In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking the truth from God rather than relying on various cults or books. He uses an analogy of a bank teller learning to identify counterfeit bills to illustrate the need for discernment in spiritual matters. The speaker then discusses the power of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which surpasses the law of sin and death. He highlights the significance of Jesus' words as being spirit and life, and emphasizes that Jesus' main agenda was to do the will of God. The speaker concludes by expressing the belief that God will provide a clear witness of truth in the body of Christ based on the Word of God.

I'm not trying to expound on these scriptures or read, it's more of a starting point, springboard. Because I feel the Lord does want to begin in a far more meaningful way than we have known, to impart truth to God's people, not only to their minds, but to their hearts. And I think I mentioned last night, God starts with the heart, but we seem to have reversed that, and we get it in our minds first, so often. And God wants to bring about that change of the heart, as well as of the mind. And I don't in any way try to disannul what God would do in our minds. Our minds certainly need total transfiguration. But the truth we get there is generally in the form of knowledge, and God wants us to have true knowledge. But until knowledge is integrated into the mind, absorbed into the mind and becomes truth, it still remains far from God's desire. God wants the knowledge we have to become living truth. And I believe God wants to do that, and I believe this is the time when He wants to do it. My own desire is that I would not go around ministering to God's people just to try to give them a little more instruction in the various visions that we have concerning what God will do on this last day, but rather to, Jesus says, feed my sheep, to impart living bread to God's people. Something that's not only sweet in the mouth, but something that, when digested, will bring bitterness. I don't mean a bitterness toward God or man. I mean that inward dealing of God that is bitter in its experience, but the result of which is to eradicate the bitterness. Yes, Lord. And so I warn God's people, you know, don't hang around too much listening to the living word of God unless you intend to digest it. And John said, Thy words were found and I did eat them, and they were unto me as honey in my mouth. And God said to Ezekiel, Take the little book and eat it. And he ate it, and it was sweet in his mouth. John and Patnos, the same. But when I had eaten it, it was bitterness in my belly. And then right after that, He says, Thou shalt prophesy again to many tongues and nations and peoples. And I believe God wants a prophetic people in the earth. I'm not looking for the arising of another great prophet. As much as I am expecting a prophetic people in the earth, a prophetic people, a people that becomes the testimony of Jesus. For Jesus said, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I pondered over that scripture a lot. But I just believe that God wants that witness of Christ in the midst of His people, that expression of Christ in His people. That whether they speak or don't speak, exhort or don't exhort, prophesy or don't prophesy, teach or don't teach, whatever enablement God has given them, the total expression of that witness of Christ in the midst of His people will be the testimony of Jesus. The witness of Jesus, the expression of Jesus going forth from the house of God. And I believe God wants that in His people. And I believe when Jesus went away for that purpose, that the witness that He was when He was here, the testimony that He was, He was a true witness. He was a faithful witness. He was the very witness of the Father. Anything that men needed to know about the Father, Jesus was that true and faithful witness. He was God's spoken word in the earth. The word was with God. The word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that word is the very expression of the heart of God. God's word in the flesh. God's own heart and mind expressed in His Son. So John was able to say that the word, the word of life which we have seen, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled, that the word of life, that the life was manifested. We have seen it bear witness and declare unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. It was the very word of the Father, the very life of the Father. The very expression of God the Father in the earth. I can't go along with the Trinitarian expression. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three separate persons. Three distinct separate persons. I'm not getting any theological arguments about it this morning. But I want you to know that when Jesus Christ walked this earth, it was the revelation of the Father. It was the revelation of God the Father walking in His Son in the earth. It was God's mind. It was God's heart. It was the very expression of God Himself. And God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past, unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. And the Greek says two words, in Son. As pointing out, there's one Bible I have, he points out on a footnote, the two words in Son. It's putting that in distinction, in contradistinction to the Father who revealed Himself in times past through prophets, through angels, through visitations, through dreams. All kinds of expressions that came forth in the Old Testament by way of revealing God. But God's final revelation of Himself in fullness was when He wrapped Himself in Son. In Son. The Son was the very expression, the very word, the very shining forth of the Father. And so if theologians would be content just to leave the word as it is without trying to analyze it, and we wouldn't have all these doctrines and conflicts. We'd have church councils to settle the theology concerning the Godhead. And the controversy has been going on ever since in the church. And John simply says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God. Now, you can't figure that out. But isn't it beautiful just to receive it? Oh, He was God, yet He was with God, and now He's gone back to God, and He's the mediator there in the heavens. That man is the right hand of God the Father, and He's the mediator between God and man. But He was God, and when John saw the Lamb coming, He stood up there in the throne, took the book, and then He was absorbed as it were in the throne of God. And John saw one sitting on the throne. And in the midst of the throne was the Lamb, right in the midst of the throne. We want to see the glorified Christ as the very expression of God Almighty. In the earth and in the heavens, except that when He came to earth, He laid aside those prerogatives of deity. He laid aside that He might be a man in all respects as we are, yet without sin. That is, man, He might deal with our sin, fully deal with it, having become sin for us, and you know sin. Having dealt with that, then He might bring that man back into the image of God and back into His own heart on a far higher plane than Adam ever was before he sinned. As we mentioned last night, the first man is of the earth, the second man is the Lord from heaven. God's desire to redeem and renew the human family until He has a people back in the image of His