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The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
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In Chapter 7 of Revelation, we see a little horn speaking great and proud things. And the church just assumes that it is anti-Christ because they think to exalt yourself is sin.
Well, for man to exalt himself is sin, but the Lord Jesus Christ exalts himself because he is worthy to be exalted. He is worthy to be exalted because there is no darkness in him anywhere. He is great. He is all-powerful. He does great things. He is rich in mercy, and he is perfect.
And he therefore exalts himself. He also is undefeatable, and he is the captain of the host, the great military commander of the universes. And therefore it is no sin for him to exalt himself. There is no greater anywhere. Jesus.
He is going to be passing through. The Lord said to Moses, you cannot see me face to face, but I will let you see my hind parts. He is going to be passing through a great wave of his Spirit, and there will be great miracles in that passing through for those who are touched by it.
He says he is bringing down the false church, and he is establishing the new. He said get ready for great turmoil and trouble, which will precede his appearance. No one is happy to hear that, but we thank you for the warning, Lord. Great trouble and turmoil and in the midst of all of the smoke, he is going to stand up very soon.
Romans 9 -- this is our Bible study. I have not prepared for this at all. So what we usually do is go around the room, everybody taking a turn with the Scripture. And then everyone has an opportunity to comment on it, and I go last.
There is a third microphone. Do you want to go again? Do you know where the third microphone is? It should be back here somewhere?
[INAUDIBLE]
Romans 9:1, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bea- -- also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.”
Let me point out to you first of all that Paul is saying that he is speaking the truth in Christ. And Christ is a what?
Spiritual [INAUDIBLE]
Christ is a mi- -- well, that is close. Christ is a mind. Christ is a mind. So when Paul says that he is speaking the truth in Christ, what is the other alternative mind that he could be speaking out of? If your mind is not Christ, your mind is the carnal mind.
So Paul is saying to the Romans, I am not speaking out of my carnal mind. He is saying, this is Christ in me speaking to you, and because it is Christ in me speaking to you, I am speaking the truth. OK?
Now the question is could he be speaking the truth out of his carnal mind? And we hear all the Pharisees say, well, I speak the truth out of my carnal mind all the time. I tell you that I am sitting in this house, that I am reading this Bible, and that is the truth.
What is Paul talking about? I suggest to you, brethren, he is speaking about spiritual truth. You see, just as there is good and evil in the carnal mind -- the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- there is righteousness only in Christ. So there is the truth of this world system, the truth as the carnal mind perceives it in the carnal mind.
But there is no spiritual truth in the carnal mind. The carnal mind is a liar because the carnal mind is the devil, and he was a -- well, he is a liar, and he was a murderer from the beginning.
So Paul is speaking about spiritual truth. He is speaking about the doctrine of Christ. He is speaking about the message of salvation. He is speaking about the truth that we need to have to be raised from the dead.
And, brethren, the church is filled with spiritual lies, the which if you follow, you will wind up in the ditch because the blind leading the blind will both wind up in the ditch. And the truth of the hour is the necessity for the spiritual warfare in Christ, which is against the carnal mind, the result of which is that we shall be raised from the dead. And if you have heard any of the doctrine, you have heard a preacher preaching out of his carnal mind and a lie.
So Paul says, I speak the truth in Christ. And most preachers today are speaking the lie out of their carnal mind, and you need to know it. See, there are certain -- if you see the truth, is it a good word? I just do not have another word for it right now. I want to say this again. Just as there is good and evil, the good which is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, righteousness is only in Christ. There is a reality -- I do not know if that is a good word either -- which is in the carnal mind or a truth which is subject to this world. But spiritual truth of our fall, of our condition and of our resurrection and of God’s plan for resurrection is only in Christ.
So if you have gotten instruction on the doctrine of Christ, if you have received instruction about the fall, about our present spiritual condition and/or about God’s plan for resurrection -- if you have received instruction in these areas from a carnally minded preacher, he is speaking out of his carnal mind. And he has spoken a lie unto you.
So if you do not start making some changes right now, this whole war is going to pass you by, which may not sound like such a bad thing, except you will never be raised from the dead. If you do not wage the warfare, you will go out in the drift because there are enough people who are ready, willing, able and in fact waging this warfare for Christ to appear in this world system shortly.
So for those who are fearful, God is letting them go back, and our type is Gideon. Let them go back. God is working with a small group of tough soldiers who never take their eyes off the enemy even when they are drinking water at the brook. Check out Gideon. I think he sent back two-thirds of his army if I am not mistaken. And in this hour, the Lord is saying, let all those who are fearful go back. And that is the truth spoken in Christ.
“I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” Paul is saying this is Christ Jesus in me preaching spiritual truth, the second witness being the Spirit of the Father, which is within me. Never knew that, huh? Thought that was a simple verse. Amazing.
OK, Joseph, verse 2, please.
“When I say how great is my sorrow” --
Please put it on the tape for us.
“When I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart.”
OK. Why do you not read verse 3 also so we know what he is talking about?
