The Greatest Act of God

We are part of that! That's why the Bible talks about the world—that is everybody in it—and it talks about the nations of Israel—descendants of Abraham—physically. Then it talks about the greatest part of God's Plan, the development of His Family! We're told all about it in the Bible, the Word of God, which is the greatest book in the world.

I was watching some of these astronomers[transcriber's correction] every once in a while on American Science Channel. They talk about the universe and everything that's out there.  And of course, Elon Musk wants to place an American flag on Mars. People say that we have to go out and colonize out in the universe. Well, human beings are not equipped to do that.

But God has a plan that He's going to fulfill, and that He is going to do in spite of everything. God has done one thing that is spectacular, which cannot be done on any robot; it cannot be done on any machine. It's not done with any of the live animals except whatever they need to exist. That is, God has given, starting with the angels, free moral agency, which I have nicknamed IFMA. You've heard me say that before. Everyone has free moral agency, because God wants us:

• to choose
• to love
• to obey

by choice, not by force!

So, we find in the Bible that the Bible tells us about time before there was time! It's the only book in the world that does it accurately, and we find it here in Titus 1.

The Apostle Paul wrote more epistles than any of the other apostles. It's interesting that in the New Testament that everything is written in letters; that's what an epistle is, a letter.

So, you can look at these epistles inspired of God as letters from God to each one of us personally! There's no other book in the world that can do that and apply it to every individual who has it or reads it or studies it.

Titus 1:1: "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the Truth that is according to Godliness." Truth is that which God has:

• operates by
• wants us to live by
• has given it to us in His Word

For what purpose? We will see how the greatest act of Godties in with this!

Verse 2: "In the hope of eternal life, which God Who cannot lie promised before the ages of time." Isn't that interesting?

Rev. 1—we've read this many, many times, but do we really grasp the whole significance of it? Because God inhabits eternity, He lives forever! He bases everything that He does on Truth, Love and Law!

Now let's see what Jesus said of Himself, because this then is part of the greatest act of God!

By the way you read up in Rev. 1:1 that this was dictated to John, but it came directly from God the Father to Jesus Christ and to the angel that made sure that John got it. So, these are not the writings of men. These are the inspired words of God!

Revelation 1:8: "I am the Alpha and the Omega…"

That's the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet, which tells us that the New Testament was written in Greek. There are some people say it was written in Aramaic, but that version of the Bible was translated from the Greek. Then there are others who say it was in Hebrew; never was in Hebrew, because the Jews who preserved the Old Testament in Hebrew rejected Jesus Christ!

So, they could not be trusted with the knowledge of God that He wanted preserved in Greek because Greek was the language, which was the basic language for all of Europe and hence most of the world.

Verse 8: "'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending… [what God begins He will do and finish] …says the Lord, 'Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come—the Almighty.'"

• Who is right now talking to you, John
• I was here before the ages of time
• I was God manifested in the flesh on the earth and 'I taught you'

That's an amazing thing to understand!

• Who is to come—the Almighty

Now that's quite a statement because a lot of men think that they have power and might and how great that they are. Well, God has a few things to tell them!

Titus and 2-Tim. 1 are the only two places in the Bible that it talks about the space of time before there was time as calculated on the earth! How does God calculate eternity? In ages of time!

2-Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear…"

The whole thing that Christ did was so that all of those that answered the call of God could receive the Spirit of God! Now that's something! That's a tremendous thing!

We had two baptisms yesterday and had laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit of God. God promised it! You have it!  But you have to:

• use it
• exercise it
• yield to God
• grow in grace and knowledge
• grow in the understanding of the Word of God

Verse 7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound-mindedness."

The truth is this: No human being can think properly without the Word and Spirit of God!

They might come close, But what did Paul write concerning the wise ones of this world? He spoke at the Parthenon in Athens, the great religious center where all the philosophers are; philosophy means wisdom. Paul said in so many words… Because they had this one dedication to the unknown God—which tells you that the greatest minds in the world cannot understand the things of God.

He said to them, 'I passed in here and I saw that you're devoted to deities or demons.' All the religions of the world are demon inspired!We understand from Genesis, they have knowledge of good and evil!

But understand this: The good in the religions of the world is not the good of God! Every good thing that is derived from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil always ends up evil!

Let's read on here because this is something; v 8: "Therefore, you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner; but jointly suffer with me for the sake of the Gospel, according to the power of God, Who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling…" (vs 8-9).

