The Doctrine of Christ no 15
“Why people don’t receive the
Holy Ghost”
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
September 7th, 2011
Mark 8:35 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life
for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
John 12:25 He
that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal. Let us pray.
This morning, I wish
to speak on why people don’t receive the Holy Ghost even though they have been
around the True Word of God (even the Message) for so many years of their life.
To be more specific, I want to speak on “why so many who have been raised up in this
Message have never experienced the genuine new birth”. So this evening
for our text let’s turn to the Book of Colossians and we will begin reading
from chapter 3 and verse 1.
Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, (Now, notice he is asking the question, If ye then be risen with
Christ “seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Now, I want you to
notice these words that the apostle Paul is speaking here. He is saying, If And he
is asking a question “If you are risen
with Christ”, it is because you also are dead to self and you
have “died with Christ first”. In
other words, he is saying, “how can you be risen if you have not died”. “How can one rise up if they have not first
gone down.” And going down would suggest you have been buried and hidden
from site.
Notice he said, “If ye then be risen with Christ, it is
because you are dead, you have died with
Christ, and your life is hid with Christ
in God.” So your natural first-life is tucked away never to pop
up it’s filthy head again, and the life that is now living in your flesh is not
the life that dies to self, but it is another Life altogether that is now
Living in you.
This same apostle Paul
spoke of how that Life of Christ comes in and takes completely over if in fact you
have died to self.
We the Apostle Paul speak of this in Galatians 2:20 where he says, “I am crucified with Christ (Not
I was, but I am. This is a present tense
condition he is speaking of here. It is a daily crucifixion to self. A
continuous dying to self daily. There is only once for all sacrifice that is
acceptable to God and that was the Life of His Son. Your death is not a once
for all sacrifice on your part, but a daily, hourly, minute by minute
crucifixion of self.
The sacrifice that is acceptable to God was paid as a
once for all payment but the death, our death is a daily dying to self.)
I am (present tense) crucified with Christ nevertheless I am (present tense) living; yet it is no longer
I that is living, but Christ the anointed Life of God that is living in me: and the life which I now am
living in the body of this flesh, I am living by the faith, (by the revelation) of the Son of God, (His revelation) of the One who was living
in Him, and this revelation allowed Him to love me, and give himself for me.
So in getting back to
our text in the book of Colossians The Apostle Paul continues in Colossians 3:4 “When
Christ,(when the anointed One) who is our life, shall appear,
(shall phaneroo, shall manifest in his true character) then
(when? Then, at the time of the phaneroo of Christ,) shall we also appear (phaneroo,
manifest in our true character) with him in glory.
In other words, it is
at this time of the great appearing of Christ, when He comes to phaneroo
Himself through His Prophet, then at that time we will begin to come into the
image and likeness of that same character which is expressing or manifesting (phaneroo),
and it is this same glory, this same “doxa,”
these same values, these same opinions, and these same judgments that will also
express themselves in us as we see them express in the One God is expressing
Himself through.
Then it is at this time
we must begin to as the Apostle says in verse 5. Mortify
therefore our members which are upon the earth; And the word mortify means to deaden or kill off and
then he lists those things which will we will die to.
And this is not something that you can do as an act of your flesh. The
same Apostle Paul who wrote this in Colossians and told us it would be
manifested in our flesh at the time of the appearing, also said in Romans 8
which is at the time of the adoption of sons, that it can only come by living a
life directed by The Spirit which is not your spirit he is speaking of but THE
Spirit which is The Spirit of God working in you to will and to do. Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
And in Colossians we are told in verse 5 what this
mortification or dying to self will do. 5. Mortify
therefore our members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the
which ye also walked some time, when ye
lived in them. So the Apostle Paul is telling us at the time when the
Spirit of Christ Appears to us, He will come into us, and we will begin
manifesting the same God-Life
in these bodies which we have been given a stewardship over. And he says then when
this happens we will die to these evils that are so common among those who live
in the flesh. And that is because we will begin to express the values of God,
the opinions of God, the judgments of God in our bodies, because first of all
we will possess the values of God, the opinions of God and the judgments of God
in our hearts.
