"For our conversation (citizenship) is (where?) in heaven…"

How did our citizenship get transplanted from the earthly domain to heaven? Colossians 1. God the Father has transplanted us from darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son.

Now that isn’t so deep and yet very few people have this concept. Very few people understand that when they were saved, they were literally made a citizen of a heavenly kingdom, which will tie us then to when Christ returns and sets up His kingdom on earth. And we’ll be part of that. So our citizenship is in Heaven. And lest you think it’s a play on words, Paul, by inspiration, tells us exactly what heaven he’s talking about. The abode of God. From whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is what God has done by virtue of our faith in the Gospel. He has opened our eyes, broken those chains of darkness and He has transplanted us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Now let’s look at verse 14 of Colossians 1 and the first thing you’re going to notice in these new translations is that the word "blood" isn’t in there. And for whatever reason, I’m not going to make comment on it, but my good old King James still has it. And here it is.

"In whom (that is in the Son up there in verse 13) we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:"

Now let’s go all the way back to Hebrews and let’s look at a verse that we haven’t used for a long time. We certainly have in the past but it’s been awhile. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 22.

"And almost all things are by the law (back in the sacrificial economy) purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

Now I call that an absolute. You know, they’re trying to tell us today that there are no absolutes. I beg to differ. There are absolutes and this is one of them. Without the shedding of blood there has never been any forgiveness of sin. You go right back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve had sinned and were expelled and what’s the first thing that God does to restore them? He kills the animals. It was a blood sacrifice.

Now it’s amazing how that Satan counterfeits everything that is perfect in God’s economy and adulterates it in the process. Now if you know anything about paganism, if you’ve ever had missionaries come home, especially years back, from some of these almost uncivilized areas, what were they constantly doing in their tribal rituals? Killing animals, or roosters or birds and sprinkling or spattering the blood all over. Why? That was Satan’s counterfeit. And so almost every culture up through human history has had a constant bath of sacrificial blood. But that was the counterfeit. That was the adulteration.

The true system of blood sacrifice was what God instituted with Adam and Eve and then bought it up and perfected it with the Law and the Temple worship. And it all was centered on the animal sacrifices. You know all of that. The Passover Lamb and I’ve shown you from Scripture that when Israel would sin a particular sin, there was a particular sacrifice that they would have to bring. It could be a turtledove, a goat or whatever, but it was always a blood sacrifice. Because without the shedding of blood there has never been forgiveness. Now I know that today we don’t hear anything anymore about the blood concept. But listen, it’s the way the Sovereign God ordained it. That without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. And of course, I feel that the reason for that is that back in Genesis chapter 9 it tells us that life is in the blood. And you cannot get new life without death happening first and death is signified by shed blood. And so you follow this all the way through God’s dealing with the whole human race leading up to His own supreme sacrifice, which had to be a shedding of blood. That’s why He could have never been hung. He could have never died a death by hanging which was a typical capital punishment way of putting people to death. But it wouldn’t have worked because then there wouldn’t have been the shed blood. And it had to be a death where there would be that shedding of blood. It had to be! Because this is the way the Sovereign God ordained it and who are we to say that the shed blood is no longer of consequence. Well, anyone who does is in danger of Hellfire because without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Now let’s see how Paul enlarges on it. Come back to Romans chapter 3 starting at verse 23.

"For all have sinned (every last single human being) and come short of the glory of God. 24. Being justified freely by his grace (that unmerited favor) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"

Now you all know what redemption means. It’s the process of paying the price and gaining something back. Now verse 25

"Whom (Christ) God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his (what?) blood,…"

You can’t take that out. We have to maintain that it was His shed blood which was in accordance with His whole divine plan for the ages beginning with Adam and Eve’s sin just outside the garden all the way up through the Old Testament economy of Law and temple worship, all bringing us up to the supreme sacrifice of all time, the death of Christ Himself. And that’s when sacrificing stopped biblically. There was no more need for sacrifice once Christ died. Now the pagans kept it on. But biblically there was no more need for sacrifice.

Now I'm going to make a point. What had to happen to the blood in the Old Testament sacrifices, as well as Christ's Blood for the atonement of sin? It had to be applied. It had to be sprinkled on the altar, it had to be sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant's mercy seat, and Christ also had to present His Blood remember where? The Holy of Holies in heaven.

"For it is evident that our Lord (The Lord Jesus) sprang out of Juda (not out of the tribe of Levi. He was not eligible to be a priest out the order of Aaron, having come out of the tribe of Judah); of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

All the way from start to finish we have the connection of the High Priest of the Gentile and The Most High God. The Lord Jesus is not only The Most High, the possessor of Heaven and earth, but He is also the High Priest of the Gentile God so that you and I can rest assured that we have a High Priest interceding for us at the very Throne Room of Heaven itself. Not a high priest after the order of Aaron, but a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

On the day of atonement in Leviticus 21, the high priest once a year would take the blood of a sacrificed animal, make his way through the front part of the tabernacle, go in behind the veil, and sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat, which was the very presence of God under the Shekinah Glory. Israel's sins were then covered for that next year. Now that was the role of the high priest on behalf of Israel. Our High Priest had to do the same thing. Go to John's Gospel, Chapter 20. We cannot get a comprehension of Christ's role as our High Priest unless we can understand what He has done to fulfill that role. It is Resurrection Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, saw it was empty, and ran back and told the disciples, who couldn't believe. Then Peter and John came running. I believe that although verse 9 tells us so much, most people are not enlightened on this. As Peter and John saw all the evidence there at the empty tomb, verses 8 and 9 tell us:

"Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they (the Twelve, and Peter and John in particular) knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."

They had no idea He was going to rise from the dead until they saw proof of it; however, that isn't the point I want to make. Come down to the account of where Mary saw the tomb was empty. And she said, "Oh, where have they put my Lord?" As she turned, there stood The Lord Jesus, only she didn't know Him.

"And they (the two angels) say unto her, `Woman, why weepest thou?' She saith unto them, `Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.'"

What do you think Mary wanted to do? Embrace Him! He was alive! But what does He do? He holds her at bay and says:

"Jesus saith unto her, `Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.'" Now back to Hebrews, if you will. Then I think we can put all this together.

