Podcasts about word jesus christ

Salvation of the Chosen (audio) David Eells, 2/16/25 I have declared the former things from old; yea, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass (Isa.48:3). Predict means to tell the future in advance. What the world calls predictions rarely come to pass. It seems they have a warped idea of what a prediction is. When God predicts the future, He declares it and then does it. Not only does God's Word show the future but also it brings it to pass. The worlds (Greek: “ages”) have been framed by the word of God (Heb.11:3). The word “framed” in this verse means “to make complete.” The history (or His-story) of all ages was completed before the beginning. (Isa.48:4) Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; (5) therefore I have declared it to thee from of old; before it came to pass I showed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. He is a jealous God (Exo.20:5). He will not share His glory with the idol of self or an idol of man's creation (Isa.42:8). God receives glory from telling of His works hundreds or thousands of years beforehand. His works were finished from the foundation of the world (Heb.4:3). Because His works were finished from the foundation of the world, no one can say, “My might, my power, my god has done this.” It is important to God that we know He is sovereign. Our God has done something that no other “god” has done; He accurately tells the future long before it comes to pass. It is hard to live the Christian life without knowing that God is sovereign. Without this knowledge, we will not have the peace, rest, and the fear of God that we need in the midst of trials. We will always be wrestling with people and circumstances and trusting in our own strength, instead of seeing God's hand and trusting in His strength. (Hos.4:6) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… (Isa.46:8) Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. (9) Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I [am] God, and there is none like me; (10) declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God does all of His pleasure so that only His counsel comes to pass. The proof, that God is the only God, is that He declares the end from the beginning. All the prognosticators, psychics, seers, and stargazers of the devil have only come up with slightly better than random accuracy on the future because their lord is not sovereign. The devil does have an edge. He knows the prophetic Word better than we do, and he predicts what he plans to do, but God is sovereign and often overrules him. (Isa.46:11)… I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it. God is very self-willed. He has a right to be. His self is not corrupt, but ours is. He brings to pass what He desires because it is right. In the text, God is speaking of Cyrus, the pagan king of the Media-Persian Empire. God raised up Cyrus to destroy Babylon in order to set His people free from bondage. At that time, Cyrus had no idea that the Lord had put the desire in him to do exactly what He wanted. (Isa.44:28) That saith of Cyrus, [He is] my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. How can God be so sure that a man who has been a pagan all his life will do everything that will please Him? We see here that nothing or no one can resist God's good purpose for His people. God is sovereign over the future of the great empires of the world in order to deliver and prepare His people. (Isa.45:1) Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut: (2) I will go before thee, and make the rough places smooth; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; (3) and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that it is I, the Lord, who call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. (4) For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. The Euphrates River passed through the city of Babylon. One of the gates spoken of here crossed in the Euphrates River to keep the enemy out. Cyrus by the help of God performed a monumental feat in diverting the Euphrates so that his army could enter the city beneath this gate. After they had entered the city, they discovered that the gates on either bank leading into the city had been left unlocked (by God, verses 1 and 2), which was strange, considering that the Babylonians were at war. After Cyrus conquered Babylon, the high priest showed him these prophecies and more that were written about him hundreds of years before he was born. The Jews say Cyrus was very impressed to see his name and works written in prophecy before the fact and became a believer in the God of Israel. God stated clearly that He was going to open those gates for Cyrus to do His Will. After hearing these revelations, Cyrus knew that God had empowered, planned, and made his way. Christian leaders have turned God into a mere prophet, claiming God sees into the future and then reveals it. Every type and shadow in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament to prove that God sits on the throne and One Mind rules over time and the future. One loose canon, would change everything. According to the law of geometric progression, one change at the beginning makes an immense change at the end. Chance or more than one in control could not possibly bring to pass what we see. The Armenian thinkers teach that God predestines and predicts by seeing into the future then tells us how the dice rolled. “Predestine” means “to determine destiny before it happens.” “Foreordain,” which is the same Greek word, means “to ordain an event before it takes place.” (Eph.1:4) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: (5) having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. You who are manifesting sonship by bearing fruit have been chosen and are being drawn by God. (Rom.8:29) For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained (predestined) [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. God foreknew and decreed all who come to the likeness of Jesus, but not the apostate. “Foreknew” here does not mean He looked into the future and saw what would be. “Foreknew” here means, “to know before” and is not connected with actions or events, but persons. God knew these people before the foundation of the world because He does not dwell in time. God knows what He creates before He speaks it into existence just as we conceive and design something first in our mind before we make it. “Knew” speaks of intimate knowledge, for instance, Adam knew Eve. Jesus will say to those who called Him Lord but do not do the Will of the Father, (Mat.7:23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you (meaning, from the foundation of the world): depart from me, ye that work iniquity. To the foolish virgins without the oil of the Spirit, Jesus said, “I know you not.” The ones that God intimately knew He “foreordained” before the creation to be conformed to the image of Jesus. God creates us through His gift of faith and the Word in us; His people who are on the narrow road. This is grace. (Rom.8:30) And whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. This says all who are foreordained will be called, justified, and glorified. They will not fall away but will bear the fruit of Christ. Are there others who are called but not foreordained? (2Ti.1:9) Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling… Notice that only the saved are called. Called is from the Greek word kaleo, which means, “to invite.” Called is an invitation given only to God's people (more proof: Heb.3:1; Hos.11:1; 1Ti.6:11-12; Mat.25:14; Rom.1:6-7) to partake of his heavenly benefits in Christ in order to bear fruit. Those who bear fruit 30, 60, or 100-fold will be proven to be the chosen or picked. If at harvest time you have no fruit, rotten fruit, or unripe fruit, you will not be picked. The called are the vineyard of God (Isa.5:7). The chosen are the smaller percentage who bear fruit (Isa.5:10). (Mat.22:14) For many are called, but few chosen (Greek: eklektos, “elect”). The called can fall, but the elect or chosen will not. (Hos.11:1) When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (2) The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them…The Lord saved those that ate the lamb and were baptized in the Red Sea. He then tried them in the wilderness to see who would be a believer in the midst of trials, and only those entered the Promised Land. Jude warned the called of this very thing. (Jud.1:1) Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called… (5) Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Notice that the called were saved, but some did not continue in faith and were destroyed. Friends, God is not looking for what we loosely call “Christians,” but believers or disciples, as they were called. Jesus gave us very clear examples of His servants who are called but do not come and partake in order to bear fruit. Jesus shared a parable in which a king made a marriage feast for His son. (Mat.22:3) And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden (Greek: “called”) to the marriage feast: and they would not come. They were full of excuses (a farm, merchandise, etc.). (Mat.22:8) Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Even one who appeared to come did not have on a wedding garment which implies putting on Christ (Rom.13:14) or putting on righteousness (Rev.19:8). (Mat.22:13) Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. (14) For many are called, but few chosen. A few of the called are chosen or elect because they bear fruit. (Mat.25:14) For [it is] as [when] a man, going into another country, called his own servants (Greek: “bondservants”), and delivered unto them his goods. (15) And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability; and he went on his journey. Obviously, the man who went away was the Lord, and His bondservants are His people. Two of these example servants brought forth fruit of the talent given them (Mat.25:20-22), but one buried his in the earth (used his talent for the earthly, Mat.25:24-25). When our Lord returns, He will say, And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth (Mat.25:30). The apostle Paul, who said of himself that he was called in Galatians 1:15, also said, But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected (Greek: “reprobated”) (1Co.9:27). There is much more proof that the saved and the called can fall (2Pe.1:9-11; 1Ti.6:11-12; Heb.3:1,6,12,14; Rom.11:1-7,19-23). Friend, you probably know if you are called, but are you chosen? You must be diligent in your walk of faith to prove this. (2Pe.1:10) Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election (choosing) sure: for if ye do these things (the attributes of Christ, verses 5-7), ye shall never stumble: (11) for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God at the cross has already given us everything that we need to bear fruit through faith. (2Pe.1:3) seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue. Faith in the promises in the midst of trials will give us the fruit. (2Pe.1:4) Whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. The called have the power and the opportunity. The called and the chosen, or foreordained, use the power by faith and take the opportunity. The only ones who will ultimately be with the Lord are identified in this verse. (Rev.17:14) These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they [also shall overcome] that arewith him, called and chosen and faithful. Notice that the called that are chosen will be faithful. I did not make these verses up; they are the Word of God. Those who have eyes and ears will see and understand, but the rest will justify their religion and ignore the Scriptures. Before time and the future, God sovereignly spoke the end from the beginning, bringing these things into existence in time. Some would argue, “How could God make a promise to all of His called and then not keep it for those who do not bear fruit?” Every promise in the Bible is useless until someone walks by faith in it. Our part of the covenant is faith; God's part is power and salvation. We can break the covenant through unbelief. (Num.14:11) And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? (12) I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. Notice that God is saying to His own people who did not believe that He would disinherit them. Lest any believe that God cannot make a promise and then take it back when they do not walk in faith, pay attention to this: (Num.14:23) Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it. (30) surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. (34)… and ye shall know my alienation (Hebrew: “revoking of my promise”). Unless we mix faith with God's promises, they are void. (Heb.4:2) For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they (God's people): but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. The Israelites who walked in sin were disinherited and blotted out of God's book. (Exo.32:33) And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. The same is true of the Christians who do not overcome sin. Notice what the Lord said to the Church. (Rev.3:5) He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life…Those who do not overcome will be rejected from the body of Christ. (Rev.3:16) So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. God's people Israel were broken off because of unbelief, and Christians who were grafted in but do not walk by faith will be, too. (Rom.11:20) Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, but fear: (21) for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. (22) Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Those who are still grafted in at the end are called “all Israel.” (Rom.11:26) and so all Israel shall be saved… Those who are still in the book of life, still grafted in, are the elect (Greek: “chosen”). (Rom.11:2) God did not cast off his people which he foreknew… (5) Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election (chosen) of grace. A remnant is those who are left. Notice they are foreknown and chosen. Sovereign God will have those who are truly His. Abiding in Christ is where salvation is. Some say God gave us the gift of eternal life so He cannot take it back. In Galatians 3:16, we are told, To Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. So the promises were given to Christ, not to us individually. The only way the promises are ours is if we abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is bearing fruit (Joh.15:1-6), walking as He walked (1Jn.2:3-6), believing the same teachings given by Jesus and the apostles (1Jn.2:24; Jud.1:3; Mat.28:20), not adding to or subtracting from the Word (Rev.22:18-19), not walking in sin (1Jn.3:5-6), and keeping His commandments (1Jn.3:24). In Christ is the only place we can claim the gift of eternal life. (1Jn.5:11)… God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. God does not have to take His gift back; His people walk out of it. (1Co.6:18)… Every sin that a man doeth is without the body…When you walk in willful sin, you are not abiding in His body for in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: (1Jn.3:5-6). For instance, fornication, spiritual or physical, takes away the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot (1Co.6:15,18). Only Christ and those abiding in Him are chosen. (Eph. 1:4) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world… Only Christ and those abiding in Him are going to heaven. (Joh.3:13) And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven…The manna from heaven, the Word Jesus Christ, who takes up residence in those who love Him, is the fruit that God is coming to choose. By this time, I am sure some are thinking that they do not measure up. We must first abide in Christ by faith accepting the Gospel report that I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (Gal.2:20). Those who walk by faith that they are dead to sin and Christ now lives in them are accounted as righteous until God uses that faith to manifest righteousness in them. (Gal. 3:6) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. God does not dwell in time, but eternity. He sees the beginning and the end at the same time, therefore, He can answer a prayer before we pray. We do not have to worry that we have waited too late to pray because He can have the answer coming long before we ask. (Isa.65:24) And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. I had a friend, who went to the local trade school, offer to take my broken washer for the students to work on. It was only going to cost me for parts. By faith, I told him to go ahead. He called back in a couple of days to say that he would be bringing it back and the cost was $90. My wife and I accounted that we only had $40. In a moment of inspiration, I pointed my finger at the mailbox and said, “$50 is coming in that box today.” In the mail that day was a letter from a brother in Maryland. (I had absolutely no foreknowledge of this incident.) He wrote, “It is after midnight, and I just cannot get to sleep until I obey God and write this check for $50.” I looked at the post date on the letter and discovered it had been lost in the mail for a whole month! Obviously, God had it found at just the right moment. He had it coming a month before I spoke those words of faith. He merely used me to bring to pass what He had already planned. I asked God to do something that I believe He may have changed time to accomplish. Many years ago, this very young girl made a mistake and tested pregnant. As I prayed about her situation, a thought came into my head and right out of my mouth. I asked the Lord to make this girl as though she were never pregnant. I believe that this did not come from my mind, but God's Spirit. Because of the way this prayer came, I received it as a confirmation from the Lord that it was the Will of God. Later, tests proved that she was not pregnant. I do not know what God did with the baby, but I am sure He is taking better care of it than that girl would have. Nothing is beyond God's ability to help us, unless it is beyond our faith. How can God change His mind when He knows and speaks the end in the beginning? Then changing your mind makes you a liar. (Isa.46:10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. If He sees all from the beginning, why would He ever need to change His mind? God will not change what is written in His Word. (Psa.119:89) For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. His Word is likened unto a rock, immovable and unchangeable. However, God can change or delay what He speaks to you personally as a warning through prophets, dreams, visions, or His Spirit. When the Word ultimately comes to pass, it will be fulfilled as the Bible says it will. God gave us an example of this in the book of Jonah. Jonah cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jon.3:4). God told Jonah to preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee (Jon.3:2), so he did. He was not a false prophet. God spared Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, because they repented. This angered Jonah because Assyria was the mortal enemy of Israel and the prophets had already been prophesying that Assyria would conquer rebellious Israel. He wanted them to be destroyed for what he perceived was Israel's sake. Jonah knew that if he preached to Nineveh and they repented, God would not destroy them, so he fled. (Jon.4:1) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. (2) And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil. God spared Nineveh around 752 B.C. so that Assyria could conquer the northern ten tribes of Israel around 720 B.C. and then Judah around 701 B.C. Nineveh ultimately did fall around 612 B.C. God knew before He threatened Nineveh that He was going to spare them for the purpose of using them to chasten Israel. From Nineveh's perspective, they changed God's mind by repenting, but from God's perspective, He changed Nineveh's mind and fulfilled His plan from the beginning for them, which was to chasten Israel! Jonah's Hebrew word for “repentest” here is nacham meaning “to sigh” and by implication “to be sorry.” In itself, nacham does not admit evil doing, or even a change of mind, only sorrow. As Father, God must do many things that He sorrows over. When the Scriptures speak of God repenting, it is for our perspective because it appears to us that He changed His mind and did not do what He threatened. As a parent five times over, I have done this many times. The difference between God and us is, He plans and sees the delays and repentances from the beginning. (Num.23:19) God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent. (1Sa.15:29) And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent. Here is another thing that proves the sovereignty of God in time and the future, and that God plans delays or “repentances” beforehand. Israel and the United States share a unique identity. Each was entrusted with the Gospel in their respective time. From 887 B.C., Israel was at war every seventeen years for a period of fifteen cycles until 631 B.C. The United States also has been in a war every seventeen years for a period of fifteen cycles from the forming of the thirteen original states to Grenada in l983-l984. For both nations, in the sixth and tenth cycle there was no war. The only possible exceptions to the parallel are that Israel appears to have had a devastating famine in the forth cycle instead of a war and there seems to be no record for a war in their thirteenth cycle. The cycles could be more exact than our knowledge, but no sane person could think that this is chance. The repetitions of history clearly show that one mind is in control of past and future. Stay with me because I would like to encourage you about your family and loved ones who may be running after worldly desires and not yet saved. No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day (Joh.6:44). Some parents feel very guilty that, though they did the best they could, their children seem to be going the wrong way. The following teaching is not against those who have faithfully served the Lord from their youth but rather for those who feel that the Lord has passed them or their children by. Walk by faith for those wayward children, not sight. Believe in your prayers, expect miracles, but be patient. God has a plan that starts for them long before their salvation. Give some deep thought to this. It will free you from worry, strife, condemnation and self-effort to bring about God's will in them. They will have to be saved after tribulation and failure of their worldly expectations, as we were. Children who are raised knowing about the Lord are sometimes very self-righteous. They think they deserve what they have and do not understand grace. They will also have to see themselves as sinners in order to be the dirt that can receive the Word and bear the fruit of Jesus. God only saves sinners. We have all been one. This is a necessary revelation in order to appreciate the great value of salvation and to be saved by unmerited favor. I remember my oldest daughter when she was three years old going around our lost friends and relatives saying, “God does not like that.” She was quickly deflecting what we had taught her. We thought, “You little Pharisee.” Our heavenly Father has had many prodigal sons just as Jesus' parable shows, but that does not make Him a bad Father (Luk.15:11-32). In this parable, the “good” son who never left home was self-righteous, judgmental, and merciless. On the other hand, the younger son, who spent his inheritance on riotous living, realized his low estate and came to his father very humbly saying, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called thy son. (Luk.15:21). The once rebellious son now understood mercy and grace and was a much better man for it. Prophetically, the firstborn son who never left the Father was the righteous among Israel, but they did not understand grace. The younger, second son of the Father who fell away through the dark ages for 2,000 years is the Church, who is returning in these days to understand the grace of God. The Father said to these, Bring forth quickly the best robe (the robe of righteousness [Isa.61:10]), and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand (symbol of authority and of the Bride), and shoes on his feet (the walk of separation from the world) (Luk.15:22). The prodigal son will have more of everything than the first son. Those who have been sinners know their need of God, but many times, those who are raised as God's people do not. (Mat.21:28) But what think ye? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. (29) And he answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented himself, and went. (30) And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I [go], sir: and went not. (31) Which of the two did the will of his father? They say, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. (32) For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye saw it, did not even repent yourselves afterward, that ye might believe him. Many times, it is not the son who says he will go to work in the Father's vineyard who actually goes, but the son whose first inclination is to rebel. This rebel who comes to see himself as a sinner goes while the other son who feigns righteousness does not. Many career Christians are bored with the work of God and are distracted by the allure of the world. The publicans and harlots are so appreciative of a place in the kingdom that they throw their whole heart into it, willing to be servants rather than be served. They understand the great value of the gift of grace that is given them and their own unworthiness. In the last days of the Gentiles, it will be the same as it was in the last days of the Jews. There are many self-righteous “Christians” today who are not the creation that the Father desires. Those who have been raised in the church should humble themselves to the Word of God and not religion so that no man takes their crown (Rev.3:11). It appears Jesus had this in mind when He shared this parable. (Luk.18:9) And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at nought: (10) Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. (11) The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (12) I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get. (13) But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. (14) I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified (Greek: “accounted righteous”) rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The self-righteous child who kept all the religious traditions was not accounted righteous while the poor sinner who was repenting of his unworthiness was. Jesus told the Pharisees that He had not come to call the righteous but the sinners. He was after those who knew they had been sinners to be His children. Look at the following verse carefully. (Rom.11:32) For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. God has designed that forgiven sinners become His sons. Those who have been disobedient have a great appreciation for mercy and grace and do not offend God quickly. God has subjected us to this fallen creation for the purpose of a higher creation. (Rom.8:20) For the creation was subjected to vanity (the fall and corruption), not of its own will, but by reason of him (God) who subjected it, in hope (Greek: “firm expectation”) (21) that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. He wants those who have been corrupt, as good soil is, to be delivered to appreciate Him. The children of God can only be created from the fallen creation, and God is the one who subjected them to it to humble them. The Scriptures show us our unfaithfulness and unworthiness so that we might have a reason to truly repent. (Gal.3:22) But the scriptures shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. God chose us to be saved in Christ before Adam even fell. (Eph.1:4) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love. He knew we would need a savior before the world was made and Adam fell. He knew the fall would happen, and He went ahead with the creation anyway. From this you can see that the fall was in His plan. Children who are raised with Christ many times take Him for granted and do not really understand grace as unmerited favor. God has a plan for them that may involve the temporary lifting of His grace that has been taken for granted. Do not fear this, or walk by sight, but continue to believe God for them. Peter was Jesus' little one whom He raised up to be a disciple. He self-confidently declared to the Lord that he would never be offended and deny Him but would go with Him to death in (Mat.26:33-35). God hates self-confidence but loves God-confidence. So how does God deal with this sin? (1Co.10:12) Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Failure is the best treatment for self-confidence. (Luk.22:31) Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: (32) but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren. (33) And he said unto him, Lord, with thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death. (34) And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, until thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Jesus prophesied failure for this proud man. Jesus, who had authority over Satan, did not forbid him from sifting Peter. Satan sifts to get what belongs to him. In this case, it was Peter's pride, self-righteousness, and self-confidence. What fell through the sieve was what God wanted, the humbled Peter. The sifted Peter who had “turned again” or been converted, could now establish the brethren. Before this failure, he would have been a good Pharisee. (Luk.7:40) And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon (the Pharisee, not Peter), I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Teacher, say on. (41) A certain lender had two debtors: the one owed five hundred shillings, and the other fifty. (42) When they had not [wherewith] to pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most? (43) Simon answered and said, He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. (44) And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath wetted my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. (45) Thou gavest me no kiss: but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. (46) My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but she hath anointed my feet with ointment. (47) Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, [the same] loveth little. Big sinners make big saints, for they know the value of grace. According to the previous verses, God wants people who are forgiven of their many sins and saved by grace so that they love and appreciate Him much. This is the creation that He wants, not Adam before the fall. The creation that springs from the last Adam, Jesus Christ, is the ones who have fallen and then are saved by grace through faith. We need not worry about our children or loved ones becoming sinners, just “hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised.” We must gracefully sow seeds of truth, as we can, without frustrating them. They cannot be convinced without grace. God “worketh all things after the counsel of His will” and “a man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven,” and “no one comes unto the Son except the Father draw him.” God will do it when the time is right, and He will use our faith because “faith is the substance of things hoped for” (KJV). We can see why sometimes God does not save people until they are a little older and have tried the world and found it wanting. However, if you have faithfully served the Lord from your youth, you have a great reward. God can save anyone anytime He desires. It is important that we not try with our own works to save the lost but first honor God's sovereignty with our faith for Him to do it. (Joh.6:37) All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me… (44) No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him… Father will draw everyone that He chooses to Christ. God chooses us and gives us a desire to come to Him and only then do we choose Him. (Psa.65:4) Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach [unto thee], That he may dwell in thy courts… God sometimes chooses the worst in our estimation. If God can save Paul or Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons, he can save those we believe for. Do you remember the conversion of Saul who persecuted the saints with a vengeance? (Act.9:3)… And suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: (4) and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he [said], I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. A monkey would get saved with such an experience, which was totally at the discretion of God. This same omnipotent God says, All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive (Mat.21:22). God uses His gift of faith in us to manifest the salvation of those He has chosen from the foundation of the world. Pray and thank God for those salvations. I can hear someone say, “Goody, we will believe God to save the devil; that will solve a lot of problems.” I do not think such faith would endure to the end since faith is a gift from God (Eph.2:8), to give or to take, and there is no precedent in the Scriptures for such a request. Besides that, the devil is needed in his job for which he would be totally unfit if he got saved. There is precedent for household salvation though (Act.11:14; 18:8). Paul and Silas offered this to the jailer. (Act.16:31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. They believed and were saved. (34)… with all his house, having believed in God. Peter preached this, too. (Act.2:39) For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. In Exodus 12:3, the lamb was slain for a household. Unbelieving family members are sanctified by our faith. (1Co.7:14) For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. Some object that God would be unrighteous to choose some and not others. We are too late for He has done just that. (Psa.147:19) He showeth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and his ordinances unto Israel. (20) He hath not dealt so with any nation; And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. God did not attempt to share His first covenant with any of the world but Israel. The New Testament He shares only with spiritual Israel. (Deu.7:6) For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. (7) The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples. God is not worried about multitudes, for He has chosen the least. He still only chooses little spiritual Israel on the narrow road. Abraham is the father of spiritual Israel, the Church: those who walk in the same gift of faith that Abraham walked in. (Gal.3:7) Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. Paul told the Gentile church at Rome that the people of all nations who believe the promise were Abraham's children in (Rom.4:16) For this cause [it is] of faith, that [it may be] according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law (natural Israel), but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (17) (as it is written, A father of many nations [the Gentiles] have I made thee)… True, spiritual Israel believes the promises even now. (Rom.9:6)… For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: (7) neither, because they are Abraham's seed (naturally or physically), are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. (8) That is, it is not the children of the flesh (natural Israel) that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. Those who believe the promises are born again children of the promises. These are Abraham's seed. A New Testament spiritual Jew is circumcised in heart, not flesh. (Rom.2:28) For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly (physical); neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: (29) but he is a Jew who is one inwardly (spiritual); and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter… Notice that a Jew now is not a physical Jew. A Jew now has the flesh cut off from his heart through the new birth. (Gal.6:15) For neither is circumcision (in the flesh) anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. (16) And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace [be] upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God are they who walk as new creatures. The unregenerate physical Jews who worship in synagogues are not Jews until they are born again through the New Testament. (Rev.2:9) I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and they art not, but are a synagogue of Satan (the same in Rev.3:9). We were not Jews but now are in Spirit. (Rom.9:25) As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people; And her beloved, that was not beloved. (26) And it shall be, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God. We were not His people but are now beloved sons of God. (Rom.9:27) And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel (natural or physical), If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved. A remnant of natural Israel will be born again mostly after the elect Gentiles have been saved. (Rom.11:25)… A hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. “In part” here means that the line between Gentiles and Jews is not a sharp demarcation. Neither was it in the book of Acts. Jews are even now being saved more than ever. This is a sign that we are nearing the end of the times of the Gentiles. Most of the physical Jews will come in after the Gentiles. We who sought not after God were given the gift of faith to be spiritual New Testament Israel when natural Israel turned her back on God. (Rom.10:20) And Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I became manifest unto them that asked not of me. God revealed himself to the Church who on their own neither knew nor sought Him. (21) But as to Israel he saith, All the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. (Rom.11:7)…That which Israel (physical) seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election (chosen) obtained it, and the rest were hardened: (We see here that only the few chosen among the many called of Israel accepted Christ and the New Testament. The rest were reprobated.) (8) according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. In that day and in this, those who walk by faith are chosen from among the called to be the eternal people of the living God. Paul said “all Israel” is the physical Jews and Gentiles who are part of the olive tree by faith, not those who are broken off by unbelief (Rom.11:19-25). All have sinned and deserve destruction. Is God wrong for giving some mercy and grace and others justice? All deserve justice instead of unmerited favor.   Letter to a Prodigal Son Anonymous My Son, The Lord has chosen you as part of 3% of this world's population to be His own. I saw this in a vision I would like to tell you about. You are probably wondering, how could this be since I have been through hell? Hell is the best place to learn that you really want to live in heaven. I've loved you since you were a baby and I've known the Lord has too. Even your stubborn rebellion didn't change my mind or His. He has known you from before the foundation of the world. He has a special plan for your life that I would like to tell you about. You think, why would God love me since I have been so sinful? Jesus said, "Who loves much, he that has been forgiven of much or he that has been forgiven of little? Simon said, 'He that has been forgiven of much'". Jesus said that this answer is correct. Since you will be forgiven of much you are now capable now of loving Him the way He wants you to. You might ask, "If He loves me then why has he been so hard on me?" It is the devil who has been hard on you. He hates you and when he is through with you then you are like him, destroyed. God said, "His servants you are whom you obey". It's a simple matter to change Masters and Fathers. It happened to me when I was younger than you. I guess I wasn't quite as stubborn as you. :o) Once when you were younger you asked God to save you. You think He ignored you or forgot about that but He didn't. He was very glad and He took you very seriously but He also knew you were stubborn and would have to know the consequences of serving the devil before you would fear Him as your Father and serve Him. You are almost there. When you get there understand this about Him. He is seeking you and listening to you and if you make one step towards Him, He will be very happy to make ten towards you. You have His Word for that. Luke 15:1 Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him to hear him. 2 And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (Jesus is now seeking you out where you are.) 3 And he spake unto them this parable, saying, 4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? (He is after you to save you.) 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (He will be very happy to receive you.) 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7 I say unto you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, [more] than over ninety and nine righteous persons, who need no repentance. (Your heavenly Father and all of heaven will be happy at your turning to Him.) 8 Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? 9 And when she hath found it, she calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. 10 Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of [thy] substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country; and there he wasted his substance with riotous living. (What God gave you as a child you have now wasted.) 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want. 15 And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. (Now you are just feeding the flesh and the children of the god of this world, Satan.) 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. (Its a hard road and you are near total death.) 17 But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger! (You are starving for the bread of His kingdom, the Word of God.) 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: (Just tell Him that you have sinned and you are sorry) 19 I am no more worthy to be called your son: make me as one of thy hired servants. (Tell Him that you know you are not worthy of Him but you will serve Him with His help.) 20 And he arose, and came to his father. But while he was yet afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. (You are far from Him but He sees you when you make a step towards Him and He will run to you in love.) 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: (He will meet your needs for righteousness and authority.) 23 and bring the fatted calf, [and] kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: (He will feed you with the best.) 24 for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. (He will give you His life.) And they began to be merry. (...And He will be very happy; more so than over those who are serving him now.) 25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called to him one of the servants, and inquired what these things might be. 27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28 But he was angry, and would not go in: and his father came out, and entreated him. 29 But he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, and I never transgressed a commandment of thine; and [yet] thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30 but when this thy son came, who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou killedst for him the fatted calf. 31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that is mine is thine. 32 But it was meet to make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive [again]; and [was] lost, and is found. Please think about this, son. Love, Dad

