In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding the seven Feasts of the Lord. He emphasizes that these feasts provide insight into our personal journey and spiritual growth. The speaker also highlights the need for believers to lay down their lives and pursue their personal goals in order to be faithful sons and daughters of God. The sermon concludes with a reminder that grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and live upright and godly lives while we wait for the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your love toward us, Lord. It's wonderful, the things that you do are so spectacular. And Lord, we know that at times we go through very difficult places, but you always bring us through if we don't quit. You always bring us through if we don't quit, no matter how tough it gets. You explained to me, Lord, that, you explained to me when I asked you about what it means to be tough, you said it means that you can be twisted and turned in every way, but you spring back to your original shape. And I see that, Lord, that's what real toughness is. It's not a lot of swearing or doing kickboxing or anything else. It's coming back into shape when you've been bent and twisted. So, Lord, when the pressures come on us and we're bent and twisted, help us, Lord, to come back smiling, cheerful, ready to go on with God, no matter what happens. Help us to be tough, Lord. Help us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, Lord. So, Lord, here we are. We need your guidance. If you want this to be an extension of the Christian life school of theology, then so be it. If not, Lord, then your will be done. It's whatever you want, that's what we want. Grant us all understanding tonight, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, as I prayed, not knowing who would be here, I still feel that I should be explaining the peace of the Lord. And, of course, some of you know it so well. Others, it's not that well. So, I'm going to be counting on you to ask questions when you have questions, and not sit there and do nothing. So, ask questions when you have questions. Everyone except Isaiah, he's exempt. Because he's got business over there with his teething ring. Okay, so let's show them all seven feasts, because I know there's some here. I just go too fast. And I find myself teaching Stan, who knows it all already. Alright, well, I was going to show them all together, but this will do this way. This is fine. Alright, the seven feasts of the Lord, and we've been working with the last four. And the reason that they're so useful is because they show us where we are today. And it isn't just a bunch of disconnected incidents, but it's a program. It's something that's going somewhere. And the first of the seven feasts is Passover. Would anyone like to tell me what that means in terms of us personally? We know what happened in the cross, but what does it mean, the Passover experience, to us personally? What does it mean? Yes, Andrew? Let's leave repentance for a minute, for just a second, because that really comes under unleavened bread. Now let's just stay with the Passover. Now, what happened at the Passover? Yes? The Jews were not judged like the rest of Egypt was. Precisely. It has to do with judgment on the gods of the world. The Egyptians had a god for every day in the year. They were a people, a religious people, with many, many gods. Every kind of god you can think of. And God said, I'm going to judge the gods of Egypt. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and not judge you. So when you first get saved, you accept the Passover blood, so that when God judges the world or sinners, you are not judged. He didn't deal with them about sin. He didn't mention sin. He just said, you are my chosen people, I'm going to bring you out of Egypt, and I'm going to judge the gods of Egypt, and if you will put the blood on the doorpost of your house, that is on the frame of the doorway of your house, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. So the first thing you must realize is that you, as a Christian, are part of God's Israel. You are part of God's elect. And God has given the blood of the Lamb, of the Lamb, so that when you, by faith, say, I want myself and my family to be protected by your blood, it's protection, it's the blood of protection, and then when God comes by your house in this calamity, because he's judging the nation, he will pass over you. So it's a blood of protection. Is there any question about that? It's just protection. It's a blood of protection. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I don't know if we're going to need protection in the spirit realm, so maybe it is just for this life. Now, there's another, are there any more questions about it? Okay, yes. In doing so, doesn't the Lord then reserve the right to judge us later? Yeah, but I want to keep it simple, because a student last week came up and thanked me for keeping it simple, and I haven't forgotten that. Okay. Now, if you have that solidly in your mind, I can add a little something to it. I don't want to go so fast here that you get confused. The Passover lamb, there's more to it than that. One thing, when the Jews celebrate Passover, they celebrate deliverance from bondage. God brought us out of bondage. Now, here's the problem with that. They came out of that bondage, and went straight into another bondage, the bondage of demons. So, the key to the liberty, am I going too fast for you? The key to the liberty of Passover is not the Exodus. The key, it isn't the moving out of Egypt, the key is the lamb. The lamb sets us really free. So, the freedom is not a geographical freedom. It's not, Martin Luther made that quite a theme, you know, thank God we're free, thank God we're free. Well, politically, yes, and very valuable to the people concerned. But, you can be free politically, and be in the worst kind of chains. And, Israel went from a bad bondage of slavery, to a worse one of the demon gods of the world, until finally God had to send them into political captivity in Assyria and Babylon. So, it's well to keep, I'm trying to keep it very simple for you, as simply as I can, but remember, these things have a lot of ramifications, because God doesn't work like geometry, where you can go from one theorem to the next theorem, and everything is neat. It isn't like that, because you remember, John the Baptist said, behold the lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. So, that's not covering. So, I'm just adding these things, so that you'll get, but in the schema that we're addressing now, it's enough to think of it as the blood of protection. Actually, when you have Christ, you have everything. It isn't like you go from Passover to unleavened bread, unleavened bread to first fruits, first fruits to Passover, that may or may not work out in series in your life. When you have Christ, you have everything, but it's a case of working it out, work out your salvation, you've got it, now you have to work it out. Now, I like to think of moving through the feasts as a spiral staircase, because in a spiral staircase, you keep, like if you start off facing north, and you go