Part 2 of 2 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
We are going to Lord willing finish up Ephesians 4 tonight.
Ephesians 4: 17-32
I believe we finished through verse 16, so we will start with Verse 17.
Verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in and vanity of their mind. KJV
Brethren, Paul is speaking about a lifestyle which comes forth from the way we think. Paul is speaking about walking. Brethren, before you walk, you have to think, before you do, you have to think, even if that thinking is an unconscious reflex or a reflex of your carnal mind, a reflex is something that you do without thinking, but there must be a thought before you do, and if you do an ungodly deed that means there was an ungodly thought in your mind.
Of course every ungodly thought does not necessarily result in an action, sometimes we restrain ourselves, but the mind that we are looking out of, will be reflected in the way we walk, and Paul is talking about walking in the vanity of our mind. I suggest to you he is speaking about the carnal mind, the preacher in Ecclesiastes said, all is vanity, everything of this world is vanity, and every thought that we think with our carnal mind is vanity, it is emptiness, it is illusion, it is a shadow, we have been committed to partake of this world system for a season, because we are trapped here. The Old Testament equivalent of this, is the Lord saying through Jeremiah to the Hebrew children, you are going into judgment in Babylon, do not push against the pricks, build your houses, plants your vineyards, have your children, you will be there for 70 years. That is what the Lord has said to this creation.
But when the command goes forth to arise and go back to Jerusalem, we must start to give up the vanity of this existence, little by little as the Lord draws us out. Egypt is in our mind brethren. We must leave Egypt, not as a religious work, but as Christ is built in us and we make this gradual transfer from the carnal mind into Christ, as God leads you, do not anyone listen to this tape and abandon your children, or abandon your husband and say, Sheila told me to do it. I did not tell you to do it, I said, Wait for the move of the Spirit, and obligations to relations and other people, that are godly obligations in this world system, should be a priority in your life, unless and until God moves supernaturally. I lost my daughter when she was 14, God moved supernaturally, under other circumstances I would have had her home for maybe another ten years. Does anyone not know what I am talking about?
Men you must support your wives and your children. I have heard of men leaving their wives and children and say God sent them to Africa. God did not tell you to abandon your wife and children, but if you put it before Him, He very well might make a way for you to work things out. Give it to God, you are not released from your obligations unless He releases you, but He requires you to say to Him, Lord I am willing to go if you will make an adjustment. He requires that prayer, that it should be a heart felt prayer. Give things to God.
Paul is saying, Therefore I testify in the Lord, I am telling you that this is the word of the Lord to you, that you should stop walking as the Gentiles, you should stop living out of your carnal mind. If you are to enter into the kingdom brethren, carnal thoughts with regard to spiritual matters are not acceptable to God. You may still have to engage in carnal conversation with other human beings that are in your life, with your family, with your employer, but we are talking about spiritual matters, carnality has become a sin in the church, whereas in times past, God was winking, now why would it be sin now? Because He has made available to you the power to break out of your carnal mind so that you may manifest Christ, and He is saying to you, Do it. If you do not know how to do it, tell me, and I will do it for you.
I want you to be willing to give up your carnal conversation, or your carnal lifestyle with regard to spiritual matters, you have got to be willing to give it up, and then it becomes His responsibility to show it to you and do it. He wants a willing heart, He wants you to be willing to say, Well Lord if it is true, so be it, let it die, let it die.
Verse 18. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. KJV
He is talking about the Gentiles brethren, who are living out of their carnal mind, and we find throughout the church world very well meaning Christians that are doing the best they can to live for God, walking as the Gentiles do, why? Because I guess they have not heard this message yet.
Look, some people, God makes them spiritual without them asking for it, and some people have to ask for it, and what group of people is not any better than the other group of people. I do not even know why it happens that way, and it is really not important, but if you are not the person who became spiritual with very little effort, if you are not in that category, then God is requiring you to pound on His door, and tell Him that you want it, that you want to be a part of this move of God that is going to be putting forth spiritual ministry, and if there is any shame or rejection or condemnation in your heart, it is your own carnal mind that is condemning you, because Christ does not condemn you for being carnal. I do not condemn you for being carnal.
Everything is just relative. Anyway, what do I mean by that? I had something on the board for you not too long ago, with regard to outer space, and we said that in the heavenlies the sun is shining, and the rays of the sun can only reach so far, and the place in the atmosphere, the place in the physical heavenlies that we can see, where the rays of the sun no longer reach, forms an arch in the heavenlies, and on this side of the arch is darkness, and on this side of the arch is light, and if you are in a jet plane, you can actually see this arch where the light ends, it is an arch in the sky, and everybody is in this condition, including me, now you may think I am spiritual but next to Jesus, I am not spiritual, everything is relative. What am I saying? If this is the Christ in me, if this diagram is the Christ in me, and the light of Christ extends this far in my mind, as soon as I am confronted with an issue that is out here, I am as carnal as the rest of you.
If I am confronted with an issue that has the light of Christ has shined on, I am spiritual, but in an area of spiritual things, that is beyond the scope of where Christ has penetrated my mind, I am as carnal as any other person, does anyone not know what I am talking about? It does not matter to Jesus whether the arch in your mind is over here, or the arch in your mind is over here, it does not make any difference, the only thing that matters is that all of do not have the spirit without measure.
Every single one of us, and I believe every single human being in the church today, has a limit on their spirituality, there is a cut off point beyond which we cannot see, and beyond which we cannot understand. It is just relative, everything is relative. If you would do it for a million dollars you have revealed in your heart that you are willing to do it if the price is right.
