is a
very powerful thing. They believed because they saw.
Remember He said, bless those that believe who haven’t
seen all of these miracles? I think that the reason he
said that is because the blessedness of people who were
redeemed would get the revelation of it and believe. That’s
the reason He was excited about the believers who were
coming compared to those who were saying they believed
then. They were believing based on the works that they
saw. A believer now, should believe because of the
revelation of what Christ has done for them and has made
them to be before they ever believed. Does my believing
redeem me, or does my redemption make a believer out of
me? That’s the true question.
Continuing
on from where I was. It’s verse 6 because we were
referring back to Chapter 1 again. 6 And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That
in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
How much of the world did He express this kindness toward?
It was the whole world. But, if you don’t believe, you’re
going to burn in hell forever. Wow, not a great expression
of kindness there. It says, 8 For
by grace are ye saved … then the argument comes. I
really do want to address the arguments for a moment. You
had a free will to believe. You had a choice. Folks, if
anyone presented the Gospel accurately, everyone would
believe. If anyone had a personal visit from Jesus like
Paul did, was Paul on the verge of conversion when Jesus
showed up? He had letters in his hands, taking them to
have those that did believe in Him, killed. If God is
just, and it requires believing to be redeemed, if God
sent someone to hell without going to the same extent to
get Paul saved, God is not a just God. Or, is the fact
that what Paul’s experience was, was not redemption, it
was conversion to believe the redemption already happened.
Paul definitely went through a conversion.
We’re not
questioning redemption, we’re not questioning being born
again, and we’re not questioning salvation. We are
questioning Evangelical Christianity’s order in which
they say it must come. It becomes absolute ludicrous when
light of the sacrifice of Jesus and what is prescribed as
the will of God, to say belief has to come before
redemption can come. The Bible does tell us that it’s by
faith, but whose faith. Paul repeated several times that
it’s by faith of the Son of God. And then there’s ‘other
translations’ and the other translations don’t say the
‘faith of the Son of God’ they say ‘faith IN Christ’.
Well none of the other translations say that Jesus was the
author and you were the finisher of faith though. So they
can debate and argue about the translations about whether
or not it’s the faith of Christ or faith in
Christ, it is conclusive, that Jesus is the ‘Author’
and ‘Finisher’ of faith. So, which translation are we
going to believe? I’m going to believe the one that says
it’s the faith of Christ instead of faith in
Christ because Jesus is the author and finisher of
faith it is His faith. It His obedience, it’s His
redemption.
What about
‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved? Those terms, you almost have to look them up, the
term saved, to see whether or not it is talking about Paul’s
teaching of salvation, which is the salvation of the soul
and the renewing of the mind or is it talking about
redemption? Remember the last great requirement that God
gave the earth for redemption was faith. He said, I’ll
give it to anybody that believes, no body believed so he
turned around and gave it to the unbeliever, the heathen
and everyone. Now to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
to be saved though, on this side of the cross is the
salvation of the soul because the work of the cross
redeemed man as far as relationship with God without his
belief. But, his belief can make his heart and mind
conducive to the redemption that already completed by God,
by Himself, without his belief. So, before the cross the
requirement was ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ’,
that’s all you had to do. It was the only work you had
to do. Remember they asked Jesus what work they had to do.
Do you know that Jesus described believing in Him as a
work?
They asked,
what work must we do that we might have eternal life? He
said, believe on Him that God has sent. That’s all you’ve
got to do. Jesus described that as a work. They didn’t
say what work must we do, he didn’t say, ‘oh you don’t
have to work at all, all you have to do is believe.’
They asked what work must we do and He said, this is the
work you’ve got to do. In fact He said, this is the
work, believe on Him. That’s when they were still under
the last and final great requirement for the human race to
be a part of redemption and the human race failed. Peter,
James, John, all of them failed to continue their belief
in Christ. What did they say after He died? Let’s go
fishing. What did Jesus do, my goodness, what did he do,
come back from the dead and say, ‘you bunch of jerks;
here I was trying to prove to the world that I was Lord
and even you failed me. What’s a Lord to do anyway.’
He didn’t come back derailing them, he didn’t come
back derailing Peter. Yet Peter knew that was never held
against him in the first place. Awesome Lord, awesome
Savior.
That brings
up another thing, people say, you’re saved as long as
… the indication is, that Evangelical Christianity is,
if that girl would have denied that she knew the Lord, she
would have gone to hell. That’s the other side of that
story at Columbine, at least in most of Evangelical
Christianity, not all. But the fact of it is, the man who
preached the first sermon, after the Holy Spirit descended
from heaven and over 3, 000 people came to the Lord,
denied Jesus three times out loud in front of everybody.