Now think about that. You remember the verse that says it, and it says it twice in the book of Matthew. You know it: Many are called, but few are chosen! Why? Because they don't answer the call! Now we'll talk about answering the call a little bit later here.

"…not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace…" (v 9).

So, the whole purpose of God is wrapped up in everything that He has created and for the expansion of what He wants to do in all human beings. They don't know it, because when they entered into following Satan.

God has given angels free moral agency, as well. As it talks about Satan, one is called the light bringer (Isa. 14 & Ezek. 28). It says that 'you [Lucifer] were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created!'

That doesn't tell us how long a time that was, but all of this occurred in the time before the existence of human beings!

You were perfect in your ways until you sinned and obviously did not repent! So, we have to account for Satan the devil, which the Bible does. All of this occurred before the creation of men. So that's quite a story in itself.

Here it is right here, which was not given to us.

"…not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time" (v 9).

Now that's quite a statement there in itself! How far out ahead does God plan? We don't know! We've got our brains, but they're not like God's.

John 1:1 tells us more about God:

• what He's doing
• how He's going to do it
• how He is
• what He had to do in order to expand the Family of God

Now then, after Satan the devil and the angels sinned, they were cast back down to the earth, and the earth was covered with a flood; that was the first flood. How long it was until God put in motion the creation of the world for men and creating man? We don't know! But that was before the ages of time.

John 1:1 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. It is one that everyone knows all about; you probably have memorized it.

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…."

Now in spite of all the philosophical reasonings of theologians, there are only two Who are called God in the Bible. There are not three that are called the God! There is a third one called Satan the devil who is a 'god' of this world.

Verse 2: "He [the Word] was in the beginning with God. All things… [everything there is] …came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him" (vs 2-3).

So, He's the One Who made the heavens and the earth, created everything on the earth, gave life to everything the way that He did.

When you stop and think about it, God is in everything that there is because He made everything that there is. You take a look at those nice cupboards we have there. Those are made from trees. Who made the trees? God did!

Isn't it interesting that God made trees and all things to reproduce or renew themselves! That's an amazing thing!

Now, in the front of our house—I don't have any statues—I have two lemon trees and they have been there for over 30 years. Every year they produce more lemons automatically. In every lemon there are a number of seeds, which one seed could reproduce another tree. Think about that in relation to everything that God has made! And it all came into being through Christ!

Verse 4: "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men." That's the beginning of explaining about the Gospel!

Let's see what God did, because the creation of human beings made in the image of God is so profound and so important that God had to do the greatest act that He could do to fulfill His purpose for human beings! That's an amazing thing!

Verse 14: " And the Word became flesh…"

God lives forever! But He became flesh! It really means He became like the human beings that He has created. So not only were we created in the image and likeness of God, but God, in order to make His Plan work the way that it needs to work, because:

• there's sin
• there's Satan
• there's free moral agency

All of these are tied in together with the knowledge of God in eternal life and our ultimate destiny with God. No other book has this, not one!

"…and tabernacled among us…" (v 14).

Now, tabernacled is an interesting word, because that's what it means in the Greek. What was it that God gave to Israel when he brought them out to the land of Egypt? He gave them a tabernacle! That's also later called the House of God as well as the temple.

Tabernacle here means He dwelt with us!

"…(and we ourselves beheld His glory…)" (v 14).

Now the only ones that have seen part of the glory of God was Moses and Ezekiel, and a little bit with Jeremiah.

Then in the New Testament we have the three Apostles—Peter, James and John—at the transfiguration on the Holy Mountain! This is what it's talking about. No other human beings have seen God even in His semi-glory as He was with the apostles.

That wasn't His full glory, because like He told Moses, 'You can't look upon my face and live.' So, this was a vision; but they saw it!

"…(and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of Grace and Truth" (v 14).

Showing the great love of God coming to us through His Grace and His Truth, God—through this system—is reproducing Himself! But he doesn't want robots!

So sorry, Elon, all of your robots with a flick of the switch they're in the trash heap. All of the AI in the world that's coming—and I'll have a lot to say about that later on—is all the knowledge that men have down through the ages. Guess who's going to bundle it all up for the final deception? Satan the devil!

Now, let's go on with this. Let's see what God did! Let's come to Philip. 2. This had to be quite an agreement between God the Father and God the Son. They undoubtedly had a covenant. This was agreed to before the ages of time!

Now we find in the book of Gen. 3, after Adam and Eve had sinned by following Satan the devil. The first thing he declared was coming in the flesh to overcome the works of Satan (Gen. 3:15).