Son, which is the image of God, the perfect image of God. Adam being but a type of that perfect image of God, a type of Him that was to come. But He went back to heaven, and that's what left people so desolate and so disappointed, so discouraged. You came here from heaven to set up a kingdom, now you're going back, we don't understand it. And it took Him a long time, little by little, He tried to show them that He came to set up a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. That's what He came to, set up a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. People say, don't spiritualize the Word. Well, I don't want to spiritualize the Word, but it's God's purpose to give spirit to the letter of the Word. It's God's intention to spiritualize the Word. So when someone comes off with some far-fetched idea of the Scripture, you say, don't spiritualize it. He's not spiritualizing it, He's carnalizing it. But God wants to breathe life into His Word, He wants to make spirit out of it. And all that is written in the Old Testament is written in type, I shouldn't say all, perhaps, but it's written in type and shadow and picture form. And God wants to show us the spiritual truth in it, He wants to bring life out of it. He wants to spiritualize it, if I can use that terminology. Spiritualizing it, if it's God that spiritualizes the Word, it doesn't carnalize it, it brings forth God out of it. We call spiritualizing it and bring forth a lot of crazy ideas from it, that's carnalizing it, that's not spiritualizing it. God wants to spiritualize His truth, He wants to spiritualize you and me. Spiritualizing doesn't mean that you just sort of go away into vapor. The manna that came down from heaven was spiritual bread. It went out and they picked it and they ate it and the women cooked it and made cakes out of it. And Paul says it was spiritual bread because the real life in that manna was the life of heaven. When Moses smote the rock and water gushed out, Paul says it was spiritual drink. It was real, but it was more real than real. It was spiritual. And if God spiritualizes the Word as He wants to do in your heart and mine, it doesn't minimize it or take from it or detract from it. It adds to it, it adds God's Spirit to it and changes it until it becomes life rather than death. And so God grants that even these days there will be a spiritualizing of the truth of God into our hearts and minds until He spiritualizes you and I. God wants us to be spiritual. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul says, I'm sorry I can't speak to you as I'm just spiritual. He wants to speak to spiritual people. It doesn't mean people who have mystical ideas and stuff like that. It means the people who are taught of God. People who are drawn away from the natural, caught into spiritual realities. Because there's a great chasm between the heart of God and the hearts of man. And that's what this whole story of redemption is all about. As God in redemption comes down Himself and takes upon Himself the form of man, even in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to abrogate the sin that Adam brought and to bring an everlasting righteousness that He might establish in the earth a race of people after the likeness of the last Adam as surely as we have a race of people here today after the likeness of the first Adam. Another race of beings. Read Romans 5, it's so clear that there's two races. Two races. In the one we find death, in the other we find life. In the one there's a kingdom of death and sin, in the other there's a kingdom of righteousness and life. As by the obedience of one we were made sinners, so by the disobedience of one we were made... He contrasts the one with the other to show that God is in the process of bringing forth this new creation. This new race of beings. He started it. There's a people in the earth who are members of that race. You and I are members of that race. And yet the problem is that until God completes that transforming work, the old Adam lingers with us and lingers with us. Oftentimes we fail to realize that within us God has put a new seed, a new life. And is nurturing that life. And that's what the new covenant is all about. Nurturing that other life that in the fullness of God's workings, this man will be replaced by the new man. And will walk as sons of the last Adam, brethren of the last Adam, as he walked in the earth. As he walked, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. I know it's too high a calling for most people. Too high for any of us. The only difference being that with you and I who realize it's too high a calling, we're trusting in the Lord to make it happen. Others here say that's too high a calling. I can't attain to it. It's not something for you and I to attain to. Or any kind of fleshly striving. It's by submitting to the dealings, to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives that he might do which he alone can do. For his praise and honor and glory. Do you have any trouble sinning? Do you have any trouble being carnal? Do you have any trouble walking after the flesh? Can I ask you why you don't have any trouble in that way? Why don't you have trouble sinning? Walking after the flesh. Lying, cursing. Do you have any trouble doing that? Oh, you say, I was born in Adam and so I just do those things. Because Adam sins, so I sin. Oh, simple as that, is it? Aren't you born in Christ? Do you have any trouble bringing forth righteousness? Do you have any trouble loving? Do you have any trouble showing mercy? Do you have any trouble showing kindness? Oh, yes. Aren't you born in Christ? God's purpose then is to bring us into that new man where we don't have any trouble doing those things. Not only that, but it's going to be easier. It's going to be more restful. There's going to be more power in that life for you and I to live like Jesus than there was for you and I to live in the other realm like Adam. You see, I can't see that we could ever come to that. But then if we deny that, we're saying that the law of sin and death is more potent than the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You know the potency of the law of sin and death. And God has the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus for us. And you say, well, I know, under the law of sin and death, I know I can just sin. I can be carnal, mean, bitter. I can do all those things because I've got the law of sin and death working in me. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. Paul declares his language as clearly as anybody could declare that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is more powerful, more potent, more beautiful, more wonderful, higher, overshadows the law of sin and death. And to deny that God has a place in the spirit where we can walk in the spirit, we're not subject to the law of sin and death, is simply to declare that the law of sin and death is more powerful than the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You say, have you attained to that then? Well, no, I haven't attained to it, but that's God's purpose. I don't have to have attained to it in order to declare it. I know people say, well, if you haven't experienced these things, you have no right standing up there and declaring it. Well, I'm sorry. Paul the Apostle says, I confess I haven't attained, but he says I press on toward the mountain to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Not that I've yet been made perfect, but I press on. And the presumption comes, as our brother said, when we say there it is in the Scripture and God says I've got it and therefore I've got it and that's where presumption comes in. Faith doesn't presume. Faith believes God, but it doesn't presume to have attained. So if we keep that principle clear, I'm sure we won't run into all this error that creeps up from time to time as men presume things, presuming we're not going to die physically because the law of the spirit of life is more powerful than the law of sin and death. Sure, that law is still functioning, the old law, but the purpose of the new law is to disannul the old. That's right. But God's order is, as Paul declared, I pray that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. That's God's order. So that the body is last and God is seen fit to reveal the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus here and now in our mortality. In our mortality, while we're yet to infirm, we can know what it is to bear about in the body, these mortal bodies, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. God forbid, and I've never intimated or taught that people should begin declaring that they're not going to die physically. God has left that to the last thing. At the last trump, He says, the dead shall be raised. And there's many trumpets sounding. Many have been sounding, and I believe there'll be others yet to sound. And I don't look for immortality until the last trump and the dead in Christ shall rise. I'm not saying God couldn't raise up some before the full sounding of the last trump. I don't know, and I don't even think about those things. If God's order is to change us in spirit, then in soul, and eventually our body. So that even now then, God wants us to begin to appropriate and experience the working of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Paul says it's made us free from the law of sin and death. I've illustrated it this way. A fire deluges some building, and the firefighters come in, and they extinguish the blaze. And that fire is extinguished. You can walk through it, and you know the fire has done its work. It's been extinguished. But the ruin is still there in the old building. And that takes the working of God to change that ruination. But the fire has been put out. And Christ destroyed the law of sin and death when He suffered on the cross and rose from the dead. It doesn't mean that the damage has all been taken care of. So God is in the process of renewing, restoring, transfiguring the damage that has been done in the old creation. The fire has been extinguished. I mean the fire of the law of sin and death in Christ Jesus. And God, by the law of the spirit of life, wants to renovate our spirit, our soul, our body until we are transfigured into His own image. Right here in mortal flesh to live the life of Jesus. Right here in mortal flesh. Didn't Jesus live that perfect life He lived in mortal flesh? He lived that beautiful life that we see in the Scriptures as He walked here in the realm of mortality with a mortal body. A body that was subject to death. Not because of any sin that He committed, but because of Adam's sin. He didn't have to die. Had He chose to go on living without dying, He could have done it. But He didn't come into the world with any agenda on His mind except one. He came with one agenda on His lips. I believe it's a pattern for you and I. Because the teaching is He came to set up a kingdom. And He came to heal the sick. He came to raise the dead. He came to cast out devils. I know the spirit of the Lord came upon Him to do those things. But in His agenda, coming into the world, He had but one. That's declared in the Old Testament in the voice of the psalmist David, the singing prophet. He declared it. Sacrifice an offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared for me. Invert offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou hast had no pleasure. I often think of that. I remember one time thinking of that. David there composing this song and then it became one of the songs in the temple. And while the priests were out there slaying the bullocks and the goat offerings and the sheep and the turtle doves and blood was flowing freely on the altars, somewhere the musicians were singing Sacrifice an offering Thou wouldest not. Sacrifice an offering Thou wouldest not. And the blood was flowing from bulls and goats and sheep. Sacrifice an offering Thou wouldest not. And the blood continued to flow. I wonder if they ever stopped to think, what's David singing? What do you mean God doesn't want this? God told Moses that this is what we're supposed to have. What do they mean? What do those singers mean? I wonder if they ever stopped to think. I sometimes wonder if people ever stopped to think the songs they're singing. As far back as I can remember, in Sunday school and later on, to be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask to be like Him. So meek and lowly, so humble and holy, all I ask to be like Him. Do you ever think of that? But it's good to sing it. It's a nice song, but when someone says, God really wants to make us like Jesus, then you're a heretic. That's right. Sacrifice an offering Thou wouldest not. David says, God, You don't really delight in these sacrifices, but a body has Thou prepared for me. In burnt offering, in sacrifices for sin, Thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me to do Thy will, O God. That became his one agenda, coming to this earth. If we see that, it clarifies so many things. Why he didn't set up the king. Oh, well, the Jews didn't receive him, so they crucified him. All that happened. God entwined it in His eternal purpose to fulfill that glorious prophecy that David uttered, a body has Thou prepared for me, so that he came to be that body that would be sacrificed. Then my calculating mind got working when I was younger. You know, he came to die. He came to die for our sins. And so then did God have to manipulate things? Was God manipulating the high priests so they wouldn't like Jesus, so that they'd arrest them and kill them so Jesus could die for my sins? You know, you get calculating how God works out these things. Not realizing that he came to do the will of the Father in a world of sin and wickedness, in a world that hated God, he came to do the will of the Father. He came to be a light in a world of darkness. He came to be the expression of everything that's in the heart of God the Father, for he was that thought, heart and mind of God robed in flesh. He came to reveal that in a world that hated God, a world full of hate and rebellion and sin of every description. He came into that kind of a world. Light came in against the gross darkness. What's going to happen? If light comes against gross darkness, if love comes against hate, if truth comes against error, there's conflict. So they had to crucify him. It was inevitable because he was light. It wasn't that God put it in the heart of that old priest there, I want my son to be slain so it will be a sacrifice for sin. And so I compel you to do it. I mean, hate was in the hearts of the people. It was in the hearts of the religious world and the hearts of the multitude. And here was love, here was truth. Here