I think my remarks
this morning are possibly going to be fairly
brief, maybe I'll have something more to say
this afternoon.
Yes, but as a victim, he didn't go
there to suffer.
He got a whole great big denomination now,
several of them as a matter of fact,
that teach that Christ went to hell and
that maybe you picked it up on the
TV, you know.
It was not long ago, there's this guy,
and all the demons of hell are stomping
on poor little Jesus, you know.
And then God, with a word of faith,
resurrected, now you've got to get him resurrected
if he's dead spiritually, see.
And so they visualize the resurrected Christ, God
does, his head, his shoulders, and so on.
First thing you know, they got him.
Can you imagine such nonsense?
And what does the scripture say?
It is finished.
That's a cross, you see.
Not to be continued later down in hell,
see.
That's not God's plan.
He's not going to continue it later down
in hell.
Christ doesn't go to hell to suffer, he
goes as a victory.
He takes captivity captive.
He is the great conqueror.
And you got it all in that psalm
there, you see.
And he opens these gates, and so on.
And takes the part that pertained to him,
the bosom of Abraham, with all the Old
Testament saints, and he runs them right up
to heaven.
And the book of Revelation, they find him
up there.
And they're saying, hey, how long we got
to stay here?
And he says, well, just be patient until
the last of the martyrs, mind you, is
added to your company.
They gave him a white robe.
Okay.
Well, there's a lot of symbolism in there.
But anyhow, Christ took captivity captive, you see.
He didn't go down there to suffer.
He goes down there as a victor.
Okay.
And so, I just want to read this
verse one more time.
Because, and if I get a little emotional,
it's because of the tremendous deception that this
has been perpetrated on the church.
And only in a very recent time.
This type of thing, that Christ died for
us spiritually, or that God and Christ were
separated from one another, was unknown in the
church till 1980.
I can tell you exactly who brought it
in, how it was brought in.
And easy-believerism came in at the same
time, together with dispensationalism, which allowed the dispensationalists
to put all the total commitment verses of
the Gospels into a different dispensation, and then
we can sit here with only believe the
facts.
And you say, no repentance, no lordship, a
wrong use of grace.
And I wanted to emphasize that the true
view of grace, and the true rest that
pertains to the people of God.
And there's this easy-believerism that comes in
there and says, relax.
It's all of grace.
All your sins are covered.
And they're trying to tell you to relax
when you're still in known sin.
What a delusion.
There is a rest pertaining to the people
of God, but that's a rest in victory.
And so the kingdom of God is taken
by force, by violence.
There's a struggle to enter into that rest.
What a contradiction.
No.
Our example is Jacob, wrestling with the angel.
Until the daybreak, I will not let you
go until you bless me.
And then his body is smitten, but he's
a prince of God.
That's our pattern.
And so that's the same pattern here, then
for all of us.
And that's why we have to struggle to
enter into the rest.
The rest comes when everything that we know
about is on the altar.
You see?
Now we can rest.
You say, oh brother Chad, you're teaching fear
and all this.
Brother, you better be fearful if you are
not in perfect love.
Because what casts out fear?
Perfect love casts out fear.
And if you haven't gotten to perfect love,
you better well be fearful.
If you haven't gotten everything on the altar,
you're going to have to struggle, because the
flesh doesn't like to die.
And so consequently, there's a struggle there until
you get everything up on the altar.
Then there's rest in victory this time.
Not rest in sin, but rest in victory.
You see that?
His finished work there is now he's in
the yoke with you.
That's why it's easy now.
Just had to get that off my chest
because it was bothering me for some time.
And so anyhow, I think we should look
at the blood in Leviticus, and then another
verse or two and we're done.
In Leviticus 17.11, for
the life of the flesh, Leviticus 17.11,
for the life of the flesh now.
The flesh is the problem.
That's why Christ has to come in the
flesh.
So we can control the flesh, show Satan
and the whole world and all the rest
of us, he can control the flesh.