These evils will no longer
manifest in our bodies because the heart has been changed, and in our minds have
received the mind of Christ. and it is By His Spirit working in us to will and
to do that brings our flesh under the control of the Word of God.
That is why it is not
only those very wicked things such as he mentions in verse 5, but also in verse
8 those much closer to the heart, as he says in verse 8 “But
now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
And never forget, Jesus
taught us “as a man thinks in his heart so is he, and “out of the mouth speaks
that which a man truly is in his heart”. And again with the mouth which
reflects what is in the heart he says, 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; In other words, a dead person doesn’t lie, a dead
person doesn’t get angry, a dead person doesn’t hold malice or wrath in his
heart, and a dead person doesn’t speak filthy talk, or blasphemous and
injurious things.
Because he tells us in
verse 10. That
we have put on the
new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him
that created him: 11 Where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ
is all, and in all. (Christ is the center of the revelation, Christ is the
center of your entire life. All you live for, is to please Him. And when we
have come to that state in our life, then) 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have
a quarrel against any: even as Christ
forgave you, so also do ye. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of
perfectness, or maturity. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,..
What the apostle Paul is telling us here is that the
peace of God will rule or have the preeminent place in our hearts. So we should
at all times be seeking this peace with God in our hearts. That should be our
number one desire and the number one condition of our heart. To be so much like
Christ, that in our hearts we are at peace with God always,) to the which also
ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
You know I am
thoroughly convinced that people today are not very thankful. They have more
than any other group of people of any time in the history of the world, and yet
they are the least thankful of any peoples who lived on earth. We should be
counting our blessings like the song says.
“Count your blessings name them
one by one,
Count your
many blessings, see what God has done,
Count your
blessings, name them one by one.
Count your
many blessings see what God has done.”
And then the Apostle Paul
continues by saying in verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; And wisdom defined as: Understanding what is true, what is right, and
what is lasting; insight,
Then Paul adds, “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord. 17 And what ever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 19 Husbands,
love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20 Children,
obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
21 Fathers,
provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 22 Servants,
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as
menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23 And
whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. 25 But
he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there
is no respect of persons.”
Now, that we have read
our text and we see the importance of our dying to self first, before we can
rise again, let’s look further into the Word of God to see how this is
accomplished.
Now, the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
This again shows us
that we
are dead and have been buried with Him through baptism, because you do
not bury them who are not dead. So we see this sacrament of Baptism is
important because it is at that time that we acknowledge we have indeed died to
self.
The formula for this
Baptism we see in Acts 2:38 which tells us that the very first thing
required before we can be buried in baptism is that we must first of all repent. Then and only then, after we have
repented, can we be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
expect to receive the Holy Ghost.
But the problem is that
most who come forward in baptism have not repented because they don’t even know
what it means to repent. Therefore, we
should ask ourselves, “how many baptisms have we seen and how many true
repentances have we seen with those who have been baptized?
In other words, just
look around to see the evidence. How many have come to know the truth of the
Message and have been baptized in the Correct formula but have never truly
received the baptism of the Holy Spirit because they never truly repented first.
Now we all know the
word repent means to change your thinking. The Greek word used in Acts 2:28 where Peter said Repent first and then be baptized,
is Metanoeo, and this comes from two
words, meta and anoeo,
The Word meta means to separate or not be with,
and the word anoeo speaks of your understanding.
So we’re dealing with a complete separation or change of the mind. A
dying to self, and your own thinking and opening up your heart to the
very mind of God, the thoughts of God to enter.
In other words it is in
your soul and thus in your heart that you must realize that you must die to
self, and all those thoughts that are a part of your first nature. Therefore it
requires you to die, to rot and then to die. But most people just will not do
that. And how many children in this Message have been baptized into the name of
Jesus Christ at a young and tender age without really knowing what it means to
repent.
I mean after all, they
will think, I’ve have never smoked, and I’ve never drank, and I don’t cuss and I
hardly ever tell lies, and when you begin to compare yourself with your fellow
man, you think to your self, “Hey God, look at me, I live a better life than most people
do.”