Brethren it does not matter how far out, the light of the Christ in me shines, there is an area of darkness because I am not in full stature, I am not in full stature. None of us is in full stature, everything is relative, and the answer to your carnality, is to start that Christ growing in you and that He should be increasing in you. To argue over who is more spiritual in our fallen condition, is a vain argument, because we are all down here in hell, it makes no difference.
To feel condemned because you are carnal, is a manifestation of your carnal mind that wants to keep you carnal. If you are hearing this message, God wants you to be spiritual, and if you are letting yourself be condemned, there is a good chance that it is a manifestation of your carnal mind that wants to block off your becoming spiritual, and saying, Oh well, God has not done it by now, God has not picked me by now, I could never catch up to Sheila, all of this is nonsense.
God wants you to do your part, and He will do the rest, and none of you, anyone within the sound of my voice, has the right to say to God, It is too late for me, or I will never catch up now, or there is something wrong with my mind, or whatever excuse you want to make, nobody has the right to say no to God. He is requiring every single one of you to say, Father, if it be your will, I am prepared to submit to whatever processing you have for me, to bring forth this light in my soul. Amen and amen. Do not look at what you look like now, I think we had it in the beginning of Ephesians 4, the Scripture that says we must grow up into Christ.
Brethren, the way that works is God looks at you and He has a plan for your life, and He prophesies over you, whatever your role is going to be, preacher, son, ministry and healing and deliverance, whatever it is going to be, and He pronounces it over you, and it does not matter what your life looks like now, you will grow up into what He has prophesied over you.
What your life looks like now is the life that has been ordained of your carnal mind, but He has prophesied a life over you in Christ, and when you transfer out of your carnal mind, into Christ, you will be everything that He has pronounced you to be. Do not look at yourself now, do not look at your circumstances and do not look at your background, just look up, look up, because we are about to get a new stone, with a new name in it, Behold I make everything new. Do not let your carnal mind bind you up, but release yourself to Christ to do anything He is willing to do in you, and He is willing to do great things in you.
If you are saying to yourself, Why has He waited all of these years? Well it was not the time. Do not make God's decisions for Him. Do not make His decisions for Him, amen. Glory to God. Having the understanding darkened. Brethren, if you are walking in the vanity of your carnal mind, your understanding is darkened. Paul is speaking about spiritual things, your understanding is darkened with regard to spiritual things. Brethren that carnal mind cannot understand spiritual things. If you are having trouble understanding spiritual things maybe it is because your understanding has been darkened and what is your understanding? Your understanding is in Christ. How would your understanding in Christ be darkened? Well there is an eyelid lying over your spiritual eye, and we have had this in other Scriptures. The eyelid that is lying over your spiritual eye is what, anybody remember? The carnal mind and it has to roll back like a scroll or like an eyelid rolling back.
Some people have a more defensed carnal mind than others, some people God has to send with a, what do you call that when they break up the cement on the street, they come in with those electric things and, hydraulic drill and they break up the cement on the sidewalk, and the men vibrate that are holding on to it. Some people have some carnal minds. The Lord is sending a spiritual hydraulic jack to break away the cement off of your mind, but He is full well able.
None of this means anything to Him, if it has not happened yet, it was not the time. Open yourself to God brethren. If you are walking in the vanity of your carnal mind, your understanding is darkened as to spiritual matters, you are alienated from the life of God, which is what, lying underneath your carnal mind, amen? The life of God is where? It is in Christ, Christ is lying under the carnal mind, which is over it like a veil, over Him like a veil. The people who are moving in some spiritual areas, Christ is manifesting, He is at war with their carnal mind, sometimes Christ is revealed, sometimes the carnal mind is revealed, but some people brethren have such a strong carnal mind that Christ is crushed underneath.
Remember He is coming up from seed, so when any Pharisees out there that are saying, now how could Christ be crushed underneath? Brethren, Jesus Christ is bringing forth offspring from seed, there is a young Christ growing up in you. He is not a full grown ram, He is a lamb, and He is a baby lamb, and He cannot break through the clods of earth that are lying on top of Him. So the Lord sends someone to hammer at your carnal mind, so Christ underneath you is pushing up, and He will send another son to smite your carnal mind and wound your carnal mind from the outside.
Your understanding which is in Christ is darkened by the carnal mind, you are alienated from the life of God which is Christ, that means your human spirit which is locked inside your carnal mind has not yet really started to live out of Christ, how do I know that? Because the Scripture says that you are alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them.
What is ignorance? It is a lack of spiritual understanding. Again, ignorance is darkness with regard to spiritual matters, it is a Scriptural word, to be ignorant of spiritual things. It would be as if you were born and raised in this room and you never went outside of this room, you would be ignorant as to the whole world outside. If you were never let out of this house, how would you know what the world was like outside. We have small children that only know their immediate neighborhood and then we have adults that never leave their town, we have adults that fly all over the world brethren, and they are ignorant to outer space, they have no knowledge of it.
We have some very educated people that are ignorant of the realm of the Spirit which exists as another dimension, beneath the carnal mind. Because of the blindness of their heart. If you are walking in your carnal mind, your understanding which is in Christ has been darkened, your alienated from the life of God, your human spirit cannot get into Christ, because of the ignorance or the darkness which is in their carnal mind, which is in them, and because the ignorance because of their union with their carnal mind, because of being joined to the carnal mind and because of the blindness of their heart, so the carnal mind is blind to spiritual things.
Christ which we see three stages here, the understanding which is in Christ is darkened, the human spirit is cut off from Christ, because she is joined to Satan and the carnal mind, the Scripture here says, through the ignorance that is in them, because the human spirit is filled with ignorance which is the carnal mind and Satan, she is cut off from the life of God, and because her heart is blind. That sounds pretty desperate to me. Verse 19, and that word blindness by the way let me tell you this, means heart, their heart is hard, and a hard heart is likened to a stony heart, again it is another witness that we are not talking about the heart of God, but the heart of the fallen man, which is the carnal mind.