with him was total light and there was confrontation and hatred against him and crucifixion. He was born under the shadow of the cross. He lived under the shadow of the cross. He carried that cross to Calvary because he was confronting darkness in all its forms and overcoming it while he was doing it. Giving us once for all the secret of victory, which is overcoming evil with good, overcoming darkness with light, overcoming error and deceit with truth. It's a secret. And so they write books and books and books on the cults. Christian leaders read them. I've got to know the cults so I'll know it. Read this book and then there's another one out because they've become bestsellers. In no time, we want to know what the cults are. I'm not saying there's no value in it. But you won't know the truth that way. You can understand the errors in all the cults, but that won't lead you to the truth. But like the bank manager said to the young teller who was new in the job and he wanted to be sure he didn't make a mistake with the counterfeit bills that come in. Has he got a number of counterfeit bills here that I could study up? Because I don't want to go wrong here at the till. He says, no, we don't do that. He says, you just take the real currency. You study that. And then you'll detect the false. And that's God's way. That's God's answer. Know the truth. The truth shall make you free and it shall enable you to see that which is erroneous. You can't just go by, okay, the Bible says any man confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, he is of God. Oh, that's a good test. I'll just ask him. Do you believe Jesus Christ is in the flesh? Oh, yeah, sure. Sure. I know a place where they use this test on a man. Well, he's sure of God then and let him speak and minister. And the man is full of the devil. And he wrought a lot of havoc in their midst because he passed the test. Do you believe Jesus has come in the flesh? Oh, sure. But you say, what about the Bible then? You better know, you have a discernment to know whether he's telling a lie or not. He says it's a so-so. Well, then he must be of God. Do you know if he's lying or not? Well, I think it's weird. No, you don't. God wants us to be so walking in truth that we'll know and understand what is truth. And we're going to have to come to that. I don't care how many cult books you've written. I know my name's in one of them. It amused me a little bit. Anyway, just the other day, a man told me about a son of his. He was in a meeting and he said after the meeting, Everybody here wants more of God. Come up to the front. Well, why wouldn't you? So he went up and a lady came over and laid hands on him. And from that time on, he had trouble. He got into difficult troubles which lasted. I talked to the father of the lad just a couple of days ago. He said he feels he's coming out of it very well. Well, his son was over visiting a certain area on the eastern coast. There was a farmer there, I believe he was, who somehow he got working with him. He phoned this boy's father. And he said, The Lord revealed to me that in a certain place, is this right? In a certain place, a lady lays hands on him? And that's where the trouble came from. He says, Yes, that's right. Isn't that something? So, besides that, witches and wizards are coming into fundamental circles. Pentecostal, Baptist, whatever. Learn their language, mingle with them, talk in tongues as if they're charismatic people, prophesy, get involved in teaching classes. Witches. Their vision is to destroy that church. And they're patient about it. Wait a few months, a year or so, and the first thing you know, they do something that causes disaster. So, you see, you ask them, Do you believe this? Do you believe this and this and this? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in the blood? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Never stop to think maybe they're telling lies. How will I know if they're telling lies? You've got to know God. You've got to know the spirit of truth. John said, These things write on you concerning those that seduce you, but we have an unction from the Holy One. You better begin to recognize. You and I have got to begin to recognize. Without that unction, we're not going to be spared the deception that's coming on the church of Jesus Christ. It's that unction of the Holy One. John says, That anointing that you have received of Him because of the same anointing that Jesus had teaches you all things that you need not that any man teach you. But the same anointing will teach you, and that anointing is truth. Truth is not knowing all that which is erroneous. Truth is that precious Holy Spirit who comes down to mingle Himself with the Body of Christ so this meal offering that God is preparing is thoroughly mingled with the oil of God and which will be the testimony of Jesus that will be free from deception and free from error in virtue of the anointing which is truth. See, the Word of God is truth. The anointing is truth. Therefore, there can be no distinction between the Word and the anointing. It must become one, as it was in Jesus who declared the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. The time has come we can no longer separate the Word and the Spirit, the Word and the truth. Yeah, the Spirit, that's fine, but you've got to go by the Word. There must come a place in the Body of Christ where they're one, where the Word goes forth by the anointing, where the anointing speaks forth from the Word, for there to be one, not two. Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. And so when that Word made flesh was dwelling amongst us, revealing the heart of the Father, declaring the intentions of the Father, the purpose of the Father, He had one agenda, as I said, and that was to do His will at all times. No other agenda. Though God had much on His agenda for His Son, the Son came with one thought in His mind. I'm not here to set up a kingdom. I'm not here to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, walk in the water, change water into wine, multiply loaves and fishes, all of which He did, but that wasn't on His agenda. His agenda was, I come to do Thy will, O God, in the volume of the book it is written of me. That's why when we understand that, it all becomes so simple. Why He would walk into the midst of the cripples at the Pool of Bethesda, where multitudes were gathered together waiting for the moving of the water, hoping to be healed as they stepped into the water. And here was the healer. Here was the Lord of Heaven who had life. They could have walked down along the rim of the pool there and healed everyone and caused them to walk away, but He didn't come to be a healer or He would have done that. He came to do the will of the Father, and He stepped over the cripples, I assume, as He found His way to the one that the Father had pointed out and said to him, Would you be made whole? And he said, I have nobody to throw me into the pool. He wasn't talking about that pool. Here was the pool. Here was the living water. He says, Rise up and walk. He didn't tell them to have faith. He didn't just say, Now if you believe the Scriptures, I'm a prophet from God, and if I can just convince you to believe that healing is in the atonement, you can rise up and walk. And I'm not saying you don't teach those things. But he was