This is a study we are in concerning the Authority of the Kingdom of God.  What is the authority?  How does it work?  In this sharing we look at the Word Jesus Christ brought into the earth.  This is the Word of authority.  All other words must bow to Him and His Word.  No other Word should stand or prevail in our hearts.  Let us give our hearts to Christ Jeus and His Word.  Let us submit all things we have and believe to His Word.  Glory to God!

Jesus Christ existed in the beginning. Before the world was formed, Christ existed. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But Christ was already with God. God has no beginning; He has always existed. The “Word” (Jesus Christ) was with God. Christ was not only with God, but he was God. Christ is not only the Son of God, but also God himself. Christ is God in the form of a man. He is the only true embodiment of the living God who came to earth 2000 years ago.

The Story of God and His PeopleGenesis 1:1-4In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.Genesis 1:26-27, 31Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image,    in the image of God he created him;    male and female he created them. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good Genesis 2:16-17And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:4-6But (later on) the serpent said to the woman, “You won't die!” 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband (Adam), who was with her, and he ate it, too.Romans 1:22-25Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God (gave them over to the darkness) allowing them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise!Genesis 6:5The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 12:1-3(Even still, Long after this) The Lord had said to (a man called) Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Your name will now be called Abraham) 1 Chronicles 1:34Abraham had a son named Isaac. And Isaac had a son named Israel. Micah 6:4For I (the Lord) brought Israel out of Egypt    and redeemed you from slavery.    I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you. Psalm 78:10-11But (even then) you did not keep God's covenant, you refused to walk according to his law. You forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown you. Psalm 106:35-36You mixed with the nations    and adopted their evil ways.36 You worshipped their idols,    and it became your downfall.Romans 3:9, 10-18, 23What then? Are the sons of Israel any better off?[b] No, not at all. For all of us are in sin,10“None is righteous, no, not one;11     no one understands;    no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;    no one does good,    not even one.”13 “Their throat is an open grave;    they use their tongues to deceive.”“The poison of snakes is under their lips.”14     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”17 and the way of peace they have not known.”18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Jeremiah 31:31-34But behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new promise with you. This covenant will not be like the one I made with your ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. For everyone, from the least to the greatest… says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Ezekiel 36:26-27And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a soft heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my words and be careful to obey my commands. Isaiah 7:14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (which means God is with us) Isaiah 9:2,6(Yes) The people who walk in darkness    will see a great light.For those who live in a land of deep darkness,    a light will shine…For to us a child is born,    to us a son is given;and the government shall be upon his shoulder,    and his name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. John 1:1-4, 14For In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him.4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. And this Word (Jesus Christ) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 3:19-20(Yes) God's light came into the world, but people (still) loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. Isaiah 53:3-6(The Light of God) was despised and rejected[a] by men;    a man of sorrows,[b] and acquainted with[c] grief;[d]and as one from whom men hide their faces[e]    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4 Surely he has borne our griefs    and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken,    smitten by God, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;    he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the punishment that brought us peace,    and by his wounds we are healed.6 All we like sheep have gone astray;    we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the Lord has laid on him    the sins of us all. John 19:30(On the cross when the time had come) Jesus said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Matthew 28:1-2, 5-6Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb (of Jesus). 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. 1 John 5:12(And) Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Ephesians 2:1, 3-5Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!) 2 Corinthians 5:17-20This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”Matthew 28:18-20Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”Acts 1:9-11And when Jesus had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 9:31So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Revelation 19:11-16(But a day is coming)…When I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. 12 His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. 13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. 16 On his robe at his thigh[a] was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Revelation 17:14His enemies will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.” Revelation 20:10a, 14aand the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire, Then Death itself and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire Revelation 21:1, 3-7Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “(Come and see), I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”

The I Am's of Jesus 1. I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35) 2. I am the Light of the World (John 8:12) 3. I am the Door of the Sheep (John 10:7 cf. 9) 4. I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14) 5. I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) 6. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) 7. I am the True Vine (John 15:1 cf. vs 5) The often-overlooked “I Am” statement of Jesus – Three great books for year end and the new year  Hebrews  Colossians  John  Revelation Anchor your life on Jesus Christ because:  Jesus Christ is the Rescuer from Sin  Jesus Christ is the Eternal God  Jesus Christ is the All-Sufficient God  Jesus Christ is God's final Word  Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Victorious One Jesus Christ is the Rescuer from Sin For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 John 3:16 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 Jesus Christ is the Eternal God - Hebrews 1:1-14 Hebrews Jesus Christ's throne is forever. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever Hebrews 1:8 Jesus Christ's priesthood is forever. Thou art a priest for ever… Hebrews 5:6 Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross is effective forever. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 Jesus Christ's existence (immutability) is forever. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ's glory is forever. Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Hebrews 13:21 Jesus Christ is the All-Sufficient God Colossian 1:12-21 Colossians Jesus Christ Created All Colossians 1: 16 Jesus Christ is Before All, Sustains All And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. - Colossians 1: 17 Jesus Christ is Above All - Colossians 1: 18 Jesus Christ has all wisdom In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3 Jesus Christ is God For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily - Colossians 2:9 Jesus Christ is God's Word John John 1: 1-2 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. John 1: 14 John 1:18 (NASB)  The Alphabet of God's Revelation Philip Asked  Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” John 14:8 Jesus Replied  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father'? Mary Said - John 2:4-8 The Noble Man Said - John 4:49-51 The sick man at the Bethesda pool (38 years) - John 5:7-9 The man who was born blind - John 9:6-8 Lazarus -The man buried for 4 days - John 11:42-44 What does this mean to believers? - John 6:67-69 Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Victorious One - Revelation 22 :12-13 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Revelations 22:13 • Whatever Jesus starts He finishes • Revelation reveals this to us • Genesis –Creation of Heaven and Earth • Revelation –Creation of a the new Heaven and the new Earth • Whatever Jesus starts in our lives He will finish • In Genesis man fell into sin • Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega • In Revelations believers are delivered from (consequence of sin, power of sin, presence of sin) • Revelation is the completion of Genesis • When we begin with Him at Alpha, we will end with Him at Omega • What God starts in our lives He will finish • He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last The risen Saviour - Matthew 28:5-7 & Luke 24:5-7 Revelation 1:17-18 What does this mean to believers? 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Series: James | The Implanted Word. Passage: James 5:7-20. Preacher: Reg Piper. Date of Talk: 23 October, 2022. The Word: Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory 2:1 His Day of crowning and slaughter will come 1:12,5:5 Be patient in waiting for the coming of the Lord v7-12 Be patient like the farmer awaiting seasonal rain v7 the prophets awaiting fulfilment v10 Job awaiting God's vindication/blessing v11 The patience to exhibit is A determined stability of heart v8 A refusal to grumble v9 A refusal to be excessively emphatic v12 Be constant in prayer and praise v13-20 Set your hope on God Let the cheerful praise God v13 Let the sufferers pray to God v13 In the case of the suffering sick call the elders to prayer v14 The sick can be raised v15 Sins can be forgiven v15-16a Even the wanderer can be saved v19-20

So, brothers and sisters, what are we feeding God's Lambs and God's sheep? Are we feeding them the Word of God? Are we feeding them good healthy foods to nourish and take care of themselves? God makes it clear that he wants us to feed on his Word Jesus Christ and have faith in "His Truths which sets us free." ref. (John 8:32) read it. When I think of the words that Jesus spoke to Peter about feeding his Lambs and feeding his sheep, I think about us today as godly men & women also as parents what are we feeding our children? Are we allowing them to watch those TV program that is unsuitable for them, or those internet apps that's inappropriate for them? Are we feeding them the good Word of God that they grow up and be strong sons and daughters of God? Are we feeding them healthy foods for their body or are we just letting them eat whatever junk food they like, there's a lot to be said about that subject which could be a podcast all on its own? Nevertheless, how are we feeding the Sheep are we giving them the meat of the word of God or are we letting them continue with the milk. Our diet: are we taking care of the Temple of the Holy Spirit do you realize that His temple is in you, God designed a compartment for himself to dwell in you and be with you; to keep you in all righteousness, and good deeds; therefore, don't let no other spirit come into your body and control you, remember it's God's temple! (1Corinthians 6:19). Remember you can contact us at: heavensprayerlink@gmail.com or visit us on our website: heavensprayerlink.com leave us a prayer request or give us your testimony of how God has moved in your life: We'd love to pray with you, God bless you! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/heavensprayerlink/support

We're continuing our in-depth video study series on Basic Christian Doctrine: The Nature Of God + The Gospel Plan Of Salvation. This series will explore some of the most overlooked essentials and basics of Biblical Christian doctrine. Doctrine is simply a teaching. It is the basis or foundation for how one lives and conducts his life. As the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus, working through the apostles and prophets, laid the foundation of the doctrine of the church. The early church held to their doctrine so closely that they were willing to give up their lives for it. But as the centuries passed, more and more false doctrines crept into the church, corrupting it from within. What began as a powerful inferno became nothing more than a glowing ember by the Middle Ages. Then came the Reformation, as men began an effort to restore the church back to the doctrinal truths of the original apostolic church. However, although some progress was made, many false doctrines were retained. Today, the Spirit of God is breathing afresh across the world and igniting the revelation of the doctrine of the original church described in the historical record of the Book of Acts. As we undertake a study of the foundational principles of true Christian doctrine, we will uncover just how far mainstream Christianity has strayed from the sound teachings of the Scriptures! In this 5th episode, we will cover: The Nature Of God -The Word (Section 10) -Jesus Christ, The Fullness Of The Godhead In Bodily Form (Section 11) Visit https://www.LetUsReason.com to download the full study notes, complete with references, charts, and quotes.

Jesus Christ - The Eternal Word is The True Light [John 1] … In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. [John 1:1-5] There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. [John 1:6-9] He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [John 1:11-13] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' ” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. [John 1:14-18]

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Do we really have to believe in the Virgin Birth to be people of faith? If you really want to, you can, but there is another way to think about what happened in the person of Jesus that might be more freeing. For more information, check out the associated blog: https://www.crosswalknapa.org/blog/2021/12/10/god-with-us-heartbeat

Shalom family Praise the Lord for receiving in Jesus name in spirit and truth downloads for new spiritual warfare strategy to combat, subdue, overtake the kingdom of darkness particularly in the spirit realm dealing with sickness and diseases (moving in and through the Jesus the living Word of God to heal ALL manner of sickness and diseases in Jesus name in Spirit & Truth for such a time as this all glory to Jesus Christ!  New strategies for intercessory prayer in and through Jesus Christ have to do with Yahweh's use of color in His Kingdom, the finger of Almighty God (revelation-rhema word received-the love, compassion, humility, and healing found in Jesus Christ), Jesus Christ the LIGHT, and binding and loosing in Jesus name on earth as in heaven (rhema & logos specifically at a cellular and molecular level ALL GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!! We need to jump into all scriptures dealing with the above asap and rightly divide for application! Holy Spirit has been preparing us for this praise God....remember the use of color and revelatory teaching from John Paul Jackson-in the kingdom of God both wisdom, miracles, grace, and gifts of the Spirit of God are multicolored G4164 - poikilos - Strong's Greek Lexicon (kjv) (blueletterbible.org); Ephesians 3:10 His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms [cross reference with Isaiah 11:1-3 & Proverbs 9:1 for application in prayer], (biblehub.com); Hebrews 2:4 and was affirmed by God through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.  [cross reference with 1 Corinthians 12: 26-31, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-13, John 3:16, Psalm 107:20, Matthew 17:20, Luke 10:19, 1 John 4:4, 1 John 4:17, Obadiah 1:21, Psalm 8:3, 6:, Psalm 19, Hosea 2:19-23, Ezekiel 47:8-12, Daniel 12:3, Isaiah 60:1-2, Isaiah 42:6-8 ] (biblehub.com);1 Peter 4:10 Parallel: As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (biblehub.com) conversely in the kingdom darkness remember sickness and diseases as well as things like different types of lust also are multicolored. Matthew 4:24 News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed--and He healed them. (biblehub.com); 1 Peter 1:6 Parallel: Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (biblehub.com); Titus 3:3 Parallel: For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. (biblehub.com).  To echo John Paul Jackson, color is significant to God! Beautiful people of God, the rainbow is a sign and symbol of Yahweh's covenantal promise consisting of 7 colors-spectrum of LIGHT, Energy-Healing rays people! *DO YOU SEE HOW WE ARE FITTING TO GO DEEP AND HIGH IN THE LIVING WORD OF GOD FOR INTERCESSION WITH HELP FROM HOLY SPIRIT! :D For it is written: Malachi 4:2 "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. (biblehub.com); Malachi 4:3 Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing," says the LORD of Hosts. (biblehub.com); Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity. (biblehub.com) And guess what these revelations meet us back at our homebase this year of Isaiah 58:6-7 Isaiah 58:6 Parallel: Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (biblehub.com Isaiah 58:7 Parallel: Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (biblehub.com) plus verses Isaiah 58:8 Parallel: Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. (biblehub.com); Isaiah 58:9 Parallel: Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; (biblehub.com); Isaiah 58:10 Parallel: And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (biblehub.com); Isaiah 58:11 Parallel: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. (biblehub.com); Isaiah 58:12 Parallel: And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (biblehub.com) ***Which people of God speaks to our season and generation for rebuilding of David's tabernacle as prophesied in Amos 9, Isaiah 54 and Matthew 24 the end times are like the days of Noah for this generation specifically! So, with joy we shall draw from the wells of salvation as written and also employ these new resources within the kingdom of God in and through Jesus Christ with help from Holy Spirit! :D Remember the weapons of our warfare are not carnal as written glory to Jesus Christ! Remember Jesus is the LIGHT as written.  We can put on the armor of LIGHT as written in Romans and wear the coat of many colors as well as vessels and instruments fit for his use (Romans 6) in Jesus' name in spirit and truth! There is so much to unpack for us to employ glory to Jesus! We will pray for healing and deliverance in Jesus name on earth as in heaven right now and will move to unpack revelatory insight in the following episodes to assist our intercessory prayer walk and life on earth as in heaven for the glory of Jesus Christ and his kingdom come on earth as in heaven in Jesus' name in Spirit and truth!

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ... Hebrews 1   1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;  