Verse 19. Who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. KJV
This word, past feeling, means to have cast off all feeling, we see it happening in the world today, we saw it happening in Hitler's Germany, all conscience was removed, people became hard hearted. Do you know brethren, the fallen mind of man without Christ can adjust to anything. They survive, they adjust to anything. If you raise up children, that was happened in Hitler's Germany, they took the children, and they gave their own morality to them, and the children were hard and cold and they thought nothing of turning in their parents and murdering them. They turned young women into producers of children, that they just bore children for the third right. We are headed down the same road today, and that is what Paul is talking about here in verse 19. He says, those who are living out of their carnal mind, to a great degree have lost their ability to feel, to have mercy, to have compassion, for other people, because they have given themselves over to lasciviousness.
This word lasciviousness, it is Strong's #766 and it means unbridled lust. Brethren, lust is something that must be resisted, it must be bridled, it must be bridled because it will destroy you. We see people being destroyed all over this country. I briefly glanced through one of the talk shows the other night, and they were interviewing a man who claimed to be a compulsive gambler since he was eleven years old. We are raising children without self discipline brethren, we are not disciplining them and therefore they do not learn to discipline themselves. We are turning into a nation of drug addicts, alcoholics, compulsive gamblers. We have turned away from Christ and we are being destroyed. Man must be taught to discipline himself or he will be turned over to the tormentors.
Man is not inherently good, he is fallen, he is inherently evil, he must be taught to bridle that evil, and live out of the goodness of God that is made available to us. Man left to his own devices will sink to the depths of depravity, and we have a nation today that is saying, No, man is good, let him do his thing, take the bridles off, is there not a Psalm that says, Why do the heathen rage and they say, Let us break the bands that hold us? That is what is happening in this nation today. Man is not inherently good, man is inherently evil, if you let him go to his own devices, he will sink down to the depths of depravity, lower sometimes than the level of animals, animals do not torture one another, lower than the animals, and that is what we see happening, unless God has mercy on this nation, I am believing Him to have mercy.
Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to unbridled lust to work all uncleanness with greediness. Uncleanness means impurity, and greediness is a desire to have more and more, another word for it is covetousness. We see all of this happening in the nation today. When you live out of your carnal mind, your feelings, your compassion and mercy will grow cold, you will turn yourself over to unbridled lust and you will proceed to do all kinds of impure acts and your greedy desire will never be satisfied.
Hell hath enlarged herself brethren, it is impossible to satisfy lust. The lie that is circulating in this society today is that if you let everyone satisfy themselves and do whatever they want, they will be content but this is not true. Lust is never satisfied. You want more and more and more and more, and it takes more and more to give you your thrill, and more and more to satisfy you. Pornography was made legal in this, I think it was a federal law, it was made legal about 20 years ago, they refused to put the stops on it, and now we have kiddy porn, people selling their small children to make pornographic films and to have pornographic pictures taken of them, now they are working legislation against that.
Well why did you not stop it when it was with the adults brethren? It just goes down and down, it becomes more depraved, and more depraved and more depraved, until you bridle it. Lust must be bridled or it will destroy you, not only sexual lust, included in this is covetousness, envy, lust for what other people have, lust for your neighbor's husband, lust for your neighbor's wife, lust for money, lust for possession, lust, lust, lust, desiring, desiring, desiring, and never attaining or never attaining to the point of satisfaction, it will destroy you, be content with what you have brethren. If you have a need, petition the Lord, if He gives it to you fine, if He does not, be content with what you have.
Verse 20. But ye have not so learned Christ; KJV
Christ does not do these things, in Christ there is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Christ tells us seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything you need will be added unto you. What does the Scripture say? It is saying that you do not get your needs met, by going after what you think is going to satisfy you, you are not going to feel filled up and content by getting more sex, by getting more drugs, by getting more alcohol, by getting more material possessions, whatever it is that you think is going to fill up that hole in your soul, it is not going to do it. Lend yourself to prayer brethren. Seek God, and everything that you need to fill up that hole in your soul that is causing you such pain will come as God gives it to you, but hold on the horns of the altar, the Lord never promised to give it to you in a week.
He said, Do not be weary of well doing, for you shall surely reap what you have sown in due season, who knows the rest of the verse? If you do not faint. Labor for the kingdom of God. Labor the labor of God, the spiritual labor of God, study to show yourself approved, involve yourself in true religion which is mercy and ministry to the widow and the orphan, do the things of the kingdom brethren, God will meet your needs but not immediately, I will not lie to you, you will have a wilderness experience, hold on the horns of the altar, there is no way you will ever grab for it yourself and succeed especially if you are in Christ, no way. If you do that, you are opposing yourself, because your thinking is wrong. Submit yourself to God brethren.
Verse 21. If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus. KJV
So what are we talking about? Paul is talking about two minds, the carnal mind and Christ, and he said that if you have Christ you are not going to living like this, why? Because if you have Christ, if so be that ye have heard of him, if you have heard of Christ, and if you have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, you are not going to be doing these things. We see here two stages, first you hear about Christ, remember Job said, I have heard of the fame of Him, and now I see Him face to face. Large numbers of people in the church world have heard of Him, that is the beginning, some of them have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.