"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come (not after the order of Aaron, remember, but after the order of Melchizedek, the priest of the Gentile name of God), by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (where is it? - in Heaven);"

Remember what you just read in John; that Jesus, on that Resurrection morning, said to Mary Magdalene, "Don't touch me until I have ascended to the Father." This is on Resurrection morning. We're not talking about the ascension of Acts. This is in John's Gospel on the Resurrection morning. Why did He have to ascend?

"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in (to the very throne room of Heaven) once into the holy place (the very presence of God, and as He presented His Blood...), having obtained eternal redemption for us

What role was He fulfilling? - High Priest! Not the high priest of Israel, but the High Priest of all. We don't have to leave the Jew out insofar as His High Priesthood is concerned because now, as a result of the Cross and the power of His Resurrection, He is the High Priest of all. That, of course, is what Melchizedek represented. Please go back with me to Romans, Chapter 3. I am always stressing that Paul is the one who has received the final part of our progressive revelation, except the Book of Revelation. But Paul brings everything to a head by asking the question:

"Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:"

See, nobody is left out. As a result of the work of the Cross, as a result of the work of His presenting His own blood in the very Throne Room of Heaven as our High Priest, everything has been satisfied. Everything is done that had to be done.

`And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'"

In a previous lesson we pointed out that this verse is foretelling that long-running enmity between the powers of Satan and the powers of God, especially the Son of God Who would be coming on the scene as the Redeemer.

Turn now to Galatians 3:16. As we've said before, we must always qualify everything with Scripture, studying and comparing Scripture with Scripture to get the whole, correct picture. The "Seed of the Woman" is unique in Genesis 3:15, but we have to follow this thread all the way through Scripture, because the prophecy given in Genesis was looking forward to the coming of THE REDEEMER. Galatians 3:16, then helps us to qualify just Who this "Seed of the Woman" is.

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, `And to seeds,' as of many; but as of one, `And to thy seed,' which is Christ."

So we can always scripturally refer to the Lord Jesus as the "Seed of the Woman."

Remember, as we've gone through our study from Genesis 1:26, when Adam and Eve were created through the time when they ate of the forbidden fruit, we have tried to emphasize the fact that first we must understand that Adam, as he was first created, actually contained the woman we now know as Eve. When Eve was later created (Genesis 2:21-22), the Bible makes it clear that she came out of Adam, because Adam had to be the "Federal Head" of the human race, and everybody, including Eve, would now come from that line of Adam. That's why Scripture tells us so plainly that the human race didn't come under sin by virtue of Eve, even though she had eaten first, but sin came upon the whole human race by way of Adam.

We have to understand that Eve was in Adam because even though God did not put the curse on Eve for having eaten herself of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, yet she inherited that sin nature through Adam just like every other human being who's ever lived. All this should begin to tell us something!

For some reason or other, God had to keep the fault (or whatever you want to call it), that fell upon mankind through the curse from Eve. He had to somehow insulate her from it so that she would simply inherit her sin nature through Adam. She became a fallen creature, not from her own eating of the forbidden fruit which she did in ignorance, but rather because she was "in Adam." And even though she became a fallen creature and was under the anathema of sin just as much as Adam or anyone else, yet God did something with the long range view in mind, in order to provide "The Redeemer," because this Redeemer had to come through the woman and at the same time be free of the sin nature!

If you really stop and consider, most Christian people believe and ascribe to the virgin birth of Christ, and isn't it amazing that the Christ could be born of a woman who, out of the line of Adam, was a sinner like everyone else (Mary was not sinless!); that God could bring to pass the birth of the Christ Child from a normal female human being, yet her Offspring could be sinless and not pick up anything of the human element of the sin nature?

Why? This may get a little deep now, and unfortunately the average Christian never even considers this. However, we are teaching the very basics here and, consequently, some of the things just aren't too easy to understand. God expects us to study and grow and go into the deep things, as Paul calls them - "the meat of the Word."

Because Eve was somehow so insulated from propagating the sin nature, all of the females of the species have somehow still maintained that insulation from the curse that came by way of Adam.

To explain, the "seed of the woman" is called in medical terms "the ovum." When the female gets ready for reproduction, there is building within her all these potential "ovum" or "seeds." But those "ovum" will never become anything more than individual cells unless or until they are impregnated from an outside source - the father.

Physiologists say that in order for the young mother to become pregnant, one of the ovum becomes separated from the others and becomes impregnated; the first change is that the cells within the fertilized ovum begin to divide and multiply rapidly until they reach a count of 32 or sometimes 64; then suddenly, in the development of that little embryo that process of cell division and multiplication stops and the body cells begin to develop - the extremities: fingers, toes, feet, hands, etc. - to form the human body. Sometime further down the line, the original reproductive cells find their way into the fetus as a whole.

Remember back in studying Eve's creation, we pointed out that she was taken not just from Adam's rib, but from the "side chamber" of Adam, and it was probably the reproductive portion of Adam that is referred to as the "germ plasm" from which Eve was formed? She had to be insulated from any part of the curse of the sin nature so that these reproductive cells, beginning with and coming all the way down to Mary, and probably on down to us today, do not carry the curse from one generation to the next except through the father. It's only the father that precipitates what we call the circulatory system or the blood system.

This doesn't come easily to our understanding and you really must give this considerably thought. If the female of the species has been insulated from the effects of the curse in the area of reproduction, she cannot pass down from her generation to the next the curse of sin. That has to come through the father!

Physiologically speaking again, there is none of the mother's blood that ever becomes part and parcel of that little baby. The blood comes from the father. Always remember that!

Now, the line of the curse comes through the blood - through the father. So every human being, as we have been stressing through these early lessons in Genesis, is a born sinner by virtue of the fact that he has inherited it through his father, not through his mother, although she is just as much a sinner as the father is.

Why has all this happened? Why did God see fit to insulate the "seed of the woman" from the curse? He was looking down through the eons of time to the coming of "The Redeemer," because Christ had to be born of a woman, but yet He had to be sinless. Now, since the "ovum" or reproductive cells of the woman do not carry the curse, and God was the one who impregnated Mary so that she could become the mother of the Lord Jesus without benefit of a human father, Jesus could be born without that sin nature and that's why we call His, the "virgin birth."

The Lord Jesus could thus be born of a woman without the effects of the curse that came from the human father. He could be sinless, divine; His blood system did not originate with the human element, it originated with God. And yet since He was born of the woman, He was human; He had the same appetites that we have; He ate; He slept like we do, and yet was without sin!