Well we are on the verge of a new year. I know a lot of you are going to be really sad to say goodbye to 2020. We’ve all really bonded with this year and as we say goodbye, we might experience some detachment, mourning and grief associated with genuine loss. But with a stiff upper lip we’ll try our best to move forward and not just live in the nostolgia of covid and masks, rioting, political debate.Now in all seriousness, 2020 will be part of your story. You will look back and tell future generations who did not live through it, what it was like. These events shape us. The STORY of 2020 will be a shared experience that will forever be part of your life. Telling our story and knowing how our story fits into the greater story is one of the most fundamental aspects of being human.Story is so ingrained in us. It’s so fundamental. You prove this just by how our culture is structured.You turn on TV and you watch stories.Video games are not challenges, they are stories.Live theater.Our brains are hardwired to ingest stories. An often cited clinical study shows that experiencing an event and hearing a story about the event is almost identical in terms of brain activity.Why is that? Because stories, more than perhaps anything else, help us understand and discover meaning. I begin with the concept of story because today we begin a new study in the book of John entitled “The Story of Amazing Love.”And this is the story of all stories because this story CLAIMS TO solve two of humanities greatest problems. The story as told in the gospel of John gives you answers to two of the biggest human problems you EXPERIENCE in life whether you are actively asking the question or not. These problems are so enormous, 99 percent of people have given up trying solve them. These questions are so giant, so significant, most people don’t even think they are solvable and so they just try to find a way to cope, to manage, to shove the problems.So I’m going to introduce the two problems. Here’s the first one.How can I be both known and loved? Here’s how this problem goes. Let start with the first half: I want to be known. Solving this problem is definitely possible. I can start letting people in. And at first it feels good to disclose who I am and tell my story and divulge things I’ve never told anyone else. And that feels great doesn’t it.It’s incredible freeing to just disclose our deepest secrets and finally tell someone that thing that we’ve been carrying around like a ball and chain. It just feels completely liberating! But as we do that we discover something not so great. When people see who we really are, they begin to withdraw. They don’t like what they see. We see the shock in their eyes and the horror on their face when they see who we really are. And that causes us to freeze.You see we want to be known but we also want to be loved. We solve this problem in this exact opposite way. In our desire to be loved, we don’t disclose who we really are; instead, we project a more loveable image in hopes of that being received. We manipulate our image. We post pictures to instagram or Facebook that look very attractive. We hide the failures, project the success and now suddenly we are loved but it’s fake. It’s pretend. We are loved but not known. How do we get both? How can we be BOTH known and LOVED. That’s a hard problem to solve and most don’t think it’s solvable.That’s the first problem the gospel of John claims to solve. The problem of being known and loved - that’s a pretty tough nut to crack. But you think that’s a tough problem, try this one.Now I say it that way, not to be crass but to awaken us to the reality that we too often forget about. It’s a physical problem that has to do with blood pressure and oxygen levels and tissues and DNA and organs. Our lives are coming to a end and as amazing as modern medicine is, there is nothing that can be done to fix this problem. And that’s kind of significant: whatever meaning you discover in life will be stripped away from you in death.So how do I not die? You want to talk about a fundamental problem to the human race? Try death. Death is the problem of problems. Death is the ultimate destroyer. It’s the grand daddy of all problems.So in my estimation, these are the two greatest problems that humanity faces. Ones a spiritual problem and the other is a physical problem. Here in the gospel of JOHN there’s content here that solves both these problems. It solves the problems by telling us a story that is simultaneously both meaningful and true.Some stories are meaningful but not true. Chronicles of Narnia. They don’t deal with reality but they do help you with meaning.Other stories are true but are not meaningful. A newspaper article four weeks ago about gas prices. They deal with reality but they don’t help you with meaning.This story is meaningful because it’s true. In other words, it solves the meaning problem by dealing with a reality problem.The gospel of John, this story of amazing love, tells you how you can be known and loved and how you can have eternal life. As we get into the book you will see how it deals with the problem of unworthiness and how it deals with the problem of death.The answer isn’t short or simplistic. It wll take us 21 chapters to do that. But here’s the thing you need to realize for our purposes today - it can only solve those problems if you believe that the story is true. You must believe that it’s true.If it’s just a story then it certainly can’t solve the death problem because nothing in reality has changed. The cells that break down, the physical aging process, the brain cell loss - all of that is still happening.If it’s just a story, it can’t solve the loved and be known problem either. Because nothing materially has changed - The deep dark unflattering, unloveable secrets are still there.In order for this story to solve those problems it MUST BE TRUE. It must be history.But now we introduce a third problem. The claim that this is a true story is a problem. We are being asked to believe something, that at first blush, seems rather unbelievable. Being asked to believe this story is history is for some a difficult pill to swallow. We have giant claims that a man born of a woman is in fact part of a triune God, water to wine miracles, blind people seeing, people rising from the dead. That sounds like a great story but it can’t possibly be true.Nobody is expected to easily believe that, right? If you believe it too quickly, you wouldn’t be respected. It has many, many elements that are not easily believable. But, here’s the deal, the fact that you are asked with a straight face to believe it, suggests, that maybe it’s worth investigating.The story of amazing love is very hard to believe. But guess what? Here’s the good news. This is why the gospel of John was written. There are four gospels, and each gospel has a unique purpose. Did you know this? Here’s some interesting facts about each of the gospels.Matthew was written to Jews to present Jesus as Messiah to a Jewish audience waiting to receive their Messiah.The Gospel of Mark emphasizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and comes at it from the perspective of three groups of people that didn’t understand Jesus.Luke was a historian and he wrote Luke/Acts to Theopholis to provide an accurate account.Now while these gospels differ in their content, there is a large amount of overlap. Compare this to the book of John.John writes a gospel in which 90% of it is unique. This is to make the point that John has a very unique purpose in the book.This was the last gospel written and it was written very intentionally not primarily to describe what happened. That’s what the other gospel writers have already done. John writes for a purpose. And he states that purpose very clearly at the end of his book.Now do you see? John was written so that you might BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, that the story is history, and do you see the connection. THAT BY BELIEVING YOU MIGHT HAVE LIFE IN HIS NAME.IT IS THE BELIEF THAT IS THE PREREQUISITE FOR LIFE!It’s the prerequisite for spiritual life and the prerequisite for physical life.Belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living is the prerequisite for your DEEPEST spiritual need and your deepest physical need.John was written so you might believe this unbelievable story. So everything we read in the book was written with this purpose in mind for you to believe that this story is true. To believe that this is in fact history.So I want to talk to you today if you do not yet believe this. Maybe you are watching online. Either way, I’m glad you are here.I’m glad your not just biting this off hook line and sinker. That shows critical thinking. It shows that you are a person who is seeking truth. I want to warn you. This story has convinced millions of people. It is very convincing! And I want you to be convinced because look at the benfits. Truth believed is incredibly life changing. Feel free to talk to me at any point if you have questions. I’d love to help you get answers!The Concept of NothingNow today we are only going to cover the first five verses. Now interestinglyJohn’s gospel doesn’t begin with a genealogy or the Christmas story or the early boyhood of Jesus.Thankfully, we have just come off the Christmas season and so that is all fresh in our minds.John begins with the eternal non-beginning of a pre-created universe and a non-created God. Here’s how John starts his gospel.This is intended to transport us not to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life, but to the beginning of the space/time continuum of our physical universe. This transports us right back to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."Now I want to stop right there. Now we are so familiar with this but try to not be for a moment. In terms of philosophical grounding or in terms of worldview cornerstones, this is massive. To say that God created the heavens and the earth is like being lost in a snowstorm and pulling out your spiritual compass and finding north. The fact that God, the eternally existent one, created everything we see is the bearing off which everything else is oriented. In the beginning God was. In the beginning was the pre-incarnate Word. That totally orients us so we can begin making sense of what we see.This is strictly the point he’s making. God always was. In the beginning God was wasing. In the beginning God.Here’s what John is doing here,We will soon be introduced to this person who appears very human. We will be reading about JESUS, this very human man,this flesh and bone being who drinks water,and talks with people,and gets tired and needs to sleep at the bottom of a boat,and who weeps when friends dieHe’s connecting that man with the eternally existent triune God.In the Beginning GOD.Now to appreciate this, I want you to try to imagine nothing. The best illustration of nothing that I can think of is darkness. Have you ever been in a cave and turn off the flashlight? In most other situations when you turn off the lights, your eyes adjust and you can make out faint sources of light (maybe starlight or an led off a device or a pinprick of distant light from a lamp.) But when you are in a cave deep underground, there’s just nothing. You can stay there two days or two years. There’s zero light.That’s darkness, but we still haven’t arrived at the concept of nothing. You have to take away all objects. So take away the cave. Take away the rocks. Take away the grass and trees, the land, the water, the cows, the goats, the hamsters, the earth, and all the planets. We are getting closer.That’s still not enough. We now need to take away the air. So no air which of course means no sound since sound has to travel through a medium.And finally we need to take away the heat. So your body chills to a frigid absolute zero temperature of -459.67 degrees F.No sun. No stars. Which means no light waves, no energy waves. The darkness, the nothingness is now complete. You are suspended in space, in absolute absence of light, absolute absence of heat, absolutely absence of movement because after all motion has to be in reference to something else.There’s nothing to stimulate sight, sound, taste, touch or smell. You are a frozen block existing in nothing. That sounds cheery.What existed at this moment?Well the text says that the WORD existed. Now we know that the WORD spoken about here is representative of Jesus because down in verse 14 it says:So just tuck that away, that the Word = Jesus Christ.That’s where we are headed, but we aren’t there. John 1:1 is talking about the pre-incarnate word.This is the pre-incarnate Jesus. What does that word incarnate mean? We get our word carnivore from that root. A flesh eating animal. So pre-incarnate means pre-enfleshed. Before Jesus had a body.In the beginning, before Jesus had a body and was just spirit, was the word. We are not talking about the Jesus with flesh and blood. It’s not talking about a man with legs and arms and flesh and a heart. He became that. Jesus’ life did not begin like our life did at BIRTH. Jesus had not beginning. That’s the point the author is making.In the Beginning, if you could be there at that moment, there would be nothing to see, nothing to smell, nothing to taste, nothing to touch, but there would be something there. In the beginning was the Word. In dimenesions totally other, God existed.Now why do I mentally back us up to this point? To make the point that if you are going to change from a state of nothing to a state of something, energy has to be injected into the equation. 0 + 0 is always going to equal 0.Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz the father of Calculus and the binary system said over 300 years ago, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" That’s a pretty good question. If you look around and see something. If you look around and discover anything other than absolute zero nothingness, then logically you must have a SOURCE of energy, power, and life to infuse something into nothing.The Bible likes the logic of Leibniz. Which is why John after saying that the Word was with God from the beginning, goes on to say,Notice that it is not said that all things are made by him. We take things in the universe and manipulate them. Works of art are made by humans. Houses are made by builders.But the universe was made through God. To bake a pizza you have to send it through the oven. The source of power is the oven. The world was created through Jesus.So all the energy, power the life that we experience here on planet earth is a result of the energy, power and life that comes from the pre-existent God who eternally exists.This GOD-Man Jesus Christ, existed before all times and was in fact the creator of all things. We don’t tend to think of the 2nd person of the trinity, the Word, as the creator but the Bible makes it explicit on many occasions.Here we are told that all things are created through him and that they were created for him. That is means and purpose. So clearly, we are told that JESUS CHRIST is the creator of ALL THINGS.That means that Jesus is really powerful. Really powerful. Try to geek out with me for a moment. He can speak a word and the entire universe spins into existence. Now let’s think about what exactly that means. Can we just pause a moment and think in concrete terms about the CREATIVE ABILITY of Jesus.One of the ways to conceptualize this incredible act of creating all things is to just think in terms of raw power. Power is what is needed to do work. So if you need to turn on your mixer, you need power. If you want to run a mile, you need power. If you want to drive your car, you need power. This is essential to get out of the state of nothing. You need power. Think about power.Here is a chart explain the energy output of various things in the universe.The chart is in Joules of energy. I can’t picture a joule of energy, so I put this little dot on 1 calorie which very, very close to 1 joule. 4 joules = 1 calorie so it’s a very small amount of energy.As we work our way around the chart, every increment is a power of ten.10^8 (10 with 8 zeros) joules of energy represents the amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline. 1,000,000,000. To give you an idea of how much power is in a gallon of gas. If you convert that to calories, that’s about 30 million calories or 300,000 bananas. If you could drink gasoline, you’d only need about 4 gallons to fuel your entire life.10^9 is the amount of energy in a ton of dynamite10^11 is the amount of energy in a ton of hydrogen10^13 is the first atomic bomb10^18 is the annual energy production of the U.S.10^21 is all the energy since the invention of the tesla coil10^32 is the daily output of the sun10^47 is all the yearly output of the milky way10^55 is the yearly output of the universe10^70 is all the energy in the universe.Those are eye watering amounts of power.Jesus Christ is POWERFUL. John 1:1 is connecting the MAN JESUS with this CREATIVE POWER. That’s amazing. Now the text goes further. Not only is Jesus Christ the source of all power. He is the source of all LIFE. You get this astounding two sentences that will become the entirety of our remaining meditation.Not by him, not through him, but IN HIM was life.Here’s the incredible point that is being made here. God is life in himself. God is the source of life. He is life. So to have life, you must be IN the source of LIFE in the same way that to be wet you must be IN WATER. It cannot be any other way.This is why when you read the NT one of Paul’s favorite ways to reference a Christian is those who are “in Christ.”In HIM was LIFE. Spiritual life and physical life the same.The ApplicationSo I want to come back to it and help you see where John is going in this book. The book of John claims to answer some of the greatest questions known to man.How can I have spiritual life? How can I be known and loved? How can I have physical life? How can I live forever?John begins by saying, this life that we all are longing for can only be found in Jesus Christ. And let me try to explain what a bombshell this would have been.Our English translations say, “In the beginning was the Word.” That’s the Greek word logos and it’s a highly loaded philosophical term in the 1st century. Greek philosophers talk about it, the stoics talked about it, Philo writes entire books about it. It meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But the core idea was that this was the ultimate expression of meaning, fulfillment, purpose. It was the highest ideal.And so these ancient philosophers after debating this idea for centuries came to recognizing something very important. They recognized that for that to even make sense, for there to even be a concept of purpose or meaning, there had to be a God.For example, I could show you this object and say, “Hey can you tell me if this is a good trinandoid?” How can you possibly answer that question?You have to first ask, "What’s a trinandoid? What’s it supposed to do." Only after you know what it is supposed to do, can you then evaluate whether it is operating according to it’s design. This is not a trinandoid. I just made up that word. This is actually a mechanical calculator. So is this a good one?Now you can start evaluating. What are features of a good calculator.it calculates correctly,quicklyconvenientlyeasilySo you’d test it by punching in a math problem on the keypad to the right and then you’d see if it printed the right numbers on the roll of paper. You evaluate it based on it’s design. It’s a good calculator if it calculates.Ancient philosophers realized this. We can’t evaluate if a life is good or bad unless of course we know what the purpose of that life is. And so that was the quest. What is the logos? That’s why the concept of logos was closely linked with the concept of God.What is the ultimate meaning behind life? You need a God to even have a category for meaning. And from plato to the present you have had all these attempts and philosophical theories to say, “What is the logos”.Confucianism says the logos of life is to achieve harmony.Buddhism says the logos of life is to remove desire.Zoroastrianism says the logos of life is to bring happiness into the world to combat the battle against evil.The reason it’s so important to find the logos, and presumably the reason so many people are miserable is that they aren’t operating according to their design. What if I tried to use this mechanical calculator as a hammer? Not only would it not be very effective at sinking nails, it would destroy the calculator such that it could not function any longer according to it’s design.You’d be smashing and smashing and saying, “This thing is a piece of junk.” It’s not a piece of junk. You haven’t been using it as it was designed.Here’s the horror and tragedy of the Bible. We have been using the calculator as a hammer. We thought that the goal of life was to make everything revolve around us and our happiness. We thought the goal of life was to build a kingdom in which we are king. And because we were not designed to be fulfilled in that way, it means not only are we miserable because we are operating outside of our design, but we have permanently destroyed ourselves so that even if we did want to operate in our design, out souls are wrecked such that we could never experience it.We can never experience the perfect design because we are wrecked! The gears are smashed flat by repeated hammering and all the keys are broken off. The thing doesn’t work any longer. Things are permanently damaged and irreparable.And I’m not overstatign: We sense that problem in the two greatest problems mankind faces.How can I have spiritual life?How can I have eternal life?Now here’s where John just comes in a drops a bombshell. I mean this is like a philosophical nuclear warhead.“Guess what? There is a logos to life, but it’s not a truth brought by a person; it is a truth that is a person.The logos is not an abstract principle.The logos is not a theorem.The logos is not something you can find in a book.The logos is a human being, God come to earth. The logos became flesh and LIVED among us and we beheld his glory.”When you know this One and when you behold his glory and when you serve this One and when you worship this One, you find your reason for life. Now there’s meaning and purpose and LIFE. This is what the book of John is about. It’s what Christianity is about. It’s solving these massive problems.Christianity, is not a philosophy. It’s true that you can develop a philosophy from Christianity. You can talk about philosophy that rises out of Christian belief, but it’s not a philosophy; it’s life; it’s power.It’s being connected to GOD who is power and life.Christianity is a person.Christianity is Christ.Jesus is going to say later on in the book, I am the way, the truth and the LIFE. No man comes to the father except through me.That’s what it’s talking about right here. Jesus Christ is not an abstract bit of truth; he is your Alpha and he is your Omega. He is the thing you were created by, and he is the thing you’re created for. That’s what gives you meaning. Jesus CHRIST GIVES YOU LIFE AND GIVES IT TO YOU ABUNDANTLY.Church ThemeEvery year we have a church theme as a way to really drive home a concept we feel like is important for us as a church body.In 2020 God providentially guided us through two sections of Scripture that were so incredibly helpful, Ecclesiastes and the story of Joseph. And we learned about the meaning of life, how to think about suffering, how to think about pleasure, how to think about the sovereignty of God through it all.Change what you love. Hopefully what you ended up loving in 2020 was God and particularly the love of God for you. Well this year we want to build on that. Last year we wanted to focus on taking our eyes off the trinkets of the world, we want to encourage you through the book of Ecclesiastes to stop loving money, sex, power, pleasure and instead fear God and keep his commandments. Love the God of love. Love the fact that God loves you!So this year we build off that idea.Life in his LOVE.So now in 2021 we want to explore what it looks like to have Life in His Love.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son… from the Father, full of grace and truth. -ESV Have you ever pondered that text from John 1:14? That Almighty God would step down off His throne where myriads of angels continually sing Holy, Holy Holy….for the sole purpose of showing us how to live, how to die, defeating death and casting our sins as far as the east is from the west. Yes my dear Brothers and Sisters the veil has indeed been torn. How? The Word became flesh…. Why? Why would the Word (Jesus Christ) become flesh? Revelation 21:3 tells us: Behold, the dwelling place of God is with….man. He will dwell among them….and they will be His people… and God Himself will be with them… as their God. Wow! So, if Jesus Christ became flesh, and He is physically going to dwell among His people in the New Heaven & the New Earth….why do we as His bride tend to think our own physical bodies as…. bad? That somehow our flesh is just a mere “tent” that houses all our evil desires? Is that really the case? Have we really ever considered the theology of our bodies? Guest: Christopher West Book: Fill These Hearts: God, Sex & The Universal Longing Website: http://corproject.com

Worship In The Word is a new podcast series that aims to help Christians see and savor the goodness of God through the reading of the Word. This series will run in conjunction with the Store Up The Word Bible reading challenge we launched on June 1. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Pastor Matt will do a devotional style podcast based on that day's Store Up The Word reading. Text of the day - Mark 2:3-12

God reveals himself through the Word, Jesus Christ.--1. The Word in relation to God.-2. The Word in relation to us.