Now Paul is saying, If you are one of those, that you have heard of Him, and you have been taught of Him, in the same way that the truth was in Jesus, and what is the truth? It is Christ in you, if you have heard of Him, if you have been taught of Him, and if His truth is in you as it was in Jesus. Going on to the next verse 22;
Verse 22. Then you will put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, or the lust of deceit. KJV
This word deceit is Strong's #539, it means lusts which are excited by deceit. It is talking about seducing to sin, or dishonesty that comes forth from lust. Brethren, when you are yielding to lust, when a man is yielding to lust, he will frequently lie, cheat, do anything to get that lust satisfied. Men that are not living out of Christ, or that are not, at least controlled by a program of morality that was imparted to them as a child. I see it all over our country today, people will lie, they will do anything to get what they want. Brethren, it is all through our government. Do you want to know why this country is fallen? Because the people in Washington are not standing for righteousness, they are not doing what is good for the country, they are pandering to special interest groups that are giving them gifts and money, they are voting in legislation that will benefit special interest groups, not the country, and the people that are voting, they are not voting for the man that is going to benefit the country, they are voting because they are worried about their pocket book.
That is when destruction comes in brethren, we cannot be that selfish, we must vote for righteousness. I was listening to a debate, I do not really remember exactly where it was, but it came to me that these people were saying that they need all of these things, they need, they need, they need, what people need to live in, it is all true and they are hoping that Bill Clinton is the man to give it to them, and they are saying that George Bush is not doing anything to meet the needs of the people. I want to tell you that is a lie, because I believe that George Bush has a revelation that the only thing that is going to help this nation is to bring validity back to the family, to strengthen the family, the bring Christians values to the forefront of this nation, and to turn this nation away from the corruption and sin, that is afflicting us almost to the point of destruction. I want to tell you that if those, whoever is elected, if those things are not done, there is no man that is going to save this country, there is no man that is going to save your job, there is no man that is going to lower your taxes, there is not going to be anything that could be done for you if you elect a president that is going to oppose the law of God.
The man who said this, that George Bush is doing nothing to help this nation, is a man who is in ignorance of spiritual things. He does not know what he is talking about. When I look at this nation, all that I could see is millions and billions of children running around attacking the adults that are trying to save their life, total rebellion, they do not know what they are talking about. They are screaming for their chocolate bars, and they do not know that there is no way that you can grow up in a condition where your needs will be met while you are in this rebellion.
Praise God, let us hope the Lord will have mercy upon us, upon this whole nation. We are at verse 22. Paul is saying, if you have Christ, you should not be living out of your carnal mind, if you have heard of Him, and if you have been taught by Him, and if His Christ is in you. Brethren, how does this work, first you hear about Him when you come into the church, you can be taught of Him and not have Christ, I am teaching out of Christ in me, you may have Christ in you, you may not. If you do not have Christ or if you do have Christ, you are being taught of Him. If you are listening to a teacher, who is teaching out of Christ.
Then the third stage is, as the truth is in Jesus, the third stage is that Christ is formed in you, you hear of Him, you are taught of Him, and then He is formed in you. If this has happened to you, now not if you have just heard of Him, not even if you are just taught of Him, He has to have begun to be formed in you, verse 22, Then you will put off concerning the former conversation or lifestyle of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitfulness of lust, or according to the lust of deceit, the lust which brings deceit in to your life. Your carnal mind is corrupt, but the only help for you if Christ is not being formed in you, is to bridle him and force yourself, and force him to live a moral life, if you have been blessed enough to be trained to discipline yourself and not let him bridle you.
But if you have Christ formed in you, if you have heard of Him, and you have been taught of Him, and notice the sequence, He is not likely to be formed in you if you have not been taught of Him. You might of heard of Him, He is not likely to be being formed in you if you have not been taught of Him. Everything decently and in order brethren. If Christ is being formed in you, the Lord is requiring you to put off your carnal mind, who is corrupt and filled with lust that leads to deceit, not only deceit of other people, but deceit of your own mind that will keep you separated from Christ.
Brethren, let us be spiritual, be spiritual with me brethren, you can be thinking with Christ in certain areas and you can be blocked off in Christ in other areas. You can be seeing clearly in some areas out of Christ, and other areas you could be, it could be full darkness. We are not a hundred percent in either camp right now. It would be a great error to say, Well I am spiritual in this area therefore I must be spiritual, and there is nothing for me to be concerned about or pray about, that is spiritual ignorance brethren. Until, including myself, until we stand up in full stature, know that there are areas of darkness in your life, ask God to shine the light of Christ on them, ask Him for His program in your life to make you spiritual to go forward at the most rapid pace that you could go without it killing you. Ask Him, ask Him, ask Him. There has to be darkness in your mind, in some place if you are not in full stature. Verse 22; Paul is talking about putting off the carnal mind, and putting on Christ and now he tells us in verse 23;
Verse 23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. KJV
We should be made new in the spirit of our mind. There is a big misunderstanding in the church today about being renewed in the spirit of our mind, some people teach that your soul, your fallen soul, I know I was taught this in deliverance, that your fallen Adamic soul needs to be renewed and you have to go out and gather it back from all of the places that it has been scattered, but brethren, I want to declare to you tonight, that this is a misunderstanding, the people that taught it did the best they could and when you prayed it God honored it, but we are in a higher grade now, and I want to suggest to you that there is no such thing as renewing your fallen Adamic soul in so far as rebuilding it, the renewal of your mind is in Christ. The renewal of your mind is in Christ, when Christ weaves Himself together with your carnal mind, your mind will be renewed.
I call to your attention that in verse 23, it says be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, who is the spirit of the mind of Christ, the spirit of the mind of Christ, it is the Spirit of Christ, the spirit that is in the carnal mind is who? Satan. The spirit of the carnal mind is Satan, Satan unconscious mind, carnal mind, conscious mind. The spirit that is in Christ, is the Father, the manifestation of the Father called the Spirit of Christ unconscious mind, Spirit of Christ, conscious mind, Christ. Paul is saying, Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and what he is saying is that the renewing starts in the human spirit.