So, it sounds like the ‘key’ if we’re going to
follow biblical principle, the key to becoming anointed to
preaching the Gospel is you first have to deny Jesus three
times. Isn’t that what everybody does to the bible? They
look at see, well this happened to this person, this is
what they did and look over here what happened after that
… that’s the key, this is what we’ve got to do now.
Well, Peter denied Him three times and then became the guy
who preached the first sermon under the anointing of the
Holy Spirit. Great pope. He’s going to go box at the
Vatican I saw him.
This Gospel’s
great. For my mind to even think that I use to think, this
cart before the horse Evangelical Christianity is just
unthinkable to me anymore. Thank God. People have warned
me, ‘oh you’re getting close to that doctrine that’s
going to cause people to not share the Gospel.’ Why
share with anybody then, if everybody’s redeemed? My God
what a selfish mentality. What else would you want to do
more than people that were redeemed than to let them know
about it? What good news we have. Not threatening news,
turn or burn. He didn’t say the Gospel was a threat, He
says it’s Good News. It’s not a threat, it is Good
News and news is something that’s already happened. This
isn’t a good prophecy. The Gospel isn’t a good
prophecy. That’s something that’s going to happen in
the future. This is Good News, it’s something that’s
already happened and that’s ‘redemption’. Amen?
Amen!
How could
believing already do anything if you weren’t already
redeemed? We went through this principle about truth. The
way that Evangelical Christianity preaches the cross, they
preach that belief creates truth. Suddenly redemption
becomes truth. But belief doesn’t create truth in any
other realm we know of. Truth can produce belief, but
belief cannot create truth. That’s when people wind up
in mental institutions because they think what they
believe is truth and it’s not. It’s not truth; they
become delusional in thinking that what they believe is
truth. Folks, truth when it is established, when you
believe it, is then when you make progress mentally and
emotionally. Do you know that it was a doctrine of the
church that the world was flat? It was a church doctrine
and you were a heretic if you didn’t believe that.
Galileo almost lost his life, one of his fellow teachers
did lose his life, but Galileo wound up in prison with his
life restricted in his old age. When man finally accepted
that the world was round instead of flat, did that make it
round? It was already round, long before they believe it.
What did it do once they believed the truth? Look at how
civilization advanced. Fears dropped and look what it
freed people to do.
Never has
the belief of something to try to make it true, led to the
advancement of any civilization. It has lead to its total
absolute inability to evolve mentally, emotionally,
socially or in any other way. But when any society begins
to accept truths that are already established, it advances
that society. I don’t care if it’s spiritual truth,
natural truth, physical truth, whatever it is, but if we
try to establish truth with our beliefs we are paralyzed.
Do you see why I’m excited about the future now? It’s
control, that is why the church didn’t want that
doctrine taught, they didn’t want the control taken
away, it’s the same reason they don’t want this
preached, because they don’t want the control taken
away. My God, you may become so integrated with the rest
of the world their system might not be needed. Do you see
the logic of it? This is consistent all the way through
the history of man; we’re dealing with what has made the
entire human race progress from one point to the next.
Believing something trying to make it true is Voo Doo.
Believing, trying to make truth out of it is Witchcraft.
The Gospel is none of those things. Belief cannot
establish truth, but truth can establish belief. But a
belief that tries to establish truth is going to paralyze
the heart, the mind, and the soul, instead of the other
way around.
We’ve all
had our experiences. You know, even if something is bad, a
truth is bad, a negative thing, at least if you know it
and except it, you can progress and go on from there. Even
if your kid died, if you were in denial about that, you
would become paralyzed for years to come and never
progressing and going on. At least if you accepted the
fact that your child was dead, I’m bringing this up
because I’m being reminded of an aunt of mine who’s
only son was killed in a car wreck the year after I was
born. I grew up knowing this woman as paralyzed, mentally
and emotionally the rest of her life because she wouldn’t
accept it. She was setting place settings at her table for
her son because he was going to come home. Even if the
truth is bad, it’s good to accept it. That’s what
Christianity also will not allow us to do with each other,
is to accept the truth about each other. We have to judge
each other, we have to pass judgment instead of accept the
truth and let’s deal with what ever we’ve got to deal
with instead of becoming the judges of the entire world,
even our brothers and sisters.
He says,
8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; … now listen to what he says, and this again,
proves to me that it is the faith of Jesus Christ and he
says; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God: What saves you? Grace and faith, are either
one of them your grace? Is it your grace? No, and it is
equally not your faith. It is what Paul said; it is the
faith of Jesus Christ. He says, 9 Not
of works, lest any man should boast. My God if there is
anything that typifies modern day Evangelical Christianity
it’s boasting, either that you believed or you warn
somebody to believe. Or whatever the testimony may be. 9 Not
of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus … Did we
believe our way into Christ Jesus? We were created in
Christ Jesus. That is an awesome statement. We were
created in Christ Jesus. This is the new creation that is
spoken of. Do you know that through the second Adam, there
was actually a whole new creation that never existed
before on this earth? God created one body, He created it
in Himself, and He included the entire human race.