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."

That means that you cannot build a doctrine on one verse of Scripture here and there, because then you can build anything. But it's our prerogative to use all the Scriptures from Genesis through Revelation, and see that they fit. Seeming contradictions may arise, but when you study you find they're not contradictory at all. Usually it's because in one instance God is dealing with the Nation of Israel, and in another what may seem contradictory is His dealing with the Church Age. And there is a vast difference.

Alright, now let's come on down to verse 33. Since Christ died, and God let Him, God permitted it to happen. He directed that it had to happen in order to purchase our Salvation. There would have never been a person saved, not even in the Old Testament economy, without the work of the Cross. It had to be to satisfy a Holy and Righteous God. Now, let's read:

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

Now, what does that word `elect' mean? Chosen. When you elect someone you designate them to be whatever you intend them to be, and the word `election' in the Greek is exactly that. It is an act of choosing, and that is what God has done with everyone of His believers. Now, I think I'll finish the chapter, and then I want to take you back to some of the statements that Jesus made Himself during His earthly ministry: that He has chosen us, and that no man comes to God on his own prerogative. Sometimes we like to think, "Well, I can just decide to go with God anytime I feel like it." Oh no you can't because you have to be back again in that chosen aspect, but on the other hand we have the Scriptures, "Whosoever will." So reading that verse again:

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

Not our neighbor, boss, husband or wife. We don't have to give an account to any of them. It's God, the Triune God, the Creator God, the sustaining God, He's the One Who determines who we are and what we are in the realm of the Spirit. Now, verse 34, so if He is the One Who has chosen us, if He is the One Who has forgiven us, if He is the One Who has taken us unto Himself, then:

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again,..."

Now, do you see how Paul is constantly hammering that everything revolves around that finished work of the Cross? The fact that Christ died, His divine Blood had to be shed, because always remember:

"...and without shedding of blood is no remission."

So without the shedding of Blood there is no remission. You can't bypass the Blood, it had to happen. So He's the One Who died, and rose from the dead, and He's the One Who is at the right hand of God interceding for us. He's the One Who is watching over us, and He is the one who promised, "If God is for you, who can be against you?" And never lose sight of that, but don't ever interpret that to mean that nothing bad can ever happen to a believer. Don't ever get the idea that the things of this world can't attack the believer. Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, and he does that often, and he can confuse the issue, but we have these promises, if we'll rest on them, that God is still in total control. God's Sovereign!

Now we're coming into a series of verses that will probably disturb one group of people of various denominations, and that is that group of people who feel that you can not be assured of your Salvation. They think that you have to hope you make it, you have to work like the dickens to hang on, and you have to be sure that you don't ever sin in such a way that you will lose your Salvation, and end up in Hell instead of God's Heaven. These verses are just going to fly in the face of that kind of thinking. I can't help it, because all I'm going to show you is what The Book says. Now, verse 35:

"Who shall separate us (and that means just exactly what it say) from the love of Christ? shall tribulation,..."

That word tribulation is used something like 29 times in the New Testament, and maybe with one exception that word is associated with the activity surrounding the believer. You go back into the Book of Revelation, in fact, let's turn to that book right now. Someday we're going to teach this part of Revelation - the letters to the seven churches in the opening chapters. Revelation Chapter2 verse 9. This is a letter to the church in Smyrna (verse 8) and Smyrna actually means to smell "just like myrrh," and myrrh does not exude its fragrance until it's crushed. This is exactly what the church at Smyrna was indicating, that the more persecution crushed those believers, the more they exuded their testimony. And you see that's why Satan had to give up persecuting the early Church because he couldn't get ahead of it. The more he persecuted the more it thrived, so he took the opposite attack, and that was to join them, and then Christianity began to slide. Let's read:

"I know thy works, and tribulation (God knew about their tribulation, and the Church at Smyrna was going through horrible pressure), and poverty, (but thou art rich)..."

They were poor in material things because the persecution was taking them away from their income. It probably took them away from their job situation. It took all their wealth away if they had any. That was part of the persecution, but spiritually they were what? Rich! The Church today is just the opposite of that day, and that's what the letter to the Church at Laodicea was all about. Now, reading on:

"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews (believers), and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan (they were impostors). Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer (did believer's suffer? You bet they did): behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison (for their faith), that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days (I think that ten days refers to ten distinct periods of time during the Roman Empire when the Church came under horrible pressure, but these believers didn't give up); be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

Now, back to Romans again. So we're going to suffer tribulations, and as I mentioned before, it's only been in the last couple hundred years that western civilization, at least, has been able to guarantee the rights of the individual, and the freedom of worship, and so forth. But for the most part this has been unheard of. We're living in an extremely different time than most Christians had to live in, because we do have a government, that so far at least, guarantees our rights to assembly, and to religion. Verse 35 continuing:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness (Paul went through times of nakedness, and cold, he was thirsty, and hungry, and how did Paul die? Beheaded by the sword), or peril, or sword?"

And there is nothing said that we will be spared the sword, but none of this will separate us from our Lord. Can the Devil bring in enough persecution to force a believer out of his place in the Body of Christ? Never! God has guaranteed that because of the work of the Cross we are secure. Not because of what we have done, not because of what we merit, but only because of what He has done, and let's never lose sight of that. We never maintain our assurance of Salvation and security because of who we are or what we are, or what we have done. That is never part of the picture. Everything that keeps us secure is that finished work of the Christ. Verse 36:

"As it is written, `For thy sake (the sake of the Christ of the Cross) we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'"

I read an account not too long ago about someone years back when Chicago was still the capital of the meat packing business. They would slaughter the cattle, sheep, and hogs all within one huge complex. A visitor was being taken on a tour and he just couldn't help but notice that as he went from the hog killing area, with all of the squealing and all the commotion that goes on with hogs, to the sheep killing area, what happened.

Utter silence, and I've witnessed that myself. I'll never forget that when they take sheep to the slaughter they have a goat. And that goat leads those sheep up to the place where they are to be killed, and then the goat slips out a side door. And then he goes back and gets another bunch. It's simply amazing, but those sheep go to their slaughter in utter silence.