up, pretty soon you come back to north, but what's different? You're at a higher level. And then you go up the spiral staircase, pretty soon you're back facing north again, but you're at a higher level. And so, that's the way it is with the feasts of the Lord. It's not like a ladder, it's more like a spiral staircase. You keep coming back to Passover, and it means more to you. You keep coming back to Pentecost, and it means more to you. Now, as far as tabernacles, which represent or are worked out at a higher level, are there any questions about that? It's all Christ, but you can have Christ, but not have worked out Christ. You can remain a baby, still playing chopsticks all your life. You haven't worked out anything. All the potential is there for the fullness of God in Christ, but you haven't worked it out. And that's important to remember, because you may, some of you undoubtedly will be teachers in the future, and your students will say, but when we have Christ, we have it all. What are you talking about? And say, that's right. You do. It's a case of working it out, and then you have Scripture. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Any questions so far? Now, if you're confused, let me know, and I'll slow down. Poor Stan. All right. Now, see how they respond up there? Boy, I couldn't want it any better. Thank you. This way you can see the whole pattern. Now, unleavened bread, you know that that was all part of the Passover week. The Passover week included Passover, unleavened bread, and firstfruits. It was all in one week, and it's called the week of unleavened bread. That was very important, because God commanded them to get all leaven out of their houses. Today they make quite a ceremony out of that, don't they, Miriam? They make quite a ceremony of sweeping all the leaven out of the house, and your bread must be without yeast. It must be without yeast. Yeast is leaven that causes bread to rise. It's really bacteria, is what it is, and it generates gas and causes the bread to rise. That's leavened bread. That's what we eat, but unleavened bread is flat and hard and without yeast, and God said, during the Passover week, eat your bread without leaven. Now, according to the Scripture, Paul refers to leaven as the malice and wickedness of the world. The malice and wickedness of the world is leaven. And that we deal with in water baptism. We repent, and as it were, we sweep the leaven of the world spirit of malice and wickedness out of us. We turn away from it. That's why in the book of Acts you'll find repent and be baptized. I don't know if it's the book of Acts or in John and Jesus' preaching, but it's repent and be baptized. Repent and be baptized. I think that's the first thing Peter said. What shall we do? Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Repent and be baptized. Well, that's unleavened bread. So now we have the blood of protection and we have repentance and water baptism, which is a sign that we have left the malice and wickedness of the world and are ready to live in the new life of Christ. Any questions so far? Okay. Now, the third feast of first fruits, the Jews celebrated that in the time of the barley harvest. Now, the barley harvest is the first grain to ripen. So before they could harvest barley, they had to cut a few sheaves and bring them to the priest and the priest would wave the sheaves of barley before the Lord. God put his blessing on the sheaves of first fruits and that meant then that the whole harvest was holy because the first fruits had been blessed and they could go then and harvest the barley and then the rest, whatever they had beside barley and wheat, rye or whatever, I don't know. Okay, so in our life, this is what it means and this is important. You may never have heard this before. Stan has, I'm sure, and Eddie, but some of you may never have heard this before. Are you ready for this? Okay, this is a point of cognition. Knowledge. A fact. When you are, when you come to Christ, you come under the blood of protection, you repent, you're baptized in water, showing that you're through with the world, and then God takes your spirit Well, it's more than that. A portion of Christ is born, let's put it this way, it's more accurate, a portion of Christ is born in your inward nature. It's really the seed of God. It's a portion of God. It's a viable seed that comes from God and is planted in your inward nature. It's Christ in you. It's the beginning of Christ in you. And that it becomes a firstfruits of the reaping of your personality. There's a lot of confusion in that, in Christian thinking. They can't understand what in the world God is talking about when he says you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ and God. What it means is this firstborn again firstfruits of your life has been blessed by the Lord, it's holy and has been raised in Christ to God's right hand. And so then you become a dual personality. You have the main part of your personality, body, soul and spirit is on the earth. But a firstfruits of your personality is already with Christ. And why don't we look at that? Are we up there? I don't see Tim. Tim's there. There goes a hand. Alright now, or is that John Beck or whoever it is? I don't see John. Maybe it's John. Oh, there's John. Okay, let's try Ephesians 2 verse 6. I haven't pressed this. Oh, before I came to Pastor I used to hold forth on this until it was nauseating. I mean, this was a big gun with me. This fact that you are already at God's right hand. And this is a very... I want you to notice verses 5 and 6 made us alive with Christ. Tense of the verb, students. Tense of the verb. I'm hoping some of the young people will answer. I don't know if they're taught tense in school anymore. Again, the transformational grammar of God. No, they used to have present tense, past tense, pluperfect, perfect, past perfect, past pluperfect, and all that. I just want to know is it present, future or past? Past. Alright, so God already has made us alive with Christ. Now, that's a firstfruits. That's not the whole harvest. That's a firstfruits. Your whole personality is not alive in Christ. Believe me. There's a lot of death there. And as I said Sunday, if you want to check it out, just say, Lord, is there any death in me? Show me. And He will. Don't worry, it's there. And it's struggling for mastery over you at all times. But you see, a firstfruits of your personality is alive in Christ. It is divine. It is supernatural. It's the divine nature. It's the firstfruits of the reaping of your life. Does that make sense to you? Watch the tenses. Alright. And when we were dead in sin, it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up. Tense? Past? Past? He's talking about living people on the earth. Past tense. But what is it that's been raised? The firstfruits. The born-again portion of your personality. Born-again bothers me. It really should be what happens is conception, not birth. See, Jesus didn't discriminate there. He said in order to be born-again, in order to see the kingdom you have to be born-again. But you don't see the kingdom until you've gone through the process of conception. I mean, the seed has begun to grow. The