“For my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God’s curse and separated from Christ.”
Any comments? No comments? Any comments? Rita?
“That I have great heaviness” -- or great burden -- “and continual sorrow in my heart.
“For I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Well, first of all Paul is saying that he is speaking about Israel. We find that in verse 4. He is speaking about the Israelites. He is speaking about natural Israel.
And he is saying that he has a great burden and a continual sorrow in his heart because they could not recognize Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. And not only because they could not recognize him as messiah but because of their failure to do so that they were losing the great benefits of being joined to Christ. Because, brethren, for one to receive the benefits of God, one must believe that God is. And to receive the benefit of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his sacrifice for us, which is the work of salvation -- in order to receive that, we must believe that he is indeed the giver of salvation.
So we see Paul in great travail because the Jews do not believe. And he goes on to say in verse 3, “For I could wish that myself were accursed” for them. “Accursed from Christ” -- “For I would wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.”
Now my margin says separated. I wish that I was separated from Christ for my brethren. I think that is a very poor translation, brethren. I have not looked at the Greek, but what my -- but what the -- m- -- the Spirit is telling me is that -- well, is that Paul is saying that he wishes he could be accursed for them, not separated for them.
What does accursed mean? Let me remind you there is another Scripture, which is speaking about -- referring to Jesus, which says, cursed is he who hangeth on a tree, and he was made accursed for us. He was made accursed for us, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the intention of that Scripture is that he was made accursed for us. The significance of it is that the fallen soul is the tree that Jesus of Nazareth is joined to. You may recall the Lord Jesus Christ referred to himself as a green tree. He said if they crucify a green tree, what will they did do to a dry, meaning a dead, tree?
Humanity is the dead tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the green tree is the tree of life. So you may recall, those of you who have been studying with us for a while, that at the beginning, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were one tree. And we read in the King James translation something about a tree being in the midst of the Garden. But we found out that the tree was not in the midst of the garden but that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the midst of the tree of life as a peach pit is within the midst of the peach.
The tree of life is a whole tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a partial tree. The tree of life can exist without the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil cannot live without the tree of life. In the separation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil died. That is how we died. We are a partial tree.
So the Scripture says that he was made accursed for us, and cursed is he who hangeth on a tree, the green tree. Jesus of Nazareth, who was Christ in his glorified form, is nailed, for the life of the ages, through crucifixion to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of the twain -- of the two trees, of the two minds -- he made one new man the beginning of the creation of God.
The creation of God, the man who was in the likeness and the image of the Father, is the man whose Christ mind is crucified to his carnal mind so that there are no longer two minds. But they are so joined that there is just one mind.
So, you see, we died, brethren. When we separated by our spirit from the Father, we died. And because there is no way that we can raise ourselves from the dead, the Spirit of the Father has come unto us to join himself to us through a mediator, Christ Jesus the man, the only mediator between God and man. In the nailing of Jesus of Nazareth, who was Christ, to our carnal mind is the union or the restoration of union with the Father or with the tree of life that we might be raised from the dead.
So Paul is saying -- when he is saying that he wishes he could be accursed for his people, Israel, he is saying, I wish I could do for them what Jesus did for me. Jesus -- Paul said, I am crucified to the world; yet I live but not I. Christ lives in me. So we see the tree of life nailed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the man Paul. And Paul is saying, I wish my brethren after the flesh could have the same experience. That is what he is saying. And I do not even know that it says Paul. If I looked in the Greek, it is very possibly might even be saying that he wished the Lord Jesus Christ could be nailed to them.
Verse 4, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God” -- [?Rita Lamp?], you are not sleeping are you? OK, I am going to be -- OK, I just ask that you really try as best you can. OK, that is for everybody.
“Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.”
So Paul goes on to say that natural Israel was given the responsibility of the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises through which would come the glory of the adoption. I know that is -- this is just a very poor translation. OK, let me give it to you again. His people are the Israelites, starting with the last, the last will be first, and the first will be last.
To the Israelites were given the promises. What promise? The promise of salvation and the service of God. What kind of service of God? The sacrifices that were the type of that which is to come and the giving of the law. I remind you the law, which convicted the whole world, because where there is no law, brethren, there is no imputation of sin.
God is a legalist. He does not convict people without a fair trial. And they do not even get the trial until he has first come to them and given them an opportunity to hear what is required of them. So we see the law was delivered to Israel. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father and live long upon the earth.
So we see that to natural Israel was given the promise of salvation, the service of God in type, the giving of the law, which convicted the whole world of sin because nobody could keep the law, and the knowledge of the covenants. Please notice that the word covenants is plural. God has more than one covenant with man. Actually it is one covenant in three parts. And we did a very interesting study on that in Zechariah 11 over in Nigeria. I should have those messages available -- Lord willing -- shortly.