moving at the will of the Father, and the Father said, Go and heal that man. I'm not asking him to have faith or anything. Just go and give him a word. Rise up and walk. He couldn't help it because here was the voice of the Father walking in human flesh. So he rose up and walked. And Jesus walked down, left the others there infirm. And that puzzled us. On another occasion, it says He healed all that came unto Him. And we know that that compassion was there in His heart to heal all that came unto Him. It was there. We know. But He came to do the will of the Father. Wasn't it the will of the Father to do that? Those are things in God's own heart and mind that we puzzle at. Why would it be the will of the Father to heal that one man and not another? Those are questions that's not for you and I to puzzle over. Just to see the beauty of the incarnation of this one who was the Son of God walking in the flesh, doing the will of the Father perfectly, being that perfect witness of God the Father in the earth, having one agenda to do the will of the Father, none other. Leaving the disciples frustrated from time to time when they knew very well that was the Messiah. The Messiah was supposed to set up a kingdom, and why wasn't He doing it? Encouraging Him to do it. And His own brothers. Why don't you go down to the feast and show yourself? You have these miracles. I don't know if they really believed He did or not, but taunting Him a little. Why don't you go down there where the action is? So much of that concept has flooded through the church of Jesus Christ and particularly through the ministry. Go where the action is. Go where the crowds are. Naturally. Aren't you out here to reach people? Well, then go where the crowds are. I mean, that's the concept. Go where the people are. You want to have a good evangelistic meeting? Go to the big cities. Get the biggest auditorium. Get all the facilities. Do it big. And the Son of God didn't do that. He just did what the Father bid Him to do. That was sufficient. That's why He lived in rest. Total rest. Not to say that His burden was light from our standpoint when we see the weight that He carried and eventually the weight of the cross, the weight of Calvary. But Jesus' testimony is my yoke is easy and my burden is light because He didn't have to figure out anything. He didn't have to carry the burden of it all. He just had to carry that burden that God laid upon Him. And it will be a great day for ministry when they come to the realization that their total responsibility is to carry the yoke in union with Christ. To take His yoke upon them and learn from Him. For Jesus says, I am meek and lowly in heart. And then He shall find rest unto your soul. Take my yoke upon you and you shall find rest unto your soul. Because it was rest in doing the Father's will because the Father did the work. He bore the persecution. He bore the suffering. But the Father did the work. He got the reproach. He got the enmity. Finally, He got the cross. But it was simply the Father's will that He was doing. So that all that reproach, all that cross, all that enmity was a natural reaction of, as I said, the light confronting the darkness. So, God forbid, you and I should go around trying to do stupid things so we can find persecution for the name of Christ. Begin to do the will of the Father. And we'll find all the reproach we need. And rest assured, God is preparing a people who will have the testimony of Jesus. Rest assured that you'll be confronted of the law of strife. And may God even now in these days of rest, of waiting, of learning, of discipling, may the Lord burn the way of victory into our hearts and minds that when the confrontation comes, we'll know the way. We do not overcome evil with evil. We overcome evil with good. Therefore, if you're having any hunger, feed Him. If you're thirsty, give Him a drink. If you never went or were that way, I know, maybe not here on earth, that Jesus won the greatest battle of the ages that way. Amen. When they came and arrested Him and crucified Him, He let them do it. He didn't have to. The Father says, Do it. Father, He said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, but not My will, Lord. I mean, He knew it wasn't God's will, but He said, Father, if possible, let it pass, but not My will, but Thine be done. And the Father insisted He must drink that cup. Hallelujah. Because the Father knew, and I think the Lord Jesus knew too, but in the moment of extreme anguish, He couldn't help but try that prayer with an if in it. If it be possible. But God said, No. It has to be this way. 8th of Heaven. He being total truth, total righteousness, total holiness, total love, was confronting all the hosts of wickedness in the hearts of men and in principalities and powers in the heavens. And the cross was inevitable. But as He hung there on the cross, when they thought they'd finally got Him in a place of total defeat as they defeated the first Adam, and as they were perhaps beginning to rejoice, we finally got Him on the cross, suddenly they began to feel they were losing every bit of power and authority they had. As the Son of God was light and love and truth and holiness and righteousness, any other virtue of God the Father that you can think of was revealed in the world and came against all that darkness. He was overcoming it with light and life and love and truth. He was overcoming the evil with good. And He overcame by the cross. Let's not lose sight of that. For the teaching is that Jesus was defeated by Satan on the cross and triumphed in the resurrection. That's not right. He overcame on the cross. Paul tells us in Colossians that it was on the cross that He destroyed principalities and powers and made an open show of them, triumphing over them in His cross. That's where He triumphed, in His cross. Because this is an expression of the goodness, the love, the life, the light of God confronting evil. Teaching you and I. In this time, He's left us in the battle. He overcame already. And so the teaching continues on. And He overcame so we don't have to. Jesus said, He that overcometh as I overcame will sit down at My throne even as I overcame and sat down at My Father's throne. It's through His cross that we also overcome. Through His cross. In identification with that cross. So He leaves us in mortal flesh that in mortality we might be able to suffer and experience somewhat of the sufferings of Christ. Never the full measure of it. But that in some measure we might be partakers of His cross. That we might also be partakers of His resurrection. I came across this one time. I hadn't thought of even reading it, but it seemed to fit in right here. If thou impatient do let slip thy cross, thou will not find it in this world again nor in another. Here and here alone has given thee to suffer for God's sake. In other worlds we may perfectly love Him and serve Him and praise Him and grow nearer and nearer to Him with delight. But then we shall not anymore be called to suffer which is our appointment here. Canst thou not suffer then an hour or two? If He would call thee from thy cross today saying it is finished, that hard cross of thine from which thou prayest for deliverance, thinkest thou not some passion of regret would overcome thee? Thou wouldst say so soon? Let me go back and suffer yet awhile more patiently. I have not yet praised