He's the only one that can.
And then as representative man, the last Adam,
he gets that flesh over onto the cross
and gets it crucified as representative man to
break the power of the flesh and sin
and the devil over all mankind.
See that?
That's God's main purpose, so that he can
have fellowship with man.
So I want you to understand the life
of the flesh is in the blood.
That's what the blood signifies, death to the
flesh.
When the blood is out of it, that's
why you split the animal's throat, and when
the blood is out of it, then the
flesh is dead.
That's what it's talking about, even back in
the Old Testament.
And in the book of Hebrews, it says
without the shedding of blood there is no
remission of sins.
What that means is, without death to the
flesh, without you being crucified with Christ, there
is no remission of sins.
It isn't something he did that you can
accept.
He doesn't have eternal life to hand out
independent of himself.
He is eternal life.
It's a gift, all right, but that gift
is not some eternal life that he's got
fixed up for you and just hands to
you.
It not only is eternal life, but the
life is in him.
It is a gift, all right, but the
gift is Christ.
Why?
Because he wants this intimate relationship.
That's why the gift is Christ, and that's
why the good news is Christ in you.
Do you see that?
The hope of glory.
Why is it the hope of glory?
Because as soon as Christ is in you
and starts working in you, now you have
a legitimate hope of glory.
You can see that God is transforming you.
You've got the earnest, you've got the down
payment, which is the Holy Spirit.
Now do you see what the blood means?
The blood means death to the flesh, and
it's just like in Columbia.
There the guerrillas will get an amnesty, provided
they turn in their weapon.
They don't turn in their gun, no amnesty.
That's the same with us.
God demands that we stop our rebellion.
As a condition for salvation, oh, salvation is
unconditional.
I can give you conditions for the rest
of the night here, sitting in the Scriptures.
And salvation is not unconditional.
God is not operating unconditional love.
And so the love is unconditional on his
part.
It will always be there, but there are
conditions for receiving it, most certainly.
And so what happens here, right in the
Holy of Holies, God receives the blood from
our high priest, which is Christ.
Now he enters the veil through his flesh.
He enters the Holy of Holies through the
veil which is his flesh, which is significant.
The flesh comes in here all the time.
The flesh is the problem.
It's God's problem, it's our problem.
And that's why Christ gets the flesh crucified
for all mankind.
And all you've got to do is accept
it through faith, and it will be legally
yours, as you identify in that death, and
by faith it becomes practically yours.
And sin shall not have dominion over you.
We're talking known, willful transgression.
We're not talking sinless perfection or something.
Because what God is going to do then
is utilize that same gospel over and over
and over again, because the power of God
unto salvation, real salvation from sin, not in
it.
And so as he goes along here, and
tomorrow, let's say tonight, you turn everything over
to the Lord.
You confess and forsake everything, you see.
On the one hand.
And you put trust and faith and confidence
in Jesus Christ to deliver you from the
sins you just repented of on the other
hand.
That's why it's the death and the resurrection.
Because we're going to come out of the
kingdom of darkness.
We're going to enter the kingdom of light
right now.
It's going to be a new creature.
Boom.
Just like this.
And so that gospel then continues to operate.
And just as the good news goes out,
please, God, through the foolishness of preaching, save
them that would believe.
That means trust him.
And he has that living word.
And it consists of the living word of
the truth of the gospel.
What I'm preaching to you now.
The good news, we have a new king.
He dies for our sins.
He's resurrected for our justification.
Do you see that?
And sends us the Holy Spirit.
And then through his death and resurrection, we
identify with it immediately.
Water baptism.
Not the water.
If your heart's not right, nothing happens.
But he wants it understood.
Right at the beginning of the Christian life.
You're supposed to be dead.
Jesus Christ is supposed to be alive.
That's the way it was.
Nobody was ever saved in the early church
any other way.
Nobody was ever put into a class of
six months to study all the Christian theology
of the denomination before they baptized you.