The very first thing that He wanted human beings to know is that only He can solve the problem of sin and Satan! But since He gave free moral agency, He didn't take it away. But their sin—and it happens to every human being—blinds their minds to the spiritual things of God.

Philip. 2—see what God did; see what Jesus did. He's the One Who created everything! He gave everything up believing in the Plan of God and what God the Father told Him. Part of that agreement was that only God can solve the sin problem; human beings cannot! Every time the great minds get all together to try and solve a problem, it never works!

I saw that last night, watching Donald Trump with the round table in Los Angeles talking about how they're going to rebuild L.A. That was quite a thing! But none of them talked about the real reason why that came! None of them understood that:

• all of their perversions
• all of their terrible thinking
• all of their stupid idiotic planning by the 'great minds'

all fed to the fire

• all the morals of the people following Sodom and Gomorrah was the main instrumentality into why it came

We can be sure of this:

Sidebar: 100mph mile an hour winds don't come by themselves. That was the hand of God! But no one understood it. Trump came close, but no one understood it.

The only one to solve the sin problem is God! It had to be that no one could ever say, 'God, You made us the way that you made us and we sinned. But You never had to participate in that, so you don't know what it is like to be a human being.'

Well, part of the solution was right here in Philip. 2. As we read in John 1, the Word became flesh! How did He do that?

Philippians 2:5: "Let…" This means you have to allow it to come into your mind:

• no resistance
• no self way of making it after what you like

Verse 5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

That's why we think the way that we think, because our human minds with the spirit of man and the Spirit of God combined together is the seed of eternal life! That's an amazing thing!

Verse 6: "Who, although He existed in the form of God… [literally He was God (John 1)] …did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself…" (vs 6-7).

Well, emptied is greater than humbled.  Emptied means He gave up being God as God is God, but kept enough of God in the reproductive process so that He was the Son of God and still had His individual character in the portion that He needed to be a human being! All of this was planned out before the ages of time!

"…and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant….[the Greek there is 'doulos,' which is slave] …and being found in the manner of man…" (vs 7-8).

Everything about what we do; we have to eat, we have to sleep.

The way that He came, He didn't come all of a sudden as a manifestation of a full grown man. He came with the being born of the virgin Mary. So, that means that when He emptied Himself, He became so small of a thing that the eye couldn't even see Him, the Creator of the Universe!

Don't anyone ever think that through whatever circumstances you go through, whatever humility you must suffer, that it's a terrible thing! Ask yourself: What did you really give up? Not like Christ! He gave up everything!

Verse 8: "And being found in the manner of man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death…" No rebellion! No self ideas!

• What did Jesus say about every word that He spoke? He spoke what the Father said to speak!
• What do I do? Everything that I do is what the Father wants Me to do!

That set the example for us!

If we're going to be the brothers and sisters, as it says there of Christ (2-Cor. 13:12-13) then He did this so that he would share and participate in the human experience as a human being, so that He could save those that answer the call to salvation!

Then later we know the whole Plan of God. So, if you don't have the book, God's Plan For Mankind, Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days—you get it at truthofGod.org—it's a big thick book. Well the reason it's a big thick book is because there's a lot to it.

I was talking with Wade, and he said that after he got done reading that book, it was easier to read the Passover book: The Christian Passover,also at truthofGod.org That's an amazing thing that Christ did!

"…even the death of the cross" (v 8).

You can't have any other death that is more hideous, torturous, degrading than a crucifixion. In the Greek there is 'stauros.'

• the ones who rejected Christ
• the ones who should have accepted Christ

Think of that! They said 'Crucify Him!' Pilate said, 'Why? What did He do?' Crucify Him! 'Why should I crucify Him? He's innocent.'  Let His blood be on us and on our children!

If there's any one verse in the entirety of the Bible that every living Jew on this earth needs to understand, it is that verse! Because you pronounced a curse on all your descendants of all time because you rejected God manifested in the flesh!

The Savior you were looking for, you crucified. However, since Christ was the Creator of all human beings, then His life, His sacrifice was worth all human beings combined together that ever have been or would be!