God. Whensoever it comes, that summons that we look for, it will seem too soon. Let us take heed in time that God may now be glorified in us. It says here it was written by an old Italian in a monastery. For no doubt many of those men in their desire to serve God and in a time of great hardship and suffering from the world about them, not having the power to cope with it perhaps, whatever it was, many of them fell to withdraw and serve God and patiently waiting before Him. Not that God ever intended it would be a continual way of life for anyone. He sent us into the world. But I believe there are times when God would call us apart unto Himself for a season. So we do see much of the virtue of Christ in many of these old men and women who suffered for Him. I know there is a lot of emphasis on partaking of the life of Christ. And I know it's for our bodies too in our mortality. And I look for that. I believe there is yet to be a great wave of not only healing, but health from God because of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Because Paul says, If the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken, give life to your mortal body by His Spirit that dwells within you. And he's not talking about the resurrected body. He's talking about mortal flesh, a quickening of the life of Christ in that mortal flesh. I believe that must come in this world of sin and death. As we see the whole environment being overcome by poison, evil, we've got to know that life-giving power from the life of Christ here in our mortality. When the air is becoming polluted and the water is becoming polluted and the land is becoming polluted and the environment is becoming polluted, environmentalists are so concerned and worried about it, and rightly so, I guess, because this is the only hope they have, this old world. And yet there's nothing they can do about it. They're trying their best and making it difficult for themselves and everybody else instead of realizing that God knew that this age would end in this kind of a mess. And He let it linger on until it came to a point where there was no other recourse but for Him to come forth in might and in power. And we know He's going to do that, so we have hope even. As others are mourning the loss of this old planet, what can we do? They used to think it was good for another couple hundred years, and now they're wondering. And we're not worried about it. By that I don't say we should not be wise in the way we live here in this world, to live simply in Christ Jesus. But we're not worried about it going into pollution because Jesus said. One of the psalmists said that this earth is going to wear out as a garment and that the Messiah, the Christ, would take it and fold it up like an old garment and set it to one side and bring forth a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And so the Word conquered. The Word came forth into the earth and did the work that the Father gave Him to do and He triumphed by overcoming evil with good. God help us in every area of our life to recognize that's God's way to overcome evil with good and then to know as we seek to walk in the Spirit what that good thing is that He wants us to do. Not saying, well, you know, He's evil to me, so how do I manifest evil and go about it in our own ways? But just waiting on God in any situation that you're confronted with that you can't handle. Help me, Lord, to do the right thing. The right thing. To suffer under it. To say a word that the Father would give. Do some act of kindness or whatever it might be. Come to do Thy will, O God, is always the way. And God will show us the right way. And eventually it will lead us to victory. Not denying that there might be a great work of patience to be wrought before you know the victory. And not even saying that the victory that you're going to receive is that which you have in your mind at this time. Because Jesus overcame in the cross. That was His victory. And we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. It might not even seem like victory, but I believe there should come that sense of satisfaction. God, I've been in turmoil over this. I don't know how to handle it. As you commit it to Him and do His will, there will come that sense of I'm free. I'm free from this thing that has tormented me. Because we've simply walked in God's ways. Isaiah 55, I think it is, says, As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and watereth the earth, because of the things that are in it to spring forth and bud, that it might give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing wherein to have sinned. So that's God's answer to you and I in whatever ministration He might place in our hands to do. To know that as we seek to walk in the Spirit and it's God's word coming down upon the earth, it will not return unto Him void. It shall accomplish what He pleases. It shall prosper in the thing whereunto He sent it. And to leave it in His hands. If we have the confidence that it was God's word, to leave it in His hands. To see that it accomplishes the purpose. To see that it prospers in the purpose for which He sent it forth. As I pondered that one time, I suddenly remembered that the ultimate word was Jesus, the Logos. That was the ultimate. Isaiah spoke and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They all spoke God's words and God would not let them return unto Him void. And if in their lifetime there was no fruit from it, the word remains there in the earth. Because God says, I will not let it come back empty. I remember reading Jeremiah and Ezekiel and seeing the frustrations they went through and the agony of their soul as they realized they spoke the word from God and yet didn't see the fruit of it. And Jeremiah came to the point where he said, I'll never speak again in the name of the Lord. That's it. No use. You can't shrug it off that easy. He says, the word started working me like a fire. And he says, it is easier to speak than to try to hold it in. Hallelujah. And God made Ezekiel to be a watchman to Israel. Put him through some very severe tests. Became that true watchman. And gave him a word to the house of Israel. And then after he had prepared him through all these tests and trials, I won't go into it right now. He said, I made you a watchman to the house of Israel, but you'll be dumb until I tell you to speak. And when you speak, you'll speak with my words. And then he told them that they will not listen to you. How would you like that? How many here would like to be a prophet? It's customary for young men. I want to be a prophet. You can tell a man his name and his address and where he lives. I know prophets can do that. I'm not making fun of that. But a real prophet is a man that's so disciplined of God that he speaks with God's words. When God gives him a message and he eats that little book, eats it and digests it, it becomes bitterness, hard trials, sufferings. I don't mean it makes him better, but it produces suffering, hard trials, fires, persecutions. A real prophet, I mean. And they're not going to hear it, Ezekiel. They won't listen to it. Nevertheless, God caused it to be written down here. Isn't that tremendous? Ezekiel, Jeremiah, written there in the Bible. Because God said, I'm not going to let it come back to me, boy. And the secret counsel is He says, I'll see to it. That is