egg has been fertilized and the thing starts to grow. And then cellular division is called mitosis begins to take place. And pretty soon you have an embryo. And then that keeps on developing through the process of mitosis and cellular multiplication until it becomes a fetus. And then in the fullness of time, after nine months, the fetus comes out and we call that birth. And it's true with us. We really are not born-again until we have gone through quite a process of conception and formation. You can say, yeah, but I've been born-again. I'm not going to argue with you. That's just theology. I'm telling you how the mechanics work. Yes? Maybe that's because God sees us at birth. Sure. God sees us already born. But I like what Paul said, My little children of whom I travail in birth until Christ is formed in you. And that's exactly what happens after conception. There's a forming of first fruits which is a portion of God's life which is viable. Do you know what viable means? How many of the young people under 20 know what viable means? It's used all the time incorrectly. It's another one of these words, Bill, that's going to be changed in the future because everybody is using it to mean vital. And it does. But when we think of vital, we think of something that's alive and moving. Viable means this. Technically, it means capable of life outside of the womb. That's what viable means. It will live outside of the matrix in which it was formed. That's what viable means. So if you want to be really dictionary correct, but it's currently, it's like these terms come up, some educator used them at Harvard and pretty soon they hit the newspaper which is written at a 6th grade level, incidentally. And pretty soon, everything people like now is viable. You know, I had viable transportation and I had a viable lunch and I bought a viable dress. Well, viable means capable of life outside of the womb. So, you see, we're not really viable at this point until we're born again, technically, because we're still iffy just like it was with the Christians in Galatia. See, they were getting off into Judaism. So, back to the issue. A portion in us, and that portion is viable in that it will live in that it's from God. It is a living seed in there. And as we see, and that's already true of you, and it's already true of you that you have been raised, but it's not your whole person. And there's a lot of confusion on that. No, your whole person has not been raised. The first roots, that the sheaves that have been waved inside of you, so to speak. And now God is ready to do what? The rest of the harvest. Yes. No, no, let me, are you clear enough on what I've said so I can digress a little? Because this, because when you get into these 52 concepts, they, they are so interwoven that it's, that's my difficulty in teaching. Because I get all this going in my mind, and pretty soon I'm making a whole lot of assumptions and illusions, and I lose 90% of the group. That's my problem. So I'm trying to slow down. Because these things are all interlocked, as Anthony just pointed out. So let me digress a little here on the meaning of grace and the way Paul used it. Okay? The problem is when we see saved by grace, we think of it in its, in its Gentile usage as it is commonly used as meaning that God will bring us to Heaven even though we keep sinning. Because we're not saved by what we do, but by God's forgiveness. That's the current meaning. Okay? That is not what Paul meant. You have to get at what Paul really meant. You have to think as a Jew. You have to think as a Jew to understand what Paul meant by grace. Paul was not Irish. He was Jewish. He was not only Jewish, he was Jewish-Jewish. He was an Orthodox Jew. He was a rabbi. Four locks and all. Black hat. With fur on it in the midst of summer. Like you see over in Israel. That's the Ashkenazi, is it? They wear that hat with all the fur on it. I mean, everybody's sweltering. Here comes the Ashkenazi. Alright. Paul was a Jew, a rabbi. He was not a Western businessman. He was a rabbi. Steeped in the law. Steeped in the law. He killed Christians. He put them in prison because they accepted Christ. He was a man of the law, the Torah. Circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Jew of the Jews. All of Paul's teaching is from this background. And he meant, you see, wherever Paul went, even among the Gentiles, there were Jewish teachers who were influencing the new Greek converts and the Italian converts. There was people who, the Jews, were influencing them. And even Peter had problems with it. When Paul went back to Jerusalem, the Christians were all Jews in the temple observing the Nazarite rules because James told them, go down there and show that you're a Jew. He said, alright, I'll go down and take a vow and I'll pay, you know, and the others with me and we'll shave our head and we'll go through the whole thing because James said, if you don't, they'll kill you. It's Christians. We don't realize that. We think Christians are Gentiles. No, Christians originally were Jew, Jew, Jew, Jews. And they were keeping the law. Strictly. Strictly. Can you imagine? Now listen to me. Are you listening? Are the iron lids, as Emerson says, iron lids? Okay. Now listen. Can you put yourself in Paul's place? Can you hear me? He was the only one, man in the world, the only man in the world that understood the transition from Moses to Christ. None of the other apostles knew it. As you can tell by reading their epistles. They said Paul writes about things it's hard to understand. How would you feel if you had been raised as a devout Jew? God took you to the desert in Arabia and showed you by revelation what it means that you could believe in Christ and not be circumcised, not keep the Sabbath day, not keep the kosher laws or anything. It was over. You were the only person in the world that knew this. Can you think of what would happen every time you went to preach anywhere? The background of the hearers, particularly the Jews, their response when you were telling them you do not have to keep Torah when you put your faith in Christ. Can you picture that? What that would be like? Miriam can picture it a little because she's got a lot of real heavy Orthodox friends and she tries to talk to them. And I use the term try advisedly. I mean she's got some of the tough ones, you know, the real rabid ones. Rabbi Kravitz and others, she's friends with them all, but they're trying to convert her all the time. They know the Jews are tough people, tough as I define for you. They don't break easily. Alright, so, can you get a little inkling now of what Paul was up against when he was teaching? What the only guy in the world that understood this? Now, when Paul is talking about grace and accenting by grace you are saved, he's reacting against the law. He's saying this is a whole new ball game. There's different rules. You're not saved. What he says, you're saved by grace, what he means is you're not saved by the law. Now, that's easy to see in Romans and Galatians. It's spelled out very clearly, very clearly. He keeps reacting against the law. You know the law says this, but now it's this. The law says that. What has happened