The renewing of your mind, let me try and put this on the board for you. I do not think it is clear, everybody starts out with just a carnal mind brethren, they have a human spirit, that is joined to Satan, and has produced the carnal mind. When it becomes your time to have your mind renewed or to get a new mind, the procedure starts with the Holy Spirit, who is in somebody else, penetrating your mind, goes right to the human spirit, and joins with it. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. When the Holy Spirit does this, the human spirit who has a female offspring called the carnal mind produces a second offspring, she is a harlot, she has two children from two different men, she has produced the carnal mind from her union with Satan, and she has produced Christ from her union with the Holy Spirit.
Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, let your mind, let your human spirit join with the Holy Spirit, and let Christ be formed. The renewal of your soul is not in sending the angels out to gather up all of the pieces of your soul from all of the soul ties that you have and bring it back. The renewal of your mind is in the spirit through the formation of Christ in the spirit of your mind. Does anyone not understand that?
Now remember, if we come up against people that are still in old order deliverance that believe this and are teaching this, we are not to strive with anybody, if that is what they believe that is what they believe, if God has you drop it, the truth to them, then drop it, but that is what they believe, praise God. Is this clear to everybody how your mind is renewed? Your mind is your heart, that is how you are getting a new heart. When God says He is giving you a new heart, He is literally forming a new heart right in the midst of the old one, and eventually your new heart is going to increase to such a degree it is going to swallow up your old one, it is going to swallow you up. Hallelujah.
Verse 24. And that ye put on the new man...KJV
First you are going to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, first Christ is going to be formed, and then in verse 24, he says, and then put on the new man. Well what is the new man, He is Christ that was just formed as a result of the Holy Spirit joined with the human spirit. Do you see the sequence here, it is a step at a time.
Verse 24. And that ye put on the new man, Christ, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. KJV
Why? Because His Father is God, the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit of the Father, therefore the offspring, Christ is created in righteousness, but the carnal mind whose father is Satan is created in perversity and corruption. Put on the new man, what does that mean, put on the new man? It means after Christ begins to be formed in you, start to live out of Him. Let Christ be your cover, stop receiving the carnal mind as your cover, why? Because whoever your cover is, that is the one that you serve. Your cover is your husband. In the Hebrew language, well even in the English language, do you not hear it said in the church? Your husband is your cover? If you are a woman, your husband is your cover.
Whoever your cover is, you tend to think like he does, and do like he does, well reject the carnal mind as your cover, put on the new man, take Christ as your cover, take his mind to be your mind. It is not enough, he is not enough, to hear of Him, to be taught of Him, and to have Him formed in you, even that is not enough brethren, you have got to put Him on.
You have got to reject your old man and make Christ your mind, you have got to live out of Him. You have got to say, Lord what do you think in this circumstance? Do not yield to your carnal, to your reflex reaction of your carnal mind. Know that the first thought in your mind is probably going to be carnal, saying Lord, what do you think? What is your thoughts, what is your mind, what is your emotion, ask Him, pray for it, pray Him down on you, with an act of your will, it is called laboring in Christ, it is not salvation by works, you did not receive Christ by works, but once you get Him, you can pray to live out of Him.
Once He is formed in you, you can labor to live out of Him, it is a godly labor. That you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, and it says in my King James Bible in the margin, that, that phrase true holiness really means the holiness of truth, the holiness of truth. Brethren, there is holiness in truth, there is holiness in truth, Jesus is truth. Christ in you is truth, and when you take His mind as your cover, you will be in righteousness.
When you think His thoughts, you will be thinking righteous thoughts. Sometimes your carnal mind can give you a true answer to a problem, but if you think out of Christ, you cannot ever be any failure. We must take on His mind, putting on the new man, we must take on his mind. There is no failure, there is no sin, there is death in thinking the thoughts of Christ. I would like to comment on the word create, and that you put on the new man, which is created in the image of God which is created in righteousness. That word create, it is Strong's #2936, and it can be translated to found a city, it also means to completely change, to transform, but it can mean to found a city which I found very interesting. Take on the new mind of Christ which after God is created or founded in righteousness, and we have found that in Scriptures, that indicate that when Jesus gives you His mind, when His mind starts to be formed in you, it is a foundation.
Does not the Scripture say that? Build on that foundation, do not build with hay, wood, and stubble, but build with precious things, you have the foundation of Christ, and then the apostles and the prophets, that foundation is being built in you when Christ begins to be formed in you.
Your life, your existence in this world system has been given a new foundation so that you can transfer out of your existing foundation without dying, you are going to transfer to a new foundation. A couple of years ago we were preaching this out of the book of Revelation, we were saying it is a new power base, a new source that by which, a new power source by which you can exist in this world system. The only way you are going to get from the carnal mind to Christ or from this age of death into the age of life is to transfer over to the power base that is waiting to sustain your life. Eve, your human spirit cannot exist without a foundation, that is formed through her union with a husband and an offspring.
If you escape from your union with Satan and the carnal mind and there is not another foundation for you to enter into, you will perish. It is a gradual escape from Satan and the carnal mind, of your human spirit, and your human spirit which is typified by gas or water in your soul man, will flow or begin to flow into Christ. Let me just put this briefly on the board for you, I have shown it to you before, this is what you look like, if you are in Christ.