Now let's understand some more here about the sacrifice of Christ let's come to Heb. 10, because this tells us a lot. This tells us a little bit about the things that went on between God the Father and Jesus Christ in preparing for Him to come as a human being. What did Jesus say in John 10? 'I lay my life down for the sheep!' Now that's all of us! 'No one takes it from Me'

Though the Romans killed Him, you can look at it this way: The whole thing concerning the crucifixion on the Passover Day—as I bring out in the book: The Day that Jesus the Christ Died:

• Jesus represented God in the flesh
• Pilate represented all the governments of the world
• The religious leaders represented all the religions of the world
• the people out there yelling for Him to be crucified represent all the people in the world

Because that sacrifice was sooner or later going to be applied to all human beings who repent. So, this was the greatest act of God!

Hebrews 10:4: "Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, when He comes into the world, He says, 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You have prepared a body for Me'" (vs 4-5).

How much did He humble Himself down to? Same thing as us, a pinpoint of life!

Verse 6: "You did not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then said I, 'Lo, I come (as it is written of Me in the Scroll of the Book)…'" (vs 6-7). We just read it!  You can go back and read it in the Old Testament, Especially Isa. 53.

"…to do Your will, O God" (v 7).

That's what it is for all of us! We are here to do the will of God! We're not here to serve ourselves. None of those who are teachers or elders are dictators over the brethren. Jesus said, 'You're not to be like the Gentiles, but you are to serve.'

Paul said, 'The Son of Man came to serve,' and He did.

Verse 8: "In the saying above, He said, 'Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin (which are offered according to the priestly law) You did not desire nor delight in.' Then He said, 'Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.'…." (vs 8-9). He says it twice!

"…He takes away the first covenant in order that He may establish the second covenant" (v 9).

We're part of that second covenant! The Covenant of Eternal Life and receiving the Holy Spirit of God is the down payment of that eternal life.

Verse 10: "By Whose will… [think about this; This is the will of God in all of our lives] …we are sanctified…"—made Holy!

Then you read in John 17 in Jesus' final prayer that all of those whom God has called 'may be one as You, Father, and I are one, that they may be one in Us.'

That's the whole encapsulated purpose of God! Isn't that an amazing thing? But God had to come as a human being!

He did not require of us what was required of Himself to the degree that He did.

(break@40;58)

Let's continue on in Heb. 10, because this ties in with the greatest act of God! Let's understand how much that God has done for us and eventually for the whole world. That's something to contemplate.

The world doesn't know this! All of the pseudo Christians what do they know? Oh, they talk about Jesus and His blood but they don't know anything about it, because they don't keep the Passover. They don't believe the Word of God the way that they should.

Hebrews 10:9[transcriber's corrections]: "Then He said, 'Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.'…." O God, listen to this!

The Bible expresses to everyone in his or her own language the will of God! You're not going to find this in philosophy. You're not going to find this in the rich and the powerful. You're going to find it in the Word of God!

"…He takes away the first covenant in order that He may establish the second covenant; by Whose will… [we're here not because we're whatever we are] …we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all" (vs 9-10).

Why? Because He is the Creator of all human beings! That's why! Through the power of procreation.

Verse 12: "But He, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, He is waiting until His enemies are placed as a footstool for His feet" (vs 12-13).

Whenever you have free choice you can do right or you can do wrong. God has given the way out for human beings. We don't know exactly what He did for angels, but whatever Satan did was unpardonable.

But for human beings through the Body of Christ and His shed blood, we have a way out of our sins IF we repent of breaking His laws and Commandments and living contrary to His will.

Remember the phrase, came to do His will! That's why we're here to do the will of God! Since that time He's waiting until His enemies are placed as a footstool under His foot.

Verse 14: "For by one offering He has obtained eternal perfection for those who are sanctified."

Now that's an amazing thing because perfection in the flesh and with the Spirit of God within us comes a bit at a time, a bit at a time. It doesn't come all at once, because:

• God wants us to participate in what He wants us to become
• He wants us to participate by keeping His Commandments
• He wants us to participate by living by every Word of God
• He wants us to participate by having His Spirit in us and being led by the Spirit

That's the covenant! Perfection for those who are sanctified!

Verse 15: "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after He had previously said, '"This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days," says the Lord, "I will give My Laws…"'" (vs 15-16).

Now I want to say this: Every single Sunday-keeping minister needs to read this chapter. And they need to repent of their Sunday and holiday-keeping because they are preaching:

• a false Jesus
• with a false salvation
• with a false understanding of the blood of Jesus Christ

• here's what it is
• here's why we have our mind
• here's why we have the Spirit of God

"…I will give My Laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds" (v16).