written in a book that will be read from every generation following Ezekiel's death. Every generation until the end of time will hear those words that you're writing, Ezekiel. The sad part being that when we read Ezekiel today, when I say we, I'm speaking of the church in general, we apply it to a time when they're going to build a temple over there in Jerusalem. So it doesn't really apply to us either. Totally unmindful of the fact that all these temples that are referred to in the Old Testament, whether they were built or not built, they speak of the temple that God had in mind of eventually finding a home in man. The only temple God ever desired at any time was the habitation that He was preparing in the harpsichord. So God preserved that word. And that word is there for you and I. Let's read it and apply it to God's purposes and His people. The time is coming when He has finished with this temple that there's going to be a river of life flowing up from this temple. With us wherever the river floweth is going to bring healing to the land. Trees of life will be growing on the banks of the river which are for the healing of nations. That's God's plan. That's God's vision. That's God's purpose. And the word that He gave will not return unto Him until it happens. It will not return unto Him empty. So God gave all of us in whatever state we find ourselves in this life, in whatever gifting or ministry we have from God, whatever enablement He gives us to serve Him, for He desires to do that with every one of us. A gifting of His Spirit according to His purpose, according to His plan, whereby we can become a part of that living testimony of Jesus in the congregation. Not a thousand different witnesses because there's a thousand people, but together they become that one testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy going forth to the earth about us, to the world in which we live. And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and revealed the glory of the Father. And His agenda was to do the will of the Father even unto death, even the death of the cross. And because He was faithful in doing the will of the Father, that's why God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him at His right hand in the heavens. Father of all principality and power and might and dominion, every name that is named in this world and in the world to come. And so the thought is, generally it seems to me, the thought is in the church, well, He's gone away now. He did the work. He's gone away and left us to carry on the best we know by getting one or two, three experiences from the Lord and turn the work over to us. And I'd like to point out that Jesus said just prior to His departure, I'm going away. To put it very bluntly, He said, I'm going away. But He said, I don't want you to grieve about it. Let not your hearts be troubled. I'm going to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto Myself. I'm not going into this in detail, but if you read John 14 with an open heart, you'll see that He's talking about going away to the Father that He might come again in the Spirit to His people to prepare that place in the hearts of His people. And He goes on to say, it is good for you that I'm going away. It's expedient for you that I go away. It's your advantage that I go away. Because if I don't go away, then I can't send this Spirit that sent me to abide in you. And you know as well as I that if suddenly the Lord Jesus, the One who went away in flesh and bone because He rose from the dead in a glorified body with flesh and bone but no blood, Spirit became the life of that resurrected body. But it was corporal. It was real. It was tangible. And they could handle Him and see that it was the same Christ. Flesh and bone, but not blood. Spirit was the life. We know that if He walked in and sat down, especially as is the custom to do it every time we gather together, we'd rejoice when we saw Him come. And we'd all sit there in great expectation that the Lord Jesus is in our midst. And everybody will say to us this. And so we would hope that He would sing with us. We would be sensitive to the voice of the Lord. Sing a song that we felt would somehow please His heart. One would give a witness, something the Lord has done for them. Or give an exhortation, a prophecy, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. He would do that when He was sitting there in that corporal flesh. But now that He's gone away, He has sent His very own Spirit to abide in each of us. Just as He would do it if He was there in one body, He would do it now in a corporate body. And once we see that in reality and long for it more and more and yearn for it and desire it, that when we come together, the Lord Jesus might be there in our midst, I believe that time is going to come when our gatherings together will be a true testimony of the Lord Jesus in our midst. Not necessarily with everyone saying something, but everyone being ready to be prompted by the Spirit of God to do what His will might be for that particular service. Because Jesus said, If I go away, it will be better for you if I go away because the same Spirit that's in me will come and abide in you. Can you and I really say this morning, testify, yes, it is better. I'm glad He went away because it's better now that He's not here. Can we really say that? I don't know if we can, but I believe that's God's intention to make His presence so real to us that we'll say, Lord, I'm glad that You suffered the agonies of the cross. I'm glad You went to the throne room because now there's a people all over the earth that can gather in Your name with Your Spirit in the midst, the same Jesus that walked here on earth, confined to a little land in Palestine, confined to one physical body, has now been pleased to take up His habitation in a temple that fills all the earth. I know we can't quite say that yet because we know we haven't come to that, but we're going to before we see that one glorified man. And I expect to see that glorified man. I don't believe He just disintegrated into the body as I think some have been teaching. You and I are going to be in the resurrected state, very individual, and see one another and fellowship with one another. But the head, the chief cornerstone, somehow He has said to just disintegrate into the whole body. No, we're going to see Him. The man Christ Jesus, the head of the body, in union with the family whom He has begotten through His shed blood and resurrection, and joined unto that same head, joined unto Him to be one body with Him. Though now we see Him not, but He's there. The head and how He longs to fill this body with His glory. His presence, His own Spirit. That in every gathering in His name, we know that the Lord Jesus is there. Not sitting in a chair somewhere as we tried to imagine a while ago, but everyone, every member of the body is ready to speak, to sing, to pray, to prophesy, to love Him, to encourage one another, to show mercy, whatever it might be that God wants to do in that particular gathering in His name. Or is it better if He had stayed here on the earth as one man in this little congregation, this little town? I guess it's large compared to where I live. I wonder if we put our application in if maybe He would be able to visit us once a year. Because He'd be very busy. You know, going to every country