is the church has been dominated by Gentiles for so long we don't have this background. We do not have this background. And so the Gentile theologians have come to teach that what that means is we're saved by a sovereign action of God. Behavior. Godly behavior. Righteousness. Which is altogether different. If I say that God is saving us by grace rather than by transforming us morally then grace becomes a mystique. And I wrote a book on that called The Grace Mystique. It's become a mystique called a state of grace which is an unscriptural term. But this mystique is one of the real foundations of evangelical thinking is the grace mystique. And it's just that, it's a mystique. It's that God has left the Jews and their law has come to Gentiles and has said I'm going to bring you to heaven even though you're not righteous because the salvation does not depend on your behavior. It depends on a sovereign thing that I have done. So it's a mystique. There's nothing you can get your fingers into because you can't grasp it because of something so high above us and you can see the effect that it's had on people. They think, well, OK. God is saving me. I don't understand it but God is doing, this is an action of God. It has nothing to do with my behavior. And then you can see what happens when you come into a real heavy burning temptation to do something. Steal, lust, kill somebody or whatever it is because in your mind is this thing it's not really going to affect. I think President Clinton operates in this way. He regards himself as a Christian. And the churches he goes to teach this. I've done all these things. But it will not affect my salvation. I think O.J. Simpson feels the same way. Exactly the same. Because his mother is a firm church goer. And you get this thing in you that it's terrible what I've done but that does not affect my salvation. Now, does anyone not understand what I'm saying? So Anthony, when he says up here by grace you're saved he's reminding people that it has nothing to do with the law of Moses. But then in other parts of the New Testament he says if you are not transformed morally you will not inherit the kingdom. So you would think Gentile theologians would put that together and say well it can't mean, grace can't mean that God is saving you apart from your behavior because Paul in several places said you won't inherit the kingdom. Well, how many see how many at this point I'm particularly interested in the young people as you get it how many can see that intelligent, devout, Gentile theologians how do you think they handle the fact that they're teaching that your behavior doesn't matter when they come to verses like Galatians 5.19-21 that say if you continue in adultery and fornication and strife and so on you won't inherit the kingdom how do you think they deal with that? Because they say they believe every word in the Bible which by the way that term you need to know it's a Bible school term it is this and you believe it you believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the scriptures that plenary means full yes? P-L-E-N-A-R-Y it's used a lot in law plenary is used a lot in law it means full you believe in the full word by word inspiration of the Bible in particular the received text which is the King James that is what you believe that makes you a fundamentalist you believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the scriptures alright, now these theologians that are teaching and this is the common teaching that grace is a mystique that operates apart from your moral change into a new creature say they believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the scripture in this case how do you think they get around the fact that several verses in the New Testament say that if you don't change morally you're going to come to a bad end and you won't inherit the kingdom much less Jesus who said things like if you don't use your talents you'll go into the outer darkness how do you how would you say as a person under 20 now how would you say that they accommodate this how do they deal with that if you pointed out to them yes but Paul said we won't inherit the kingdom if we commit adultery and you're saying we will anyway because we're saved by grace what is your explanation how do you think they respond now Colleen well Colleen are you under 20 Colleen you're not you're 22 or 23 alright now you know how they how do they respond Colleen because you've heard it for years well they in Galatians 5.19 that Paul is talking to unsaved people that's one way that they do of course any high school student junior sharp junior high student would point out but the book is of Galatians is addressed to the saints and there's no indication in the text that he stopped talking to the saints and turned to the world huh there's no indication that he shifted gears there's no indication that he shifted gears and also and this may be a little swift for you but also if you turn that around okay so you're saying then that he's talking to the unsaved he's saying that they do all these things they won't inherit the kingdom then are you saying that if the unsaved do do do straighten up they'll inherit the kingdom oh well no because there's no other name so see it's really incompetent reasoning to say the least but what other what other that was a little swift that you think they give applies to the Jews it applies to the Jews and and they do this a lot where Jesus said for example um if you don't use your talent you'll be cast in the outer dark well that's to the Jews what's wrong with that reasoning well Jesus Jesus was talking to the Jew when he said how exactly if if the parable of the talents doesn't apply then neither does being born again neither does abiding in the vine neither does any of the things that Jesus said in John which are bases of Christian theology the good shepherd the whole thing behold the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world this is the Jews he's talking to the Jews in the beginning was the word and the word was with God he was talking to the Jews doesn't apply to them see so they're licked wherever they turn what's another thing they say I think you'll find this in the Schofield footnotes but you have to check it out they're saying that after Christ was raised from the dead everything changed and now it's grace but before that it was the commandments of Christ but since he rose from the dead it's all changed and now it's by grace how would you answer that? I'm alerting you listen you're dealing now with scholars okay they have asked you a pointed question after Christ's resurrection it all changed now how do you deal with that? you can find everything that Jesus said you can find in the epistles see all of the warnings are in the epistles in one way or another they're all in the epistles so they are absolutely without defense so then it becomes an emotional issue see they cannot address it intellectually and you'll find that in the future when you're dealing with people and another thing that they say is the book of Hebrews which is a book of works was not written to Christians that's a fairly new one as far as I know so you will find that if you