So we see the promises, the service of God, the giving of the law and the covenants all lead up to the glory, which is the Spirit of Christ, and the adoption, which is the engrafted word by which we enter into the glory of Christ, both of which is the new covenant. The new covenant, brethren, is the tree of life, which is Christ, nailed to your dry tree through crucifixion.
So in verse 4, we see the two covenants. The adoption and the glory is the second covenant, and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises are the first covenant, the first covenant to natural Israel and the second covenant to the Israel of God.
Verse 5, “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever and ever.” I am not sure what that means.
Well, of course the second phrase is obvious, that Christ concerning the flesh came. That is speaking about Jesus, brethren. You may have heard me say this before. Of all the benefits that God gave to natural Israel, they were all side effects. They were all side effects. God comes with a purpose, and he pours out his Spirit to accomplish this purpose. And everybody that gets healed along the way, that is great. And everybody that gets delivered along the way, that is great.
But the anointing that God poured out on natural Israel had one specific, direct purpose, to bring forth messiah. And because of that, a whole nation of people got blessed, and we are still blessed today. The whole world got blessed. We have the prophets. We have the law. We have the promises. We have the whole understanding that came down because natural Israel entered into a cov- -- or because the Lord entered into a covenant with natural Israel.
“Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.” That is speaking about Jesus. He came out of Israel. “Who is over all, God blessed for ever and ever.” I cannot comment any further on that without the Greek, so I am just going to let it go.
Verse 6, “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” So Paul is saying, do not be discouraged and think that the promises that God made, which we read about in verse 4, have no effect because natural Israel has denied Jesus is messiah. Do not think the covenant failed because everyone who looks like Israel is not Israel. Messiah came out of Israel. God brings a people out of a people.
But as we will read in the next verse, we will find out that God has everything under control, and that in due season, all of natural Israel will eventually be grafted back into the tree of life because it was the purposes of God that they would refuse to recognize messiah. Does anybody know why?
So that the Gentiles became [INAUDIBLE]
So that the Gentiles would have an opportunity to have a relationship with Christ. So we see that it is just for a season. We see that it is just for a season that natural Judah or that natural Israel is separated from the covenants and the promises. You have a question?
Who is the Gentiles? Who are these people?
Everyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile. There is two categories of people in the world.
Even today?
Even today except that today, we have spiritual Jewry. And we are told in another place that he -- what?
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Yeah. We have spiritual Israel today, Paul said, because the covenant that God made with Abraham, who is the father of Israel, is in physical circumcision. To be a Jew -- you cannot be a Jew unless you are circumcised. That is the sign of the covenant in the flesh. But today we are told that the circumcision is not in the flesh. It is of the --
Spirit.
-- of the heart, so circumcision of the heart. So everyone whose heart is circumcised -- what does that mean? Everyone in whom Crist is appearing and who has cut away their carnal mind, who is lying over their heart, this is the true Israel.
The only one that that has happened to so far, brethren, is Jesus of Nazareth. That means we are all heathens, but we are in the process of being circumcised. This circumcision is taking a whole lifetime. Did I answer your question? OK.
So we see that there is an Israel of God, which is made up both of Jews and of Gentiles who have their Chr- -- who have the Christ growing in them and who have circumcised their carnal mind off of that Christ, this Israel of God. Jesus.
Verse 7, “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.” So the fact that you are a natural Jew does not mean that you are automatically a child of God. “But, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” In other words you cannot be called a child of God because your father was a child of God, because your father was a pastor, because your father was a great man of God. We cannot inherit Christ. In this hour fallen man cannot pass Christ onto his children.
The Scripture says in the New Testament, no longer will it be -- or in the new covenant -- that the fathers will bite a sour grape, and the children’s teeth will be on edge. What does that mean? That is the lifting off of the law, which says, and the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. No longer will it be that the father will bite the sour grape, and the children will express that sour look because in Christ, every individual has a chance to go on.
So therefore on the one hand, in the new covenant, we are not subject to the sins of the fathers any longer. And on the other hand, those who never had an opportunity to know God because they were not born a natural Jew now have an opportunity because the Spirit of Christ is poured out upon all flesh, Jewish flesh and Gentile flesh and every kind of flesh that is present in the world. The Spirit of Christ is pouring out upon it and getting inside of it and growing up inside of it and reproducing himself in the peoples and the nations of the world.
So what was once the exclusive property of Israel is now offered to the whole world. But nevertheless, brethren, every man in the world today is not partaking of that which is offered. So we see the whole world having an opportunity to be Israel.
Or let me put it another way. The whole world having the same opportunities that were given to natural Israel, but we do not see the whole world partaking of these blessings. What does that mean? It means that if you want to partake of these blessings, that Spirit which is being poured out upon all flesh must get inside of you and adopt you. We read about that in verse 4. You see, the adoption is available, but you have to be adopted. It is not enough that it is available; you have to be adopted. [?And who?]? By the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
You no longer have to be born of a Jewish father and a Jewish mother to be a Jew. What has to happen to you to make you a Jew is that the glorified Spirit of Jesus Christ has to get inside of you and join to your spirit. And therefore you become his spiritual child, not after the flesh and not after the soul but after that part of you which counts, after the spirit. Because the flesh and the soul are passing away, brethren. Only the spirit shall abide forever.
