Romans 21
Redeemed Back
Brian Kocourek
Last night we read from Romans 2: 25-29 and we saw how Paul
was telling us that Your circumcision which is your separating yourself from the
world ) doesn’t account for anything if you are a breaker of the Message. He
said these things you do for God will
have some profit to you, if thou keep
the Message: but if thou be a breaker of
the Message, then your circumcision is made uncircumcision (
or your separation from the things of the world is counted as no separation at
all). In verse he went on to say, 28 For
he is not a Believer in the Message, which is one outwardly; neither [is that] considered
being separate from the world), which is
separated outwardly in the flesh: 29 But
he [is] a True Believer in the Message,
which is one inwardly; and separation from the world [is
that] of the heart, in the spirit,
[and] not in the letter; whose praise
[is] not of men, but of God.
Therefore what we are
looking at here is that no matter what you do in word or deed, if it is not
from the heart then it is not real and therefore not acceptable to God. And in
fact will actually be held against you as though you did the opposite.
Well, then you might
say, What’s the use then? What does it
profit to work so hard at being a God fearing Christian if it has no merit in
itself?
And if this comes to your mind, it is because you are human. If we
would open our Bibles to the next chapter in the Book of Romans we will see
that Paul addresses that same sort of thinking.
Notice his words as he
continues looking at this thought in ROMANS
3:1 ¶ What advantage then is there in
being a Believer? or what profit [is there]or what value or benefit is there
for separating ourselves from the cares
of the world? And he begins to
answer this question in verse 2, Much every way: chiefly, because that unto
them were committed the oracles of God. In other words, Paul begins by
saying, hey! There is a great value involved here, because after all, you as a
Believer were entrusted with the Word of God. And God doesn’t just do that for no reason at all. And in
thinking these thoughts, Paul is telling us something is special then about
this relationship between God and His Elect, because He doesn’t just show or
reveal His Word to just anyone.
Now, notice how Paul has so
far taken it all out of yours and my hands and He has placed it all in the
hands of God. Paul now, continues with this line of questioning here and asks
the question... 3 well,
what if some did not believe and were without Faith, or could not exercise
faith? Shall their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify or make void
the faith of God so that it becomes of no effect? Can what someone else does,
change the way God is faithful? Can what you do change God’s fidelity to His
own Word? Or Does anything you do have one thing to do with God keeping His
Word? Then he answers, 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every
man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings,
and mightest come out the victor when your Word is placed on trial.
5 But if our unrighteousness
establishes the righteousness of God, what shall we say? [Is] God unrighteous
for punishing us for our unrighteousness? (I speak as a carnal man would think
) 6 and again I say, God forbid: for then how shall God judge
the world? Or in other words, if God’s supreme justice would depend on
anything we would do, then How could we ever expect a righteous judgment of all
men. God is not like other judges,
He does not depend upon a previous court ruling, nor does His judgments change
from time to time, for He is the same and changes not. Can you imagine a
righteous judge who judges one man by one set of standards and another man by
yet a different set of standards? I would say like Paul said, God forbid. Or
else how could you ever know by what set of standards you will be judged? Then
Paul goes on to say, 7 But if you say, if through my falsehood
God’s integrity is manifested and advertised and abounds to His glory, why then
am I still being judged as a sinner? 8
and why should we do then not do evil that
good may come? As some so slanderously charge us with teaching. and if
this were true then such false teaching would be justly condemned by them.
9 Well then? Are we more
superior and better off [than they]?
No, in no way: for we have already proved both believers and unbelievers are
all under sin, held down by and subject to it’s power and control. 10 As it is written, There is
none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of
the way and turned aside from God, together they have all gone wrong and become
unprofitable and worthless, there is none that doeth good, no, not even
one. 13 Their throat [is] an open grave; with their tongues they deceive; the
venom of a snake [is] under their lips:
14 Whose mouths [are] full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet [are] swift to
shed blood:
What a condition that man is
in. Not just the unbeliever, but every man is shaped in iniquity and comes to
the world speaking lies. In verse 16 he tells us that Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: They
have no experience with peace and therefore haven’t a clue.