know your bible and begin to talk to them that what will happen is that they will become defensive and emotional because they cannot answer from the scripture if you know your scripture you can demolish everything they say it is obviously true that grace is in contradistinction to the law of Moses not to moral transformation what do you think they do with Jane's statement faith without works is dead yeah but how do they deal with the plenary verbal inspiration when part of the New Testament canon says exactly what can you do with it yes I heard one when I was in college what was that one and that is I never heard that isn't that neat I wonder what they do with pure religion and undefile is this to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep yourself unspotted from the world yes anything except say you have to live righteously it is always Satan always attacks the concept of righteous living because that to him is anathema Satan could not care if the whole church was raptured into heaven that does not bother him if the whole church sang Christian hymns and believed in Christ it would not bother him believe me Satan is only concerned when you begin to live righteously because then you are invading his kingdom see you can have you can believe in Christ profess Christ you can have gifts of the spirit you can sing hymns you can dance and praise God and do mime and it doesn't bother Satan until you begin to stop lying stop sexual aberrations that's when he gets excited and so he has fought the Jews he got them off righteousness into the minutia of the law which didn't matter whether or not you chewed a breath mint on the Sabbath he got them into that ok he did it with the Catholic church by getting them see the Catholic church will not translate Repineo they will not translate that repentance they translate it due penance so that you can sin as long as you go into the confessional then and do your Our Father and your Hail Mary or whatever else they say so there is no moral transformation and I know there is a lot of marvelous Catholics boy are they and so I'm not talking about that I'm just saying how he attacks attacks so then after we got past the Catholic penances then what did we get into was it's grace and not works well the Catholics know it's works I mean the Catholic church has always preached righteousness always but it doesn't have the theological punch to it see the question always is but what if we don't or what if we don't see that's where it gets you should but what if we don't and that's the issue if we don't we can do penance you can do whatever the Jews do to get right I don't know but you don't change your behavior that's where Satan says you quit you quit playing the game right I want control of your body and your emotions and your soul and your spirit I want that you can do your whole religious number all you want to but I don't want you to change and these are the theological reasons why you don't have to oh you should Satan will agree you should but what he adds to that is this are you listening or do we have Emerson's iron lids are you listening he says maybe you've heard it before thou shall not surely die see you should do right but if you don't you will not surely die you can hear that from any evangelical pulpit in this country yes I was just going to say the exact same thing because I we didn't hear that the way you live will affect your resurrection now that's scriptural and that's where the rubber hits the road see that is such perfect justice what you sow you reap see what you sow you reap that's an immutable kingdom law and so what salvation does is it changes what you are sowing it changes what you are sowing it will never change what you reap you will reap what you sow but salvation changes you from sowing sin to sowing to the spirit and then you reap eternal life in the day of resurrection see everything is pointed toward the resurrection from the dead because at that day you are going to receive the consequences of the way you have lived what if I don't well if you don't straighten up you are going to reap corruption in the day of Christ and grace will not interfere and neither will mercy nor anything else you are going as you sow God is not mocked that's Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8 you need to know these Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8 and that's a good passage to ruminate on ok ruminant that means you chew the cud ruminate on that be not deceived see it's an area of deception isn't it isn't that an area of deception be not deceived God is not mocked for he that sows to his flesh what does it say shall reap reap corruption because the flesh is corrupt so if you sow corruption you are going to reap corruption but he that sows to the spirit reaps so eternal life is not a badge that is given you when you accept Christ it's something that you receive in terms of how you sow now today which is the 8th of February in the year 2000 you everyone in this room including myself made choices about what you were sowing you were tempted to sow to your flesh you were admonished by the scripture to sow to the spirit of God to pray and find out what the spirit wants you to do today this happened God never wastes a day in your life even when you're on vacation he never wastes a day in your life but you are challenged in this area of sowing and so today you either went according to the desires of your flesh or you went according to the admonition of the scripture and that little bit there will affect you for eternity unless at some point you come to the Lord and you confess that denounce it renounce it and get his forgiveness then it will never be mentioned again but what you could have gained today is eternally lost unless God and his goodness hit you upside the head and you learn something if you learn something see you can fall you can actually backslide and fall and I don't recommend this I do not recommend it believe me you can backslide and fall and then come back to the Lord now sometimes you don't get an opportunity but let's say that you do you actually do God woos you back I'll tell you one thing God will forgive you instantly but boy are you tested after that oh Lord and sometimes for years to see if you mean business it's no foolishness this stuff turning away from God you can come back ordinarily you can come back and you can get forgiveness but boy do you get slammed around and I know what I'm talking about watching people I can see what they go through and they're yelling I come back to God God hasn't met me and I say no he won't meet you I was talking to someone and I said you better get ready for the long haul God does not like backsliding and it doesn't get you back boy you you know anyway enough of that but it is rough if you do that you can get forgiven but you can now are you hearing me you can turn it to good if you learn from it it can be a learning experience and give you wisdom and strength because you know now by experience that that was the wrong thing to do and sometimes according to Daniel 11 God says many shall fall that they may be purified and I don't recommend that but if it does overtake you remember what