Even in my
most Evangelical times in my life, I was evangelically
persuaded as anyone, I burnt the bottoms of my feet off
going out witnessing to people, I’ve knocked on doors
until I about dropped dead at the end of the day, I’ve
done that for years and years of my life. It’s not as
though I’m trying to undo something that I didn’t want
to do I’ve done it. I qualified more than anybody that I
know personally, I don’t know how many people have ever
done those things day after day, year after year for long,
long periods of their life. I believed what Evangelical
Christianity said. I thought it was foolish to hold a job
while people were going to hell. I thought it was stupid
to try to save enough money to try to buy a car when I
could give everything that I had. I thought it was
ignorant to try to get an education while people were
going to hell. I believed it; I did it. It never
ever satisfied my soul, it never ever gave me the
confidence that I so desperately needed before God, even
though I could compare my soul winning with anybody’s
soul winning who ever won a soul, of all the souls on the
face of the earth. I’m glad I did. You might say, ‘was
it worthless’? Well no, it wasn’t worthless. What did
you lead them in to? Now, I just understand what I lead
them in to. #1 I lead them in to a deception, because I
made them think that their believing redeemed them from
hell, so the beat goes on. But, I did convince them that
Jesus Christ is Lord. So, it’s not like it’s a total
loss, but I just created somebody that’s going to
reproduce the same doctrine over and over. In fact I would
say, there might be none of them that ever evangelized the
way that I did; possibly not any.
To think
that we reason in our minds as Christians that there could
be someone on the other side of this world, whose life so
exemplary as what we would say, our good works, as loving
as caring all the way down the line, every wonderful fruit
of the Spirit, and these people do exist in other parts of
the world who don’t believe anything about Jesus
whatsoever. If they do good and that person, because an
Evangelical Christian didn’t get to them, dies they’re
going to burn in hell forever. You say, but brother Mike,
they’ve got to believe. Oh no, they have the wonderful
opportunity to believe. Not the law to believe, but now
the freedom in the one who’s already redeemed them. This
is a great gospel.
He says, 10 For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus … Amen,
I’ll tell you I just want to stop there every time I get
to it, I was created in Christ. What an Awesome statement.
‘Created in Christ unto good works,’ you say, you don’t
believe in good works, of course I do, but it’s what we
were created unto. The fact of it is, to find out what
even a good work is, you’re going to have to get out of
most Christian churches. To find out what it is, because
most of what Christianity calls good works the bible calls
‘dead works’. …Which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. 11 Wherefore
remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is
called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But
now in Christ … we’ve validated through verse after
verse in two chapters who all is in Christ. It’s those
predestined. 13 But now in
Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off … he’s
speaking not about in this life, he’s comparing Old
Covenant to New Covenant, not New Testament believer to
New Testament unbeliever, …who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For
he is our peace, who hath made both one, both what’s …
there were only two groups of people on the earth in God’s
eyes; Jew and Gentile. There wasn’t Caucasian, and
black, Japanese, and Hindu, there were two groups in God’s
inventory; Jew and Gentile. That’s all there was. What
did Jesus do? For he is our peace that made both one …
whatever one is, the other is. God made Jew and Gentile
one. …And hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us and what happened? Modern day Christianity came
along and built it right back again.
In fact the
wall, now isn’t just a wall, it’s a maze of walls
because the walls never end. 15 Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; … why did he
destroy all of that? … To make in himself of twain …
in himself, in himself, when the law was abolished what
did Jesus do? He made in himself, of Jew and Gentile …one
new man, so making peace; He made them that way. Do you
see man’s decision in this at all? There is none. Yeah
but Mike it says over here believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ … Yes I agree, believe, believe, believe, but
believe because of the redemption, don’t believe to try
to get it. Your belief cannot create anything, contrary to
the ‘word of faith’s’ doctrine, which I taught for
15 years. …For to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace; He didn’t just make them one. He didn’t
just say, ‘okay, Jew and Gentile, I see you as one.’
Where did he make them one? In himself. 15 Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the
cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And
came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh. Did he come preaching redemption? He
came and preached peace. Peace has been declared already,
peace between Jew and Gentile and therefore unifying one,
in Christ therefore, hey the Gospel of peace. 17 And
came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh. 18 For
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father.
