Redemption

God has only so many children. So there will only ever be so many Christians. When the last saint is born-again, God takes them Home to the Wedding Supper, and the world enters the great tribulation. That day is fast approaching.

We are the last generation. There can be no more. Jesus said, that the generation which sees Israel restored to the homeland would not pass away through old age before the millennium. Soon cometh the earthquake, marking the end of the Gentile age. He's patiently waited almost 2,000 years for his wife to make herself ready.

If you and I are serious with god, and not just `playing church', we'd better realize the lateness of the hour, get up to speed, do our spiritual homework, and search the scriptures to recognize our day and its Message.

You can't rely on me, or your pastor, to do your religion for you. Your minister or kind old priest can't save you. We're responsible to God for what we teach. If it is faith in the present Truth, we must first receive that faith from God. We can preach it to you, and prove it by the Bible, but you must understand and receive it from God, personally. You must prove it in your Bible and take his Word. God is the Word. The Bible is God in the Form of paper and ink, as Jesus was God in the form of a virgin-born Man. We must personally meet God in the Word. For each one of us must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Last week we spoke of the new birth which is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And we discovered that `seeing' is understanding, or faith. Faith is a clear understanding of the revealed Word of God.

And we paraphrased I John 1:7, which says, `UNLESS our life is manifesting the present truth God is fulfilling now, we are not, and cannot come under the blood, or be born again'.

We must recognize our day in the Bible and receive its message, or we can't become a part of Christ's body, the true Church. We can only be born of the Word he is fulling now.

Let me ask you a question. What is the promise of God's Word for THIS day? I'll give this to you for your homework. You search the Scripture and write down just what God promised he would do in this day.

The new birth is oneness with God. And God is the Word so the only way we can be one with God is to be in agreement with his Word by faith. That is, we must understand His Word, which is to have His mind, or faith.

If we view the new birth as a theologian would teach it we'd speak of three stages of grace. Justification by grace through faith, sanctification by the blood, and the sealing or baptism with the Holy Ghost. These three steps of faith make up the new birth.

God redeems his children the same way as he redeems this earth from which our bodies are made. In II Peter 3:5-13, he refers to three stages of the earth. The old world before the Flood. The present world we live in now, and the new world that's yet to come.

God lays out His plan of redemption so clearly. What He's done to redeem His world is the same plan He's using to redeem his people! For the unchangeable God changes none of His plans.

He's led us to Himself by three stages of grace so He can dwell in us, just as He's taking the world through three stages of grace to purify it so that He can live on earth throughout eternity in His family.

God is perfected in three's. Malachi 3:6 says, `I am the Lord and I change not'! Therefore, if He saved the first man He ever saved by the shed blood of an innocent one, He will have to save the next one; and every one He saves the same way. If He healed a man at any time, be it in the days of Jesus, the apostles, whenever it was, when the same conditions are met, He's got to do it again! He doesn't change. Men change, times change, dispensations change, but God remains the same - perfect! What a hope that ought to give sick people.

If ever he healed a person, He has to do it again, when the same conditions are met. If He ever saves a man, He's got to do it on the same grounds He did it the first time. If He ever filled a man with the Holy Ghost, He's got to do it on the same grounds He did the first time. if ever He raised a man from the grave, He must do it the second time and every other time on the same principle. He doesn't change.

What hope that gives us! It's not some man-made theory, but His unchangeable Word!

You say, "Is It the truth?"

He said, `Let God's Word be true, but every MAN a liar ... heavens and earth will pass away, or change, but My Word shall never fail'.

`All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine'; and remember ALL Scripture will be fulfilled! Every Word of it!

Notice, how God makes it plain to us? II Peter 3 was a great confirmation how a good loving God redeems man through those three stages of grace!

The first step is a revelation of the true oneness of the Godhead and repentance towards God, followed by water baptism: `Repent and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ'. Showing that repentance was genuine, and to REMIT our past sin.

That has nothing to do with future sin. It only remits. `Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ'. What for? Remission: the taking away of past sin; has nothing to do with the future.

Only your past sin is remitted - what you have done.

You can't repent for what Adam did. You never did it; Adam did. You're just forgiven for what you've done. The old nature is still there. Let me illustrate. Picture this in your mind.

Let's draw two hearts. Here is a human heart, and here is a human heart. This one over here has a snake in it - that's sin. He has his life. This one over here has a dove in it, which is the Holy Spirit and he has a Life. This first one here has malice, hatred, envy. What's causing it, is this fellow here, the snake. Now this one over here has love, and joy, and long-suffering, and what does it is the dove.