Verse 8, “That is, They which are the children of the flesh,” -- that is natural Israel -- “these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
These Scriptures have been interpreted to mean that the natural Jews are not the children of God. Now that is not what Paul is saying. He is saying that the fact that your father and mother are natural Jews does not automatically make you a child of God. It does not mean that you have lost your opportunity to be a child of God.
This is an error, which is preached in the church today. What Paul is saying is that your natural heritage is no longer enough to get you special privileges. Now the special privilege has gone out to the whole world. Now the offspring of the natural Jew or the natural Jew has to go through the same procedures as the Gentile and be adopted by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Jew has lost their special privilege, and if they cannot see it and humble themselves, if they think that they are entitled to special treatment because it was their nationality that produced messiah, their pride can cause individual members of Israel to fall away. But every member of natural Israel who truly seeks and worships God in spirit and truth -- there is not a doubt in my mind -- shall be led unto the promised salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We are still in verse 8, “That is, They which are the children of the flesh,” -- natural Israel -- “these are not the children of God” -- not necessarily the children of God, but they still have an opportunity to be the children of God. “But the childr-” -- excuse me -- “the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” What it means is that the true children of God are those who are adopted by Jesus Christ. And that adoption is available to whomsoever will, Jew and Gentile alike.
Verse 9, “For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
“And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac.” Well, let me go back up. “For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Let me remind you that Sarah had a child when she was past the age of childbearing. And not only was she past the age of childbearing, but Abraham was past the child of age -- the age of childbearing, which means that Sarah was incapable of producing the female seed, and Abraham was incapable of producing the male seed. So how are they ever going to produce a child? It was a double negative, no male seed, no female seed. Yet God said, Sarah shall have a child. So we see Sarah’s conception, brethren, as a type of a spiritual miracle.
Brethren, this soul, which died, is incapable of producing a child of God. You see, we shall all be saved in childbearing. The child which this Scripture is speaking about is the mind. The offspring of the Spirit of God and this creation is a mind.
God had a son, Christ, the son of the living God. And this son was born in the man Jesus of Nazareth. And because the mind in the man Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, Jesus of Nazareth could call himself Jesus, the Christ. He had a fallen body just like we did. What was different about the man Jesus of Nazareth? His mind. His mind was Christ. His mind was without sin.
He had two arms, two legs, two eyes, a nose, was born of a woman. What was different about him? The mind of God was born in him. He had borne the Christ child, which we read about in Revelation 12. He was saved in childbearing. He bore the Christ child.
And we see in Sarah’s conception when she was -- when it was impossible for her to have this child, as God’s promise to fallen man that despite the fact that it is impossible for a dead tree to produce a living mind -- despite that fact we shall produce a living mind and be thus raised from the dead.
Brethren, you know a tree by its fruit. A dead tree does not produce living fruit. This tree is a dead tree. It produces dead fruit. And the name of the dead fruit? The carnal mind.
Have you ever heard of the fruit of the womb? When a woman bears a child, the Scripture calls it the fruit of her womb. It is all through the Scriptures. A child born of a woman is the fruit of her womb, that which her womb has produced. The fruit of the tree of life, brethren, is Christ. He is the fruit. And the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of death is the carnal mind.
A dead tree can only produce dead fruit. It requires a living tree to produce living fruit. And do we not read in the prophets about the tree that produced evil figs, figs which were inedible by God? The Lord has rejected the fruit of this dead tree.
When he has promised, when we will be on the age of childbearing, that he would give us a miracle. And in the fullness of times, brethren, he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to penetrate our hearts and plant the living seed of his life in our dead heart, raise our spirit from the dead and produce a living son. And we shall be saved in childbearing when the fruit of our spiritual existence is the man-child of Revelation 12. When the fruit, when the mind which comes forth in this creation is Christ, we shall live again. And it shall be an outstanding miracle of God because a dead tree does not produce living fruit.
So, you see, for all intents and purposes, the tree of life is being planted within us. And did Jesus not say that a mustard seed is the smallest and the most humble of all seeds? But when it grows up, it becomes a great tree. So we receive the mustard seed of the drop of the life of the glorified Jesus Christ, which is rained on our heart. And when he engrafts himself to our human spirit, he grows up to be a great tree and shall fill all the earth of our soul. And in that tree is the fruit which gives life.
Verse 10, “And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
“(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.)”
These Scriptures are so misunderstood, brethren.
Maybe someday God will let me do some Alternation Translations on this, but I will just comment on it for now. Rebecca brought forth Esau and Jacob by Isaac. The inheritance was to go to Esau, the elder, but because of a series of events, the promise went to Jacob, the younger, against the natural law. The natural law says the oldest son inherits everything.