I am starting you out with two circles here, and your human spirit is in the center, this is Satan up here, and this is your carnal mind, Eve, has had a union with Satan and produced the carnal mind, and this is the foundation of your existence in this world system, how do I know? Every relative that you had before you has died, and you are aging every day that goes by, and some day unless Jesus intervenes you too will die. That is how I know. But there is a new life inside of you, there is a new man whose created in the image of God, and He is the holiness which comes from truth. His Father is God, and His name is Christ, and His mother is Eve. She has two children, and this is a new foundation, she has two foundations in her. She is in two places at one time.
She is stretching, she is flowing like water flows, and as she increases in Christ, less and less of her is here in the carnal mind and one day she is going to penetrate Christ completely, and there is going to be nothing left of her and the carnal mind, and then the fire which is in Christ, is going to completely burn up this carnal mind, and that is called the lake of fire, it is the judgment, it is the false prophet and the beast being cast into the lake of fire. That is what is happening to you, it is a process, it is little by little brethren, or you would lose your life.
Paul is exhorting the church at Ephesus, to start to living out of the mind of Christ, which is created in the holiness or which is founded in the holiness of the truth, which is Christ.
Verse 25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. KJV
I am sorry I did not point out to you that this phrase, the holiness of truth, is referring to spirit and soul, holiness of the spirit and truth is having Christ for your soul. This word lying, means falseness. Wherefore putting away the falseness, the spiritual lie brethren. We should not be lying to one another, but this Scripture is talking about the spiritual lie which is what? The carnal mind is the lie. Jesus is the truth, the carnal mind is the lie or the false one, put him away, put the false one away and speak every man truth, speak out of Christ, with your neighbor brethren. There is no such thing as harmless conversation out of your carnal mind. This is with regard to spiritual things. I do not really know that you could, well I guess you could reach a point where you could minister Christ to your neighbors, I really do not know, if you are talking to someone that is not saved, but Paul is talking about spiritual things, especially in the church, do not speak carnally to your neighbor, speak Christ, speak Christ, pray in your heart, Lord, what would you have me say to this person. Speak out of Christ, exercise using His mind.
You have to exercise it. For we are members one of another. What does that mean? Brethren, if we are members one of another, and somebody speaks out of their carnal mind, it is a corruption, it is a contamination that is being injected into your brother's soul. Brethren we are becoming one. I have been telling you about this with me for years, and it touched Xxxx last night, someone had problem, and I was deeply wounded because of it, and God even showed me a vision, as to the nature of the problem, and to be honest with you I did not really get it, until today, until I found out what was happening. That Scripture that says, we are going to bear each other's burdens, it is a reality, we are going to feel their feelings in our soul. If you are yielding to unbridled lust, you can hurt your neighbor who you have this intense soul tie with. If you are completely given over to sexual lust, it can contaminate your neighbor, they can have a problem with lust. You are no longer just responsible for yourself, and I have told you this before, when I went into the hospital for three months and I did not understand what was happening, I thought God had turned me over, how ridiculous now, but I thought He had, I could not understand it. I was praying every night, Lord, just let me die in my sleep, if you have turned me over, what are you dragging this out for? And someone that I was very close to tried to kill themselves, someone that was weak in their spirit.
Brethren, we are not just responsible for ourselves, this reality in Christ is real, we are becoming spiritual, we are being fused together, remember all things are going to be reconciled into one? It is happening, what you think is contaminating everybody that you have been joined to with Christ, you are no longer an island only responsible for yourself. Every sin you yield to is hurting other people.
I want to tell you every time a suicidal thought even flickers through my mind, I am all over it, I will never get over that, they did not succeed, but they tried to kill themself, I do not know that I will ever forget that. You have responsibility in Christ and it is much greater than I believe any of you realize.
Verse 25. Be ye angry and sin not, let not he sun go down upon your wrath. KJV
This word anger, it is talking about, this is the Greek word for righteous anger, so it says be angry and sin not. A lot of carnal Christians preach this to married couples and they say that it means, well not so much this one, but let the sun go down on your wrath, well be angry and then get over it, or be angry and make up before the sun goes down. Brethren that is not what this means. Be angry and sin not, what it means is righteous anger in Christ is okay. Any anger of the carnal mind is not okay, the only anger without sin is the righteous anger of Christ. There is a righteous anger that comes out of Christ, we saw it in Jesus when He overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. It was an act of violence, He turned over their tables, He damaged their goods, He did damage to the way that these people earned their living, and a carnal mind of man would say, How terrible!
Brethren, be very careful, I exhort you with all that I have within me to exhort you, to be very careful when you judge anger unrighteous, I exhort you to bear this word in your heart, there is a righteous anger. Before you judge somebody to have been unrighteous because of anger, I exhort you to carefully pray about it, because if you have judged someone to be unrighteous in your heart, you may never say a word, you may deny it in your own mind, but if in your heart, you have judged them unrighteous, and they were manifesting the righteousness of Christ, you have condemned innocent blood brethren. I exhort you with everything, with all of the strength in me, be very slow, especially if it is a person that has an office in Christ.
Pray very carefully before you make a judgment, there is a righteous anger in Christ which to the carnal mind appears to be wicked. We are in verse 26;
Verse 26. Be ye angry and sin not...KJV
Manifest the righteous anger of Christ which is what? Anger against what? What does anger against sin, amen.
Verse 26. ...let not the sun go down upon your wrath. KJV
And what that means is and again, I remind you that a lot of Christian counselors will say, Well make up before you go to sleep. No, do not let the sun of your Christ go down because the anger of the carnal mind has risen, do not let the sun of your Christ go down, because the anger that comes out of your carnal mind is risen. Brethren, when the anger that comes out of your carnal mind has risen, it is going to tread your Christ underfoot. Do not let the sun of your Christ go down because you have permitted the wrath that comes from the carnal mind to be prominent in your mind and in your mouth. Be ye angry and sin not, it is okay to judge righteous judgment and to be angry in Christ, righteous anger is okay, but do not let the Christ in you be tread under the foot of the wrath that is manifest in the carnal mind.