I mean, you were baptized right at 3
,000 people were baptized.
That same day.
Okay?
Not later.
All right.
And so here we've got this wonderful gospel
operating now from now on.
And so then the Lord will show you
something else.
You see?
Maybe he'll overhaul your leisure time.
Okay?
Now, it's been sin all the time.
But sin is not imputed where there is
no law.
You're only responsible before God.
The only thing that breaks fellowship is what
you know that you are willfully transgressing.
You see that?
And you can be forgiven from all known
sin.
And you can get the victory over it.
Through faith.
Now, that faith is not just believing that
it's done.
The faith is trusting Christ to do it
in you.
So we're going to have an actual salvation
here.
Not this phony one.
Where you're pronounced righteous when you're sinning.
That's not what God has in mind.
God has in mind victory over all known
willful sins.
And at that point, you are blameless before
God.
Because they're all forgiven.
Actually blameless.
You see?
Nothing against you.
Like Paul says, I know nothing against myself.
I have a conscience void of offense.
And we're to maintain that every day.
That means we have to die with Christ
every day.
I'm crucified daily, Paul says.
There has to be a time in which
you say, search me, O Lord.
See if there be in me any wicked
ways.
And if there is, what do you do?
The gospel.
Repentance and faith based on the death and
the resurrection.
Not just trying to tell everybody that, well,
Christ paid it.
And I continue in it.
And put the penance on him.
God is not interested in penance.
Not on your part.
Not on Christ's part either.
He wants a death and resurrection.
He wants a conversion.
And he wants over each sin, an acknowledgment,
a repentance, and a faith, and an overcoming.
All through his power.
See that?
Not your own work.
You see how that works now?
The Lord shows you something new.
Maybe your finances are not in order.
And maybe you didn't think that was important
for a few months.
And then the Lord gets on your case.
And he starts bearing in on himself.
At that point, if you reject what he's
saying, you're in rebellion.
And that's very serious.
But as soon as he shows you these
things, then get your will over onto God's
side.
Say, alright, that's true.
I acknowledge that.
That shouldn't be there.
And I want it gone.
I give you all liberty to work that
out.
Out of my life.
And he can do it instantaneously, or he
can start bringing circumstances.
But if you maintain faith, then his job
is great.
And through his power, he will transform you
from faith to faith, from more and more
like the Lord Jesus said.
That perfection process probably never ends in this
life.
Paul didn't think so.
He pressed on to the mark, the high
cross.
He said, I don't know anything about myself,
but that doesn't finally justify me.
The Lord might show me something tomorrow.
And so he presses on.
We've lost the whole idea of pressing on,
of running a race.
We think we've got the prize right now.
And it can never be taken from us.
What a colossal deception.
We say, oh well, it's eternal life.
How can you lose eternal life?
Easy.
Because it's only eternal life in the sense
we're thinking of it, in English.
In Greek, it is not.
In Greek, we have a double meaning to
eternal.
One is the quality of the life.
The other one is the length.
And you can have either one in focus
without implying the other.
What do I mean?
In Jude, we're talking about Sodom and Gomorrah
are destroyed with eternal fire.
Same word.
What does it mean?
Is it still burning?
Is it going to burn forever?
No.
It's not still burning.
Why was it eternal fire?
Because it was God's fire.
It wasn't ordinary fire.
It was the quality of the fire.
You see that?
And so here, when we're trying to pull
a little English word on God and expect
him to be all impressed, boy, you know,
I mean, hey, I thought I had eternal
life.
Make your calling and election sure.
Many are called and few are chosen.
Now, that's the system.
All these conditions are sitting there.
And so, everyone understand how it works now?
See how we go on to perfection?
And that's the goal, but specifically so we
can both serve God and have fellowship with
God.
Both.
And that's why God wants all these things
cleaned up.
And that's why he gets right in the
yoke with us.
And as soon as we got everything turned
over, we rest from our own efforts.
We rest in victory.
His victory.