And this is the analogy that Paul draws of the believer. We may someday just come to the place where we, too, will go like sheep to the slaughter. Are we going to scream and squeal like a bunch of pigs? No, because that's not the way God works. Do you remember what Isaiah said about the Lamb of God?

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."

Why? Because there was no need for Him to scream and argue, and so it has been with Christians down through the ages. Take a lot of the hunks and macho people of today, most of them think Christianity is for women and children. But they have it all wrong, because back in the days when persecution was running rampant it took ten times more man to stand up for the slaughter, to be burned at the stake, and to be put on the rack. You all know what the rack was, that was when their bones were all broken without killing them. That's when it takes a real man, and I bet most of those so called machos could never hold a candle to those saints. But Paul says this is all part and parcel of what God has imparted to us, the promise that even though we may have to go through these things, and many have, it will never separate us from the love of Christ.

And remember this life, even if somehow we could live to be 100, what is that compared to eternity? Eternity, never ending forever and ever and ever, and yet the human race will not consider that. All they look at is, what can I enjoy in the here and now? But you see this Book looks at everything in the light of eternity, and so this is why we have to take this blessed assurance that regardless of what may happen, nothing can separate us from our spending eternity with our Creator God. Well, let's move on to verse 37.

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

Were those sheep, being led quietly to their death, conquerors? That's the analogy. We're led like sheep to the slaughter, but this verse says, "...yet we're conquerors." That's fantastic isn't it? So we don't have to mind being meek, and quiet, and coming under persecution, and doing without squealing like a hog. Because in the end we're still going to be more than conquerors, How? Through the One that loved us, that's where it is. You and I in the energy of the flesh can do nothing, we are nothing. Now verse 38 Paul says:

What does it mean to be persuaded? Totally convinced. I think it was King Agrippa back in Acts Chapter 26 where Paul had been witnessing to him and what did old King Agrippa say to Paul?

"Then Agrippa said unto Paul, `Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'"

But I don't believe that King Agrippa ever believed the Gospel and became a Christian, and do you know why? Because Agrippa could never be convinced that what Paul was telling him was true. And that's where a lot of people are today: they hear the Gospel (Ref. I Corinthians 15:1-4), they hear this Book taught, but they can't be convinced. They simply can't believe it. And I've had people approach me and say, "Well, what have you got?" And I'll tell them, but most will come back with, "But I can't believe that. I can't believe that's all it takes."

I'll never forget a young man in my class at Wilburton, OK. I think he's still receiving our tapes, and if so, I hope he hears this. He was one of these kids who from the time he was 5 or 6 years-old had no home life, no parents, he just literally made it on his own. He came up after class one night, and said, "Les, do you mean to tell me that I can have all of this free for nothing?" I told him, "Yes." He said, "I can't believe that." And then he told me of how he had to scratch and fight for every little bit of food that he had as a kid growing up. He said, "I just can't believe that." And I told him, "I'm sorry, but until you can believe it you can't have it." And so the young man left. But I'm hoping that sometime in the interim he will still come to his senses and see that, yes, all of this is ours for the taking, if we will only believe it. Now, continuing on with verse 38:

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,"

Now, why do you suppose that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to start with death instead of life like we would normally put it? Stop and think for a moment, what's he driving at? Death is the easy way out. That's why we have so many suicides, they think that's their easiest way out. They can't cope with their problems, they can't cope with their circumstances, so they take their life, and that ends it as far as this life is concerned. But what about life? Oh, we're living in a world that's filled with heartaches and turmoils. A life that's lived with all kinds of oppositions to the home and family. Hey, life is difficult. Life is not easy. In fact, I was reading a book someone sent me a while back, and I almost had to quit reading it because all the writer was pointing out was all these things that make life difficult. True, but it wasn't necessarily what I wanted to be thinking about, so you see death is easy by comparison. But Paul tells us that even all the difficulties of life can't separate us from the love of God. Now, as we come to close of this lesson I wish I had more time for the next few words in verse 38: that is principalities and powers, nor things present, or things to come.

The word `principalities' here in the Greek is `Arche.' It deals with people who are in a high position. The word `power' is from the Greek word `Dunamis' from which we get `Dynamo,' and it means energy. Paul is delineating here that principalities, the position, and the energy that comes from that position are going to do everything that they can to take us away from the love of Christ. But they can't do it. I wish I had time to take you to Ephesians in Chapter 6 to enlighten you even more. There the word `powers' is used a little differently than in Romans. There it's not speaking of energy, but again, power as Jesus gave to the Twelve when they went out to perform the miracles. But, nevertheless, the powers that be in the realm of Satan are positioned and they are loaded with energy that seemingly never runs out.

Let's get back to Romans Chapter 8. I'd like to go back to those last 6 or 7 verses and pick out some things I neglected to bring out in the last lesson. But before I do I would like to say that I hope you're studying the Word with us, and learning what The Book says and what The Book doesn't say. The Scriptures are not just some gobbledy-gook, but rather written by the hand of God so that anybody can understand it. You don't have to be highly educated, or have a great theological education to comprehend the Scriptures. Now, of course, that's what precipitated the Dark Ages, when the church had gotten so powerful that they had pulled the Scriptures away from the common man and brought it into the monasteries because they felt only the monks and educated could discern the Word of God, but that's not what God intends. He wants all of us to become students, to learn how to study this Book. That's what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy that we are to:

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

I want to come back and cover some of these verses that we looked at in the last lesson. And someone had a question about verse 31 so let's turn to that verse now. Here is a verse that is so paramount to our Christian experience as a child of God, that we have to understand that those of us who have been called, we've been elected, we've been justified, we've been glorified, and that being the case:

"What shall we then say to these things (what's Paul talking about? That we've been justified, glorified, forgiven, and all these things that Paul alone teaches. How can we say that? Well, we can come to the conclusion if that's all true, then)? If God be for us, who can be against us?" And that's where God wants us to rest, there is no one that can condemn us because of verse 32.

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,..."

And as we saw in the Book of Philippians The Lord Jesus Himself was obedient unto that kind of a death. Just like Isaac of old. A lot of those things back in the Old Testament were just a preview of what took place in the New. As Abraham laid Isaac upon the altar, is there anything in Scripture that indicates that Isaac struggled? Did Isaac fight back? But in complete obedience he let Abraham, his father, lay him upon that altar. Well, that was just a preview of how God the Son would react to the same situation, that He gave Himself up as we see in Philippians:

"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Romans 8:33:

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?..."