Now, when you repent and are baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, you're forgiven of your sins. But you've only erased the record of this past malice, hatred, envy, etc., The thing that made you do it is still there. That snake, the old root of evil, it's still there.

Secondly comes sanctification, which sets our mind in order for holiness, to think right. Sanctification is a compound Greek word which means cleaned and set aside for service. But that snake is still there.

Next comes the baptism of the Fire and Holy Ghost so God may dwell in us. The Fire of God cleanses our heart from sin and puts the Holy Ghost inside. The snake is killed. Then we bring forth the same Life this dove did in the other fellow, because that's the Life that's now in us.

If we went down to the fowl yard and picked up a drinking glass or tumbler from the filth and muck. Yuck! It's covered in manure and dirt, you wouldn't drink from it. But that types God calling us, and justification by grace. Next, we'd take that glass and baptize it under water. Then we'd give it a really good cleansing with disinfectant. That types sanctification, making it ready for use. But it's not in use until it's FILLED. And the Bible believer who is justified and sanctified is not in use until he's been filled with the Spirit of God.

That's why Jesus told Peter, `AFTER you are converted, or FILLED with the spirit, then you can strengthen your brethren'. God never changes. The way He sent Jesus is the way He's sending us. He sent Jesus full of the Spirit, and He won't send us until we are full of the same Spirit. Three stages or steps in grace.

The natural birth types the spiritual birth. In the natural, when a woman gives birth to a baby, the first thing that happens is breaking of water, then blood, and then the shock of cold air or a slap from the doctor spanking the little fellow, and the spirit of life enters and away he goes screaming. Water, blood, spirit.

And a Spirit babe is born into the kingdom of God the same way: water, blood, spirit.

Now sanctification, the second stage, cleanses and sets the mind of the heart in order of holiness. `As a man thinketh in his heart so is he'.

Sanctification only sets him aside FOR service.

A man can repent of sin and be justified yet still be thinking of, say he's an immoral man. Every immoral-looking woman he sees, that desire is still there. Maybe he's a drunkard. Every time he smells a drink, it's still there. See? But when he's sanctified, that cleanses the desire out of him. It takes the want of it away. He can still be tempted, but the want of it is gone. But he's still not right. Then, he is baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire; burnt out, cleaned up, and put INTO the service of God.

It is possible for a man to be justified without being sanctified, or sanctified without being justified, and it's possible for him to be justified and sanctified without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and eventually be lost. I want to prove by Scripture that all three stages are required for the new birth.

Too many of today's ministers take their people to justification and no further. Take the Baptists who teach that we are born again when we believe. The Bible says, `you receive the Holy Ghost AFTER you believe' (Acts 19:3; 2:38; Ephesians 1:13). And many others encourage people to speak with tongues WITHOUT receiving the Holy Spirit.

Didn't Jesus say, it would be so close it would almost deceive the very elect if that were possible? He also said many would come in the last days - that's now - and say, `Lord, Lord, in your Name we spoke in other tongues, healed the sick, and prophesied. And He will say, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. I never even knew you'.

So don't think the Gifts of the Spirit have anything to do with the new birth. They do NOT. And they NEVER did.

Let's take Judas Iscariot, an apostle chosen by the Lord Jesus. He had the Gifts of the Spirit and no less a part of the ministry than the others. According to John 4:1-2 he was justified by grace through faith and baptized. He was sanctified by the Word of God, and prayer, John 17:17. But he failed to DIE to his own ideas, go ALL the way to Pentecost, and be born-again.

All three stages are required. I John 5:6-10 compares the natural birth with the spiritual birth. `This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record or witness in heaven, the father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three ARE One. These three witnesses are One God, NOT three Gods.

And there are three witnesses that bear record in earth, the spirit of mortal life, the water, and the blood. These three AGREE in one natural birth. They are NOT one but they make one natural birth.

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his son. He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself..' That's the witness we want in us - the Holy Ghost. And you cannot have the Holy Ghost without having the Father and the Son, because these three are ONE. One God in three major dispensation claims or Offices, not a trinity: God ABOVE His people as Father, God WITH His people as the Son, and God IN His people as the Holy Ghost.

Get it? You can be justified and baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and still not be sanctified. You can be sanctified and not justified, and you can be justified and sanctified without the Holy Ghost. All three are required for the Spiritual birth, as they are for the natural birth. These three agree in one. But you can't have the father without having the son and the Holy Spirit because these three are one.

Notice how this came to pass in the corporate Body as God added line upon line, precept upon precept, Word upon Word. The message grew through Martin Luther from justification to John Wesley, whose ministry added sanctification to Luther's revelation; then in the age of the Pentecostals, the baptism of the Holy Ghost was added to them. These three messages comprise the complete birth. That's why there can't be any more ages. We're at the end time. Three stages. The baptism cleanses the heart with the Holy Ghost.