I said you can come back God will forgive you you're going to really be tested but it can be turned to advantage if you will have learned from it because sometimes there's things so deep in our personality that about the only way that God can get at it is to give us enough rope so we hang ourselves and then we learn once and for eternity this is wrong and sometimes it takes that to get that down to our guts where we don't do that again but it's a hard way to go but as I said that lesson you could have learned that day is gone that opportunity to have a little bit of you die and something come alive in Christ you lost that today if you gave into your flesh but if you learn from it it can be a lesson that in the future can help you recoup your gain losses I should say and make gain from it how many understand what I'm saying that's a dangerous way to go believe me and once you get into sin and go back like Peter says it's impossible Peter says it'd be better for them never to have been saved in the first place do you know the Bible says that? how many of the Bible says that in 2nd Peter? says they've turned as a dog to his vomit they knew the way of righteousness then they turned around went back to the dog and said it'd be better that they'd never known it in the first place so backsliding is no cute little trick you know here I am Lord well I'll see you tomorrow you know you live it up tight tense as much as you can you pour everything into the day and you'll get it back in the day of resurrection it's like money in the bank see something you sowed a little bit more to the Spirit of God it will add to your crown in that day believe me yes Andrew? I just want to tell this story last week when I was in the prison immediately 516 you mean 519-21 well when that was finished the reason I'm telling this story is when when people's hearts are riled how bad God was it just works so bad and when I finished if you love me you'll obey me you'll obey me I'll ask for forgiveness I'll ask for forgiveness that's the mission that's the mission well immediately two men wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit I prayed for them one for all of them at a time the other couldn't receive it the Lord told me he was an occultist so I started mentioning occultism the whole group started talking about different things they were in went into repentance and God just broke out with the Holy Spirit so my point is is after they had finally come to the point saying I'm serious alright you see that that in Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8 it's the Holy Spirit eternal life is a case of sowing and reaping now I want to do something else for you since you're all students salvation now you see salvation today means to go to heaven when you die it's not a scriptural definition of salvation salvation is change into the moral image of Christ and rest in God's will that's what salvation is that's what it is you don't get morally changed into Christ's image in order to be saved or in order to go to heaven salvation itself is change into the moral image of Christ and on trouble rest in God's perfect will okay now if you use that definition of salvation you will stop a lot of arguments let's go back and get the definition again because this is very important because it's going to take you probably five years before you get the heaven thing out of your craw when you think salvation think of change into the moral image of Christ that is honesty truthfulness all the other things courage obedience to God and everything that Christ is change, that's the new creature and on trouble rest in God's will those two things they're both part now that's what salvation is that's what it is now let me tell you why that's important when they get into arguments like for example can I be saved and still sin you see it no longer is a cogent argument it no longer applies when you say can I be saved and still sin you're defining salvation as going to heaven if you define salvation as change which it is if any man be in Christ is a new creation and entrance into on trouble rest in God's will which is the rest of God of Hebrews 4 if you define salvation that way then arguments like how about once saved always saved see what do you mean by that once saved always saved do you mean once that you're saved from lying you're always saved from lying then what's the answer to that provided you don't lie anymore so you see by changing the definition you remove all these arguments that come up about I can still sin and yet God will save me because that's the same as saying I can still I can be sick and still be healed in other words I'm sick and healed at the same time would be to say that I'm that I'm saved but sinning would be the same as saying I'm sick but I'm healthy by changing the definition you completely dismantle all these crazy arguments about it's okay to sin if you make your definition that salvation itself is change and entering into God's will then all these other arguments dissolve and you can back up that definition from if any man be in Christ he's a new creature and in Hebrews 4.1 let us therefore fear as a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it and Romans 8.29 which says what class? Romans 8.29 I hope you know that oh lord Romans 8.29 that's why you gave 8.28 and 8.29 I'm just asking for 8.29 for whom he did foreknow say it for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and let me stop there King James says predestinate it really should be predestined no, I mean we don't say predestinate anymore we say predestined so let's start all over again for whom he did foreknow he also did predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers we don't say brethren anymore or sister we say brothers yes you forgot Hebrews 10.26 if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth and their response to that is that wasn't written to Christians wasn't saved in the first place but that's because by salvation they mean dying and going to heaven when you change the definition all those things evaporate yes you have a verse that has the word salvation in it sozo, in the Greek, salvation Titus is talking about grace let's try that one I always find if I go into the third chapter of Titus and then backing up about five verses and it starts off that says for the grace of God that brings salvation I like around Titus 2.21, 23 which one is it? don't you know for heaven's sake I give you the business because you're up here Brian, he's ready to fall out the back door did anybody find that verse? it's right there ok, keep it simple for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men I'm reading it for the tape land here is Titus 2.11 and that's a good passage to know it teaches us to say no to ungodliness what is the antecedent of it? what teaches us? grace grace teaches us grace is going to start teaching us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world not the guilt of the world, but the sin of the world redeem us from all wickedness there's your definition that's a good definition notice what else it says and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good now, our adversaries the devout