I stressed a little bit in the last half hour that these verses just absolutely hammer home the idea that once God has put the finger on us, has elected us, and we have responded and we have entered into His tremendous Salvation, then who in the world can touch that? Nobody can touch it, because it's something that God has done, and don't let anyone ever tell you, "How can you be so conceited as to tell me that you know that you'll go to Heaven when you die, when no one can know." When someone talks like that, they themselves are totally unaware of true saving faith. Because if you have enough faith to believe the Gospel (Ref. I Corinthians 15:1-4), if your faith is sufficient to bring you into that Salvation, then you should have enough faith to take God at His Word, and the rest of it. And that is that you're His. No one can take us out of His hand, and we're going to see that in just a little bit. Verse 33 again.

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

Would God elect someone who somewhere down the road would chose to reject Him? I can't see it happening, and the reason I'm using that example is I had a fellow tell me that one time. I said, "Look, the Scripture says that God will never cast us out." He said, "Oh, I know that, but I could cast myself out." I said how? He replied, "By committing some horrible sin." I said, "Look, you can't touch yourself so far as being in that position in the Body of Christ any more than someone else can. We are totally, and I can't emphasize this enough; we are totally under the power of the Sovereign God, and nobody can supersede his power." These closing verses of Romans 8 are like the crescendo of a great orchestra. A crescendo is when that sound just builds and builds, and it's got your attention. It's been building throughout these first eight chapters of Romans, but now here comes this crescendo. I think Paul, if we could have heard him in person, would have just shouted it. "Look, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ!" We see this in verse 35:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword (we covered that in the last lesson. Verse 36)? ....we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

Oh, not of what we have, not through any ability that I or you have, but what makes us conquerors? Christ Jesus. He became everything. What does the Book of Colossians say?

And that is where we live and move, and there is nothing in us that can merit any favor with God, it is all of His Grace. And remember that Grace could never have happened if it had not been for mercy. We no longer have to cry for mercy because God poured out His mercy on Christ there on the Cross. His mercy has already been poured out. Since His mercy has been poured out, now He can give Grace. "Unmerited favor." We don't deserve any of this. Now, let's look again at verse 38:

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,"

Go to Ephesians Chapter 6. I felt we had to do this part over since we didn't have time to cover it in the last lesson. Paul writes:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Not down in the gutter, not on skid row, but in high places. Now, that should wake us up. We're up against something that is beyond the normal. It's up here with tremendous power, and position. These powers are in high positions and let's compare the same Greek word `powers' back in Matthew Chapter 10 so we get an idea of what Paul is really driving at when he says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers,"

"And when he (The Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry) had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power..."

Now, that word `power' is the same word in the Greek that we found back in Ephesians, and it was authority. So these principalities and powers have authority, and don't you ever doubt it. Don't you ever forget that Satan is powerful. My, he can transform himself into an angel of light. He is the one, according to II Corinthians 4:3-4, that prevents the lost from comprehending the Gospel. So this word is designated `authority.' Another one is in Acts Chapter 26, and we see that same kind of a meaning. And this Scripture is going to be in regards to Paul, and it's the same Greek word again.

"I verily thought with myself (back in his pre-Salvation experience), that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests;"

What does that mean? Paul was put in position to do what he was doing. Authority. Now, bring that back to what we saw in Ephesians:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,..."

And they have authority. And that authority is Satan, and he is doing everything that he can, not only to frustrate the life of you and I as believers, but also to keep lost humanity in darkness. And he will have that power until God breaks that power. Here again is why we have to come back to the very fact that God is the One Who opens our heart, God is the One through the working of the Holy Spirit Who gives us an understanding. Now, return to Romans 8 for a little bit, and then we may look at a couple of verses in John.

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature (all of creation, there is nothing that has ever been created whether it's on the demonic side or on the righteous angelic side), shall be able to separate us (or take us) from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Someone might say, "Well, that's Paul, and I don't have time for his teachings." Well, let's go back and see what Jesus Himself says. Let's turn to John's Gospel Chapter 6. And here Jesus is speaking:

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;..."

Who is making the first move? God is. Don't you ever believe anyone when they say, "Oh, seek this and that, and after God." because it's impossible. You and I can't seek God, because it not in us; no unbeliever is going to go running after God, it's not in him. If he suddenly has an appetite for the things of God, then God put it there first. And it's the same as Jesus is saying here:

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me (as a result of God moving him) I will in no wise cast out."

Now, Jesus said it in His earthly ministry that anybody that God has chosen, that God has elected, that God has sent to Him would in no wise ever be cast out. And that means what it says. Now, let's look at John Chapter 10. Ordinarily I don't like to raise my voice, but when I find out that there are people who totally don't understand this, and think I'm way out in left field, then that's why I have to show you what The Book says: It isn't what I think.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man (and man has been added by the translators so I prefer to leave it out. Neither shall any) pluck them out of my hand."

Now, compare that word any with what Paul has said in Romans Chapter 8, and what do you also include? The whole sphere of creation. Not just man, but neither the angelic powers, the Satanic powers, nothing can pluck them out of His hand. Now, can you believe that? Well, if you can believe that God in Christ died, and rose again for your Salvation, then you should be able to have enough faith to believe these things. You're His, and no one can take you away from Him. Now, you see the first thing I'll be accused of is, "Well, you're going to tell people that they can do what ever they want to do just because they will never be lost?" Never have I said that. Grace is not license! Don't ever get the idea that the Scripture teaches that since we're safe, that since we're secure we are free to do what we want.

So we believers live in constant awareness that we don't want to fall, or commit a sin. But we also have enough common sense to know that we could. I would hope that I would never fall into any great sin. We're all guilty of these mundane sins of everyday living, and thoughts.

But so far as falling into a great sin such as David did. Did David fall into sin? Was David a believer? Yes. Did David lose his Salvation? No. But oh, what did David know how to do? Beg for forgiveness, and of course he was back before the Age of Grace. But if you want to see a man, David to me was a "man's man." David was as manly as any person that ever lived. Yet as a man's man, we read in the psalms where he poured out his heart in sweat drops begging for forgiveness after he was convicted of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and of murdering her husband Uriah. He was a true child of God, otherwise it would have never bothered him. You can go all through Scripture and all the great people failed miserably.