But we see the Lord telling us in Romans 9:11 that it was God’s election that this travesty happened because when we read the account in Genesis, we find out that Jacob and Rebecca actually stole Esau’s inheritance and that Jacob received it by trickery. As a matter of fact, his name means usurper. He stole his brother’s inheritance.
But we see here in Romans chapter 9, the Lord saying that God was in control of everything. Now we see the church using this Scripture in some instances to say that infant children are without sin. This is not true, brethren. Every child born into this world system is born with a sin nature. Every child born into this world system is born with a carnal mind. We are all born with inherited sin.
What this Scripture is talking about in verse 11 is that this particular child, having not done any good or evil in and of himself -- it in no way indicates he came into the world without inherited sin -- “that the purpose of God according to election might stand.” Not of something that the child did but of him that calleth.
What this is saying is that it was God’s will that Jacob would be the one who would carry on the seed and that God chose Jacob not because of any good thing that Jacob did that was better than what Esau did but that this was all in the purpose of God. You see, we read in another place that Esau sought repentance with much tears, but there was no repentance for him. And some Pharisees say God, this hard, cruel Jehovah, would not receive Esau’s repentance. God is a religious, dogmatic God.
This is not true. The Scripture is saying that it was the purpose of the Lord to choose the one who did not follow the natural line of inheritance to demonstrate to the world that God has the right to change the laws of man. And he can change the laws of man without any reason other than that he decides to do it. That is what the right of election means.
Let me say it again. The natural law says that the oldest son inherits everything. The reason God refused to receive Esau’s repentance was not because Esau was such a wicked, wicked man that there was no forgiveness for this sin. Nor was God’s purpose in refusing to receive his repentance that Jacob was some saintly, holy man but that God chose to demonstrate in this situation that he is sovereign, that he is above the law of man and that he does whatever he wants to do.
It says in another place, I will have mercy upon whom I choose to have mercy. If you do not like it, that is tough. And it says in another place, and what is it to you if I choose to let this one live until I come again? Get your eyes off of your brother. Get your eyes on yourself because God will do whatever he chooses to do. And he does not have to be fair in your eyes. Neither does he owe you any explanation for that which he does. Jesus.
So we see verse 11 of Romans 9 severely misused to be saying that infant children are without sin. And the outgrowth of that false doctrine is the rushing of infant children to be baptized so that if they do die, they do not wind up in hell. We are all in -- we are all born with this sin nature, brethren. Even before we do good or evil, everyone born into this world is condemned because -- anybody know the Scripture? Why are we all condemned, everyone born into this world? Because in Adam all died. But be of good cheer because in Christ, we shall all be made alive. Hallelujah.
Verse 12, “It was said unto her,” -- Rebecca -- “The elder shall serve the younger.” It was the will of God that this should happen. So you say how could it be the will of God? There was trickery between Rebecca and Jacob. How could God have a part to do that? Brethren, God just lets what is in us manifest. God does not tempt us to sin. God does not put sin in us so that we should sin. He just uses what is there to accomplish his purposes.
We recently in Nigeria did an excellent study on what actually happened with Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. We found out that the Lord just let manifest what was naturally there. God does not take a righteous man and make him unrighteous to serve his purposes. But God will manifest through unrighteous men and let unrighteous aspects of their personality manifest so that all things can be worked for the good as God sees it. I hope you could hear that difference.
Verse 13, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” I believe we talked about that not too long ago in the Scripture. Well, you say why would God hate Esau and love Jacob? Because it is not the hatred and the love as man knows it. The Lord is speaking about a spirit tie here.
For God to love anyone, he loves with the agape love or the love of the Spirit. And he is speaking about a union. As the Scripture says, a man and his wife, they are one flesh. When God loves you, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
So when the Scripture says that the Lord loved Jacob, it means that he had a spirit tie with Jacob. Why? Because he did it that way. Why not Esau? Because God chose Jacob. And you do not have to understand why. The fact is that God has raised up some vessels of honor, and he has raised up some vessels of dishonor. And he is working all things for the good.
And the Lord had a spirit tie with Jacob. Therefore he let the evil, which was in the hearts of Jacob and Rebecca, man- -- and even Esau. He let the evil in the heart of Esau manifest so as to arrange for the man who had a spirit tie with the father to inherit the promise.
Can you hear this? The man and the men who develop a spirit tie with the Father inherit the promise. This Scripture is following right through on the prior Scriptures saying that Israel after the flesh is not Israel. The fact that your father and mother are natural Jews does not make you Israel. You must be the Israel of God. You must have the seed of Christ in your heart to be Israel.
And now we see a second witness to that, the Lord saying, I choose the man with -- to whom my Spirit is engrafted. There is no work that you could do that will bring you into communion with the Father. There is no doctrine you can preach, there is no word you could say, there is no demon you can cast out, there is no healing that you could perform, there is no Bible that you can read, there is no walk that you could walk and there is no deed that you could do that will save your soul other than having your spirit one spirit with the Father.