Now the enemy is Satan.
And God fights the battle for us.
He's in the yoke.
That's why it's easy.
And so we're marching here together because he's
utilizing us, but it's his power.
And what a travesty this other thing is
on the true God.
What a travesty.
And how many people has it deceived?
There's millions of people down there trying to
just have fun in their old age.
And all the vices coming back in, you
know.
It pains me.
And let's pray that God will send forth
laborers into his harvest season.
Not only for the totally lost, but for
those who made a profession of faith and
now are backing away from it for whatever
reason.
And they have been deceived.
As it says in Galatians, don't let anybody
deceive you.
You are going to reap what you sow.
And that's it.
And so, has anybody got any questions on
the atonement?
How it works?
And you see that God did not turn
his back on Christ.
He's totally out of character.
He lays the iniquities of us all out.
And Christ died for our sins.
And it's a physical death he died.
You see how that physical death can wipe
it all out?
It says, who shall bring any charge against
God's elect?
It is Christ who died for us.
You see that?
He died.
We benefit from it, but nobody can bring
any charge because you can't bring a charge
against a dead man.
But if you're not dead and crucified with
Christ, then of course all the charges are
open.
Not only that, you're going to be in
big trouble at the judgment day, because the
Lord's going to say to you, hey, you
say you believed that I died for you.
Well, then what are you walking around fully
alive in the flesh for?
And your whole life will be a testimony
against you that you didn't really believe that
Christ died for you.
If you did, you'd be dead and Jesus
Christ would be alive.
That's a whole different story.
So the evidence against you is, well, I
did all these things, you know the story.
No good.
I didn't know you.
Never broke through to the living God.
So if there's any questions on anything that
we've covered, you see how it works, great
faith, truth, and glory, and why we need
to be crucified daily, why we need to
be crucified to have our sins forgiven.
Yes.
Whom to know is life eternal.
And as I mentioned earlier, that's the Greek
word, to know intimately.
Yes.
That's essential.
We know Christ.
He knows us.
And His life is in us, obviously, because
He's doing His thing.
If Christ be in you, then you have
to walk the same way that Christ walked.
If the good works and the things like
that that Christ should be doing are not
there, neither is Christ in you.
Does that make sense to everybody?
Yes.
You're quite correct.
And I personally believe that the King James
is correct.
But even if it weren't, down on verse
4 it picks up the same theme and
says, who walked not after the flesh but
after the...
So that's a perfect confirmation of what I'm
teaching is correct.
Because there is now no condemnation.
What does now mean?
It means that your conscience is void of
offense.
Once you have totally repented and turned everything
over to the Lord, in one sense you're
perfect, even though you've still got a long
way to go.
But you're certainly blameless.
Really blameless.
Your sins are all gone.
You've turned everything over to Christ.
Now you have to maintain that, through a
daily walk and yielding, utilizing the gospel.
So it says there's now.
That means there's nothing bothering your conscience now.
It doesn't mean that there's no condemnation at
the judgment day, which is the way we
take it.
It says now.
There's now no therefore, after all this business
lined up here being in Christ, there's no
condemnation with two conditions.
That's right.
Who walked not after the flesh but after
the Spirit.
And just before that, who are in Christ.
What does that mean?
It means you're in Christ, he's the head,
you're a member of the body, you're functioning
there.
Then there's no condemnation, because you're dead.
How does that work practically?
Beautifully.
When I first saw this, I had victory
steady for three weeks.
And then finally, no knowledge of conviction of
sin coming in at all, because I was
walking in the Spirit with every instant.
I was an engineer.
I was an engineer right here.
I was project engineer at the radar station
at Grand Rapids.
And so here I am, with walking, the
Lord showed me what walking in the Spirit
meant.
Every one of our decisions have to be
directed by the Spirit of God.
We've got to have peace and know that
whatever we're doing at any given moment, as
God is pleased with, that's what God wants
us to do.
And so, that's walking in the Spirit, and
there's a promise.
We shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh.
And so, after three weeks, I was in
a pickup truck, and here comes this temptation
to think these moldy thoughts that have caused
me such problems.
Satan could take care of my mind, put
in an x-rated video right through the
top of my skull, and I couldn't control
it.
And I was so upset.
And that story is in my book there,
this book right here, as is all the
key doctrines the Lord showed me in the
last 50 years.
It's sitting in the last 110 pages, by
the way, right here.
So, I said, Satan, and I'm not an
emotional person, you know.
I'm an issue.
How far are you getting with that?
And I was so happy.
I can't tell you the joy that was
there, you see.
What was the joy about?
Well, wouldn't it be awfully hard for Jesus
to break that temptation of thinking moldy thoughts?
Wouldn't He really have to struggle?
That would be a hard one for Him,
wouldn't it?
No, personally, it can't be like that.
Well, the unequalness of the battle just caused
me no end of joy and laughter, if
you please.
Thinking of Satan trying to tempt Jesus Christ
with that moldy thought, you see.
And he's not going to get anywhere, and
he didn't, you see.
And so, you see how this works now?
Identification in the depth?
As long as you maintain that position, you
see, Satan can't touch you.
I'll just give one verse to illustrate it.
Galatians 5.17. Galatians 5.17 says, And
the Spirit wars against the flesh, and the
flesh against the Spirit, so you cannot do
what you would.
Now, that verse is confusing in most translations.
What it means in the Greek, and if
you want a good Greek scholar to read
it in writing, what I'm going to say
to you, Vincent, with his four-volume word
study, we'll bring this back out.
One thing he brings out is that Abraham
believed God and it was counted unto him
as righteousness, not instead of righteousness.
And what was the other thought we were
just looking at there?
Galatians 5.17. So there we have what
Vincent brings out, and what the Greek clearly
teaches, is that the part, you cannot do
what you would, applies to both the flesh
and the Spirit.
So how does it read?
It reads, If you're in the flesh, the
Spirit can't do what it wants.
But if you're in the Spirit, the flesh
can't do what it wants.
It means you're in one mode or the
other.
You are not in constant conflict.
Now, you can elect to take back your
life and control it and get yourself in
the flesh again.
That's two.
Or you can be in the flesh and
start walking in the Spirit, and you'll have
victory.
But the two, as far as the class
is concerned, going on constantly, is not what
that verse teaches.
It couldn't teach that, because the verse right
ahead of it and the verse right on
the other side of it are both victory
verses.
You're not going to get a chaos, repeated
verse in between.
And of course, that's what tipped me off,
and as I checked the grammar and everything,
it doesn't mean that.
It doesn't mean a constant conflict.
There's a constant temptation, perhaps.
But as long as you walk in the
Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of
the flesh, and that's the word of God.
He doesn't say maybe, or sometimes, or more
or less.
He makes these blanket statements.
You shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh.
Sin shall not have dominion over you.
We don't believe it.
We've been taught the other.
Oh yeah, we sin every day, word, thought
and deed.
But the victory comes over no willful transgression.
That's a different category.
You see that?
You don't get imputed righteousness, continuing to steal
and adultery and murder and all this stuff.
God isn't going to give you imputed righteousness
for that.
He expects victory over that immediately.
You get imputed righteousness only over the areas
that God hasn't talked to yet.
See how that works?
But as soon as God reveals something to
you, he expects the victory over it.
Does that make sense?
Okay, any other questions?
Okay, good job.
Student, am I to take up and carry?
I don't care how bitter the experience, it
will sweeten those waters from which you drink.
That out from that sweetness there will come
forth songs of the Lord, songs of his
grace, songs of his mercy.
People who get those kind of songs, they
don't copyright them and charge you to use
them.
Something that God has brought in their lives,
streams of mercy, because he needs that kind
of a people in this awesome day that's
ahead of us.
He needs vessels of mercy as ain't no
time in the history of mankind.