What for? To do the will of God! Why? Everything we consciously do comes from our mind and our spirit! So, He wants us to have His Laws, His Commandments, which:

• is truth
• is life
• is good
• is Holy written

Our minds are as such that they even understand—the scientists—that we have memory, because it's written on the synapses of our mind. They also have discovered that there are neuro cells in the heart. So it involves your whole being:

• your thinking
• your living
• your emotions
• your feelings
• your choices

Verse 17: "…and their sins and lawlessness I will not remember ever again."

Now that's quite a thing, isn't it? This is why in the model prayer we are to repent every day, because deep down in the craniums of our minds is everything we've ever done.

That's why as you get older… Now, Betty is a little ahead of me, I'm trying to catch up to her, but she won't slow down so I can do it. We have flashbacks to when we were kids! I can remember certain things as if I'm watching a movie. When I think about that, I think all the things I don't want to remember are stated right here (in the mind). God will forgive them and blot them out!

Verse 18: "Now, where remission of these is, it is no longer necessary to offer sacrifices for sin. Therefore, brethren, having confidence to enter into the true Holiest by the blood of Jesus" (vs 18-19).

Now this tells us the reason for praying. It gives us direct access to God the Father. That's an amazing thing to understand.

"…to enter into the true Holiest by the blood of Jesus" (v 19)—completed the greatest act that God could do in the flesh, and He died, and was the only One raised from the dead. His resurrection is the promise of eternal life for us! That's the will of God! That's a tremendous thing!

Verse 20: "By a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil (that is, His flesh), and having a great High Priest over the house of God, let us approach God with a true heart, with full conviction of faith, our hearts having been purified from a wicked conscience, and our bodies having been washed with pure water. Let us hold fast without wavering to the hope that we profess, for He Who promised is faithful" (vs 20-23).

Romans 6 and let's look at baptism and all that it pictures. We know Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Baptism is an absolute necessity in order to be converted! On a couple of occasions in the book of Acts, God gave the Holy Spirit to Gentiles before baptism, not to change the means of receiving the Holy Spirit, but to convince the hard-headed Jews that He was giving the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles whom they despised. Then they were baptized.

So today, the pseudo-Christians say that you don't need to be baptized, 'all you need to do is believe.' That's like saying you can take a shower, but don't turn on the faucet. It is for the forgiveness of sin!

Rom. 6—Paul writes this. He gives a long dissertation up to this:

• talking about human nature
• talking about sin
• talking about how the greatest minds

By the way, the Greek word for fool, is 'moronos'—morons—

• after talking about sin
• after talking about Abraham
• after talking about the Spirit of God

we come to:

Romans 6:1: "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?"

If grace forgives our sins, let's sin a whole lot more so we can have a whole lot more grace.

That's what a lot of people think today!

One of the commentators wrote of what the way that I did the next phrase here:

Verse 2: "MAY IT NEVER BE!…."

The commentator said it was correctly done in capital letters because that's the force and the emphasis of it—'me ginoito'

" MAY IT NEVER BE!…." because that's carnal thinking. 

"…We who died to sin…" (v 2). That's why baptism!

Baptism is a symbolic death! We died to sin! Now, since sin is a transgression of the Law, that means we died to Law-breaking! What are the wages of sin? Death!

So, God says that Christ brought the New Covenant:

• He gave His life
• He was the sacrifice
• His shed blood
• He was raised from the dead and received the Holy Spirit

'Now, you've got to walk in My ways,' just like we read, 'to do the will of God'!

• Is it God's will that you live in sin?

or

• Is it God's will that you overcome sin?

It is God's will to come out of sin!

Verse 2: "MAY IT NEVER BE! We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?"

In other words, we cannot take our free moral agency and decide to go back and live in sin.

Verse 3: "Or are you ignorant that we, as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death?"

We'll look at this because it is a close connection for every one of us when we are baptized! This is an operation that is finalized in heaven above, and with the giving of the Holy Spirit. 

Verse 4: "Therefore, we were buried with Him through the baptism… [there's only one baptism] …into the death…"

That is the death of Christ. God, Who was manifested in the flesh, came in and lived, died and shed His blood. That's what's applied to each one of us.

"…so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way, we also should walk in newness of life" (v 4). You don't live like you did in the past!

• you keep the Sabbath
• you keep the Holy Days
• you pray to God

Because you live and move and have your existence in God! When you really come to understand it!—I'm going to talk about this at the conference coming up in a couple of weeks—God is all things to everything! Now, I'll just let you think on that.

So, those who say there's no God, they know nothing! They're like Paul said. They're morons! 'The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.'

Baptized into His death! Here's the reason for it.