Abraham for example, with his beautiful wife Sara, goes down into Egypt and what happens? "Sara, as beautiful as you are, they're going want you in their harem. There's nothing that I can do to stop it unless they kill me, so for goodness sake don't tell them that you're my wife, but rather my sister." That was sin. Did God kick Abraham out? No! Abraham had to come to the place of recognizing his sin as a believer. Look at Peter in the New Testament. In fact, I had a question from a listener the other day, "What did Jesus mean when He said to Peter there in the Book of Luke?"

What did Jesus know that was just down the road in a matter of hours? Peters denial. And here, great big Peter, to probably a teenage girl, cursed and swore that he didn't know Jesus. He didn't have a thing to do with Him, and what happened? The cock crowed, and what happened to Peter? He wept bitterly. Why? He was convicted of his sin. Did that act throw Peter out? No! But he was reconciled immediately when he confessed his sin, and so it is with a believer in Paul's doctrines of Grace. Paul never gives us license to sin. John's little epistle at the back of your Bible tells:

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin (we're going to, and if we sin), we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:"

And then back in the Book of Revelation Chapter 12. My, don't ever think for a minute that believers aren't subjected to sin. I've never seen a true believer that just makes up his mind that he's going to go out and get drunk, or commit adultery, or cheat someone, but it can happen. But a believer has to be constantly on guard.

"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, `Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren (believers) is cast down (Satan), which accused them (believers) before our God day and night.'"

Now, if it's impossible for believers to sin, then Satan wouldn't have had anything to accuse them of, but he did, and he does, and he will until we're in The Lord's presence. Because as long as we're in this body of flesh we are going to be prone to fall. I like this simple analogy: most, if not all of you, have raised children, and when they were little and learning how to walk, did they just start walking? No, they fell, and what did a good mom or dad do? Kick them in the rear, and say, "What's the matter with you?" No. We picked them up, and lovingly set them on their feet, and got them started again.

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

You see we're all human. Every human being is just as prone to fall into sin as the next one, but hopefully if we're spiritually taught, and have kept these things, this won't happen. But it can happen to anybody. John is delineating that there were some sins that would not cause God to take them out of their physical life. But some sins He will, and I've seen it happen, and I'm sure you have where a believer will refuse to come away from his sinful lifestyle. You can deal with them, and deal with them, and all of a sudden, "Bingo." Just a sudden heart attack, or sudden car accident, and they're gone. Well God takes them home lest they keep on bringing reproach to His Name. And that's exactly what John is dealing with, and so he says:

"...There is a sin unto death: (a believer can come to that place where God will take his life. Now then look at the very last part of that verse) I do not say that he shall pray for it."

In other words no believer or Church Body ever has the right to pray for the death of an erring believer, because that is never permissible, that's in God's hand. Now let's look at verse 17.

"All unrighteousness is sin: (whether that sin be a little one or a great one) and there is a sin not unto death."

Now what's implied here in verse 17? That some sins are gross enough that it will cause God to take that believer out ahead of time. Now let's come back to I Corinthians Chapter 5, and here's where we have it. This man is evidently committing a sin unto death if he does not repent of it, and turn around. If he's going to continue on living with his step-mother in a marital relationship, then God's going to take him out, and that's all there is to it. Now verse 5.

"To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit (soul) may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

II Corinthians 1:21,22

"Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest (or the down payment) of the Spirit in our hearts."

Now there is another verse that is a perfect parallel with that and for that we have to go to the Book of Ephesians Chapter 1. Some of these days we'll be teaching this tremendous letter verse by verse. It's dealing with our position in the Body of Christ as believers.

Ephesians 1:13

"In whom (in Christ) ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, (and the word of truth is) the gospel of your salvation: (I Corinthians 15:11-4) in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." Now that is part and parcel again of our salvation experience. We have been sealed, we have been marked by the Person of the Holy Spirit Himself. Now verse 14.

Ephesians 1:14

"Which is the earnest (and that means just exactly like we use the term today. He is the down payment. A sufficient down payment to make sure that the transaction is completed.) of our inheritance (which we will have by being joint-heirs with Christ, and that's going to hold it) until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."

Book 41 LESSON TWO * PART IV

"And you, being dead in your sins (absolutely, we were as under the control of the old nature, our spirit was completely out of fellowship with God and so that’s what Paul says we were in the world. We were dead in sin) and the uncircumcision of your flesh (by virtue of being Gentiles) but hath he (God) quickened (has regenerated our spirit. He has crucified old Adam and has given us a new nature. A divine nature) together with him, having (already) forgiven you all trespasses."

Now let’s look at Colossians 3:13. And again, Paul repeats this twice in two chapters to drive it home. And oh, most of Christendom has a hard time swallowing this, I know they do. But here it is again.

"Forbearing one another, (remember, he’s writing to believers congregated in an assembly) and forgiving one another, if any may have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."

Now look at that verse very carefully. Is there any demand in that verse that you forgive your enemy before you can be saved? NO! That’s already done by the Grace of God. You’re forgiven. But now since you and I are forgiven, what should we be ready to do? Forgive whoever we have ought against, whether it’s in the Church or neighborhood or whatever. There is nothing stipulated in Paul’s Gospel, nor his writings that first we have to forgive everybody before we can be forgiven like the Lord Jesus said during His earthly ministry under Law. For example, The Lord’s Prayer isn’t appropriate for us today. The Lord’s Prayer was under Law. It was to Israel. And it says "forgive us our trespasses (when?) as we forgive those who trespass against us." Now that’s Law. And absolutely a Jew could not be forgiven until he went and forgave his neighbor. But that doesn’t hold true today. We’re forgiven by the Grace of God. And if we’re forgiven, then why in the world can’t we forgive our neighbor? That’s the teaching. So twice in two chapters he says we have been forgiven of all our trespasses and all our sins. Now let’s go back to Ephesians 2:1.