He's called the church through justification; called it through sanctification; then filled it with the Holy Ghost and Fire. He took it through this process, so He, the Holy Spirit himself, the Son of God, could dwell in the human heart. He redeems the earth where we'll dwell through the same process of salvation.

Notice the antediluvian world. He gave it a water baptism, covered it over with water in Noah's flood. Typing our justification, and showing that this fallen world is on its way back to a restoration to Eden's innocence again. Then Jesus came and shed his blood upon it, cleansing it and claiming it. Sanctification. But it's still the same old sinful world that we live in now. When He took Jesus upon the mountain, Satan tried to make Him break God's plan of redemption by giving Him this sinful old world without purchase of the blood.

They tried to give Abraham the land, but he bought it for so many shekels of silver before the people as a ensign, a witness: `Let it be known this day that I've bought this place'! A purchase. And Satan tried to give Jesus the kingdom which belongs to him now. Tried to give it to him as a gift, but Jesus wouldn't receive it, because Satan would still have a claim upon it. It had to be bought!

As Christ called the Church to repentance, and baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, sanctification by the blood, and with the Fire of God, burnt out the filth so He could come and dwell in the human heart; this world is to receive its baptism of Fire.

Satan tried to say, `I will give it to you'. He said, `No, sir, I will buy it!' Let it be a witness. He was lifted up for an witness that He bought it; He purchased it. But now it has to go through a baptism of Fire - holy Fire from God which cleanses the earth and the heavens so that the redeemed can live in peace upon it.

The baptism of fire is to cleanse it from sin, from sickness, from disease, germs, from sinners, from the devil and all of his group. They're to be cast out into the Lake of Fire. Holy Fire from God comes down from heaven and burns it up to make it ready for God to dwell in. For in the new world that is to come, God will dwell in the earth.

You say, "God? He dwells in the human heart."

But, He and the Bride become one, and They go to their Home in the new world. And the same plan of redemption is used to redeem both the world and the persons that live in it.

The heart has to be cleansed like that, before God can come in the person of the Holy Ghost, which is Christ, coming to dwell in the human heart. It must first be repentant and baptized in water in His Name (not three of His many Titles) to show Who it belongs to. Then it must be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Then the holy Fire from God comes and burns out all the desire of sin, all the nature of the world. Therefore, he who sins willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth... then again the Bible said it's IMPOSSIBLE, for a man who's born of God cannot sin; he does not sin. There's no way for him to sin. How can he be a sinner and redeemed at the same time? How can I be in the pawn shop and out of the pawn shop at the same time? Oh, He redeemed us by His blood; cleansed us by His spirit, then comes to dwell in us, the Church (not the denomination, the Church).

The antediluvian repentance brought water baptism. Then Christ came and shed His blood upon it to cleanse and to claim it. Next comes the destruction of the world as it is now. All the sin in heavens above ward off blessings from God. Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Thunderbolts of lightning, sheets of ice and rain, typhoons and storms, come from Satan the prince of the power of the air!

It's baptism of fire will cleanse it from all germs, all diseases, all sicknesses even all the spiritual things (as it did for us) to prepare it for God to dwell in, in this great age that's coming, the new earth.

He redeems it in the same way He redeems His people. His plan of redemption is the same. For He's the unchangeable God.

Only a tiny group is going to be taken in the days of his coming. Jesus said, `Strait is the gate, and narrow the way, and FEW there be that find it'.

And the Bible says, `As it was in the days of Noah, wherein eight souls were saved by water, so shall it be in the coming'. Remember there were only eight souls in the ark. And Noah types the remnant that's carried over - not the translated Bride.

Enoch, ONE man, went in the rapture before the flood, showing that the elect Church does not go into the tribulation. Oh, the nominal church may be a great number, but compare eight with one. Enoch was translated, ONE man! The Bride will be eight times less than the church. The Bride is going to be a very small group.

`And if the righteous be scarcely saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly appear'? Those who know better than to do it, yet go ahead and do it anyhow, who follow denominational rules INSTEAD of the Word, yet take the Name of Christ and are called Christians. Where will they appear?

Noah was a type of those who go into the tribulation. When Noah came out, Ham was with him. Sin was still in there. Do you see it? Justification alone is NOT the new birth, that old snake is STILL there. PROVEN in this type. Unbelief, went right on over through the ark. But Enoch went higher than the ark! He went on into the Presence of God.