And there is only one way that you can accomplish this. There is no way that you could apprehend the Spirit of God and force him to join with you. There is nothing you could do to buy him, to bribe him. This is how we started this message over an hour ago. There is nothing that the violent man can do to possess Christ. God resisteth the proud.
And he who humbles himself and acknowledges his powerlessness to save himself and he who humbles himself and acknowledges his powerlessness to be righteous, it is to this one that the Father comes out of the richness of the mercy of his life and joins with in the spirit thus imparting the righteousness of Christ to the humble. Woe unto the rich man. Woe unto the man who is powerful in his own eyes. Woe unto the man who needeth not God in this life; for he shall not pass into the next world.
[SPEAKING IN TONGUES]. Jesus. Jesus.
Pride goeth before destruction, brethren, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Verse 14, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
“For God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
“So we see then that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy.”
We have no power to obtain salvation, brethren, either of ourselves or of God. There is only one way you are getting in, to confess that you cannot get it and believe that God will have mercy on you because of your humility. God help us.
Verse 18, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” What does that mean? The one whose heart he hardeneth he hardeneth. So that means you cannot even be the proud one that God resists. And God lets -- unless God says you are going to be the proud one that he is going to resist. You cannot even repent. You cannot even understand your own powerlessness unless God decides to unharden your heart. If God hardens your heart, you cannot even hope to humble yourself. If God hardens your heart, you will not even be able to ask him to humble you.
So what is all this puzzle about? God is in control, brethren. He is in complete control of this entire creation. And he is working all things out for his purposes. And the bottom-line is that it may look like he is temporarily hardening people’s or individuals’ hearts, but he has had mercy on this entire creation. And the end of it will be the resurrection from the dead.
Do not be deceived as you see an individual here and an individual there passing out of this world system in disgrace and in dishonor because the spirit, which is in that man, shall stand again on the earth in that day. It is the dishonorable personality which shall pass away and never rise again. It is the soul, which sins, that shall die, but the spirit, brethren, which we truly are, shall eventually be formed in the image of Christ, and we shall live again.
So do not be in despair because he who died at the time of the fall, even the Christ, he shall be raised from the dead. And in that day, all who are in the grave that hear his voice, they too shall live again. This soul shall live again. This dead soul shall live again, but the individual, temporary formation of some individuals will not rise again just as your 6-year-old child will never live again, just as your 10-year-old child will never live again.
But the adult person, which you are, he shall receive all the promises and all the fruit of all the labor of your lifetime. Christ, brethren, is the one who was chosen. And the vessels in whom he is appearing in that last day, they are the ones who shall abide forever with him. But everyone that has passed through this world system or the spirit of everyone who has passed through this world system shall appear in that last day in Christ.
Verse 19, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” The Scriptures say the one whose heart God hardens, he is going to have a hardened heart. And Paul says, so then why are you saying, well, why is he picking on us? Who has resisted God that he should harden our heart?
And Paul says, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another vessel unto dishonour?”
I do not know whether you noticed it or not, but I preached the hidden message in all of these Scriptures, these last few Scriptures, before I even read them. Let me go back over it since you are looking at me like you do not understand.
I have been ahead of the Scripture right down the line in this message. What does that mean? It means the message that Paul is preaching here is in my heart. And what is coming out of my heart is the natural explanation of the verse that I am reading. Then I go to the next verse, and I see that is what Paul is saying.
Are you aware of this? Are you aware of this? Hallelujah. That is really turning me on. That is really exciting. That is really exciting.
But now, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast you made me like this?
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump” -- of clay -- “to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” Well, we know the secret here. He can do it because he knows the spirit is going to be saved in the last day, that if he makes up one man to be a vessel of dishonor, that that man is not going to burn in hell forever but that the clay will be reformed, and the spirit will be saved in that last day through union with the Christ.
Verse 22, “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”
“What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known” -- now that word wrath, I have not looked it up. I have not looked into the Greek with this. But I know that there are several places in the Greek where the word translated wrath can also be translated passion, and we have translated it passion at least twice in the Book of Revelation. It is the word that is used to describe God’s passion for his wife, this soul. So let us read the word in that context.
“What if God, willing to show his passion for his wife, and to make his power known” -- what power? The power to raise her from the dead -- “endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” What does this mean, brethren? It means that he loves us so much, that he has such a passion for us, that he chose not to destroy us, but he endured our sin with longsuffering until such time as he could raise us from the dead.
If you can hear it, brethren, hear it. What if God, willing to show his passion for us and to make his power known, which w- -- is full well able to raise us from the dead, and because of this, he endured with much longsuffering those of us who are fitted for destruction. We are not good for anything but death, but he has put up with us because of his passion for us and his longsuffering of us. He decided not to kill us.
But rather than kill us -- verse 23, “That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” Please note that in verse 22, we are the vessels of wrath, the vessels which are the object of the wraths of God. This whole world is under his wrath, judgment. We are the vessels which are the object of his judgment, but we shall be, in verse 23, the object of his mercy, vessels of mercy.