"And you (writing to these Ephesian believers) hath he (Christ) quickened (made alive. Same concept. As soon as we believe the Gospel, God imparted to us that new divine nature. He gave us the regeneration of the spirit. It’s divine, eternal life that we are now partakers of) who were dead in trespasses and sins: 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world (everyone did) according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. 3. Among whom also we all (he included himself) had our conversation (manner of living) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (doing what comes naturally like everybody else.) 4. But (the flip side) God (not me, not I, but God) who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:) 6. Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (see our position now as believers?) Now verse 8.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; (plus how much? NOTHING! There’s nothing else listed here. It’s by grace through faith) and that not of yourselves; it is the (what?) gift of God:" How much work do you do for a gift? NONE! But, people are having all this stuff laid on them. There is nothing in here that says you’ve got to do such and such except believe that Christ has already done it. It’s finished! And we can’t add to it.

The secret of this is in Gen. 7:11. The only thing that probably 99% of the people who have read of this flood have considered was the 40 days and nights of rain. Years ago, as I was teaching this, I had several pastors in my class. After class, one came up and said, "Les, you just shot out of the saddle one of my best sermons!" I replied, "I'll bet I know how you preached it. You said, `it rained, and the water got ankle deep, and somebody said, `Hey, old Noah was right,' and they came knocking on the door. When it got knee deep, a few more woke up; when it got up to their waists, a few more.'" He admitted he always taught it that way. It made a great sermon but it wasn't Biblical! They had no time to look for cover. It was instantaneous, absolute mayhem and cataclysmic destruction.

"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."

The seven days referred to in verse 10 are those "seven days of grace" we mentioned in a previous lesson. After Noah, his family and the animals were all on the ark, the door was left open and the gangplank down and anyone who wished, still could have come in, but no one did. Then, God shut the door. "In the second month" - When months are mentioned in Scripture, April is considered the first month of the year, so this would have been the month of May. … "On the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened." Here is the secret. On one day everything hit and hit hard. It didn't just begin to rain with water rising slowly (previously, in Genesis 1:6,7, we noted that after the earth was flooded during a previous judgment, not on man, but probably on an angelic kingdom. God was preparing it for human habitation).

"And God said, `Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."

I'm of the conviction that at that point in His restoration, God raised half of the water that had been flooding the planet and placed it in a huge vapor belt somewhere out in space; that laid the foundation for the amazing spring-like weather that enveloped the planet from one end to the other. The earth had a constant spring-like climate, and because it was constant, there was no "weather;" no storm clouds; and the Bible can accurately say it never rained, but that God watered the things that needed water from beneath.

In Genesis 7, as Noah was building the ark and started talking of a great rain to come, the people probably couldn't understand what he was talking about. Even though as we have discussed, the technology of that day was fantastic, probably something equivalent to what we have today or more, yet they couldn't comprehend water coming down from above because they'd never experienced rain. All of a sudden it began to rain all over the planet, and that was the first time the people probably began to give credence to what Noah had said. But before they had time to react to that thought all the fountains of the great deep were broken up. Analyze that for a moment. What do we usually think of when "the deep" explodes out above the surface? We call it a volcano. So if you can picture it in your mind, (and I'm going to get you to expand your imagination here as far as I can), all around this planet there were volcanic eruptions, and along with these eruptions there were gigantic earthquakes. This whole planet went into convulsions. There was no time to knock on Noah's door. There was no time to find a high place or climb a tree. It was instantaneous judgment.

And, it didn't just last an hour or two; it continued for months and the whole planet was turned completely inside out by these tremendous acts of God. The problem with people (even believers), is that we fail to understand that with God nothing is impossible. God handling this old planet is like you or me handling a marble or ball bearing. It's that simple in His power - He can do with it whatever He wants. He controls all the forces of nature and outer space, and this was all brought to bear in the early months of what we refer to as Noah's flood. Remember years back, the old front-loading washing machines had a window in the door - and when the machine was started, you could see the suds and the clothing start to roll violently. That's much the way the earth would have looked as Noah's flood started. It was complete turmoil.

We have plenty of archaeological proof for this. In fact, if you get into a study of the flood, all around the earth you'll find a soil product called "loess" which comes solely from volcanic action. In every place on this planet there has been laid down, (even on our ocean floors), a tremendous amount of "loess," and the only logical time that this could have been laid down is during the flood, with all its volcanic action. Along with the flood, we also have a disappearance of much of the land surface of the pre-Noah time. We believe that the land surface of the earth from the time of Adam until the flood of Noah's day, was much larger than it is today. Seventy-five percent of the earth's surface is water today. Only a small portion of it is land, and only a small percentage of that land surface is habitable. Most of it is uninhabitable.

Up until the time of Noah, the earth was beautiful, tremendously productive with vegetation beyond our imagination, and highly populated. I have a friend who was in the space program back in the 1960's. He and a friend of his calculated how many people could have been here from the time of Adam until Noah (about 1600 years). They had an easy mathematical time approaching four to five billion people. The reason for that (and we've witnessed this in recent years) is once you get to a certain level, population doubles. Once it doubles, it begins to grow exponentially - to just explode. So, we can be confident that at the time of Noah's flood, the earth was highly populated and had tremendous technology. But when the flood came, there was no time to escape. It was complete and instantaneous, and for that reason there is not much evidence of the things before Noah's flood except in fossil records. And the only logical way to view the fossil records, is that they are a direct result of the flood. Scientists are going to scoff at this.

Turn to I Timothy 6 in the New Testament. I am an avid supporter of good science. I love science, and I love people who have the intellectual and physical fortitude to go into it. It's an exciting discipline. But we have to be honest, and scientists aren't always honest. In I Timothy 6:20, the Apostle Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he says:

"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:"

Paul is saying, "Timothy, watch out for the false sciences." True science never disagrees with Scripture. True science and Scripture always fit "hand in glove." But, it's these false sciences, the man-made sciences, that cast all the belligerent reflections on the Word of God. They are not true sciences. The reason some sciences are false and not true sciences is that, in them, everything is based on what man thinks. They can actually prove nothing in the laboratory. Compare that to mathematics, which is a true science, because you can never change the makeup of true mathematics. You cannot change the true workings of physics or chemistry, either. But a geologist can come along and say, "Well, we think `such-and-such'," and then the next generation comes along and they are taught that theory as a truth or absolute fact. I've got no argument with theory. If someone wants to come up with a bizarre theory, and he will tell his students in the classroom that it is "strictly theory - we can't prove it," then I don't object to that. I've even told kids in high school classes, "if your teacher makes it plain that what he's teaching is simply some man-made idea, and that it's only `theory', I'm not going to complain." But, educators usually come in and say, "That's the way it was," and I have a problem with that.