theologians will say yes, it's absolutely true but if you don't you're still saved by grace meaning go to heaven but you see, if you make your definition of salvation change then what they're saying is meaningless absolutely meaningless because they're saying well, you're not saved because if you're still sitting, you're not saved because saving is transformation so see, it's very critical that you don't define salvation as go to heaven because that definition is not in the scripture it's not in the scripture yes, the chief was next going back to 1st Ruth when the sheaves were weighed you are saved you are being saved and you will be saved and at the beginning it's like it doesn't matter because you remember it says if the wife is a Christian the husband is holy because else the children would be unclean but you see, holiness doesn't mean that you're saved see, holiness means let's say we've got a family we've got a husband and wife and three children let's say that the wife is a Christian when God looks down on the family the family is sanctified because of the wife according to Paul but that's not talking about the kingdom that's just talking about God accepts that family as being holy because that wife, she's holy so the family is holy in God's sight and so the children are holy but each member of that family has to then work out their own salvation but at that moment in time that family is holy because of the believing wife and that's what Paul teaches he said otherwise your children would be unclean so the children are holy and that's important to God that is, holiness means belonging to God in a special way and he regards them as holy but they still have to work out their salvation in individual terms because we all have to stand before God then the question comes and I've asked this a bunch they are baptized they want to go on to God but then their life is cut short ok, that has to do according to my understanding there is no clear scriptural answer to that which often is asked in fact when I was in Iceland the pastor asked me about that because there was a man that wanted to get baptized all set up to be baptized and he died before he got baptized and he said how about him there's no clear scripture that answers that but I'll give you my best shot because I've thought of that we have to understand that everything God does in the world he does according to his foreknowledge that's hard for us to grasp but it is true and you find in the book of Psalms it says that all my days were written in your book every one of them before any of them existed so God knows about everything and if any man on his deathbed or whatever he comes to God God permits him to repent he will his sins will be forgiven on that basis and God will accept him because he accepted Christ and the reason for this people is because the one sin that will forever shut you out of God's presence so that you will never again be able to see the face of God or be redeemed the one sin that will do that is self will refusing to accept Christ accept salvation in other words you maintain your own will when you maintain your own will there's nothing God can do there's nothing God can do with you if you maintain now this goes over into the next life whatever God cannot bring you to himself if you insist on keeping your own independence cannot do it and so the big who was telling me was it you or Sid Milton in Paradise Lost I'd rather serve in I'd rather rule in hell than serve in heaven and that is so profound C.S. Lewis reflected on that it's so profound God can take a drunk he can take a rapist he can take a murderer he can take anything and God knows what this world is like he knows it's a cesspool and hear this poor bum comes before God and says I murdered my grandmother for the money I've abused my wife I've sold my kids for the insurance I've done everything wrong and oh God I'm sorry forgive my sins and God will forgive him God will forgive him why do you say that and what's the difference I go through I'm the older son you know I go through life and I'm battered and torn and everything and all I get is forgiven no something happened to you that did not happen to that wife beater okay yes God forgave him because on Calvary God forgave the sins of the world that's in 1 John 2 I think verse 2 if I remember who forgave not only our sins but the sins of the whole world but there's something else involved and that's the kingdom of God and if God has for you a high place in his kingdom like he said for some are going to sit on my right hand and my left because it's been prepared for them then you are going God is not going to let you die like that you are going to live long enough for God to prepare you for that place so there's two issues here one is forgiveness and God will forgive anyone that comes to him if they're genuinely sorry and God looks down he knows this world is a cesspool and he said but they're willing to surrender their determination to save themselves and their pride and they're willing to humble themselves and ask for my help God will help them okay because we're only dust anyway but he has in the world today and has in every age he has people that have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son and that's not talking about forgiveness at all that's talking about confirmation or change change change and those changes evidently cannot occur in paradise because even Jesus Christ himself learned forgiveness in the earth by the things he suffered so there's some things that are only possible in this crucible of fire and pressure that we call earth so if God has predestined for you see in this great kingdom of God there are many many stations there are many roles there are many tasks that God formulated in his mind before he created the heavens and the earth this is all laid out and so then he in his great vision appointed people before the world was created that would fit into those positions like it says he makes someone to honor he makes someone to dishonor well the potter has the authority and the power to do that he is the potter he's making all this out of dust okay now if he looks down at someone and he says well I don't know how he knows this but he does this is going to be a weak individual and it makes me think of a girl that came with the hippies when I was teaching in Palo Alto and she came and she played her guitar and she's a wild looking blonde I mean this is the wildest looking thing he ever saw but these hippies were so excited because this blonde got saved and she accepted Christ I mean they were on top of it and praising God and next week they all came down with their chin and they're down in their sneakers or their sandals they wear those special kind of sandals you can get that have an occult meaning to them I forget the name of them I got a pair at home I got Bergenstock Bergenstock yeah they had their chin down in their Bergenstockers and I said what's the matter blondie had drowned yeah she'd gone out in a canoe and drowned see that was it for her she was gloriously saved but God knew that she wasn't God loves flowers how many in here would like to live in a world without flowers well there were