And so we see the scene
in Mark chapter
10 where one who was raised up in Church, raised correctly in the
Word. honored the Sabbath, attended church, was obedient to his parents, didn’t
lie cheat or steal. He didn’t covet his neighbors goods. He lived clean, didn’t
commit adultery, nor bear false witness.
He observed & performed the ten commandments his entire life, and
yet he came up short of a new Birth and was never filled with the Holy Ghost
and found himself in hell after he died. What a tragic ending of the story.
MARK 10:17 And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good
Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And
Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that
is, God. (Notice Jesus tells
him, I appreciate what you have said, but let me straighten you out on your
doctrine first. Now, let’s look at your question. You want to know what must
you do to inherit eternal life? Good question.) 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not
bear false witness, Defraud not,
Now, notice everything
Jesus mentions here there’s nothing you can do. He says “do nothing”
adulterous, “do nothing” to kill, “do nothing” concerning stealing, “do nothing”
concerning false testimony, and “do nothing” towards defrauding someone. So in
all these commandments you are told there is nothing you do. Then why do people
think they have to work their way to heaven when even the Ten Commandments are
not about what we do as though it is work to not do. There isn’t anything you’re
asked to do. It is what you are asked not to do that’s the issue. So it’s not
about you. It’s about dying to self. Then he says, now however, there is
something you can do. Honour thy father and mother. (That’s the one thing you can do.) 20 And the young man answered
and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
(I have been very watchful of
these thing my entire life.) 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One
thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross,
and follow me. 22 And
he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
Now, why would Jesus
tell him that it is not what you do, but it is about dying to self, in that it
is what you do not do that counts, and then tell him there is one thing you are
still lacking, and he tells him to sell what he has and give it to the poor.
Now, people who read it
as that are missing the point. The Bible says, Jesus beholding him, loved him.
But I want you to notice this word beholding him. The Word behold was translated
from the Greek word emplebo which means to discern. Jesus stood there and looked into
the heart of this young man and discerned his heart and then he said, get your
focus off the things of this world, all the wealth that you have, and get your
focus on dying to yourself so you can follow me. Let’s read it again. 21 Then
Jesus beholding him (discerning
him) loved him, (Look, Jesus stood there and discerned him and
as he discerned him, he loved what he saw. He loved him. This was a good young
man. This was a man that Jesus could look into his soul and love him for what
he saw.)
21 Then Jesus discerning
him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven
Notice it’s not about wealth,
because he said get rid of this here and you get that over there. Get rid of
what you have now and you will have more in heaven. So it’s not about the
wealth. That is what get’s people so messed up in their thinking, It’s not
whether you have or do not have.
The young man was
blessed by God and he was promised even greater blessings if he was willing to
forsake something. And so we must ask, what was Jesus really asking him to
forsake? And we find our answer in the very next thing Jesus asks him to do. He
says, come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was
sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
Now, the thing most
people miss is that Jesus told this young man to take up
the cross and follow him. What Jesus is saying here is you must die to self
in order to follow me.
Most translations don’t
mention taking up of the cross and that
is the main point Jesus told this man. It’s not about getting rid of wealth. It’s
about dying to self. Most newer
translations put their emphasis on giving up riches to the poor which is not
what this whole conversation is about. If possessing eternal life was about
having no wealth then where would that place the Giver of eternal life, because
he is the possessor of the heavens and earth and al that is in it. And that
would mean that the worlds poor have eternal life.
No, they’re missing the
point. The point is this young man lived a very good life. He was certainly
observant of all Ten Commandments, yet after discerning him, and Loving him for
what he discerned, Jesus saw he had not died to self. He wasn’t willing to die
and rot in order for the life of the seed to manifest God-Life in him.
Some time later we hear
Jesus tell us about this young man who lived such a good life, yet because he
was not willing to die to self, and thought more of his riches than he did
about eternal life and what it meant, and in Jesus own words, we see the end of
this young man who went to hell not being born again. Let’s turn in our Bibles
to the Book of Luke and begin reading at the 16th chapter and the 19th
verse.