This whole, these whole verses that we are talking about, is Armageddon, it is the battle between Christ and your carnal mind, it is the judgment of your Adamic soul that you cannot enter into until Christ begins to be formed in you, it is what the church is entering into today, those few of us that have begun to enter into it, eventually it will be the whole church.
Verse 27. Neither give place to the devil. KJV
Do not let, and what is the devil? He is your consciousness in the carnal mind, do not exalt him, do not defer to him, do not submit to him, fight him, fight him at every turn.
Verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. KJV
Well this I could really see much of a spiritual application to this except that, the devil is the thief. Let him that stole steal no more, but this seems pretty carnal to me, but rather let him labor, do not be a thief anymore in the natural, but go get a job, work with your hands that which is good, that you may have to give to the one who needs. That is a carnal commandment right in the midst of all of this spiritual talk.
Verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers. KJV
Let no corrupt communication, well we found in a verse up above, that Paul said the carnal mind is corrupt, so corrupt communication would be a communication that comes out of your carnal mind, do not let carnal thoughts proceed out of your mouth, stop them when they are in your mind, stop them when they are in your mind. Recognize them and cast them down. That which is good to the use of edifying, but speak out of your Christ mind, that which will build up, meet everybody at their point of need brethren, meet them where they are, strengthen the weak, encourage, build up, do not let your carnal mind condemn someone in need, we were talking about that earlier.
Your carnal mind will condemn the heartbroken, that is what it does whether you are aware of it or not, do not let it happen, but speak out of Christ, to edify the broken heart, and strengthen them, build them up in Christ, say words that will cause Christ to be formed in them.
If Christ is being formed in them, say words that will bring that Christ up to the surface, or direct them as to how to live out of that Christ, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, minister grace, say words that are going to minister grace to the hearers. We talked about this in the last message, what is grace? Does anybody remember? What is grace anybody? No, that is what they teach, but we found, anyone? We found out in the last message that grace is Christ. The unmerited favor that you get is that Christ has been imparted to you and is being formed in you and in Him if you put on His mind, in Him is the ability to impart life to people.
What is this saying? Brethren, do not let corrupt communication out of your mouth, do not let that condemnation, do not let that carnal work that is going to cast them down out of your mouth, but give them the word of life that is going to cause Christ to be formed in them. Let that seed enter into their heart. Hallelujah.
Verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. KJV
Grieve not the Holy Spirit which comes from God, God the Father. We have a witness here that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Father, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. We are not redeemed when we get the Holy Spirit, we are sealed, we are marked, we have His mark on us, but when is the day of redemption, does anybody know? The Holy Spirit is in you, until Christ begins to be formed in you, the day of redemption is Christ in you and as Christ increases in you, the Holy Spirit withdraws from you. That is why many of us start speaking less and less in tongues and manifest less and less of the gifts as the reality arises in your heart, the gifts of the spirit withdraw.
In Christ, there is a different measure of ministry, and frequently you will speak less in tongues, and you will prophesy less, that is a very common sign that this is what is happening to you. The Holy Spirit seals you until Christ comes forth, and when Christ comes forth, the Holy Spirit decreases, because Christ is the new age, and John the Baptist said, I must decrease that He should increase.
John the Baptist typified the man that had the Holy Spirit, and I know it is not taught that way in the church. It is taught in the church that John the Baptist had a lesser anointing then in the church today, talking about the Holy Spirit in the church today, but it is not true, John the Baptist had a greater anointing than is in the church today. But both the anointing typified by John the Baptist which was upon natural Israel, and the anointing that is upon the church today which is the Holy Spirit, both of those anointings, both of those covenants must decrease when Christ arises.
If you have the covenant that is ministered by the Holy Spirit, He must decrease when Christ arises, and those natural Jews that have a covenant with the Father, I do not know that we see that kind of an anointing anymore today, I really do not know, but that covenant that was with Israel, that must decrease when Christ arises.
The anointing that was on John the Baptist typified God's covenant with the Jew, that justified him, and purified him to a position where he was eligible to receive the purifying forces that would permit Christ to be formed in him, and God's covenant with the Gentile is the Holy Spirit, which is the firstfruits of Christ, which justifies him before God and purifies him to the point that he is eligible to receive the seed of Christ. One covenant, two different administrations thereof, one, the law of Moses to the natural Jew, and two, the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, both of which administrations purified and justified the people, so that the seed of Christ can be imparted to them, and then the seed of Christ when it grows up into full stature is the new covenant.
Brethren, Christ is the new covenant, if you do not have Christ, you do not have the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is not the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is God's covenant of justification to the Gentile. The covenant mediated by Moses is God's covenant which provides justification to the Jew, both groups of people must receive the seed of Christ, the new covenant is in Christ. Jesus help us.
Verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice.
Bitterness, extreme wickedness and bitter hatred, wrath, temper, impulse, violent emotion, anger, passion, angry heat, indignation which is rooted in pride, clamor, a wailing of those in distress or a noisy outcry. Evil speaking, railing, reviling, injurious speech, hurtful speech brethren. Malice, desire to injure, depravity, wickedness, that is not ashamed to break the law, we are speaking about lawlessness here. So that all extreme bitter hatred and violent emotion, and angry indignation rooted in pride and wailing of distress, and speech that hurts people, be put away from you.
All of this is the activity of the carnal mind brethren, and the Lord is saying that the carnal mind will be broken down a characteristic at a time. If you have these qualities, you may need deliverance, they may have to be cast out of you. With all malice, with all wickedness that is without confession of sin. Brethren, would it shock you for me to tell you that there are people in the church today that cannot confess their sins.