In my Daily GPS this morning, I was inspired by a scripture to consider deeper, Christ’s hand in helping me create. Isaiah 44:24 – Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; In the past, I have seen myself as creating my life by the words I speak. But now I see that I create by the Word…Jesus Christ. He is my Advocate to the Father. When I ask for things that are based in light, truth, growth and life, He is my advocate. The thought that Christ is willing to carry my requests personally to the granter of blessings proves my significance in His eyes.When I ask for things that are based in fear, I cut Him out of the equation. Satan is the author of fear. So based on the motivation of my request, I choose the partner I am working with. Christ cannot be where fear and darkness exist. So Satan has free reign to lead me at his will when I am in fear.Yesterday, my husband and I expressed gratitude for the closeness that we have maintained through all of our trials. In doing so, we realized how perfect our trials have been for us, individually and as a couple. Seeing this, we both readily adopted the belief: “My Life is Perfect!”Clint and I felt extremely significant in the eyes of Christ because of the trials we have experienced.Coleen, on our call today noticed that the first four letters in the word ‘significance’ is ‘sign’. When we feel insignificant, we can’t see the signs all around us that prove our significance. If we just look up, we will see those signs.And when we truly believe that we are significant in the eyes of Christ, we know without a doubt that we can trust and have faith in Him, just as a child is significant, individually and as part of the family, to a parent. Today, I Give Myself Permission to BE the Significance that Christ Sees in MeMy purpose is significant I am significant I am human and I have access to the GodsI am One with GodI have seeds of divinity within meI am Divine Intelligence at the coreI am of royal birth, divinity and significance is in my DNAClick Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook Group.To have a 15 minute conversation with Wylene Benson about a new perspective on an area of your life you desire to change, contact her directly at this link:askwylene.comSupport the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

God speaks powerfully to us through his Word. The Word - Jesus Christ - gives us our identity as Christians. But what does that look like? How do we balance our daily lives and our life in Christ? Our call is to transform the world from the inside out!

Today's Show is called "Jesus Christ Is The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever." Following through with yesterday's message about the full armor of God. Listen to Richard deliver another compelling message as he begins new series called "War and Victory - The Christian Fight of Faith."

Hello, friends. I'm Father Cathie.  I'm an Episcopal priest in North Carolina, serving congregations and people with the freedom to go where I am called. That's why my ministry is called Free Range Priest — instead of serving one church or group, I serve in many places and many ways. Through teaching and discussing Christian practice in everyday life, I help clergy and congregations re-imagine relationships and connect with audiences through digital evangelism. I became a Free Range Priest after a decade serving in Episcopal congregations in New York City, Durham, NC and Wichita, KS, then another five years serving regionally on a bishop's staff, where I worked with clergy and congregations through mission and ministry development. Today I consult and teach for Backstory Preaching, an online preaching program, as part of my Free Range Priest Ministry, along with blogging, speaking,  coaching, and leading worship. I’m married to the love of my life, and together we raise my two dogs and his three kids (but don't call me a stepmom). I’m an avid runner, a pretty committed vegan, and a champion coffee-drinker. Jay: Coffee drinker!?!? Well then, Cathie, you've come to the right place! Welcome to the show and thank you for the introduction.  As most of you know, I'm your host at Coffeepot Fellowship and a bit of a free range priest myself. If you were to browse the web pages for Free Range Priest and United Faith Leaders you would quickly understand why I am so excited to get to know Father Cathie.  Cathie brings great experience and expertise to her ministries. One of the areas of expertise that has caught my attention has to do with her conceptualization and language. Her bachelor of science degree from Georgetown University is in Linguistics and her master of divinity is from The General Theological Seminary in NYC. What does a pastor with a linguistics degree - a degree in the study of language - feel or say when she is holding The Word of God in her hands, called to transfer, teach or communicate that holy body of words? Does it feel possible? Is it a burden? Does it feel futile? Or, rather, is it an easy joy? Jesus is the Living Word; is that even more marvelous to a Christian with a linguistics degree? Father Cathie shares that we each carry that Word - Jesus Christ - in us, that the Word is alive. The beauty is that we have been reading and communicating the Word, this Love, to one another for centuries. It is infinitely creative and mysterious. Each one of us is "translating" it and adding to that conversation all the time. This linguist is also a Biblical literalist, "a real one," she declares! You'll have to listen to this podcast episode to hear her make her case. Last but not least, Cathie also shared that she is at the beginning of this magnificent, risky, and exciting endeavor. Find ways to stay tuned and stay involved while the brainstorming and development take place. Father Cathie, with others, is facilitating a better, more creative future for God's beautiful Church and world. Let her know that you are interested in becoming certified as an official Free Range Priest. (By the way, you cannot simply start calling yourself a Free Range Priest without the certification. The name is actually Cathie's property.) To stay tuned in you can: follow her on Twitter and like the Free Range Priest Facebook Page. Links: United Faith Leaders United Church of Christ (UCC) Free Range Priest (the book!) by Fr. Cathie Caimano Free Range Priest Website Free Range Priest on Facebook Father Cathie's Blog (subscribe in right margin) Twitter: @frcathie RomanTEC on Facebook Presiding Bishop Michael Curry George Lakoff Backstory Preaching (don't forget to subscribe!) Backstory Preaching on Facebook