This PROVES that the millennium is not the end of it. There will still be TIME after the millennium, a judgment and disposition of sin. The millennium is a space of time. The new earth is eternity.

The redeemed earth goes back to its original owner again. He takes the earth away from Satan, just like He takes you away from Satan; like He took the little woman at the well away from Satan.

She saw it by faith. She ALREADY believed and was looking for this Promise to be fulfilled. `I know when Messiah comes, He'll have this sign'. Jesus said, `I am He'. Wow! She was redeemed right there! `My sheep receive my Word'. She ran into town and started a revival, `Come see a man who discerned the thoughts and intents of my heart. Isn't this the very Messiah'?

He only came to redeem that which had fallen. And through the Fall this girl became messed up with sin but she, was in God's thinking before the foundation of the world, foreknown as a believer, and he came to pay her debt, and cleanse her of her sins.

What did the priest call him? He had no faith, only intellectual learning. When he saw Jesus discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, he called it `Beelzebub', a devil! Because that's what his denomination called it. That sent him back to his destination. He was lost. He was not foreknown as having faith. Jesus could NOT redeem him.

Listen, if the only thing you have, is intellectual learning, like that denominational man, you'd better get faith. And the only way you will ever have it is if you were foreknown in Christ from the foundation of the world.

From the beginning, God made His way of salvation plain by His prophets. He's never changed it! He justifies a man, sanctifies him, sends the holy Fire to burnt sin out of him, then comes and dwells in him Himself.

He uses the same plan of redemption for the earth. It repented and was baptized in water by Noah. Jesus came and sanctified it by dripping His blood upon it and claiming it. And the new earth to come is to have a holy Fire baptism to clean it of every devil, every germ, every sickness and make it anew. `I saw a new heaven and a new earth'. You become a new person! Amen! Not just the old one patched up by joining church or trying to turn a new page. You are a brand new unit. God takes the old man and burns him completely out with the Holy Ghost and Fire and moves in Himself. No man can come to Me except My Father has drawn him. And all the Father has given me will come to Me'. You see it? The SAME plan.

Satan will be taken from the earth, just exactly as he was taken from you. Satan can tempt, but cannot deceive a born again Christian. God foresaw him from the foundation of the world, and sent Jesus to redeem him. The blood speaks for him. How can he sin when he can't even be seen? God just sees your representation, Christ! And He hears your voice. Amen!

The world is an attribute of God's thinking, just as the believer is one of his attributes. From the foundation of the world it was in God's mind to have a earth, to be on a throne, to be a king, to be a redeemer, to be a healer; that's his attributes just like you are one of his attributes.

We had to be in the mind of God before there was a world. Before there was an atom or molecule, His elect were IN Him as a thought. His thoughts are eternal, they are real. IF we are God's children, we were ALWAYS in the Logos or Word of God because His Word is His thoughts expressed. That's how Isaiah could say a virgin was going to conceive? That Word of prophecy was God's thoughts expressed by Isaiah's faith.

`Let the mind that was in Christ be in you'. Then what you say is not your idea; it's His thought, and you're expressing His Words. His Words cannot fail. Isaiah said, `a virgin shall conceive'. That settles it: she's going to conceive. What God says, He does.

By His prophets He makes all of his manifestations known, because they're the attributes of His thoughts expressed. Now this little woman at the well was one of His attributes.

And there was a priest representing the light. He'd learned from the Bible that God was God; he'd learned that holiness was right; and he'd learned the law by intellectual conception. And he was born of the right lineage: he was a Levite, but he only knew it by intellectual conception! And when he met the light of the hour his denomination knew nothing about it. But here was the Redeemer on earth at that time to redeem His attributes - and she received It.

She never questioned it. She said, `I know, when Messiah comes, He'll do this'. She saw it done. That settled it, so He said, `I am the Messiah!' There were no more questions; she went on telling everybody else, `Come, see Who I've found'.

These three processes make us clean - a temple for his dwelling place: justification, sanctification and baptism of the Holy Ghost with Fire, that does the cleansing of this temple.

The frame of the old world was not destroyed by the waters when it was baptized in the days of Noah, only sin and the sinners that were on it. The framework remained. In II Peter the third chapter, the word world is the Greek `kosmos' which means the `world order' - the politics, sinners, systems, sin, disease, germs, and everything that's wrong. So justification, (as you Baptists and Methodists like to think of it), believing and being baptized, is not enough! You'll wander right back into the things of the world; cut your hair, wear shorts, and everything else. Nothing has happened yet. You just looked back and saw you'd done wrong.