When God first showed this to me, I was amazed, I was naive, I was ignorant in that area, there are people that have been in Christ for years, they cannot confess their sins, there is no repentance without confession. The Scripture calls this malice. They break the spiritual law of God without shame. It is not under the blood, brethren if you commit sin, and you are not repentant in your heart, your sin is not under the blood, if you believe it is you have been lied to.
Paul is speaking here about the carnal qualities in the church today. I see this all over the church, bitter hatred, violent emotion, indignation that is really pride, this wailing of those in distress, apparently it is an ungodly wailing. Brethren have you ever seen wailing and apparent signs of distress which are used to divert deliverance workers away from the ministry God has given them? Brethren, there are some people who wail and moan and groan and to the untrained spirit, it appears like repentance but it is not, it is manipulation, and it is seduction that will put off and hinder and block a true repentance and a true deliverance from coming forth.
Let me put it to you another way, if the Holy Spirit or Christ exposes a sin in your heart, in the midst of a group of believers, and that spirit of, it is rooted in pride, that is what it is, this wailing and moaning is rooted in pride, it can arise and it can hinder the true confession of sin and repentance from coming forth by saying for example, Oh, woe is me, I will never make it, I am not good enough, I am vile, and if it can do it, it will turn the deliverance workers away from the direction of God, to say to this person, Oh, you poor thing, now do not be so hard on yourself, and if it can succeed in doing that, it has broken down and averted the deliverance that God has ordained for that person that evening, and everybody goes home and the person still has their sin, and the carnal mind has been exalted and Christ has been tread underfoot.
Speech that hurts is all over the church, and lack of confession of sin. Put all of that away and instead of doing that,
Verse 32. And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. KJV
Be kind to one another brethren, be tender hearted, and that word is Strong's #5483, tender hearted, it means to grant forgiveness or pardon, forgive and pardon those that damage you brethren, because they do not know what they are doing, or because they cannot help themselves, because they are overcome of the enemy, forgive them. Brethren, if they know what they are doing, and they are doing it because they have yielded to unbridled lust and passions and covetousness, it may be time for a rebuke. You still forgive them, but please keep in mind, God deals differently with people in different attitudes of mind, people that are overcome that are ignorant, that do not know what they are doing, you have great mercy on them, but people that know what they are doing, you do not hold a grudge, you forgive them to that degree, but God is going to raise up someone to smite them.
If you are mature in Christ it might be you, if you are not mature in Christ, He could send somebody else, but be careful brethren, that Satan does not use you to interfere with the son who is executing the wound. Because your carnal mind thinks they are being unfair. Be careful what you think, be careful.
Be ye kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. What does that mean? Well brethren, His son is growing in you, this is a hard word, you want to know something, the only reason God has forgiven you, is that you are carrying his son. There is another Scripture that says, He said to them, Be gone from me I never knew you, what does that mean? These people that He is saying this to, are not bearing His son. Brethren, this is a hard word, that Pharisees might want to lynch me for, but I tell you the truth, your only value is that you are bearing his son, otherwise you are a menstrual rag, you are vile, you are fallen, you are contaminated, you are absolutely worthless.
But because you are bearing His son, He is having mercy on you and He is going to permit you to live, because when that son is born, you will be joined to Him. That is a hard word. Yes God loves everybody, He loves the whole world, and you will live out your life and pass on, if you are not bearing His son. He is not going to torture you in hell forever, no He does not hate you, He raised up this creation with one specific purpose to bring forth Christ, and if you are a barren woman, He does not hate you, and you probably serve some purpose in this world, but you are going to pass on and that is it.
You better get pregnant brethren, because if you do not bear His son, you are not going to be saved. Salvation is in the birthing of the child, it is not in receiving Christ, the end of your faith is the salvation of your soul, what is the end of your faith, somebody? It is Christ, Christ Jesus in you, the hope of glory. What does that mean? Glory brethren in the Spirit of God as it appears in the realm of the soul. Christ Jesus the hope that the glory of God will appear in the realm of the soul. The hope of the soul realm, Christ, the Spirit of God appearing in you, He is not appearing in the animals, He is not appearing in the pigs brethren, but the hope of this world system is that Christ will appear in men.
If you are not one of those men that He is appearing in, you are going to pass out in the draft. Praise God. Hallelujah. Any questions tonight? Glory to God. Salvation is in the birthing of manchild of Revelation 12, it is not in the rapture! Getting raptured is not going to do you any good, you got to have the baby. To have the baby, you have to have a relationship with the Lord, of a marital magnitude, He must penetrate you, it is not enough to know Him, and it is not enough to be taught of Him, you must be penetrated and when you are penetrated, your sin is exposed. God help us.
There will surely be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Yes you have a question?
COMMENT: In verse 27, it uses the word devil, is there any reason why devil would be used rather than Satan?
PASTOR VITALE: The difference between the devil and Satan is that Satan is our unconscious mind and the devil is the carnal mind, the conscious mind of fallen man. Just a subtle difference, most people think they are the same, I tell you every time you see a subtle difference like that, pray about it, because God is not frivolous, He did not say Satan one time and the devil another time for no reason.
I listened to preachers sometimes and they just go back and forth between Jesus and Christ and Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus, and they seem to be totally unaware that there is any difference in this variation of terms, God is not frivolous brethren, every variation of a term has a meaning, ask Him and He will tell you, either He will tell you directly, or He will tell you through me. God is not frivolous. Jesus.
COMMENT: I was just thinking that after the baptism was the first time they said Jesus the Christ.
PASTOR VITALE: Amen.
12/07/08rr