Why? Because he has pass- -- the passion of a bridegroom for us, and he desires to make his power to raise the dead known. He has therefore reserved us in chains of judgment -- I am sorry -- chains of darkness until the judgment which will restore us unto righteousness.
“That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” In other words he does not care what happened. He will see his original purpose in us accomplished. And that purpose is that we shall be vessels prepared unto glory, vessels of mercy, vessels to whom the mercy of God will be poured out on the rest of humanity.
Verse 24, “Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” So he has vessels of mercy coming out of natural Jewry and some vessels of mercy coming out of the Gentiles. So we see God is not a God only of the Jew, but he is also a God of the Gentile.
And to all you African people out there that speak about worshipping a white God, he is not a white God. He is a spirit. God is a spirit who is appearing in the person of the natural Jew, and he is appearing in the person of Gentiles. And he is appearing in the person of white people. And he is appearing in the person of black people, yellow people, green people and orange people. He is a spirit. He is not the flesh that he is appearing in. He is greater than flesh.
“Even us, whom he hath called” -- all of us wherever he is appearing -- “not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also.”
And as he said -- as the Lord said -- in the prophet Isaiah -- verse 25 -- is that tape going? Would you just look and see if the wheels are going, please? I am losing my voice again. OK.
“I will call them my people, which were not my people.” That is speaking about the Gentiles. Now that means everyone who is not a Jew. God is going to be calling them his people. And I will call “her beloved, which was not beloved.”
OK, now remember it said Esau was the one who was hated, and Jacob was the one that he loved. So that means all the descendants of Esau are now going to be loved. The promise is going to the descendants of Esau. Who were the descendants of Esau? Anybody know? Anybody know?
The Canaanites?
I am not sure about that, but I know the Arab world is the descendants of Esau. I do not know about the Canaan- -- no, the Canaanites are the descendants of Ham. And I do not know -- and Esau is a descendant of Shem.
OK, and -- so they were not -- and “I will call them my people, which were not my people” -- that is the Gentiles -- “and I will call her beloved, which was not beloved.” That is the descendants of Esau.
Verse 26, “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people” -- that is the Jews which were rejected -- “these shall be” -- “there shall they be called the children of the living God.” This Scripture is speaking about the grafting of the natural Jew back into their own tree. What do you mean their own tree? The Lord Jesus Christ came out of natural Israel, brethren.
Verse 27, “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” Now the Pharisee tells you, just a remnant of the children of Israel shall be saved, only a very few. But I say unto you, brethren, a remnant of the individual shall be saved, not this body that we live in nor this soul, which has sinned, but the spirit shall be saved. Not three out of 99 men but the spirit out of each of the 99 men shall be saved.
Can you hear it? The remnant -- a remnant is a piece of the original. The original what? The original Christ, brethren. That remnant, that remainder, of that which was the glorious Christ at the beginning of time shall be saved.
That bone that Ezekiel speaks about, the spirit of man, which is in each individual, each bone when put together being the resurrected Christ, that is what is being saved. The remnant is not three out of 100 men. It is that which is left after God puts you through the fire. The only thing that will not burn is the metal of your spirit because the wood of your soul and your flesh will burn. And that part of us which is alive and remains after the tribulation, that is the part of you that shall be saved. Jesus.
Verse 27, “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.”
Verse 28, “For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” What work is being finished? The work of creation, brethren. The work of creation.
We are not finished, and we shall not be finished until we are in the image of God. We are in the likeness of God right now. And that God is spirit, and we are spirit, but our image or our nature is Satan. Our daddy is the devil.
Therefore, brethren, we must be adopted and have our nature changed from devil to Christ. So we see that Christ in you, the hope of glory, will finish the work and cut what short in righteousness? Cut what short? Cut your carnal mind right off of your soul, brethren. You shall be beheaded. And I saw the souls of them which were beheaded for Christ. Your carnal mind must be cut off of your soul that Christ can sit down upon it.
“Because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Well, I would have to look at that in the Greek.
Verse 29, “And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.” I suggest to you, brethren, that the seed is Christ. When he gets through with us, there is going to be nothing left but Christ, no carnal mind, no fallen soul and no fallen body. Christ is the only reality which shall survive this unhappy image of this world to which we are bound.
Verse 30, “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
“But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.” What does that mean? Israel, who followed after the law or the written letter of righteousness, has failed to satisfy that law. She has failed to completely comply with that law.
But the Gentiles, which has received the faith which is in Jesus Christ, they have attained to righteousness because there is no righteousness in the law, brethren. It is only in the glorified life of Jesus Christ. So does this not sound unfair?
Verse 32, well, “Wherefore?” How come? “Because the Jews sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.” They did not understand -- the natural Jew did not understand that they could not enter in by their tithing, by their fasting, by their studying or by their sacrifices or by the keeping of the law. They failed to comprehend it.