All the world needs now is the mercy
of God.
God's preparing vessels of mercy in the midst
of God's long-suffering over evil.
He asks us to be long-suffering, also
be also patient, as God has said.
You want the fruit of the Spirit?
God is working it out in your life
if you're seeking him and not knowing, and
if you're perplexed and frustrated about many things,
God's seeking to work out in your heart
and my spirit of mercy and compassion.
I'm patient, waiting upon him.
I know I do this often.
I say, we'll read this passage, and I'm
finished almost before it.
But behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon, and the same man
was just and devout, waiting for the consolation
of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon
him.
This man, I call him an old man.
It doesn't say he was an old man,
so I'm not going to try and prove
he was an old man.
But I know that God, when he prepares
a vessel for some very important thing, he
waits long before he fulfills the promise.
He waited long for the time when he
would bring Israel out of Egypt.
He waited long to prepare a man to
deliver that nation who, having come into Egypt
after some years, a new pharaoh who rose
to the new nations and began to bring
great hardship upon them, ordained of God, because
God was preparing a people through hard times,
through bondage, for the day of deliverance.
God waits long.
And the prophets, not only the prophets, but
God's people who love him are continually crying,
how long, don't you care, Lord, don't you
see what's happening?
Habakkuk got into that state, he was a
prophet of God.
He got into that, when he looked at
Israel, he saw them, desperately saw them taken
up in the fishnets of their enemies, like
fish of the sea.
And then because they got Israel in their
grasp, they worshipped their God, who profited them
by giving them God's people as a prey,
and they sacrificed unto their gods, and offered
incense to their gods, because God has given
us this hateful nation of Israel, our gods
have given it to us.
Habakkuk cried, oh God, what's it all about,
when you let your people be taken in
the net, and then they sacrifice to their
gods, and you don't do anything about it.
He wasn't complaining in the sense of any
bitterness, but there is a complaint before God
that you utter in the pride of your
heart, in a heart that loves him, in
true prayer and intercession, Lord, do something about
it.
We cry here to do something about it.
Then he said, look at me, I've been
reproved in God, I'm going to stand back
and hear what the Lord will say.
And as he stood himself upon the watchtower,
as it were, to hear what God would
say, God told him the vision is for
an appointed time.
You can't rush that vision, you can't make
it happen, it's got an appointed time.
God wants us to know that.
He has an appointed time.
But he said, it's for an appointed time.
But blessed is that man who waits for
it.
Because it will come in due season, it
will not carry beyond its appointed time, it
will come right on time.
Blessed is the man who waits for it,
if the vision can wait for it.
It will come, it will not lie.
That's God's words to you and I, who
are waiting in expectation for God to do
something that we know he's promised, and we
can't seem to persuade him to do it.
God says, I've got an appointed time, but
in the meantime, he waits for it.
Which implies waiting before him, being sensitive to
him, hearing his voice, being alert, all that's
implied in waiting.
So it was with Simeon, that's what I'm
inclined to believe, God gave him the promise
early in life, because he waited long, he
waited until he was wishing he could die,
but he couldn't die, God wouldn't let him
die.
God says, you're not going to die until
you see the Messiah.
Clear as that.
That vision became his burden.
You've got a great vision?
What God's going to do?
It won't be meaningful to you, so it
becomes a burden.
A burden sometimes too heavy for you to
carry.
That's why many times we read, the burden
of the Lord, the old prophet is about
to speak, and the burden of the Lord.
Burden?
I used to want a burden.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a prophetic
utterance direct from God?
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
You've got a prophetic utterance.
If it's truly from the heart of God,
it'll be a burden on your heart that
you must carry until it's fulfilled.
That might take a long time.
If it doesn't take a long time, it
might mean a lot of hardship, a lot
of trial.
What I'm saying is the vision becomes his
burden.
And so it was with Simeon, became a
burden, and we discover that when it was
all over.