Introduction Oh man, well I have so much joy in preaching the text that Walter just read for you. We get to talk today about the supernatural connection between light and fruitfulness, and I've been thinking much about light in my mind's eye, I was thinking about some of the most glorious sunrises I have ever seen in my life. God in His kindness has led me to some amazing places in the world and there are a lot of contestants, for that. I think about one sunrise, I saw over Acadia National Park in Maine, one of the most beautiful place I ever seen, up on a rocky kind of outcropping, and I could see the ocean and the rocky shoreline, as it went north and south away from where I was and that was beautiful. Of course, I think about in my mind's eye the Grand Canyon, and seeing that and how beautiful that was as the sun just filled in all of the deep, deep crevices of that canyon. But one in particular that sticks out in my mind is the sunrise I saw in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan, and the Hunza Valley there and how amazing that was and the Indus river cutting through there and it's very arid except where there had been some human irrigation, and there was just a line of green below that irrigation, above it was just very desert-like. Spectacular mountains there, the Karakoram mountain, the second highest mountain range in the world. And then the Hunza Valley, one of their agricultural specialties is cherries, kind of white-pink cherries, they were incredibly sweet. And we were there right at the harvest time. And all of these blankets were under these trees and they would just come and beat the branches with sticks and they would just fall down, and we can eat as many as we wanted, and they were just so delicious. And I can picture the sunrise coming up in my mind now, and how beautiful that was. The Light and the Darkness And as I come to Ephesians 5:8-14, I think about this supernatural connection between the light of Christ, the light of the Gospel, the light of truth and the fruit that God wants to see in our lives, we have a powerful image here, of light and darkness. And that expresses very clearly the kind of lives that God wants us to live in this present age. The Bible is full of language of light, light is a very important theme in the Bible. Right from the very beginning, as “God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and empty and darkness over the surface to the deep, and the Spirit was hovering over the waters.” And then the first thing that God says in the Bible is, "Let there be light". I've meditated on that before, I've tended, I think, erroneously thought the first thing God ever made was light, but it seems that the first thing He made was the heavens and the Earth, but it was dark, and the first thing God said in the Bible is "Let there be light", and that just shows a desire that God has to tell us what there is. What really exists, what He made, that we would see it and know it, it's a sense of revelation that God wants us to know the truth of what's out there in the heavens and the earth. And so He created light. That's the way I understand it. And then also from the beginning of the Gospel of John, we have that same imagery, coming over from Genesis 1 where it says, "In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ] and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning through Him all things were made and without Him [Jesus Christ] nothing was made that has been made and in Him [in Christ] was life and that life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.”So the word darkness, then means far more than just the absence of light in the Bible, more than that, because in Genesis 1, God separated the light from the darkness, and very poignantly, He called the light good. Doesn't say anything about the darkness, but the clear implication there is that, it is the light that is good, not the darkness. And we get that even more clearly in 1 John chapter 1, where we're told, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." We're going to come back to that passage later in the sermon but there's that clear sense that the light is beautiful, and good, and attractive, and the darkness is evil. One of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 10:21, the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, so that darkness will spread over all of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt." It's a very powerful statement, a darkness that can be felt, a pervasive evil that settles around, and in us, like a damp fog, there's that sense of a darkness in this present age, a darkness that can be felt, I think that that is a description of Satan's evil reign on planet Earth. His evil kingdom, which covers the whole earth. We're going to see this later in the next chapter in Ephesians 6:12, if indeed we ever get there, I think we're going to get there, but some of you are commenting to me, but bear with us I think if God gives us grace we'll get to Ephesians 6. And then perhaps even beyond. But there in Ephesians 6:12 it says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark age”, “or this present darkness." And so, Satan has this dark realm, this dark organized kingdom with rulers and authorities, and powers, and dominions. And it is this present darkness, and Jesus is the light of the world shining in that darkness. As we're told beautifully in Isaiah 9:2, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, and those living in the land of the shadow of death, the light has dawned, and that light is Jesus Christ.” So when Jesus entered the world, the light began shining and the devil has never been and never will be able to put it out, he cannot extinguish it, he cannot understand it, he cannot block it, he cannot stop it, that's the light of Christ. And when Christ entered your life, a supernatural light began shining in your hearts. Which 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "It's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ", in other words how magnificent and great and glorious God is when you look into the face of Christ. That's the light that is shining in the heart of every true Christian, is a sense of the glory of God in Christ. We Must Bear Fruit Now, Paul calls on each one of us in this text, then to bear fruit from that light. One of the amazing features of light, is that it is essential to all life on Earth. There's an intimate connection between light and life, it's essential to all food, to the entire food chain. Everything starts with light. Here, I speak of the marvel of photosynthesis. Now, that's a bit weird that we're talking about photosynthesis, and I'm not going to say much about it, except that the word just means ‘manufacturer or creation from light.’ So the manufacturer of things from light. And so we're surrounded every day by the marvels of biology, the marvels of life. And how God in a very mysterious way uses light, at every moment to create chemical processes in plants that produce ultimately fruit, and all life comes from that process. Now, I don't pretend to stand in front of you here, and explain exactly how it happens. But somehow the light shines on, let's say the leaves of an apple tree, and as the light shines on that, and as the soil conditions are right, and if the tree is healthy and there's rain, the proper amount of rain as the light is being soaked in by these green leaves, something is happening within those leaves that enables the apple tree to produce buds, flowers and buds. And then eventually at the right time, you see the makings, the very beginnings of an apple and if all things are right for the growing conditions at the right time, on a warm autumn day there's going to be a harvest of apples. And one of the favorite things my family is, love to do in the past, is go pick apples, and just the full fruit of all of the light that that healthy apple tree has been drinking in all summer long and be able to pick an apple right out and just eat it right away and it's so crisp and hard and sweet, you know what I'm talking about, my mouth is watering already. Just the tart, sweetness, and the juice just ready, somehow in a way that I don't think we'll ever fully understand. Light has produced fruit. It's a marvelous world that God has made, and Paul uses that kind of analogy in Ephesians 5:8-14, to speak of the lifestyle of the genuine Christian. And in this marvelous passage, Paul is commanding us to walk, or live our daily lives to walk as children of the light and then so doing produce the fruit of the light which he says “consists in all goodness, all righteousness and all truth.”We'll talk about all of that, but by contrast in the same passage where we see that fruitless deeds of darkness, he says. The lifestyle of the non-Christian, it produces nothing of value, nothing that commends our Lord or glorifies our Lord, nothing positive of eternal consequence comes from that life of darkness. This is the contrast we have before us in today's text. So, along with it comes the constant call to each of us as believers in Christ, to be fruitful. To bear fruit. And that we evaluate our lives on the basis of fruit. So today, I'm going to call you to look at your life honestly and see what fruit there is in your life. I've said again and again, and I'm going to keep saying, if there's no fruit, there's no life, do not be deceived. And so I want you to be able to look at the fruit of your life and know yourself and to understand the kind of life that really does lead to Heaven and be aware of that and be clear about that. So you evaluate yourself, your own fruitfulness. I want you to see, is there something sweet, is there something delightful, something honoring to God, something that He's pleased with in your life, something that's coming from your love of Jesus and your knowledge of the word and the power of the Spirit in your life? Is there's something flowing? Is there something the Lord can move through the garden and pluck from you, and enjoy in your life, you have to evaluate yourself. And if there is no fruit, it's not too late, there is time for you to repent and trust in Christ, and come to salvation and begin bearing fruit of righteousness. So look again at the words, Walter's already read them. But I just want us to immerse ourselves in these words, and understand them. Beginning of verse 8, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." This is why it is said, ‘Wake up, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” What You Were and What You Are (v. 8) Only A Good Tree Can Bear Good Fruit So, let's begin with this in verse 8, what you were and what you are. What you were and what you are. This is one of those magnificent verses, that encapsulates the supernatural change that comes on a genuine Christian, supernatural transformation, something that we cannot do on our own. Only the sovereign grace of God can bring this about. Now behind this is the concept, and Jesus taught it very plainly. “Only a good tree can bear good fruit.” So the immediate focus of these verses is be what you are, if you're a Christian. Be what you are. So we're going to be discussing fruit. But a fundamental change in nature must happen in you in order to bear good fruit for God. Jesus taught us this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:17-20. He said, "By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes on thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit. But a bad tree cannot bear bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit, you'll recognize them.” So, the key principle there is a tree is known by its fruit. It is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, Jesus says and a bad tree to bear good fruit. Now, obviously we know in Galatians 5, we're mixed, and so there's a lot of things coming out of us. And James says, "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. This should not be.” We understand that. I'm not getting into all that. I'm just saying essentially, if there is any good fruit in your life, it's because God has done a sovereign work in you to make you a good tree, and it is impossible for a bad tree to produce good fruit, that's what he's saying. Now, I would say only a specialist, a trained botanist, let's say, or agricultural expert can tell the difference from one, let's say tree limb to the next or by looking at bark or the roots, right? We can't do that. Maybe some of you I'm talking to today, you're specially gifted people. And if I showed you five different leaves, you could tell me what those trees are. I can't do it. There's no way I could do it. But I think almost every toddler can tell the difference between a peach tree and an apple tree at harvest time. I mean, "that's a peach tree Mommy, that's an apple tree.” We just know because you know what a peach looks like and what an apple looks like, and so by their fruit, by what is coming out of that tree, that's how you know what kind of tree it is. So the fundamental spiritual concept here is a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. You Once Were Darkness In order for us to change the fruit of our lives, then we must become essentially different. We must become a different kind of tree. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 12:33, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and it's fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” But you realize when you make a tree good He is actually telling you something in command form that you cannot do. You have no power to do that, you cannot make the tree good. You can't make yourself become good, it's actually impossible. Only the sovereign grace of God can make a previously bad tree to become good, so it bears good fruit for God, something only God can do. We who loved wickedness, we who loved darkness, we who loved to sin, how can we be transformed? Jeremiah put it very plainly in Jeremiah 13:23. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing wickedness." You can't do it. Your habit patterns have shown that you love wickedness, etcetera. You can't change yourself any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin. Something only God can do. And we're told in this text, amazingly. You once were darkness. Just be amazed Christian brother and sister, what God has done to you. You were darkness. Look at it, look at the words, verse 8, "You once were darkness." Now, darkness is moral evil, it's wickedness, it's rebellion against Almighty God. First John 1:5, “This is the message we heard from the beginning, and declared to you God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” You were once, at one time in the past, in the days before you are Christians, you were darkness. Now, notice he doesn't blame your environment. He doesn't talk about what kind of family life, you were raised in, or any of those kinds of things. He doesn't talk about the fact that you lived in darkness, here. He's not actually saying this. He doesn't say you are walking in a land of darkness surrounded by dark people and all that. Those things are all true and taught elsewhere. Here He doesn't say that, He says "You were darkness." Darkness was in the very fiber of your being, it was in your heart, it was what you loved, it's how you lived and it wasn't accidental. We didn't just do dark things. We actually loved the darkness. Jesus taught this plainly in John 3:19, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” That's who we were. So, darkness, moral evil penetrated to the very core of our being. Look back, maybe one chapter, in Ephesians 4:18, speaking about the lost, the pagans, the Gentiles who are unconverted. He said in Ephesians 4:18, "They are darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts." That's the darkness of the pre-Christ condition, it's the very thing asserted earlier. If you look even further in Ephesians 2:1-3, as we said time and again, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. When you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time. Gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts, like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.” Now, as I was thinking about "you were darkness", and all that, I know that some of you were raised in Christian families. Maybe you came to Christ at a very early age. We do believe that that you can be genuinely converted very, very young. But I'm just banking on the statement that Paul makes when he says, "All of us lived among them." This is true of all of us, even if you were converted at an early age and you didn't have much chance to develop in wickedness and sin, just as a son or daughter of Adam, that's what you were born into, that darkness and wickedness and if God hadn't converted you, you would have continued to love darkness as the rest of the human race does. So that's true of all of us. So apart from Christ, the darkness of evil penetrated our minds how we thought our hearts what we loved, our wills, what we chose. And we weren't merely surrounded by an evil world, fighting off evil temptations, doing the best we could, being basically good people. That's not what's taught here. We were darkness itself. We were part of the darkness and we added to the darkness of the world. Jesus said this in Matthew 6:22-23, "The eye is the lamp of the body." If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness, and if the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? A Decisive Break Between Us and Darkness Well, that's what we were. Just completely characterized by darkness, our spiritual eyes were blind, we couldn't see invisible spiritual realms, we couldn't see Christ crucified and resurrected and God in His glory, we didn't understand Satan and all of his power, we didn't know any of these things, we were in the dark, we were blind, and we were darkness. Don't you love these verses? “For you were once darkness, but now you are children of the light.” I mean, we just can't ever stop celebrating that. It just dwarfs any problem you're having in your life right now, it dwarfs any sadness that you brought in here today. If you're a genuine Christian, this swallows up in victory anything that's dragging you down, now it's just so infinitely greater than anything that could ever happen or ever has happened to you. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. And how magnificent is that. Oh God, give God thanks for your conversion, it's a supernatural act of grace. It's something you couldn't have done to yourself, and He speaks of the transformation that's occurred for us. We're not merely surrounded by light, we're not merely interested in light, we're not merely walking in light, we are light now. Just every bit as much as we were at once darkness. Light characterizes us now in Christ. Light defines you, it permeates you, it characterizes you, it's a radical change, that God's worked in your soul. You've been born again by the sovereign power of the Spirit of God. And you have been rescued from the dominion of darkness, Colossians 1:13 and “you've been transferred over into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son,” that's where you live. Jesus said in John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who's sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned." He has crossed over from death to life. It's permanent. You will never be darkness again. Never. Forever, you will be light in the Lord. Isn't that amazing? Think about that. There's nothing the darkness can do to get you back. Now this new light, as we've already said in 2 Corinthians 4:6, is shining from within us. It's an internal work, that's done. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ is shining within our hearts. And we love it, we love how glorious God is in Christ. It's absolutely the ravishing delight of our souls. We love it. Christ is the Light of the World Now, this is something that God has done inside you if you're a Christian. Jesus is the light of the world. He said in John 9:5, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world, and in Him was life, and that life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being.” And Phillip said, "Show us the Father and it will be enough for us" and Jesus said "Don't you know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." But we're told in 1 Peter 1, we haven't seen Jesus. Oh yes, you have. The eyes of your heart through the faith in the Gospel, through the word of God, you've seen Jesus spiritually, the eyes of your heart were enlightened, and you now see Him and you see how radiant and glorious He is in the crucifixion, in the resurrection, and you love it, and you delight in it. And Jesus reveals the Father to us. The world was in darkness, alienated from God. Have you ever walked in an unfamiliar room with furniture in it and especially if it's a kid's room and it's not cleaned up? Have you ever walked in a totally dark room and hurt yourself? The thing that used to get me when I was growing up was Lego blocks. Have you ever stepped on a Lego block, with bare feet on a hardwood floor? Worse. Have you ever jumped from a bunk bed down on to a Lego block? I think, you actually can see colors in the dark when that kind of thing happens, something happens. I don't know what it is, but it's unforgettable. And so, non-Christians, they're moving through God's universe bumping into things and hurting themselves. They're bumping into furniture because they don't see that it's there. And they're falling into pits that they didn't see the enemy had dug, “if the blind lead the blind, both of them will fall into the pit,” Jesus said. So there's this image of they don't have any idea what's going on. They just can't see the lay of the land, they can't see what's in the room, they don't know what's happening, they're blind. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit, but verses 13-14, everything exposed by the light becomes visible. I think that's a better translation than the ESV. I think in this case, for it is light that makes everything visible, not everything that becomes visible is light, that just isn't true. I mean think about it. But it is light that makes things become visible, and so it is light that tells you what's where. What evil is and what good is, and where God is and where Satan is, and you can see it all now, and you can see the lay of the land and now you got it. And that's that spiritual vision that God gives us when we are converted. And now, not only that, now that we can see light, and delight in light and all that, but we are light and we have become like Jesus in a smaller way, the light of the world. We have become the light of the world, Christians have. Jesus, I know he said, "I'm the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12. But he also said in the Sermon on the Mount "You are the light of the world." A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it up in its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. That's a life of fruit that's going to lead people to ask questions and eventually to come to Christ and they're going to glorify God. That's what's going on. So we are called on be light, and to shine light. To be holy and to show what we are. So here's how it works, this is New Testament sanctification. You are light, so live like light. You are holy, so be holy. You are a child to the King, now live like it. That's how sanctification is taught in the New Testament. What you are, now live it. Maybe you didn't know what you were. But you are light, if you're a Christian, that's what he's saying. Producing Fruit as Children of the Light (vv. 8-10) The Command: Live/Walk as Children of the Light Secondly, we have this in verses 8-10, producing fruit as children of the light. The command here is "live as children of the light or walk", is more literalistically true, "walk as children of the light." So our daily life should show light, that's in our souls, our hearts. There should be none of the darkness, the former darkness of the pagan world that we've been walking through in Ephesians 4. From those verses 17, 18, 19, all the darkness of the ignorance and the hardening of heart, and all that. And then he gets into specific patterns in chapter 4 verse 19, the enslavement to lust of the flesh that corrupted life. The lying in 4:25, the sinful anger in 4:26, the stealing in 4:28, the corrupted talk in 4:29, anything that grieves the Holy Spirit of God. In 4:30, the bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander of 4:31, the unforgiveness of 4:32. The sexual immorality of 5:3. The impurity, the greed of 5:3. The idolatry of that, 5:3. Also the obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking of 5:4, all of these things and many other patterns besides, they formed darkness. That's what the darkness is. Each of them though, in Ephesians 4 and 5 was giving out a corresponding pattern that drives it out. You remember, we've been through each of these, but instead now, it's truth-telling, hard work, generosity to the poor and needy, speaking wholesome words, that edify and give grace to those who listen, a sweet forgiving temper which keeps no record of wrongs, sexually-pure, free from immorality, free from idolatry, a heart that's free from covetousness, living instead for constant fellowship with Almighty God, that's what it means to walk as a child of the light. John uses the same expression in 1 John 1:5-7, “This is the message we heard from Him and declared to you: God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies.” It's powerful, continual present. Purifies us from all and righteousness. That drives out perfectionism. We're not talking about perfection. Cannot be. You can walk in the light, and still need an ongoing purification from the blood of Jesus. We all do that. But there is a life that's righteous and holy, and good, and possible. Not perfection, but it's walking in the light as He is in light, and the blood of Jesus purifies you ongoing. “Children of the Light” And he calls us here, children of light. It speaks of our transformed nature by the Spirit of God, we have believed the Gospel, and “He gave us the right to become children of God.” Children born by the sovereign grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not biological reproduction but a supernatural work of God's grace, and we have become children of the light. And I love it when you see large families with kids and they all share some genetic link. Alright, it could be like curly brown hair, or it could be a certain shape of the nose, or something like that. And you just know that they're all sons and daughters of the same pair, the same couple. For us as children of God, we're not sharing physiological things, it's moral, it just has to do with how you live, how you talk, the things you love. And so, we are to show the family likeness as children of the light, that's what he's saying. And we are to produce fruit, look at verses 9-10. "For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord." So continual abiding in Jesus results in fruit bearing. There's going to be fruit in your life, and this fruit is the proof of your Christianity. No fruit, no Christianity. I hope we're done here in the Bible belt with nominalism, and the idea that it's okay, it's enough to have been baptized in a church member for many decades. Out with such a religion, out with such a Christianity, it's a counterfeit. “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” That is not true Christianity, no fruit no Christianity, no justification, no forgiveness of sins, condemnation on Judgment Day. The “Fruit of the Light” So the fruit, is there fruit in your life? That's what you're looking for. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,” John 15:2. “Such branches he collects up and they're burned in the fire.” John 15 and verse 6. So we are, like John the Baptist said to the Scribes and Pharisees who are very religious, "You brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping with repentance?" That's what we're talking about. There's a life of fruitfulness, that comes from genuine conversion, and as we abide in Christ, that will come. Now, what is the fruit? Goodness, Righteousness, Truth Well, he says, the fruit consists number one, “in all goodness, righteousness and truth,” and then number two, in what pleases the Lord. They end up being the same thing, but he just gives us two different ways of talking about it. So the fruit consists” in all goodness,” and put the word "all" in all three of them, “all goodness, all righteousness and all truth.” That's what the fruit is. So what do we mean by these things? Well, I was meditating on the goodness of God. Now goodness comes to the very essential nature of His being. Do you remember when Moses was up on the mountain, he said "Now show me your glory." Remember that? Or God said to Moses, "I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you." It's like that almost sums up who I am. What sums up my glory is my goodness, God's goodness. So it consists in His benevolence, and His loving kindness, and His free generosity to all the creatures that He's made. He's just lavishly generous to everything He has created. God’s Goodness to All It says in Psalm 145:9, "The Lord is good to all, He has compassion on all He has made", in the same Psalm, Psalm 145:16, "You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." So God just feeds everything and just by His goodness, He's just lavishly generous. So every time a thirsty animal, like a deer, a panting deer finds a mountain brook and drinks to her heart's content, that deer is experiencing the goodness of God, though she doesn't know it, and she's not in the image of God, cannot know that God gave her that water, but we know. And every time the skies pour down rain, and the showers come in the spring, and the land just drinks in the goodness from God and starts to bud and flourish and flower, that land is drinking in the goodness of God. Picture in your mind's eye a zoo, and you go around to one of the key exhibits. Okay? The lion. Alright. And it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon and it's a warm summer day, not too hot, warm, though. 80 degrees. And there's this huge flat rock. Big, big rock. Where is that lion right there? 2:00 in the afternoon. It is just laying on that warm rock sleeping. I'm like, "I didn't pay for that. I want to hear roaring, I want to see some... " But the lion is just drinking in the goodness of God in that sunshine. It doesn't know it. But it's drinking in goodness from God, He is good to all that He's made. God's goodness flows like a river of blessing on all creation, like sunshine and rain, and cool breezes, and the fragrance of spring and every succulent peach, you ever ate or every warm loaf of bread you ever took out of the oven and after it cooled you sliced it and ate it, it's goodness of God, and God shows that goodness to the evil and the good alike, to his friends and his enemies, that's just the goodness of God. Surely, “God is good to everything that he has made.” So the fruit of the light consists in being like that to the people in your life, you're just an open stream of benevolence and goodness to the people who know you. It just flows through you. People just blessed by being around you. They're blessed by your words, they're blessed by your money, they're blessed by the way you spend your time, they're blessed by your goodness. Now, you weren't good at one point, but now you are. And the fruit of the light consists in being good, like God is good, even to your enemies. And then, all righteousness, what does that mean? It means living up to God's perfect moral standard. I have a picture in my mind's eye, it comes from Amos 7 verses 7-8. And Amos, the visionary prophet, God showed him a vision, this is what he showed me. “The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb.” Now picture a plumb line, it's a string with a heavy metal weight that's pointed and He's hanging it there. “And the wall had been built true to plumb.” The plumb line is used for righteous building, if you can know what I say, the law of God is His standard of all righteousness, He always lives up to it. He displayed His righteousness at the cross. So, if you're a child of God, you're going to love God's law, and live up to it, you're going to show all righteousness as defined by the Law of God, not for the salvation of your soul, but because it's right, because you love it. You love the Law of God and you want to live up to it. All righteousness. And then all truth, it corresponds to the Word of God. Jesus said in John 17:17 "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth", and so everything that flows from the Scripture, everything that flows from the truth of God, especially as culminating in the person of Jesus, you just delight in the fruit of truth, you want to tell the truth. And it says next, proving or finding out what pleases the Lord. It's the summary of the life we should live at all times, we have as our ambition, whether we are at home or absent, to be pleasing to the Lord. To find out what's acceptable, what is pleasing. It's like in the NIV, it's like a scavenger hunt. "Hey, let's find out what pleases the Lord." Proving What Pleases the Lord So I went through and I just took that phrase, "pleased the Lord" or "what's pleasing to the Lord" and just positively, not that things that were not pleasing to the Lord, but I went through and found those things that are pleasing to the Lord. I'm not going to read all the verses, but believing in His Son pleases the Father. The Father is delighted when we believe in Jesus and love Him. And knowing Him pleases the Lord. “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his wealth, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows me.” Just knowing Him, for you to know Him that pleases God, it pleases Him if you obey his commands, because to obey is better than sacrifice, it's just pleasing to God, to obey His commands. "If you love me you'll obey me" Jesus said. Fearing the Lord, the fear of the Lord pleases Him. “The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” Heartfelt worship. When you come here and you sing with all your heart and you just are lifting up spirit-filled songs, hymns, and spiritual songs from a full heart, not hypocritically, but from the heart, that pleases the Lord. It's a pleasing aroma. The prayers of the godly, are said to be a pleasing aroma that wafts up, that pleases the Lord for you to pray. The pure thoughts. “May the words of my mouth and “the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you oh Lord.” I want to speak pure words and think pure thoughts that will please the Lord. Proverbs 15:26, "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked. But those of the pure are pleasing to Him." “Bearing holy fruit in always,” Colossians 1:10. "Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord." So, you children, you teens, you young people, maybe you're in elementary school, you're in middle school, maybe you're in high school, and you're thinking, "This doesn't apply to me." It does. It pleases the Lord when you obey your parents gladly. It's pleasing to the Lord to obey them. To pursue righteousness pleases the Lord. To care for the poor and needy, pleases the Lord. To save souls. So that God can have that celebration in Heaven in the presence of the angels. Evangelism pleases the Lord. All of these things. Find out what pleases the Lord. Conversely, we're told to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness, verses 11 and following, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." So this is negative sanctification. Don't partner yourself with people who are later going to experience the wrath of God. Don't buy shares in what they're doing. That's what I think the idea here is. Don't be partners with them. Don't have fellowship in the fruitless deeds of darkness. Don't partake in it. As it says in Revelation 18:4 about Babylon, "Come out from her, my people, so that you will not share in her plagues and her judgments." These are fruitless deeds of darkness. People who live for the deeds of darkness, at the end of their lives, they will look around at the evidence of a life of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” And if you can just think image-wise their life, the floor of their life is cluttered with a bunch of empties, just empties everywhere on the floor. They look in the mirror and they see a sallow complexion and their skin is jaundiced and their eyes are bloodshot. The parties are over and now there's nothing but the wrath of God. Don't live like that. It says in Proverbs 5:11-12, "At the end of your life, you will groan. When your flesh and body are spent and you will say, ‘How I hated discipline, how my heart spurned correction.’" That's the empty, fruitless life of rebellion to God. It ends like the prodigal son feeding pig, saying, "How did I get here? I was lavishly blessed by my father with a big inheritance, spent it all on riotous living, and now I have barely rags on my body. I stink like pigs, and how much better it would be if I were in my Father's house." So don't live like that but that's not enough to just live and let live, it's just that's the way they're living. Exposing the Fruitless Deeds of Darkness (vv. 11-13) We're actually called on to expose these fruitless deeds of darkness. We're called on to a courageous life of exposure. Now, the Greek word here means, to prove by argument, that's what it means. We're going to show by argument, not by having an argument but showing by the word of God that this is a wicked thing to do. We are to show by evidence how evil those sins are by the word of God and by how we live. We're to bring to bear with power, the word of God, seeking to produce faith in the souls of the people so that they'll be convicted of their sins. Speaking Against the Darkness: Our Spiritual Ancestors Christians have done this throughout church history. Their godly lives have exposed wickedness of the society around them. I think about John and Charles Wesley during the Methodist revival in the 1700s. In 1736, every sixth house in London was a gin house. It was a grog-shop, every sixth house in London. And the gin sellers would hang out boards announcing they would make a man drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pennies, but give him free straw to sleep it off. In that year, 1736, five million gallons of gin were distilled in England. Seven years later, the number had risen to seven million gallons of gin. By 1750 it was up to 11 million gallons of gin. London doctors, around that time, reported that there were 14,000 medical cases beyond their ability to cure, directly related to drinking gin. John Wesley's preaching among that of others and the revivals of God’s work transformed that society. It didn't get rid of all drunkenness and it certainly not but, it transformed London, so that by the end of his life, by the end of the 1700s, things had radically changed. I think also about William Wilberforce and the Clapham sect how they exposed the wickedness of the slave trade, and then eventually of slavery itself, over a 25-year fight. They just popped the lid off so people could see. You've seen the movie Amazing Grace? They put the fetters on the table and would say "Look, that's what they're wearing", as they're making that passage from Africa to the colonies. They exposed it, they made it clear. Amy Carmichael, missionary in India exposed and fought hard against the wicked practice of child abuse in Hindu temples and that brought a great deal of suffering and persecution even attacks on her life. African-American leaders in our country, in the Civil Rights Movement, exposed the wickedness of the Jim Crow laws and segregation, and the unfairness and injustice and brought lasting change in our society. Christians nowadays are exposing the wickedness of Planned Parenthood and the selling of body parts from aborted babies, and just how disgusting and evil that is. We are to do this kind of ministry, we're to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness. It's so easy for us to live and let live, but we're called on to be light and salt, the light drives back the darkness. I picture in my mind, a big bonfire in the middle of an Alaskan forest, and you can see the eyes and hear the howls of the wolves and the light keeps the darkness at bay. We are the light of the world, keeping the darkness, barely, the darkness at bay. We are the salt of the earth, so that the salt moves through the meat and it's a desiccant, and it keeps bacteria from spreading and the meat going bad later that afternoon, but salted meat will last a long time. We are a preservative, we're called on to do this, and this is going to take courage. I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, American Christians and Christians around the world. But I'm saying to you it's going to get harder and harder in our lifetime, to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness, but we're called on to do it. It's going to take courage, but we have to do it. So… Rise and Let Christ Shine On You! (vv. 14) Trust Jesus So finally, verse 14, "Therefore it says, Awake O sleeper, arise O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you." This is first and foremost a call to all of you who are unconverted. If there are any unconverted people, he is calling on you to wake up and rise up from the dead through faith in the Gospel. God sent His son who lived a sinless life and who died on the cross in the place of sinners like you and me so that our fruitless deeds of darkness will not condemn our souls, but rather, we can have forgiveness and eternal life. Trust in Jesus, crucified and resurrected, trust in Him and arise and wake up from your darkness and your dead life. Christians, Wake Up! But now, I want to say the same thing to you Christians, don't live like a non-Christian. Wake up. Wake up. I just sense a sleepiness sometimes in some Christians who are in this church or in Evangelical Christianity and I just feel like this text is just standing over us and saying, "Wake Up. The Night is nearly over. The day is almost here, it's coming close." I was having a conversation at breakfast, a couple of days ago, with a dear brother, and he was talking about the zeal of the cults. And they're out killing it. That means they are working hard in the name of a false Gospel and so are the Jihadists and the terrorists. They are fully alert in the name of a false God. We have the truth. And it's like, as Keith Green said years ago, like we're asleep in the light. This text is calling on us to wake up to the fact that our neighbors are dying in these sins and we're called on to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness. So let's be faithful. Let's wake up, and let's rise as from the dead and Christ will illuminate us every day. And let's live for the day and there's going to come a day when there'll be no more sun or moon or stars or lamp, but the glory of God will radiate the New Heavens and the New Earth. And there's going to be something that I can't fully understand but it's called "transparent gold". What is that, what is transparent gold? The streets are gold, but they are clear as crystal, and if the whole place is going to sparkle and radiate with the glory of God in Christ, let's live for the light of that New Heaven and New Earth, let's live lives of light. Now, close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the magnificence of this text, we thank you for all the things you've called on us to do and to be. Oh God, I pray no one would leave here unconverted. No one would leave here sleepy, or in some kind of pattern of sin. And I ask for my brother and sister Christians O Lord, that we would be faithful to bring forth fruit and keeping with repentance and the fruit of the light that “consists in all goodness, all righteousness, all truth.” We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son… from the Father, full of grace and truth. -ESV Have you ever pondered that text from John 1:14? That Almighty God would step down off His throne where myriads of angels continually sing Holy, Holy Holy….for the sole purpose of showing us how to live, how to die, defeating death and casting our sins as far as the east is from the west. Yes my dear Brothers and Sisters the veil has indeed been torn. How? The Word became flesh…. Why? Why would the Word (Jesus Christ) become flesh? Revelation 21:3 tells us: Behold, the dwelling place of God is with….man. He will dwell among them….and they will be His people… and God Himself will be with them… as their God. Wow! So, if Jesus Christ became flesh, and He is physically going to dwell among His people in the New Heaven & the New Earth….why do we as His bride tend to think our own physical bodies as…. bad? That somehow our flesh is just a mere “tent” that houses all our evil desires? Is that really the case? Have we really ever considered the theology of our bodies? Guest: Christopher West Book: Fill These Hearts: God, Sex & The Universal Longing Website: http://corproject.com