on the earth wherever there's a body of people assembled in His name. Would it be better to have Him come once a year, once five years maybe in a little group where we are? Only 17,000 people in our town. Because He's got to come to the whole earth. You know? Some people actually believe that Messiah will come back to that old temple in Jerusalem and then go around traveling. Jesus says, It's better that I go away because the same Spirit that's in me will come upon my people. He'll be in you! He shall glorify me because He shall take of mine and show it to you. He will take everything that I am, that I have, all the riches that the Father has given me and show it unto you in your midst, reveal it unto you. He will lead you into all truth for He shall not speak out from Himself but whatsoever ye shall hear, that shall He speak. He comes to abide in this temple not that you and I as individual ministers might feel free to do anything we want but that in union with Him we'll only speak what He speaks, we'll only do what He does, we'll only say what He says, we'll only travel where He says to travel, we'll stay home where He says to stay home because the same Spirit that was in Jesus and motivated Him when He walked here in the earth is to be in His body and will motivate us in the same way that it motivated Him as we learned to take our place in abiding union and relationship with Himself. In consequence of which He shall lead you into all truth whereas now, oh, don't get into deep doctrines, don't get into, it divides the body of Christ. Truth will divide the wheat from the tares and will divide the chaff from the wheat but truth will bind together the people of God into one body. He's going to lead His people into all truth. It will not forever be the situation where to know truth you've got to dig through all the books and all the cults or even dig through all the books of the theologians to find out what's right and wrong but God will have a clear witness of truth in the body of Christ based on the Word of God, loving the Word of God, reading it, memorizing it, seeking to walk in it but knowing that the living truth is not that which you have read and studied but that which cometh forth out from the heart of God as a living Word. Because people will recognize that surely as all Israel recognized that the Word of the Lord was in Samuel in that apostate old order of Eli when it seemed there was no hope for Israel God raised up a clear voice that was so clear that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and all over the realms of Israel knew that Samuel was established a prophet of the Lord and God did not let one word fall to the ground. God's going to do the same in this body which is the pillar and ground of the truth. When they become living epistles of Christ known and read of all men they're going to read in that book the living truth. Because it will be Christ inhabiting his temple Christ coming to his temple to cleanse it and purge it from all defilement that that temple of God in the earth might be the place where God's glory rests and dwells and out from which will shine forth his truth and all men will know this is the place of truth this is God's habitation in the earth. Hallelujah. Yes Lord. Hallelujah. Yes Lord. Thank you Lord. Yes Lord. I feel to just say one thing here as well as what I mentioned about calls God gave me a new definition of it. You know that we've been telling this some time ago we looked it up in the dictionary and one of the meanings of a call is an obsessive allegiance to a person or a cause. Okay. Then in the true definition Jesus Christ was a cult because he had an obsessive allegiance to the Father. Amen. And to a cause and that cause is what? To do the will of the Father. Amen. And the Lord told me that the true meaning his meaning of a cult is anything or anyone that makes the Word of God of none effect. How about that huh? Okay. If we ourselves make the Word of God of none effect then we're a cult. And some things are obvious they're cults but the thing that's the biggest cult of all is the thing that comes the closest to being his church. The counterfeit, the false thing. He even uses his name as our brother was saying. That's the greatest deception that we face. I just want to share this because you've got to go for your heart. You've got to be led with the spirit. At this stage if you get into your mind you'll miss it. You'll lose out. Many are missing and God allows it. It's sometimes heartbreaking to have discernment and see what's happening in people's lives. But it's your heart. It's your heart that determines. We've had some I want to share this I haven't shared it but we've had some people leave here lately because they read in a book that we were a cult. And I believe these people were greatly blessed to the Lord here. And they were led here supernaturally. Okay. And I think they're here and they're there in a sense. But they saw the name of our group in a book. We're not even associated with that. We just have this name Living Word Fellowship. Okay. And so but that we're a cult. And they've been withdrawn from us because of this. So you have to you know you have to walk in the Lord and know what's God saying. And like our brother was saying you have to be willing to suffer for his name's sake. The fear of man is a snare. Okay. And you can't fear these things. The word says all those that shall live God in Christ Jesus what? Shall what? Shall. Shall. I like that word. Shall. Suffer persecution. Now maybe my would, if, could any other word. Right? But shall. And one time I looked that up in a dictionary. Shall. Wow. It was amazing. It's a commandment. It's one of the most definite words in the English language. There's no if. Nothing. No other way. You shall suffer persecution. The writer of Hebrews said let's go outside. Said Jesus went outside of the camp bearing his cross. He said let us also do what? Go outside the camp. What's the camp? It's the established thing. Now we're not being rebellious or anything like that that's happened. But it's always God always goes outside the camp. Every time he's done something that I can see he pretty much went outside the camp. Whatever that camp might have meant for any time period or generation. Look at John the Baptist. The full writer. What did God do? Took a man and took him for her. Outside the camp. Amen. Where'd he come from? He didn't come out of the temple did he? Yet he was the priest. Priestly order. His father was a priest. And so likewise God would speak to us. We've got to go outside the camp bearing his reproach. If we suffer with him we'll reign. We'll reign. That's just it. I feel glory. I won't say that anymore but I felt he would have me just say that much. Be loving of your heart. What's God where you getting fed? What's making your heart? Walk in that. Because the enemy will come to try to cheat you out of it. He'll try to do you like he did to Esau. Sell your birthright for a mess of they say porridge but it was really I think red a red meat stew. Amen. OK. Well Lord I won't say anymore but Lord bless you. Thank you for this word Lord. Thank you for this word. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Yes. Thank you for confirmation. Amen. Amen. Thank you Lord. Comforting us. Assuring us. Comforting us with this word. Thank you. We worship you Father.