But because it became a burden, and though
he realized time was dragging on, he was
getting older and older.
He knew he couldn't die, but I sense
he wanted to die.
I gather he was an old man, but
I can't imagine God giving him this vision
a month before as a young man.
And then a month later he goes down
to the temple and sees it fulfilled.
I can't imagine that.
Because if that was so, he wouldn't say
when he had seen that Christ, he came
into the temple, but I'll read it as
I promised.
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name
was Simeon.
And the Simeon man was just and devout.
He was walking with God.
He was doing what God said.
If you can't walk with God and be
able to do it, he said it.
He was just.
He was doing righteous things.
We're not told of any righteous things he
did.
That doesn't matter, because the one thing for
which he was born was still ahead of
him.
But he was waiting.
While he was waiting, he was doing God's
will.
I know that.
But those things, the Holy Spirit didn't seem
fit to mention.
Because the important thing for which he was
born, for which he was called, was to
reveal, to take the Messiah in his arms
and declare him to Israel.
That was the thing that was important in
God's sight.
You say, why is that important?
You better ask God why it's important.
He's going to have a people walking with
him, serving him, waiting for him, devoted to
him, just and holy, who are going to
present the glory of God to his people.
When our Christ comes again in power and
great glory, and every eye shall see him,
I know that.
But before that, he's going to come to
his temple.
And he's going to be heralded by a
people whose hearts are humble and meek and
holy before him.
They're going to receive him.
And they're going to go to people in
the name of the Lord and say, whatsoever
I have, I give you.
And Christ will overshadow them.
He'll be in them.
And they'll be in Jesus.
And Jesus will be in them.
You know that, Scripture.
I dare say, many of you can quote
John 15.
Abide in me and I in you.
The quote is wonderful.
And it is wonderful.
But I don't think we've begun to see
the glory that there is in that union
with God as I abide in the yoke
of Jesus and he abides in me.
I in them and thou in me.
I mean, I know it's beautiful and we
try to explain it.
But we won't know the reality of it
until it becomes something very real within us,
as real in us as it was in
Jesus when he knew that the Father was
with him always.
That everything he did was because the Father
was prompting him to do it.
That every word he spoke, he knew it
was the word of the Father dwelling in
him that was doing the speaking and the
working and the comforting and the exhorting and
the rebuking, whatever it was.
It wasn't his doings.
It was the Father because as that Geras
in the Old Testament, that bond slave who
was liberated on the 7th year for every
Hebrew slave had to be liberated in the
7th year of their bonding and set free,
totally free.
Realizing that this is a master I've served,
that I never had it so good in
my life, I don't want to go out
free.
So it is in our redemption God's redeemed
us, purchased us with his blood, brought us
out away from the marketplace, set us free,
that we will discover and we'll never discover
true freedom until that liberated slave comes to
the master who redeemed him and says, Lord
Jesus, I will not go out free, pierce
my ears through with all that henceforth on
my ear, only what you tell me.
Do only what you tell me to do.
That's waiting on God.
Simeon was that kind of a man.
And so the time came for fulfillment and
because he was waiting on God, he was
in the Holy Ghost and he went down
to the temple and I don't even know
when he walked down to the Messiah that
day.
I don't know.
God might have led him to the temple
many days.
Perhaps coming away just, I don't know.
We don't know in what manner he was
going to see the Messiah.
And we're not, had no reason to believe
he knew.
All he knew was he was led of
the spirit, I've got to go to the
temple.
God bring us more and more to that
place where we're led by the spirit of
God.
For these are the sons of God.
And these are the people that creation is
longing for, a people that the Romans 8,
Paul says, creation is waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God.
And I deliberately quoted that scripture, even though
if you quote the scripture, you're branded a
heretic.
God's going to manifest his sons in the
earth as surely as he manifests his only
beloved.
And they're going to walk in the same
meekness, in the same poverty of spirit, in
the same beauty of holiness, in the same
mourning for those who are desolate in Zion,
with the same compassion that Jesus had.