Luke 16:19 There was a certain rich man, which was
clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with
the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and
licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man
also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift
up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham,
have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in
water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good
things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented. 26 And beside all this, between us and
you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to
you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that
thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 For
I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into
this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him,
They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And
he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they
will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear
not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose
from the dead.
But we see these same words
spoken by Jesus in Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Notice that this rich
young ruler came to Jesus and he fell to his knees. He wasn’t proud, but what
happened to him that he ended up in hell? What happened is that he held up his
righteousness as what he thought God wanted. But the Scriptures tell us that
our righteousness is no better than a woman’s menstrual rag, and God will never
accept you for what you have done, for God will never accept your
righteousness, because there is only one place of Worship that God ever chose
to place his name, and that is in His Son Jesus Christ, and the once for all
sacrifice that he did on your behalf.
But you see that is the
devil’s lie that he would have you to believe. He gets you to look in the
mirror and you say within yourself, “You
know, I have lived my whole life serving God. I know my parents have set the
path for me to walk in, but I’ve walked in the light as He is in the light, and
I have taken my share of crucifixion in the flesh because of my stand for him,
so I think if you measure me against others, I will fair pretty well at the
white throne”. And right there you’ve missed it altogether. Because by
thinking those thoughts you are in fact stating that you on your own have
reached God’s standard, and you can not possibly reach God’s perfection within
your own flesh or any acts of the flesh you could perform, because God’s .
Martin Luther in His
Preface to the Book of Romans said, "God judges
according to what is at the bottom of the heart, and for this reason, His
law makes its demands on the inmost heart and cannot be satisfied with works,
but rather punishes works that are done otherwise than from the bottom of the heart,
as hypocrisy and lies. "The law is
spiritual," For if the law were made for the body, it could be satisfied with works;
but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it, unless all that you do is
done from the bottom of the heart. But such a heart is given only by God's
Spirit, who makes a man equal to the law, so that he acquires a desire for the law in his heart, and
henceforth does nothing out of fear and compulsion, but everything out of a willing heart. That law then is spiritual which
will be loved and fulfilled with such a spiritual heart, and requires such a
spirit. Where that spirit is not in the heart, there sin remains, and
displeasure with the law, and enmity toward it, though the law is good and jut
and holy.
Luther said, Faith kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, it changes our
spirits, it changes our thoughts and it changes all our powers. It brings the
Holy Spirit with it.
Luther knew what he was
talking about concerning this Faith which is alive in the believer. For he
said, "Yes,
it is a living, creative, active and
powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly.
It doesn't stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them
without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an
unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though
he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters
about faith and good works with many words.
Notice Luther said Faith brings the Holy Spirit with it. It opens the door to
receiving the new birth and allowing The Spirit of God to have entrance and to
live within our hearts.
In his sermon, You must be born again 61-1231M P:49-51 brother Branham said, And
when we look at Christ, you see the penalty. The only One, God Himself made
flesh, God coming to the earth, and took on Him the sin of all of us, and the
judgment and wrath of Almighty God was poured out upon His body, and there it
was rivened at the cross. That's the
real judgment. He tread the
winepress of the wrath of God alone. Alone He walked the road. Alone He died with not no help from an
Angel, from a man, from His Church, from His mother, from His brethren, from
His Father. And forsaken by God,
man, and nature, He died alone to show us that even nature itself can't
help us in the hour of death. There's no
friend, no priest, no pope, no pastor... It's death. But there was One Who took it for us. 50
No life in the serpent, it was absolutely crystallized. That was the penalty.
He died until the earth got ashamed of itself. He died till the stars got
ashamed. He suffered until the sun
wouldn't shine. He suffered till the
moon turned off its light. He suffered till even the elements of the earth
was so black and dark until the midnight so dark you could feel it. Wasn't
nothing, no one's ever suffered like
that or could suffer like that; there's
no mortal could go through it. But He
suffered it. God laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all and passed His judgments upon Him, and He tread the
winepress of the wrath of God alone with no help. There was nothing to help Him. God placed the penalty. Everything
was under that penalty and nothing could
help Him, 'cause we're all guilty.