never any flowers anywhere does anybody in here realize how useless flowers are I mean there are lilies you may have seen jack in the pulpits or some of these that are grown in swamps that no one ever sees except a passing skunk and nobody has ever had clothes with the delicate colors in them that a jack in the pulpit has I mean the delicate things that God makes in orchids and lilies and other these things but some of them grow and die and nobody ever sees them they don't work they don't bear responsibility they don't create anything all they are good for is to look at nothing else or smell and some of them don't even smell you just look at them is that right there's people like that there's people that God has made because he just wants to look at them yeah it's good to know that because we get pretty heavy in the overcoming life and it's pretty good to know that God does have little sisters that are swinging doors and you have to enclose them in planks of cedar that must be a wonderful smell when you get something enclosed in planks of cedar because cedar wood smells great there's people like that see we think oh God despises them they're so weak you know they fall Satan looks at them and they flop over but God doesn't see them like that any more than a mother sees her handicapped child as being undesirable God does not see people like that it's a good thing to remember when you're leading the overcoming life remember God pays more attention to his handicapped children than he does to those who are bright and can do everything just like a mother does God really loves his dust that he's made and so he knows he knew about Blondie and he knew if he hit her right she'd accept him and be excited and he knew if he left her another month she'd be down in the drugs off she goes she's not going to be a pillar in the temple of God she's not going to be a commander in Christ's army nobody's going to bring out the pom-pom girls necessarily when she dies there's going to be no brass band you know if that's the way it works like there was for the Apostle Paul but in God's sight she's precious in God's sight she's precious now this gets tricky let's take you as an individual for example God has a certain place in his kingdom for you it was planned from the foundation of the world and the way God deals with you the amount of suffering you go through the amount of testing you go through depends on this place that God has for you that's why Paul says I pressed for that that my grass that for which I have been grassed now can you blow it? absolutely the Bible says watch out that no one takes your crown because people have unbelief and they'll come and they'll dump this on you oh you can't live like that oh you started off good but nobody can live like that you can't live you know I mean there's unbelief all over the place you know about the overcoming life you just got to stand up ignore everybody look at Jesus and go on be careful that no one because people can steal and they don't what is it that they steal? now think what do they steal? or what do they take? let no man take what? crown crown crown your place of authority in the kingdom because you see the evil spirits they resent they know that you're predestined for something great they can tell that and so they're going just out of pure spite they're going to work to try to keep you from getting that and so if you're called to some great thing in the kingdom and you probably are because most people in the world have never heard some of the things that you heard most people in the world check it out see they're still you know mucking around in the fundamentals of salvation they got that wrong that means that God has something for you but you can lose it it isn't that oh I lose it today it isn't that kind of thing you have to kind of work at it to lose it I mean you have to turn from God and just go into the lust of the world and go to Las Vegas and play blackjack or something else you know every weekend you can you but the point is it's not inevitable predestination is not inevitability okay it is an opportunity and if you have been called then your whole life is going to be built around preparation and the higher your building is going to go the deeper the foundation is going to be dug so just trust God do like Paul forget what's behind you've made your mistakes we all have forget them take your knocks go on press on in God and you will grasp that to which you've been grasped and you'll have all eternity to enjoy it and that's the difference between living a week and dying or living 70 years and more and constantly having God work you over it's because he's got something wonderful you're not just going to be a flower in his kingdom you're going to be someone a pillar upon whom the structure is built for many many people still unborn is that your hand? and then 12 and then 3 on the you've got the multitude that ate the fishes you've got the 70 that went out to preach you've got the 12 disciples and you've got the 3 on the mount of transfiguration that's another one oh yeah calling it's like like Hebrew says no man takes his honor unto himself you have to be called and the thing is when you're called it's an opportunity it's not a shoo-in it's an invitation to you that is not given to anyone else you have your personal goal that's set for you a mark and you just have to lay down your life to go for it if you don't you won't make it I don't say you'll be lost and go to hell I don't know but you'll be judged as an unfaithful servant yeah and that isn't red hot predestination is not inevitability that's a one-liner you did good class I mean everybody stayed awake that's wonderful you're attentive you're intelligent you ask good questions shall we stand we'll see you just pray we'll see if we can't get this into a college course here well that's something because it articulates into a degree program oh father hallelujah blessed be your name father you have created us from the dust to the ground and lord you knew from the foundation where we were gonna be praise your name praise your name you knew each one of us you knew each one of us lord hallelujah and we're more precious to you than much fine gold hallelujah lord truly you have died for us on the cross that made it possible you have entrusted us with all out there that do not know their arm from their elbow they just do not understand anything lord hardly at all and lord here you pour your riches on us now father in this class lord to learn as quickly and as thoroughly as we can because you certainly are gonna put us into places where we're gonna communicate what we've learned so help us lord help us lord to be faithful and not to fritter away the days from now because we just don't know we just don't know brian is gone from us lord we had such hopes so lord help us to come along and learn this stuff and do what we're supposed to lord we just need your help we just need your help each one of us help us lord we just need your help and i pray lord you will bless each one with health and a good night sleep and safety on the highway and they'll wake up in the morning ready to serve what god has never before in jesus name amen