The only
two groups of people on earth in God’s eyes, were not
believers or non-believers, they were Jews and Gentiles.
And now both Jew and Gentile have what, access by one
Spirit unto the Father. 19 Now
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God; 20 And are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In
whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God
through the Spirit. I didn’t expect to get that much out
of this to be really honest with you. There are statements
in here that are so emphatic they are not vague. All that
we read in Chapter one and Chapter two is so conclusive.
The questions always come, yeah but the Bible says you
have to believe. Well that ‘was’ the requirement that
everyone failed at. I’m so glad that everybody failed at
believing. Do you know, it’s just the same as the law?
What if one person succeeded it becoming righteous through
the law? What if one person would have succeeded at
believing?
Actually if
one would have done it, that would have been the only one
who would have ever got it because God wasn’t out
grading on the curve. I am so thankful that Moses law
eliminated everyone from redemption and God’s
requirement to believe in Christ that God had sent His
only Son in to the world that that requirement was also
complete failure on man’s part. At that moment when the
entire human race was concluded to be in complete
disobedience and unbelief Christ died for the ungodly. Now
on this side of the cross we have so much wonderful
teaching about what Paul says believing will do. We
believe to the saving of the soul, we grow in knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we grow in grace, our
minds are transformed to the renewing of the mind and it
is a process that absolutely is constantly liberating and
freeing more and more and more and more and more and more
and MORE. It’s absolutely because of redemption, not
because of belief.
I do
believe that all of the parables that Jesus spoke were
types and shadows of what he was about to do. I remember
when I realized the Kingdom of God was not the pearl of
great price. I freaked that it wasn’t me. It says the
Kingdom of God is like a man who found a pearl and that
pearl was in a piece of land and that he wanted that pearl
so much that he went and sold and gave up all that he had
to buy the land so he could have the pearl that was found
there. In the Evangelical Christian community we were
taught that the pearl of great price is the Kingdom of God
and you have to give up everything to really experience
and have the Kingdom. As this Gospel came, I began to see
those parables just turn upside down and I saw the pearl
of great price was ME and the man who found the pearl was
Jesus and the one who gave up everything he had to buy it
and purchase it was Jesus. I’ll tell you what; you talk
about giving yourself a little bit different view of
yourself when you realize that Jesus sees you as the pearl
of great price, which he was willing to give up everything
for to purchase you. Even in those verses, you are the
purchased possession. You’re the purchased possession;
there is nothing that says we’ve purchased the Kingdom.
It says that we are the purchased possession.
The parable
of the Samaritan is so powerful. We were all taught to be
good Samaritans out of that. That’s not the revelation
that is in that. That incredible thing tells us that the
religious man passed by, the man was bleeding and dying,
the politician passed by and all the different ones but
then the samaritan came (basically samaritan reads the ‘rejected
ones’ where Israel was concerned anyway.) The samaritan
picked him up and carried him in, poured in the oil and
wine and fixed him up and carried him in to the Inn and
guess what he said. He said okay, I’m checking him into
this Inn and now every debt is acquired while he is here
is to be charged to my account. That Inn is the Kingdom of
God and Jesus picked us up. We didn’t get there by
ourselves. We were all bleeding and dying and he scooped
up the human race, checked us in to the Kingdom of God and
said now every debt ever accumulated by them is to be put
on my account. Awesome!!
(In
reference to a comment made in the audience Mike goes on
to explain about the ‘vessels’ … being unsure of
exactly what the woman asked, I felt it necessary to put
this brief explanation in here so as to not confuse you of
the slight switch of subject.)
In Romans
Chapter 9 I believe it speaks of the vessels of wrath. The
vessels of wrath were under the First Covenant; the
vessels of dishonor were the people of the First Covenant.
The vessels of honor and the vessels of mercy are the
people under the Second Covenant. In fact is says ‘What
is it any business of yours if God chose to reveal his
wrath to the vessels of dishonor, but then to turn around
and show his mercy to somebody else.’ In fact, it says,
"Is it any business of yours that he took of one lump
of clay and made one vessel of dishonor and one a vessel
of honor. One to experience wrath and judgment the other
to experience nothing but mercy and grace.’ Those are
types and shadows of the two covenants, not good and bad
Christians, or believing and unbelieving people. What ever
they are, it says God made the lump the way he wanted it.
So if they are unbelieving, then God made them unbelieving
and they had no choice in it anyway.
It just so
happens that God made everyone on this side of the cross
vessels of mercy and everyone on the other side of the
cross as vessels of wrath but based on the disobedience,
remember it was the children of wrath and it’s
synonymous with the statement children of disobedience. It
didn’t say disobedient children, the children of Adam’s
disobedience. We are the children of the second Adam.
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