There's no high priest could've come helped Him. There was nothing could help
Him, no pope, no Angel. Everything stood back and watched it. That was the
greatest moments was ever in the history of the world. He died until there's not one drop of life left in Him, become like
the brass serpent, just a crystallized ornament hanging on the cross. 51 Now, the approach to this birth, there is approach to it. And to approach this birth, you have to go
through a process, just like anything that lives. Anything that lives again has got to die first. And you cannot keep your same spirit.
You cannot keep your same habits.
You cannot keep your same thoughts.
You got to die. You've got to die like He died. You got to die on His altar, like Abel did
with his lamb. You got to die with your
Lamb. You got to die, die to your
own thinking to be born to His thinking. Let the mind that was in Christ be
in you. You got to think His thoughts.
And now, brother, sister, let me say this as intelligent as I know how to say
it. How can you think His thoughts and
deny His Word, and yet claim you're born again? Just ask yourself that
question. How can you do it? You can't. If
you're born again, you got His thoughts. If the mind of Christ is in you, then you are a new creature. The
Bible teaches that. And if any brother would like to, where you find that
creature, look that word "creature"
up in the Lexicon, and you'll find out that the word "creature" there
is interpreted or translated, "a
new creation," because you are a one creation, a human being born in
sexual desire here on earth, and now you're a new creation born by Spirit. Your own thoughts are dead. They're so
dead until they're crystal like the brass serpent, or like He died when the
heavens and earth and everything witnessed He was dead.
In the book of Isaiah 55:6 we read, Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD,
and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,
and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it
shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
So we find the apostle Paul ask the question in Colossians 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?
And in Romans 8:10 And
if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you.
Greatest
battle ever fought 62-0311 P:155 You know, you are dead; your life is hid.
What is dead? You're dead to your
senses; you're dead to your
conscience (your own human
will would say, "Yes I guess I..."), dead to your reasoning, dead to all those things, and you are buried in the Name of Jesus Christ
and raised with Him.
Why
62-0622E P:41 Say, "Well, other people do
this." Well, you're not like the other people. You are dead, and your life is hid in God through Christ and sealed by
the Holy Spirit. See, you didn't
try the toxin. It's just because the people don't want to try it. Now, you've got to die. You've got to rot.
That's the trouble of people, instead going up to the altar and get some kind
of sensation, jump up, and shake hands with the preacher, go out and get some
kind of a dogma or creed and recite it, and say, "I belong to So-and-so.
Calling
Jesus on the scene 63-0804E P:44 You say, "He
makes our bodies obey? Oh, I believe we have jurisdiction over
that." Then you're not fully
surrendered. For you're not your
own; you are dead. "You
yourself are dead, and your life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed by
the Holy Ghost." How are you going to get away from
that? I think we need a revival. "Our lives are dead." We are dead;
your own thoughts... You think pure
thoughts. Them old worldly thoughts that leads you off, you're dead to that. "And your life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed by the Holy Spirit."
What a position, what a secure. Oh, my. How long, till the next revival?
"Until the day of your redemption." Ephesians 4:30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby you are sealed until the day of your redemption." What
a secure feeling, knowing and watching the Holy Spirit change your nature from
a vile person. Amen. Then we know we
passed from death unto Life; we see the Holy Spirit living in us, His Life.
Paul said, "The life that I once lived, I live no more.
Reconciliation
through fellowship 56-0120 P:46 Come
upon those basis. Come to God like that and see what happens.
Recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as your
People want their shortcuts, but there is only one way to Life and that
is the seed has to die first and then rot. And if it doesn’t die to itself and
then rot, then the life that is in it, can never be released to come forth in
the Image of the original Seed.
You must be born again 61-1231M
P:104 Shortcuts... Tonight they're
out here today, and they're going on (Oh, my.), and tomorrow they want to preach: Pentecostal people letting them do
that too. Yeah. They want a shortcut to heaven, "Hallelujah, all I have to
do is get down here and just don't think of nothing at all, and say,
'Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got on Elijah's garment. I'm going out tomorrow to
cast out devils. Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got It.' Praise God, here I
go." They want the shortcut to
heaven, taking as much of the world as they can take. You can't take any of it.