What did justification do to the world? Never did a thing except wash away past sin. After the flood it started off again, with as much sin as ever there was. That's the way of a man who only goes as far as justification. Billy Graham ought to see that. He said, `I make thirty thousand converts, and one year later, I can't find thirty'. That's because he only took them as far as justification. see? They surely repent, some of them at least. But that's not what it takes. We proved it here in the type.

So the old framework was not destroyed by the water. The world was only washed. It was baptized. And the framework will remain though it be burnt with fire. The baptism doesn't destroy the earth; it just destroys the sin that's on it.

God once shook the earth, but this time he'll shake the heavens also. For we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, the eternal kingdom. Peter said, `The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up'. Not the planet, the works therein: the WORKS of man.

`The heavens shall pass away with a great noise'. The whole earth will be on fire. Such an explosion has got to kill every disease, every thistle, every thorn, everything there is will be burnt up!

And it's not altogether a literal fire; it's also a holy Fire that will take away Satan and all of his demons. Both heaven and earth will pass away, killing all germs, all natural life, on and around it, even the H2O, the water, will explode. Talk about a noise!

You know, when a man receives the baptism of Fire there's a lot of noise around. They think that's a shame when people scream and shout like that. Just wait till this earth gets her baptism. The Bible said here in Revelation 21, `And there was no more sea'. The water which is made of two gases, will explode.

This will change the surface of the entire earth! She'll burst and blow to pieces. The crust and hundreds of feet below it, will be demolished. Earth's atmosphere will ignite, and great flames will shoot lava thousands of miles into space, when it has its baptism of Fire.

`How's this world going to pass away, if we're to live on it'? The Greek word, `pass away' does not mean, annihilation. It means to change from one CONDITION to another.

When a man's regenerated, he's been CHANGED from a sinner to a saint, not completely annihilated. He's been changed from what he WAS to what he IS.

We read in Revelation 6:14 `The heaven departed as a scroll'. Jesus said, `heavens and earth shall pass away', or be changed. They were not annihilated, for later in revelation 21:2-24 John saw the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven and sit upon THIS earth. And `the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it'. The new Jerusalem sits upon this earth, which Jesus said, `The meek shall inherit'. It is just changed.

Daniel saw the SAME thing. When the Rock hewn without hands struck the world, the image of its systems, the ten confederated states ruling the NWO of was broken, and became like chaff on a summer threshing floor, and the WIND blew it away. Then the ROCK grew into a great MOUNTAIN that covered the earth.

You're the same person in stature that you were when God called you, it was a regeneration: the old life, and old desires, passed away. You used to like to drink, and curse, and fuss, and stew, and run around, and be immoral... that thing just died. You were Satan's instrument, now you are redeemed. And the world will be redeemed the same way. A new heavens and new earth just like you are a new creature. A new creation in the SAME old temple!

And it isn't going to be another earth; it will be the same earth. The baptism of Fire only is to cleanse and make it a fit place for his meek to live in. Like he gave us the baptism of Fire before he could come and live in us. When you get that baptism of fire, it burns everything contrary to the Word out of you.

That's what we were talking last week, the evidence of the Holy Ghost. The evidence of the Holy Ghost is when you can receive the Word, not some SYSTEM, but have a clear understanding. How do you know your understanding is correct? The word will vindicate itself from Genesis to Revelation. It's got to match the entire word! To be the Bride, you have to be part of him. See? He IS the Word. And WHAT part of Him must you be? The Word that's promised for THIS day, when he's calling his Bride. You're that part. Do you get it?

He makes this earth a fit place to live through eternity. Notice, the millennium reign, this thousand years, is not the new earth. See? The millennium reign is a different reign. It's just a rest period. For in the millennium we have things that could not go into eternity. It's a type of the old seventh day in Eden, after he made the world. The seventh day in Eden, he rested.

Man has been on earth for almost six thousand years, and every two thousand years it's had a destruction. The FIRST two thousand: the flood came, and He baptized it with water. The NEXT two thousand: Jesus came to sanctify and claim it, drip His blood upon it, and call it His.

Jesus said, `I go away to prepare a place for you, and I will come again' as King with My Queen, after the THIRD two thousand years, for the millennium. The Royal honeymoon. Then comes the white throne judgment. We're still in time in the millennium. It's one day of a thousand years, a TIME element. Don't confuse it with the new earth. Then he burns it off and regenerates it for his own perfect world, and puts his own back upon it.

TWO, plus TWO, plus TWO equals SIX days, SIX thousand years. We're right AT the Millennium, the SEVENTH day NOW. What are we waiting for? Only the earthquake marking the end of the Gentile dispensation, calling a resurrection and the manifestation of the Sons of God.