"…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way, we also should walk in newness of life. For IF we have been conjoined together in the likeness of His death…'  (vs 4-5). Now that's interesting!

How are you conjoined with the death of Christ? When you're put under the water, you are buried, you symbolically die! Now, to be conjoined to the death of Christ, God spiritually does it like this. I like it like this. Maybe this is not the best way to express it, but that God has laid your body on the body of Christ! Conjoined!

You've heard of conjoined twins? They're connected together, conjoined! There it is. We're conjoined in the likeness of his death!

"…so also shall we be in the likeness of His resurrection…. [that's the purpose for it] …Knowing this, that our old man was co-crucified with Him… [conjoined, co-crucified] …in order that the body of sin might be destroyed…" (vs 5-6).

Showing that it's a process of growing and changing and overcoming, destroying and getting rid of it. God is not going to take away the law of sin and death immediately out of us. He wants to know: Are you going to overcome it by the will of God and by the Spirit of God, so that you do the things of God?

That's what He wants to do. And that's all in Rom. 7, which is one of the most misunderstood chapters in all of Paul's writings.

"…so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin" (v 7).

What is the ultimate enslavement of sin? Drug addiction that you cannot stop, and you die. If you don't get your fix before you die, you suffer greatly.

We're not to be enslaved to sin because the One Who has died to sin, that's what baptism is! That's why it's a symbolic death! Christ died for the sins of all mankind, and His shed blood alone is the only blood of atonement that's available!

Now then for us, when we are buried in that watery grave, we die to sin! But we overcome sin with the power of God's Holy Spirit.

Verse 7: "Because the one who has died to sin has been justified from sin."

Now, justified means that you are put in right standing with God the Father in heaven above! What does that mean? That you can pray to God anytime, anywhere, any place, regardless of your circumstances! Mostly, if you can, on your knees. There are times that you can't get on your knees, but you still, with God's Spirit, have direct access to God the Father through Jesus Christ!

That's an amazing thing, brethren! The God Who created everything that there is, gives us direct entrance into the Holy of Holies through prayer in heaven above!

Then we can read the Scriptures like we read in Rev. 1—[I'm] 'the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega. I was the one who was dead, but I am alive forevermore!'

• that's how important prayer is
• that's how important study is
• that's how important it is to live God's way

Remember the prayer of Jesus in: John 17:1: "Jesus spoke these words, and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come…'"

• He knew it was coming
• He knew all the prophecies in the Old Testament
• He understood what was going on
• He knew that Judas Iscariot was on his way right while He was praying

"…glorify Your own Son, so that Your Son may also glorify You; since You have given Him authority over all flesh… [none can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ] …in order that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. For this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God…" (vs 1-3).

Now people say that Jesus wasn't truly God. Well, at the time of this prayer, being in the flesh, He was not true God until He was resurrected from the dead. But God the Father was in heaven above and He was at that time the only true God during the time He was praying to Him.

"…and Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ, Whom You did send. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work that You gave Me to do" (vs 3-4).

Now that's very interesting. We'll just project ahead of this. He finished teaching the disciples and preparing for the crucifixion. He finished that. Now, the crucifixion was another whole work He had to do.

Why did He say—His last words—'It is finished'? He also said that in Rev. 21. So, that's twice!  Jesus said it is all done or finished! So there are three phases to being finished.

Verse 13: "But now I am coming to You; and these things I am speaking while yet in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in them. I have given them Your words, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You would take them out of the world, but that You would keep them from the evil one" (vs 13-15).

God can do that. Keep us from Satan the devil. If he comes along we can rebuke him in the name of Christ and he must go!

Verse 16: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them..." (vs 16-17)—make them Holy!

• that's what God wants
• that's why we're called Holy brethren

He wants our heart, our mind, everything about us to be focused in on what God wants:

• led by the Holy Spirit of God
• believing in the Father
• led by Christ

All of that together! This is a great thing indeed!

Verse 17: "Sanctify them in Your Truth; Your Word is the Truth." All God has to do for any of it is speak and it is so!

Verse 18: "Even as You did send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they also may be sanctified in Your Truth. I do not pray for these only, but also for those who shall believe in Me through their word" (vs 18-20).

That's all of us down through time. A prayer for everyone that was going to be called in the future. That's an amazing statement. Here's the goal. Here's the whole reason. This is why we have the greatest act of Christ being His crucifixion followed by His resurrection! Here it is right here.

Verse 21: "That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, in order that the world may believe that You did send Me."