I. “Heaven on Earth” Would you take your Bibles and open to Romans Chapter 8. This morning, we're going to deviate a little from our ordinary procedure. We're going to look over the entire chapter to get an overview of this majestic chapter, Scripture in Romans, Romans Chapter 8. And the question that we ask as we come to this chapter is, is it possible for a sinner on earth to have a full assurance that when they die they're going to go to heaven? Is it possible to know for sure that you're going to heaven? That is a weighty matter, is it not? Is it possible that you can have a full assurance that you can know today that when you die, you're going to be with God forever in heaven? I think it is and I think it's more than just possible. I think it's a birthright of a Christian. It is the logical extension of our faith in Jesus Christ, that that very thing he came to do in our lives, he will complete right to its end. God does not speak a word from heaven to earth and have it come back empty. That is true of the written word, it is true of the spoken word through the prophets and it is all the more true of the incarnate Word Jesus Christ. He sent him to earth for a purpose and he will accomplish that purpose, salvation. And so we come to Romans 8, for me personally, with great expectation, what a chapter, what an incredible chapter of Scripture and what a joy it's going to be to just look over this chapter today. I hope you look on it like a feast the way I do. Is it possible to know that we have eternal life? Thomas Brooks wrote a book called "Heaven on Earth." He was a Puritan pastor and he wrote a book called "Heaven on Earth" and it's about assurance of salvation. This is what he said, he's talking about salvation itself, he said, "To be in a state of true grace" (that is to be saved), "to be in a state of true grace, is to be miserable no more. It is to be happy forever. A soul in this state is a soul near and dear to God. It is a soul much beloved and very highly valued by God. It is a soul housed in God. It is a soul safe in everlasting arms. It is a soul fully and imminently interested in all the highest and noblest privileges. The being in a state of grace makes a man's condition happy, safe and secure, but the seeing and knowing of himself to be in such a state, as that, is what renders his life sweet and comfortable." What is he saying? It's possible to be saved and not have a full assurance, but when you have a full assurance of salvation, then is your life sweet and comfortable. "The being in a state of grace will yield a man a heaven hereafter, but seeing and knowing of himself in this state will yield him both a heaven here and a heaven hereafter. It will render him therefore doubly blessed, blessed in heaven and blessed in his own conscience." Full assurance of salvation, therefore, is an enjoyment of heaven on earth. It is the birthrights of every child of God to enjoy this assurance of salvation. And that's the purpose of Romans Chapter 8. Brooks wrote this: "It is the very drift and design of Scripture first to bring you to an acquaintance with Christ, then to an acceptance of Christ, and then to a full assurance in Chris." Acquaintance, acceptance, assurance, that's the purpose of Scripture and so I think it's the purpose of Romans Chapter 8. For this reason Luther said, "I would not trade for all the riches and treasures of the world one page of Holy Writ." That's the value of the promises that we have in Jesus Christ. And many of them are right here in Romans Chapter 8. Now, a life without assurance is a bleak and difficult life, you can be saved and not have assurance. But I want to ask you this, what good would it be for you to know that there is a promised land, if you did not have an inherited share in that promised land? What good would it be for you to know that there was a remedy to your disease, if you did not or were not able to partake in that remedy? What good would it be for you to know that there are mines of gold, mountains of pearls, a land of milk and honey, and to not know that you could share in those? What good would it be for you to smell the rich aroma coming from a lavish banquet if you're not permitted to sit at the feast and partake of its delicacies? No good at all and actually the knowledge of all those things would be more of a torment than anything. To know that they were out here and you could not partake, you had no share, they were not yours. It would really be a form of torment. I think it's the assurance therefore that I have a place at the table. The confidence that I have a share in the inheritance, that I can partake in the remedy, that I have a piece of the promised land that makes my life sweet and secure and from that base I do all of my ministry, and that's the purpose I believe of Romans Chapter 8, to give you a full assurance of salvation. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." no condemnation. We're going to plumb the depths of that today. In 1987, as I've mentioned before, I was a missionary in Pakistan, I had a summer there, and I had the privilege of going to one of the most beautiful parts of the world. It's right around where the war is being fought right now, northwest frontier province of Pakistan. And we were supposed to fly in there and so we were on a small plane and we flew over the Karakoram mountains to get into Gilgit, this little town in the northwest frontier province. And as we're flying over the Karakorams, we flew over Mount Godwin-Austen also known as K2, the second highest mountain in the world. And what a majestic scene it was, this mountain just towers over all of the other surrounding mountains. It's over 28,000 feet high. And to see it from the air, to see all of its majesty, to see how it towers, to see the austerity of it. The fact that it's so far from everything, you have to climb three or four mountains just to get to that mountain, and it's majestic. And that's about what we're going to do with Romans 8, today, we're going to fly over it and we are just going to look at it and see just the promises and the majesty of this chapter. II. Basic Proposition: No Condemnation by God! (8:1) I believe what Paul is doing here is he's making a basic proposition right from the start, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And then he gives a series, manifold proofs, of why this is true, and how you can know for sure that this is true of you personally. I think really in the flow, in context, he's reverting to his argument of Romans Chapter 5. Some have said that Romans 8 is the greatest chapter in the whole Bible. I think the greatest chapter in the whole Bible is whatever one I'm reading at that present time, but I think Romans 8 is a great chapter. I don't know that it is the greatest chapter of the Bible, but it is certainly maybe one of the most assuring and one of the most comforting. Context: Reverting to Romans 5 And I actually don't think that there's anything doctrinally that's brought up in Romans 8 that the foundation wasn't already laid in Romans 5. It really is just an extension of the things that we have already covered in Romans Chapter 5. There's a relationship therefore between Romans 5 and Romans 8, but what does that make Romans 6 and 7? I think it's a little bit of a parenthesis in which in Romans 6 and 7, he's dealing with an issue he must deal with. He has been talking about salvation by grace through faith alone. Grace, the certainty of grace, the fact that where sin abounds, grace is going to abound all the more. Gives you total assurance, a total sense of security. But it (grace) brings up a question, doesn't it? If salvation is all by grace, if it's a work of God, and if nothing that we contribute to our salvation other than the sin that makes it necessary, then can't we just sin to beat the band? Aren't we totally secure? Can't we live whatever way we want? He's dealing with the relationship between sin and the justified Christian in Romans 6 and 7. But having completed that, I think that therefore connects back to that theme that he was dealing with earlier. We're back now to understanding salvation or justification by grace alone, and the certainty of our salvation. He goes back to Romans 5:1. Flip back with me if you will, look at Romans 5:1, and there's a connection between Romans 5:1 and Romans 8:1. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." You see the word "now" there, isn't that strong? In Romans 5:2, there's this grace in which we now stand, we're standing in grace. It's the thing that Brooks was talking about, a state of grace, it's like a nation of grace that we live in now. It's a kingdom of grace, the place where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, a place of security, a place where we're at peace with God. We're justified. We've been declared not guilty. And I think he's just saying the same thing in slightly different words. There is in Romans 8:1, "Therefore," because of justification by faith, "therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Greater Context: Judgement Day So that's the context in Romans, but there is a greater context. To go back to Romans 8, there is a greater context overall, and that's the entire biblical issue of the relationship between sinful man and a holy God. The real context of Romans 8:1 is Judgment Day, is it not? Condemnation is a strong word, and it brings up the image of Judgment Day. You remember when we were studying in the Book of Daniel, Daniel Chapter 7, Daniel said this, he saw a vision, "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow, the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. Ten thousands times the thousand stood before him. The court was seated and books were opened." What an awesome picture. The court was seated and the books were opened. And what are in those books? The record of everything that we've ever said, everything we've ever done, everything we ever thought. Jesus said, "I tell you, that men will have to give an account on Judgment Day for every careless word they have spoken." Judgment Day is the backdrop, the context here. Paul had already alluded to this in Romans 2:5 and 6, it says, "There because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done." What is this day of wrath in Romans 2? It is Judgment Day. And what is this recompense, this paying back for every careless word, everything we've ever done? It is judgment, it is condemnation, it is the pouring out of wrath on sinners that deserve it. Full Atonement Provided by Jesus Christ But there's a deeper context here, isn't there? And that is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the finished work of Jesus Christ in our place. In Romans Chapter 3, Paul talks about that. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, a propitiation through faith in his blood." God presented him, that's a Christmas verse, isn't it? God sent him into the world to be our atoning sacrifice, he presented him on the cross in our place. He stood in our place at the cross and took the wrath that we deserve, the condemnation. He took the judgment that we deserve. He drank it down like a cup full of bitter wine until it was gone, to the dregs he drank that cup. And he extinguished the wrath of God on our behalf. Justification by Faith And so therefore, in Romans 4, if we simply have faith, the faith of Abraham, the faith to just look at a promise and believe it, that anyone that believes in Jesus Christ will have eternal life. Just a simple promise from God. And then in the heart of God's people, springs faith, to believe the promise they respond, they repent, they come and simply believe and trust. And at that moment, they're declared not guilty. And as a result of that, there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. That is the context of this statement. And as a result of that, we have total and complete forgiveness. How sweet is that? Now, what is condemnation? Well, we have to understand there's both a present condemnation and there is a yet future condemnation. Original Sin: Guilt and Judgement “In Adam” According to Romans Chapter 5, We are born into a present condemnation in Adam. We're born in Adam, aren't we? Naturally. We are the natural man, the natural woman, and that person, Adam sinned for the whole human race. And so we're born into condemnation. And unless we come into the kingdom of Christ through faith, we will continue in that condemnation the rest of our lives. John put it this way in John 3:18, "Whoever believes in Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's only begotten son." Already condemned. Condemn now, condemn today. I'm speaking now to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you realize that you're walking around people all the time that are under the condemnation of God, because they've not come to faith in Christ. What is your responsibility to them? Have you spoken the Gospel message? It's the only message of salvation. There is no other salvation. There's no other hope. But the people that we're living with they look so healthy, they're busy about their lives, but they're walking under condemnation if they've not come to faith in Christ. They're dead even while they live. Ephesians 2, calls them "dead in their transgressions and sins" and therefore they're under the wrath of God. Romans 1:18, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The wrath of God's already on them. That's condemnation now. What is condemnation in the future? Well, Revelation 20:15 talks about the lake of fire, which is the second death. It says, "If anyone's name is not found written in the Book of Life, is thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 14:10 and following, "He too," it says, "Will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, there is no rest day or night from the wrath of God." Grace, Life, and no Condemnation “In Christ” How sweet therefore is this promise, in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." We were liable and subject to this. We deserved it. And if you don't think so, I've great fear for your soul, because the work of the Holy Spirit and conviction hasn't happened to you yet. But if you know I deserve this and Jesus took my place, and I'm free, free forever from condemnation. That's what no condemnation means. I'm not going to suffer hell. I'm not going to be condemned on Judgment Day and not because of any works I've done, but because of the work that Jesus did in my place. A future, no condemnation. And presently, now we walk in it, don't we? The record of our sins has been thrown into the depths of the sea. Micah 7 talks about that, "who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. Our God is a God who delights in showing mercy." It brings him great pleasure to give us the kingdom. It brings him great joy to declare to us today there is therefore now no condemnation for you, if you're in Christ Jesus. So that brings him joy. It brought Jesus joy, didn't it? For the joy set before him to bring this message, he endured the cross despising its shame. And so now he stands and proclaims to you with joy. There's no condemnation for you, because of what I did in your place. No condemnation, no condemnation now, and no condemnation in the future. Look at verses 33-34 of Romans 8, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?" We'll get to that later. February, I'm guessing. "Who is he that condemns?" I would almost want to say, "Who cares who condemns when God justifies?" Does it really matter? If Satan's there accusing you on Judgment Day. Does it matter if your conscience would stand and accuse you of wrongdoing? God has justified you through the blood of his son. Who cares who's left to condemn? And so we're free, we're free from condemnation. We're free from the wrath of God. We're free from it all. We're free now, and we'll be free forever. And why? Because we believe the Gospel, that's all. We simply heard a message and believed it. Jesus said this, John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." You've moved from death to life. That was a great moving day, the day that you came to faith in Christ. You moved it all over into eternal life. That's the weight of the word now, there is now no condemnation. There's been a great change in you, a change in your state from death to life through faith in Jesus Christ. Does this not get you excited? What a joy! I feel like I just want to shout, because I feel myself, I feel the weight of my sins. And if I have to give an account on Judgment Day for every careless word, who can stand under that? But Jesus stood and took my punishment for me and there's no condemnation for me. Praise God. III. Manifold Proofs (8:2-34) But he doesn't stop there. He wants you to understand it, doesn't he? And so he gives you the rest of Romans 8. He gives you the whole chapter to prove it to you. He unfolds proof after proof after proof of why you can be fully assured as a Christian. He's laboring in your soul. He wants you to be assured. And so he brings out these proofs. Proof #1: Union with Christ (8:2-4) First proof in Verse 2-4 is union with Christ. He's speaking of those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's be very clear now. There is condemnation for a world of people who are not in Christ Jesus. We know that. We're not universalists. We're not saying that everybody gets saved. There will be some people in the lake of fire. But not those who are in Christ Jesus. That's for whom we can say this to be true. There's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. And so therefore, we're talking about union in Jesus Christ, right? Those that are one with Christ spiritually. Now, the union with Christ, we've already talked about in Romans 5. Remember, we were one spiritually with Adam, and now we are one spiritually with Christ. He is our head now. He is our representative. That person we were in Adam is dead forever. We'll never go back there again. And we're not under Adam's condemnation. But then, it's taught more explicitly in Romans 6:4, look at that, turn back just one page, probably in Romans 6:4. "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life." So, there's this union. We died with Christ and now we're alive with Christ. Dead with Christ spiritually at the cross, alive when he rose from the dead. That's us. Union with Christ. And so he's talking about that. Now, he dealt with it in Romans 7:6, he says, "We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." He picks it up here in Verse 2, Romans 8:2, it says, "Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death." You're free from condemnation because you have a new principle in you. The law of the spirit of life. We'll talk about that God willing next time. And so therefore, union with Christ gives you a certain guarantee and assurance. Nobody who is one with Christ will be condemned. It's impossible. The payment cannot be paid twice. He already paid once and it's sufficient. Proof #2: Holy Spirit’s Sanctifying Work in Us (8:5-13) The second proof in verses 5-13, is the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work in you, if you're a Christian. Romans 8:5-13. The Holy Spirit comes into the moment you come to faith in Christ. He gives you a new mind, not the mind of the flesh or the sinful nature, but the mind of the spirit. And so your mind is changed so also your heart. You'll love what you used to hate. And you hate what you used to love. And thus begins the war against sin. And the Holy Spirit is the general in that war and he's leading you to put sin to death. And step by step by step, you will slay sin. You will put it to death. The Holy Spirit moving powerfully in you. Put it to death, I hate it. You hate it, too. You put it to death. And so the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is what it means to be a son or a daughter of God. We keep in step with the Spirit. We follow the leadership of the spirit. Look at verse 9, Romans 8:9, "You, however," in contrast to the people we just talked about, "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, [the flesh], but by the Spirit, if the Spirit lives in you." In other words, if you have the indwelling Holy Spirit in you, he's not going to take a backseat to the flesh. He's not a loser, let's put it that way. He's a winner. He's more than a conqueror. And so if the Spirit's in you, he is going to win in the battle with sin. "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature." Who's in charge of you now? The Holy Spirit, if the Spirit lives in you. Look what he says in Verse 13, "If, by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." The sanctifying work of the Spirit in you is a great assurance. You see yourself putting sin to death, resisting temptation, growing in holiness. And this is a great assurance, this is the very work that the Holy Spirit was given to do. Proof #3: Holy Spirit’s testimony of our adoption (8:14-17) The third proof is in verses 14-17. The Holy Spirit's internal testimony to you that you are a child of God. Have you ever felt that? The Spirit testifying with your spirit? That you are a child of God? The spirit within you crying out, "Abba Father." "Daddy?" There's a sense in which God is your father. And he never was before. That sense was never there before you came to Christ. But now, you have an internal beacon, like a homing beacon, pulling you back to God, crying out, "Abba Father." Speaking to you of your adoption, your changed state. And adoption, what a sweet word. How could a child of God be condemned? Is it even possible? We are children of God, we're adopted into his own family. There's one first born son, Jesus Christ, and then he will be first born among many brethren. And so we are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. How sweet is that? And so "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirits that we are children of God." Isn't that sweet? Romans 8:16. He talks to you. He testifies to you. He speaks to you within. And he says, "You're a child of God and you always will be. I will never leave you and I will never forsake you." Proof #4: Groaning, yet hopeful of glory (8:18-25) Proof number four, verses 18-25. Is the plane moving too fast over the mountain? I can't wait to go through each one of these. They're so precious, every one of them. But this is the jet tour. Actually, it was a propeller driven plane I took, so I had a little bit of a chance to look at the mountain as we flew over. But we don't get the depths of it. You have to meditate on each one of these sections. Proof number four, the fact that we are groaning under burdens and yet hopeful of final victory. Groaning under a weight. We feel the groaning. Do you feel it? Some of you groaning more than others. I'm groaning now, more than I used to. Groaning, why? Because this physical world is in bondage to decay. And we have suffering in our life. We have struggles, outwardly we're wasting away. And yet, inwardly, we're renewed day by day, and that gives us assurance, doesn't it? The fact is, our hope is stronger and surer now than when we first began. We have a growing hope, a sense of confidence that God is working in us, and that someday we will lose these mortal bodies, these bodies of decay, and we will have a resurrection body that will be so glorious. There's a sense of hope, a building hope, and that hope is a strong form of assurance. Look at verses 23-25. It says, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit…" What a great phrase that is. Firstfruits implies a later harvest of the Spirit. We'll talk about that in due time. "Firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." And so, there's this sense of building hope and confidence. Perseverance. Endurance. And that gives us a greater assurance as well. We already dealt with this in Romans 5:5. It says, "Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Context is of suffering. It's of trial. And yet, despite the trials, persecution, outward persecution, temptations within, the decay of our bodies, weakening, despite all of that, we have this hope that no one can steal from us. And it's a sure and certain hope. Proof #5: Holy Spirit’s intercession with us and for us (8:26-27) Proof number five, the Holy Spirit's intercession with us and for us. The Holy Spirit prays with us, and he prays for us. Verse 26-27, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." The spirit's powerful help extends to our prayer life. He cries out, "Abba, Father," within us. We cry with him, but he motivates us to pray. He moves us to pray. It wasn't long after I became a Christian, just a few weeks, I think, I was on the road, and I was in a darkened hotel room, and suddenly I woke. I don't know what time it was, but I felt a presence in my life that I had never felt before. And I had already come to Christ, but there was something there. And that presence moved me to get out of bed and get down on my knees and just pray. I literally didn't know where I was. I remembered once I was up and a little more alert that I was in a hotel room. But I knew whose I was. That I belonged to Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of Christ within me got me out of bed and down on my knees, praying. The spirit was helping me in my weakness. What weakness? I don't want to pray at that hour. There's nothing in me that wants to do that, but then the Spirit moves and we pray. The Spirit commands and we respond. And he helps us in our weakness. And not only that, but he tells us here in this verse that he's praying for us, on our behalf. He's interceding for us constantly with groans that words cannot express. The Spirit's prayer life in us and for us is a great form of assurance. Proof #6: God’s character invested in His eternal plan (8:28-34) And then finally, proof number six. God's character invested in his eternal plan to get each and every one of you saved. All of you who are children of God, he's invested his name. He's linked his very promises to the fact that not one of you will be lost if you're a child of God. God has an eternal plan. Our God is a planning God. He's a meticulous planner, we saw that in the Book of Daniel. And that plan extends to salvation. As a matter of fact, it's centered on salvation. Our God is a planning God. Look at verses 28-30. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." That's a key phrase, his purpose. Well, what is his purpose? His purpose is salvation. That's his purpose. Those who have been called according to his purpose. "For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified." Now, I hope you were reading that in your Bible open on your lap. I want you to see that word, predestined. It's not something your pastor made up. It's something I delight in and rejoice in, but it's printed on the page. If your grandmother gave you a Bible, the day that you were baptized, it's in there. Open it up and look. Romans 8:28-30. And it's sweet. Why is it sweet? Well, think of it this way. When you get on a train, the train has a destination, doesn't it? A destination. Now, you'll pass many stops along the way, but you're not at your destination until the train stops and you're urged to get off. What is the destination that God has worked out ahead of time for the children of God? Well, look at it. "Those he predestined, he also called." These are stops along the way. "Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." That's the terminal stop. That's where you're going to get off. You're going to get off in glory. And I would take this phrase, "those he" and put instead the words "everyone he". Let's just try that. Even though it's not biblical, but try it out. It says, "Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son," that's glory by the way, "that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified." Isn't this sweet? Jesus put it this way. John 6:38 and 39, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." We'll talk more about that in due time. But God has staked his reputation through this. The Son has staked his reputation to being sure that none gets lost. And that gives us great assurance. Look at verse 31 and follow. "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" That's the message of Christmas too, isn't it? God for us. He's on our side. He's put the whole weight of his person and all of his power, and his regal authority and majesty on the side of getting you saved. Who cares who's fighting against that? "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?" Oh, I hate to go over everyone of these phrases. We'll get to them in due time. They're so sweet. "If God is for us, who can be against us? Who will bring any charge against us? Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." Do you have a sense of just a lavish, like an extra double helping? It's Jesus lavishing assurance on us. One verse after another. The Holy Spirit interceding for us. Jesus interceding for us. God himself planned that we have eternal life. He's not adversarial to the intercessions of the Son and the Spirit. He's eager to hear them. IV. Triumphant Assurance: No Separation from God! (8:35-39) You're going to heaven if you're a child of God. That's the point. We get nothing else, that's the point. If you're a child of God, you're going to heaven. And nothing can stop it. Look at how he finishes here in verses 35-39. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do you get Paul's point? Is he not searching for language at the end to say, you should be assured of your salvation. I'm putting it mildly. We go from no condemnation to no separation without a break. If you're a child of God, you cannot be separated from the love of God. And why do we need all that? Because you know something, you are considered sheep to be slaughtered. He's going to put you out in the middle of wolves. He's going to surround you by world that hates your faith. And he's going to try to tear you down and attack you, day after day, after day. He's going to put you out there and then he's going to display his power in you. In your weakness, in your frailty, in your death, the way he did in the Son. The way he did in so many martyrs, the way he did in the apostle Paul and Peter, and so many others. He's going to display his glory in you as you die. And out of that will come a harvest of more people who love Jesus Christ. And the cycle continues until it's all finished. How glorious is it? So in the context of conflict and suffering and trouble, you are more than a conqueror and nothing can stop you. V. Applications Well, what applications can we take from this? If you're a Christian, first, just rejoice in God's forgiveness. You're forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from every sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And be assured by God's sovereignty. He works everything for your good. He's a ruler over all things. And the weight of his scepter is thrown toward your salvation. His sovereignty is moving in your salvation. Be humbled by God's grace. What do you contribute to this? Those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. You get the point there too? He is the actor. He is the mover. Salvation is from the Lord, be humbled by that. Be humbled by it. Be assured, be comforted but also be humbled. And fourthly, be realistic about the world you live in. This is not a gravy train up to heaven. It's not some party, one day after other. We are considered sheep to be slaughtered and we have a job to do. We have a mission. Lottie Moon and sacrificial giving is only part of it. We're supposed to be missionaries day after day for Jesus. That's point seven but let's get to it. Zealous to proclaim God's salvation. We have a job to do. We have to proclaim the gospel. Now when you go out to you neighbors, you're standing at the... I was at a checkout line the other day and I started talking about the gospel, and other people started to come and I started to feel that tendency toward that shame reaction. You know what I'm talking about? Are we willing to pay the price in a situation like that? Go on and speak the gospel. Be zealous to proclaim this gospel message because it's the only one there is in the world for salvation. Be hungry for Christ's holiness, follow the leadership of the Spirit today. When he tells you to put sin to death, do it. Be hungry for his holiness. Be reliant in God's Spirit. Realize when you do put sin to death, you can't boast, the Spirit did it in you. He's powerful and strong. For the unbeliever, if you've never come to faith in Christ, do you see what you're missing? I want you to be hungry for it. I want you to feel an attraction, a pull. I want you to hear his voice. I want you to hear the Spirit calling you, "Come." "The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’" And let him who hears come, come to Christ today. Come to faith in Christ. Christ's blood is sufficient to cover all your sins. His invitation is wide enough for people from every tribe and language, and people and nation. His power is sufficient enough to transform you from a lost sinner, to a righteous child of God. And his Holy Spirit is ready to come in your life right now, and today. Let today be the day of salvation for you.