They were so caught up in the pride of being the people with whom Jehovah made the covenant that it never occurred to them that their heart needed to be converted. And they stumbled at the stumblingstone. When Jesus appeared, when the righteousness of God appeared in the form of a man, they stumbled. They could not believe it. And the reason they could not believe it was because they thought that they were already righteous.
And we see in the church today, brethren, the same thing happening -- [AUDIO CUTS OUT] -- whole church world, who believe they are righteous, a whole church world, many of which think they cannot sin, a whole church world, most of which think even if they do sin, when their body dies, they are going to heaven because they have an experience with the Holy Ghost called reconciliation. And they are all going to fall in the ditch because they are stumbling at the stumblingstone. As Christ appears and be- -- is beginning to appear in people in the church world, the modern-day Pharisees are stumbling over him because they think they are already righteous. They are making the same mistake that the Pharisees made.
Verse 33, “As it is written, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and a rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” So God has seen fit to expose our pride, and he has laid in Sion -- that is the realm of his Spirit -- a stumblingstone. His name is Christ. He is a rock which is offensive to the carnal minds of men, rock typifying spirit. And whomsoever believeth into Christ shall not be ashamed.
And what does that mean? You shall not be the vessel which expresses the spiritual lie, which is Satan. We found several Scriptures of the old covenant, which speaks about shame. And it always means that the spiritual shame is that Satan and the carnal mind is being revealed through you. That is the shame. It is not the shame of man which kills, but there is a true, spiritual shame.
When the carnal mind expresses himself through you, brethren, that is a shame unto you especially if Christ is in you because for the carnal mind to express herself through you, when Christ is dwelling in you -- does anybody know why it is a shame? Do you know why it is a shame, [?Reina?]? Do you know why it is a shame?
It is a shame because for the carnal mind to express herself through you, she must first of all commit adultery with your spirit and secondly sacrifice you unto Satan. For -- because Christ is supposed to be standing in her way. So if Christ in you was put underfoot for the carnal mind to appear through you, you have committed adultery with the carnal mind. And she has crucified your Christ as a sacrifice unto Satan, the spiritual shame.
But there is never any condemnation in Christ, brethren, to those who are called according to his purposes and who are confessing their sins and going on. But you need to know that every time your carnal mind is revealed through you that it is a shame unto you so that you can confess it and repent and ask God to teach you how to wage this warfare and how to be strengthened in Christ so that you are not ashamed anymore.
It is just like the young boy who goes down the street at 10 years old, 9 years old, whatever age. And he gets beat up by the neighborhood toughs. So what does his father do? He gives him -- takes him and gives him karate lessons. You do not live the rest of your life because as a 9-year-old boy, you were beat up. You go, and you learn how to fight.
Behold, I lay in the realm of the spirit a stumblingstone -- his name is Christ -- and a rock of offense -- the Spirit of Christ -- and whosoever believeth into him shall not have the spirit of Satan being revealed through them. The one who believes into Christ shall not be a vessel which expresses the satanic mind. Hallelujah. Jesus.
And let me remind you the teaching of the hour is that this soul is going on to maturity, at which point each individual will be expressing either full manifestation of righteousness, which is in Christ, or a full manifestation of evil, which is in Satan. Right now most of us, with some exceptions -- very few -- are neuter, spiritually neuter just as young children are neuter. You can see male or female bodies, but they are not functioning as male or females. They are children.
We are children, but very -- in the very near future, we shall be entering into our spiritual adulthood, which means we shall spr- -- men, individual men, shall be springing forth as either full vessels of honor or full vessels of dishonor, vessels fully manifesting the righteousness of God, known as the Sons of God, or vessels manifesting the unrighteousness of Satan, evil, no longer neuter, evil. Jesus.
And that is the shame that Romans 9 is speaking about, to grow up and find oneself married to Satan. Anybody have any questions or comments?
So you were speaking about how he can reveal his glory through us. Is this only through his mind and spirit? Is -- there is no other way to receive this glory that Paul talks about?
I am not sure what you mean.
Revealing his glory unto you. Is there any other way that God or Christ, whoever you choose to use --
He reveals his glory through our behavior. Is that what you mean?
Yeah, elaborate on it.
Well, he reveals himself through our behavior. He does righteousness. The behavior which revels the glory of Christ is the judgment of righteous judgment. What does that mean? It is the pointing out of people’s sins so that they would have the opportunity to come out of a lifestyle which is destructive because of those sins that they are not even aware of why this is happening to them. That is a righteou- -- that is an expression of God’s righteousness through a man.
Then we also plead the cause of the widow and the orphan. When a Son of God sees a human being suffering without power -- they are not in sin at that moment although they probably -- you have to have inherited sin to have these afflictions come on you. But at the moment, they are not in sin, but they are being victimized because of their weakened condition. The righteousness of Christ in a man will pray for them, and God will hear that prayer and deliver them.
So the works of God, which express his righteousness, are known as righteous judgment. Did I answer your question? Yes?
And Christ shall save his people from their sins.
Transcribed by Verbal Fusion 05/27/16
1st Edit 05/31/16