Let's see how this is to motivate us. Give us inspiration, uplift us so we can do the will of God.

Romans 6:8: "Now if we died together with Christ… [through the baptism and faithful unto death our physical life] …we believe that we shall also live with Him."

• Isn't that what God promised?
• Doesn't it say there in John 5 that Christ is going to call them?
• Isn't the Father is going to raise them from the dead?

Now that's going to be something!

Verse 8: "Now, if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has any dominion over Him" (vs 8-9).

We will live forever. Isn't an amazing thing that as human beings though we reckon and understand that people die. We ourselves in our own mind cannot even visualize that of our selves. Why? Our minds were given with so that we could think beyond the physical things that we are confined by with our bodies. And for the receiving of the Holy Spirit of God! That's what it's for.

Verse 9: "Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has any dominion over Him. For when He died, He died unto sin once for all…" (vs 8-10). That means each and every human being.

Of course, they have to repent and accept this sacrifice and shed blood.

"…but in that He lives, He lives unto God" (v 10).

Isn't that what it should be for us? That we live we live unto God? Yes!

Verse 11: "In the same way also, you should indeed reckon yourselves to be dead to sin…"

Amazing! You all know what sin is; dead to it! You don't give it life.

"…but alive to God through Christ Jesus our Lord" (v 11).

Now then here is a verse that is the most unbelievable verse that the Protestants never understood:

Verse 12: "Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal body by obeying it in the lusts thereof."

Sin is lawlessness and transgression of the Law. What ruled our lives before baptism? Sin!

Doesn't say you won't sin, but don't let it rule, which means to have dominion over you. You and me and all of us that have the Spirit of God, we are to use the Spirit of God and the Word of God to repent of sin and overcome the evil!

That's what it's all about. That's what Rom. 7 is all about. God does not immediately take away all of our carnality. He wants to know:

• Do we love Him?
• Do we believe Him?
• Will we overcome the sin?
• Will we continue to repent to God of the sins that happen to us every day?

Verse 12: "Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal body by obeying it in the lusts thereof. Likewise, do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin; rather, yield yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (vs 12-13). That one verse tells us a lot!

• What is unrighteousness? Sin!
• What is righteousness? Doing the Word of God and keeping His commandments.

Now we reckon ourselves to be alive from the dead because without God's Spirit we're as good as dead even though we're still alive in the flesh. Here's the next verse that they go bananas over:

Verse 14: "For sin shall not rule over you because you are not under law, but under grace."

'If you're under grace you don't have to keep any Law.' Not a thing about that right here. If you're under Law, you're under the penalty of Law for sinning. Let's understand this about Law:

Romans 7:1: "Are you ignorant, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know law) that the Law rules over a man for as long a time as he may live?"

What are we to have written in our hearts and in our mind that we read in Heb. 10? The laws and commandments of God!

We're to let the Laws and Commandments of God with His Spirit:

• lead us
• teach us
• help us
• give us how we think
• what we do

Sin is not going to rule over you, because you can repent of it and get rid of it, but under grace! Grace is that favor of God that you have been chosen, because you answered the call! You repented and received the Holy Spirit of God so that you can become a child of God.

Romans 6:15: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? MAY IT NEVER BE!"

So, the pseudo-Christian preachers out there don't have a clue as to what this is really talking about!

Then we'll read the rest of Rom. 6 because this tells us what how we are to live our lives under grace.

Verse 16: "Don't you realize that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, you are servants of the one you obey, whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

But almost everyone says that in Mark 7, Jesus pronounced all meats clean. When that was read in Pasadena the minister got up there and said—because they switched over to the NIV, New International Version—all meats are clean. All the congregations stood up and said, 'you lie!' No! They said 'hooray,' and they flooded into the Red Lobster restaurant after services.

Sin ruled over them! Don't let it rule over you! Repent of it!

"…you are servants of the one you obey, whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (v 16).

It's interesting, isn't it, how obedience and righteousness are right there with each other?

Verse 17: "But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed… [righteousness] …from the heart… [written in the heart and mind] …that form of doctrine… [the teachings of Christ] …which was delivered to you."

So it's not restricted to a verse or two. It is encompassed by the whole New Testament and the Word of God, including the Old Testament.

Verse 18: "And having been delivered from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." That is a slave to keeping the Commandments of God!

Verse 19: "I speak from a human point of view because of the weakness of your flesh; for just as you once yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness, and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto sanctification."