There's no shortcuts. You come
the way of Calvary. You come
the way of the brass altar. You
come the way of the brazen serpent. You die. You actually die, O God, why can't I say it right? You die, literally die to yourselves, die
to the things of the world, and are born anew. Amen. No world, the things of the world is dead. There's no shortcuts. See? They want to come right quick; they don't want to grow. We grow in the
Lord. It takes growth and experience.
Ephesian church age 60-1205 P:51 Unless anything dies and rots, life can't
come from it. Unless
a man dies and rots in his own thoughts, Christ can't get into his heart.
When you're trying to think for yourself, "Now, if I walk up to the
altar and say, 'Yes, Lord, I'm--I'm a fine fellow; I'll take You. I'll pay my
tithes. I'll do this,'" you got to die and rot right there to your thoughts. Let the Holy Ghost take over and just do
whatever He wants to with you. Get kind of messy with it. That sounds
horrible, not sacrilegious, but it's the truth. It's the only way I know how to
punch the thing out to make you understand it.
God who
is rich in mercy 65-0119 P:16 And we was speaking the other night on how
the seed must die. And everything around that germ of life must not only die,
but rot. If it doesn't rot, it cannot
live. And rot is "completely
done away with; it's finished." And until we get to the place that our own ideas and our own thinking is
completely gone and it's rotted away from us, then the germ of life can begin
to live.
Paradox a 65-0117 P:40 As
long as there's any human injections,
human ideas, then God's germ of Life, the Holy Spirit, cannot work. You
cannot be healed as long as there's just a fraction somewhere, that it's not rotten yet; it's got all the
human elements, all the scientific ideas, all the days of miracles is passed,
so-called. All that has to, all, not
only die, but rot, then from there grows the germ of Life unto a new life. That's the only way it can grow. That's
the reason we don't get what we ask for. We
try to take with us so much of our own ideas. … It cannot grow to that perfect image of Christ until every Word of God is received into you, and then you become that Word, like the seed
that went in the ground.
The Way
back 62-1123 P:40 They're afraid of that new birth, I mean the real new birth. Oh, everybody say,
"Sure, I believe you must be born again. Yes, sir." Yes. But when it
comes to the real birth... They believe the new birth by shaking hands, saying
a bunch of creeds, or something another. They call that the new birth. That
ain't the new birth. They're afraid of the new birth. Listen. Any birth is a mess. I don't care
whether it's in a pigpen, or where it's at, it's a mess, any birth. And so is the new birth. It'lll make you do things that you didn't
think you'd ever do. But it brings life. And before you can have life, you have to have death. Before a seed can
reproduce itself, it's got to die in order... And not only die, but it's got to rot. In order to get new life out of it, it's got to die and rot in itself.
And so does every sinner. And every man,
no matter how highly he's educated, and how much he's polished, how many
degrees he has in the church, or so forth, how many of these things, how many
colleges he's educated out of; he's got
to die to his own theory. He's got to die to himself. He's got to die to
everything to be reborn again by the Holy Ghost. It'll make him cry, and "boo hoo,"
and speak in tongues, and jump up and down, and carry on like a maniac. But he's got new life. That's what it
takes to do it. He's got to have new life. They're
afraid of the new birth. The new birth is a mess.
Why
62-0622E P:47 The new
birth brings a mess, but it brings
new life with it. That's right. A plant, anything, a seed has to rot to bring the new life out of it. A sinner has to
die and rot to his own ideas. His own life has to rot that the new life
can grow out of it. It's a mess, but it's a glorious mess. It brings new
life. That's what the church needs today, but they're bypassing it with dogmas and so forth, to try to escape the thoughts of
dying to themselves. They want to
live to themselves. He that lives
to himself, lives for himself and the devil. He that denies himself shall find his life in Christ and he will be
a new creature.
Colossians
2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the
world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Romans 8:10
And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness.
Romans 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
Galatians
5:24 And they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Luke 9:23
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me. Deny was translated from the Greek words Apo-arneomai which means to deny utterly,
to disown or abstain from.
Let us pray…