Because if you're abiding in him and he
in you, you're swallowed up in him and
he it is that is glorified.
And then will the Lord Jesus be glorified
in his people in the earth.
And then no great man will rise up,
and all eyes pointed to him and saying,
he's the great one in our midst.
And if it happens, that one abiding in
Jesus will know how to handle it.
It's necessary to rebuke them, it's necessary to
walk away from it all like Jesus did,
find himself alone with the Father.
God's preparing a people now because those times
are coming when these people in the earth
are going to do the work that Jesus
did.
And greater works than these shall he do,
not because we're greater but because we're much
less.
That because he who humbled himself is now
exalted to the highest throne in God's universe.
That from his throne there might come all
that's in Jesus to be showered upon his
people in the earth.
That they might go forth in the strength
of the Lord doing greater works than he
did.
That he, the glorified Lord, might be magnified
ten thousand fold because of his people in
the earth.
And the day that the prophet spoke about
when he said, the light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun.
Isn't the moon typical of the church?
That body, that satellite that God made to
reflect the light of the sun.
Reflects the light of the sun, has no
light of its own.
God said, Isaiah saw the day when the
light of the moon was going to be
as bright as the sun.
Oh, he said, then we're equal to Jesus.
Oh no, then the light of the sun
shall be seven fold.
It's the light of seven days.
And God puts his light upon his people,
causes us to walk in the light of
Jesus.
Jesus is magnified seven times over because it
goes back to him.
It's more that he gives his people reverts
to him as it did from his only
son.
This people I'm talking about whom God is
preparing now and disciplining and training, humbling and
making them to be the people that Jesus
talked about in the Sermon on the Mount,
which we like to read about and know
it's unattainable and it is unattainable by any
works that we can bring forth.
Because it's the working of the Holy Spirit
in our hearts and lives that's going to
bring forth this beauty of holiness.
And his people came by the Spirit into
the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do with him after the custom
of the law, then took he him up
in his arms and blessed God and said,
Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart
in peace according to thy words.
Let me go now.
I said it was a burden to him.
That reveals it.
He was 30 years old, just got the
vision a year or two before.
God, I want to live to see this
Messiah grow up.
I want to walk with him.
I hope I'm one of his disciples.
I want to sit at his right hand.
No, he was weary of it all.
Austin Sparks brings out a beautiful thought there.
He points out that the word Lord there
is not the general word we use for
Lord like, we love you Lord Jesus, we
worship you Lord.
It's a different word, despotism, despotism, despotism.
Not that he was calling God a despot.
I don't mean that.
But he was saying, you're autocratic, Lord.
You do what you want.
And because you did what you wanted, you
laid upon me a burden that I was
going to live until I saw the Messiah.
I've been under that, don't want to call
it a heavy hand.
I've been under that hand, God, that you
put there so many years ago.
You said I couldn't die until I saw
the Messiah.
I've seen him.
Let me die.
Let thy servant depart in peace for my
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast
prepared before the face of all people alike
to listen to Gentiles and the glory of
thy people Israel.
God continues to work in all of our
hearts and minds, be it through trial, suffering,
testing, disappointment, affliction, bitter waters of Marah, whatever
they may be.
Cause us Lord to so walk with you
that we'll always find that tree on the
banks of Marah, which when thrown into that
stream causes the bitter to be sweet.
And causing us to know that in the
bitterness of it, you're enabling us to take
up our cross and follow you.
For the joy that is set before us,
not because we're trying to suffer in order
to be like you, but for the joy
that is set before us, you're causing us
to share your suffering in a way we
cannot do except we walk in your footsteps.
That we too might be accounted faithful in
this hour of great evil and great darkness.
Come forth in the day of your light,
shining with your glory and your presence.
So hid away in the cloud of your
presence that man will see Jesus only.
I think my remarks this morning are possibly
going to be fairly brief.
Maybe I'll have something more to say this
afternoon.