That's quite a verse, isn't it? Look at all that that says. Tie that in with what we read in Heb. 10[transcriber's correction]. That's amazing! Absolutely amazing!

Verse 20: "For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness…. [it's impossible] …Therefore, what fruit… [or what did all of this produce for you when you were sinning?] … did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end result of those things is death. But now that you have been delivered from sin…" (vs 20-22). You can't be delivered from sin and live in sin!

"…and have become servants of God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end result is eternal life" (v 22).

Galatians 5:16: "Now this I say, walk by the Spirit…"—the Spirit of God in you; the Laws and Commandments of God written in your heart and mind!

"…and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do those things you wish to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under works of law" (vs 16-18).

Verse 19: "Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, strifes, jealousies, indignations, contentions, divisions, sects… [sound like you're reading the TV guide] …envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such things as these; concerning which I am telling you beforehand, even as I have also said in the past, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God" (vs 19-21).

Now, I wonder why they don't read this in the Protestant churches.

Verse 22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no Law. But those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts" (vs 22-24).

In other words, if you are doing the things of the Spirit, which are doing the things of righteousness, and you are sanctified by God, written in your heart and in your mind, there is nothing against that.

Verse 25: "If we live by the Spirit, we should also be walking by the Spirit."

1-Cor. 2 brings us back to what God is doing in the ages before the ages of time! Now, what God has for us:

• you're not going to find in any other textbook in the world.
• you're not going to find in any religion in the world
• you're not going to find in any philosophy in the world

We are given part of it now. Not all of it, because we're human beings and living in the flesh.

Here's what Paul writes here: 1-Corinthians 2:6: "Now we speak wisdom among the spiritually mature; however, it is not the wisdom of this world…"

Isn't it interesting, wisdom is philosophy. Col. 2 says, don't be deceived by philosophy! What is the whole of the Catholic Church based upon? Philosophy!And the Protestants follow along, maybe a little differently, but they do the same thing.

Verse 7: "Rather, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom that God foreordained before the ages unto our glory, which not one of the rulers of this world has known (for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory); but according as it is written…" (vs 7-9).

Now then, here is a promise. This is really something! Here's what God has in store for us at the resurrection. Now, we can only contemplate it to a fair degree—a little teeny degree—when we read Rev. 21 & 22; New Jerusalem and so forth. We get a hint of it there, but let's read it.

Verse 9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things, which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"

That's the key thing is loving God! And this is the love of God, what? That we keep His commandments! and His commandments are not burdensome."

For those who love God, and how are we to love God? We are to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our being, because He's going to give us eternal life!

That's an amazing thing to contemplate; we don't know what that is like. I mean, it's all we can do to take care of 'nephesh'  that we have, to keep it going from day-to-day.

Yes, we've got to eat, we've got to sleep, we've got to take care of ourselves, comb our hair, wash our face, take baths, take showers, get dressed, wear shoes, put on glasses, whatever it is. That's all of this life! But we can't imagine what it's going to be as a spirit being!

Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God." Eventually we will know!

Verse 11: "For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man, which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God."

And that comes in layer-by-layer by layer out of the same Scriptures that we have covered many times.

Verse 12: "Now, we have not received the spirit of the world… [Where does that come from? Satan the devil] … but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God."

• He wants us to know
• He wants us to believe
• He wants us to understand

Verse 13: "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him…" (vs 13-14).

But God has prepared things for us that are going to be so fantastic, so absolutely amazing. All through the sacrifice and shed blood of Jesus! That is the greatest act of God for the whole world!

We are the firstfruits, and we look forward to the first resurrection! I wonder what that is going to be like? So, that's the greatest act of God!

Scriptural References:

• Titus 1:1-2
• Revelation 1:8
• 2-Timothy 1:7-9
• John 1:1-4, 14
• Philippians 2:5-8
• Hebrews 10:4-10, 9-10, 12-23
• Romans 6:1-7
• John 17:1-4, 13-21
• Romans 6:8-14
• Romans 7:1
• Romans 6:15-22
• Galatians 5:16-25
• 1-Corinthians 2:6-14

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 1:1
• Isaiah 14
• Ezekiel 28
• Genesis 3:15
• 2-Corinthians 13:12-13
• John 10
• Isaiah 53
• Revelation 21
• John 5
• Mark 7
• Revelation 22

Also referenced: {truthofGod.org}

Books

• God's Plan For Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days
• The Day that Jesus the Christ Died
• The Christian Passover

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 1/30/25

Copyright 2025—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.