18 There is no fear of God
before their eyes. 19 ¶ Now we know that what
things so ever the Precepts and principles
of God saith, it saith to them who are under the principles of God: that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. 20 For no person will be justified or be made righteous, acquitted and
judged acceptable in His sight by simply observing the works prescribed in the
principles of Conduct, order, and doctrine. For the real function of these
principles, is to make men recognize and be conscious of God’s Holy Presence,
not just a mere perception, but a true acquaintance with His Divine Nature,
which will bring man to a true repentance and holy character. 21 But now the righteousness
of God has been revealed and manifested independently and altogether apart from
the principles of Conduct, and is witnessed by the Word of God and the
prophets; 22 namely that the
righteousness of God [which is] by the faith of Jesus Christ is given unto all and is meant for all who believe: And you could not believe unless
you were ordained to believe.
Acts 13: 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the
word of the Lord: and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed.
23 Since all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God, the very essence and assessment of God’s own
thinking; 24 Then the only way we could be justified is by the free exercise
of his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation ( or mercy seat) through
faith in his blood, And God set Him forth and commanded that we come by
faith alone in order to declare his righteousness because in his divine forbearance, He passed
over and even ignored and has completely remitted our former sins
without punishment. 26 This was done in order to declare and
demonstrate, in this present time his
righteousness: that he justifies and accepts him who has True faith in
Jesus. 27 Then, what becomes of our
pride and our boasting? It is excluded, banished, ruled out entirely. On what
principle? On the principle of works and doing good deeds in obeying the
commandments of God? No: but on the principle of faith alone. In other
words, if it were based on what you do, then you might well be able to boast,
but since God has taken away all possible avenues for boasting, He bases our
justification upon Faith which is a gift, One that He has given us. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is
justified and made upright and considered righteous by faith alone independent
from and without any assistance from good deeds in following the commandments
of God, therefore the observance of the commandments of God has nothing to do
with justification.
29 [Is he] the God of the Jews
only? [is he] not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Since it is one and the
same God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision
through faith, and that Faith is the Faith of the Son of God, His Faith.. 31 Do we then, by this
receiving this faith, make the Commandments of God of no effect, do we over
throw them, or make them void? God forbid:
But on the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the commandments of
God.
Now, what is Paul teaching
us in this 3rd chapter in the Book of Romans. He is telling us that God has set
forth principles that we must observe, principles of conduct and order and
doctrine. But He also tells us that these principles and our observing of these
principles has nothing to do with our salvation and neither do they have to do
with our being freely justified and accepted as innocent, vindicated to be
righteous. In other words, what Paul is telling us is that our righteousness
comes only by one avenue and that is a free Gift of God to us, and it comes
through Faith and Faith alone is the only access to this free gift.
Now, we know that Faith is a
Revelation, and therefore He tells us that it must be the same revelation that
Jesus had, for in Galatians 2:20 He
says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Now, how can a man
be both crucified and live, because He actually says, I have been crucified
with Christ, and brother Branham makes that very plain to us when He says, that
when Jesus was crucified we were in Him, and we went tot he cross with Him, for
we were in Him. Now, how many believe the Life is in the blood? Does not science prove that the Life I in
the blood? Then if you and I were to have the same life that was in Jesus, It
had to come forth from the same blood that moved through his veins, right?
Then how did we receive that
blood? In Future Home brother Branham said that when Jesus died upon the
cross, when they pierced His
side, His blood flowed forth from that open wound and poured out upon the
earth. Now, our seed life was in the earth.
Genesis 1: 11-12, 2:5, Psalms
1:3 tree, also notice the fruit tree yielding it’s fruit. the same word for
tree and fruit are used interchangeably by God for both the trees of the field
and for man. And when that blood
was spilled upon the earth it not only redeemed the earth, but the seed life
that was in the earth as well. And His blood not only paid the price and
redeemed back what was rightfully His, but it also quickened that seed which
was in the earth mingling His own blood with that seed and giving it Life, the
very same life that was in Him that came from the Father.
JOHN 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to
have life in himself;
Then if we received His
Life, the same life that was in the Father. If we received this Life through
the blood of His Son, then in one way we would be cloned images of His son?
18-3 FUTURE HOME 64-0802 Now, the
world, to be redeemed for this redeemed person, He uses His same method. He
baptized it in water after the antediluvian destruction, shed His Blood upon it
to sanctify it and claim it. It's His.
Satan tried to say, "I'll give it to you." He said, "No, sir, I'll buy it."
Let it be a witness. He was lifted up for an ensign--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 around it. Then it's purchased so
that the redeemed can live on it--live in it in peace. 40-2 See, and look, you are part of that ground. Is that right? And
when He redeems you, He redeemed the earth with the same thing, and you are
together again. Oh, how much plainer can it be. See? You have to be redeemed,
'cause you're part of it. And if the Blood didn't drop on you, you ain't
redeemed yet, you're not called. Then He cleanses it; that's the same thing He
does in the fire. Even the Blood dropped; it's yet got to be cleansed by fire
(That's right.) for a dwelling place for God. God already took up His abode.
Potentially the Kingdom of God is in the earth now in the hearts of His saints.
It's His attributes that He begin in the beginning. Now His attributes is
redeemed. What's He waiting? to redeem the earth to set His attributes on it to
fulfill exactly His predestinated plan. Do you see it? 41-5 God and His creation and His creatures of
this creation is redeemed by His own Blood, cleansed by His own cleansing
process, His germ-killing, sin-killing process, like if anything is sterilized.
The best sterilization we've ever had's been fire. You can take anything and
wash it with soapsuds and all these chemicals that they talk about; it still
ain't free, but you burn it once. And when the holy fire of God sterilizes the
earth... when the chemicals... He's lifted His Bride, which can come into
heaven with Him while this is going on, and comes back upon the earth again--a
new heavens and a new earth. 44-4 John said, "I saw the
holy City, the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven, as a bride adorned for
her husband." And where did it settle on? Just exactly like it did on
there, upon the earth. Jesus was part of that earth that the Holy Ghost
descended upon (Is that right?) and remained upon Him forever. It never can
leave Him, It's always there (He and God are one.), always has to remain. And
so John saw the holy City, the New Jerusalem descending like a comet or a--a
dove, coming down out of heaven and settling upon a redeemed entire earth. To
do what? To claim every attribute that He made the earth for; every man that
was represented in the eternity and every woman is redeemed then. She's been
scoured and burned by fire; Jesus in His fiery temptations in the wilderness
for forty days... After that, notice, it was ready for His ministry then. Think
of it, the Holy Ghost descending upon earth, Jesus, and that holy Blood. Now
watch. I hope I don't go too deep for you. See? 49-1 Look, them hands designed this for His Beloved and--Bride:
designed in tenderly love for His Bride. Remember that the Holy Ghost descended
on Jesus, which Jesus was a part of the earth. Why? The germ of God, the Life
of God was designed in the womb of a woman (That right?), which was the earth.
All right. And then the Life of God came in, so He was the beginning of the
creation of God. See? And then that Blood of God, that was there by that germ,
when it was shed at Calvary, dropped back upon the earth. What for? To redeem
the earth. Now, it's been justified; it's been sanctified, called and claimed;
and now it's to receive its baptism of fire, and be cleansed for Jesus and His
Bride. And you are these other parts that's drawed out of this earth--the
earth. You are part of the earth, your body. Your soul is part of God, a
attribute of God, displayed here on earth in a body. The body's to be redeemed.
Now the soul's redeemed, because it was in sin. So God come down by process of
justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and redeemed your
soul. And you, being part of the earth, it's redeemed by it. You're in the
process now, it's growing on.