Public television programs such as "Nova" are very interesting, but gullible people believe everything that's said. You can only determine so much from fossil records. The rest is interpolation and assumption. Here's good example. Go into any basic college geology course and the first thing they throw at their students is a "geologic column," an "evolutionary geologic column" or time scale. They teamed up with evolutionary biologists and have divided the structure of the surface of the earth into various strata which they associate a particular time period with. That time period is dependent on the fossils found in that one strata. If near the bottom they have found a very simple life form, they maintain that that is the oldest rock on the earth, it's the farthest down from the top, and consequently, the very earliest of life forms are found in this layer.

Then, as they find in higher strata … say, reptiles, they say, that naturally you'll find them throughout all the earth's structure in this level, and it's the next higher form of life, because its "evolved" from those simplest of life forms into the reptile. The next up from reptiles is, I believe, birds, and so on up that geologic column. All that sounds so believable, because as wind and erosion, etc. pile this material up, naturally the oldest would be at the bottom, and at the top would be the fossils of man. It all sounds so logical. But, what they don't tell people is that nowhere on earth have they ever found these fossils in this clear order. Never! They are all mixed up. Granted, there may be levels of sandstone or rock of some kind, with only primordial forms. But, it's not on the bottom! It may be way up on top! Study the Geological Time Scale Example A on the next page.

So, it's a lie, and our kids fall for it. Then they come home and tell their parents that they can no longer believe the Bible because their geology professor has "proved" that evolution is the only thing that makes sense. What the teacher doesn't tell them is that these are only theories - they can't prove it - but, they tout them as truths. Some other verses in the New Testament that we need to look at are in II Peter 3:1-6:

"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, `Where is the promise of his coming?' for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:"

Verse 2 refers to "words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets" or the Old Testament. Verse 3 says we should "know" or expect that there will be those who will mock and scoff at Biblical truths. And, as we discussed a few chapters ago, these people are "willingly ignorant," as it says in verse 5, they do not want to know any different, they won't listen to anything different than what they are teaching. If you were to speak to a geology professor and point out that the theories he purports as truths have discrepancies because things just aren't consistently as he says on the earth's surface, they are all mixed up in various levels; and that you believe it was Noah's Flood, he'll just laugh at you, because he doesn't want to believe that there was ever a flood. We know from the chronological record, that Noah's flood could not have taken place more than 5000 to 6000 years ago, and that blows their millions and millions of years theories `out of the water'! So, they totally reject Noah's flood. You will never find a current college or university textbook on geology mention Noah's flood; they totally reject and ignore it.

This is where we come into the controversy of what is being taught our children. Some states have tried to pass laws that if schools are going to teach evolution, they also have to teach creationism; and the educators reject it, because it makes a fallacy of everything they are trying to teach our kids. What takes more faith? Believing something like evolution that is a figment of somebody's imagination, or believing the true record? I believe it would take a lot more faith to believe the false than it does the true.

An oilman, if he were a true geologist, would say … "Wait a minute! In the oil business, we rest on geology." My answer to him would be, "Tell me, would it put oil in any different strata if it were laid down by Noah's flood as opposed to evolution?" No, it wouldn't change anything, the oil would still be in the same places. I've had some geologists in my classes, and they have been able to reconcile this. They will say something like, "If I'm going to believe any of God's Word, then I have to believe all of it. I can reconcile the fact that there is oil and gas in certain places, there are coal deposits in certain places, because of the Scriptural records, and I don't have to go back and say that a geologist says `such-and-such.'"

We have to be careful and make our young people aware that science is not always honest. I remember when the U.S. astronauts were making the "moon walk." The same friend I told you about earlier was involved in that project. If you'll remember, before they went to the moon, they had one big fear of landing there - that they would sink into the dust. When they got there and found that that dust was only about twelve inches deep, the whole scientific community was so shocked that they immediately went to work building an instrument that they could place on the moon's surface on the next trip, which would measure how much and how fast this lunar dust was collecting on the moon. They just couldn't believe that there were so few inches of lunar dust on its surface, if the moon was billions of years old. They decided to make a special instrument to measure how much dust was filtering to the moon's surface in a given period of time, and set it up on their next trip. When they went back the next time, they measured it and were aghast that instead of some infinitesimal, immeasurable amount, there was a fraction of an inch of dust, which indicated that the moon couldn't be more than ten thousand years old, at the most!

My friend told me that when the scientists got that information, they buried it, so that the public wouldn't find out, and it remained hidden until just a few years ago, when in the Tulsa World, I saw a little article on the back page that gave that fact. The scientists didn't want the public to know that, because, it simply blew their theories of millions upon millions of years being involved in the evolution of our solar system. So, this brings us back to the false, so-called "sciences." We have to take them with a grain of salt.

I remember a few years ago, a fellow showed me an article in one of the prestigious archaeology magazines, in which they were refuting the existence of a little town mentioned in the Old Testament. He asked me about it. I told him to wait just a little while, because one thing about archaeologists, they are honest enough that when they find something in line with the Scriptures, they'll announce it. And sure enough, it wasn't even a year later that that very magazine had to admit that the little town that they had said `never existed,' had been found, according to the Biblical record. Every time they scoff at the Old Testament record, all you have to do is set back and say, "The Bible is the true record. This is the Word of God and God does not lie."

The entire scientific community tonight will not recognize Noah's flood, because it totally changed everything so that the history of this planet, instead of going back millions and millions of years, in actuality, goes back to Noah's flood. Even carbon 14 dating cannot be accurate beyond the flood, because it is based on a continuous degeneration under continuous circumstances. Those continuous circumstances were interrupted at Noah's flood. The whole planet was wrapped in volcanic ash and volcanic smoke from the center of the earth; along with that, there was a deluge of the water, that totally changed the face of the planet. If you've ever seen pictures of what a rampaging river flood can do, taking everything in its path, you've got a glimpse of what was taking place on the entire surface of the planet. There was total destruction from pole to pole; and from East to West. No one knew what hit him!

In our next chapter, we'll look at some things that archaeologists can't explain. If they'd just give the flood the credit for it, they'd have all their questions answered.

The ark was tremendous in size and capable of holding all the Bible says it did. Most important, the ark was a picture of our Salvation. The Hebrew word "pitch," used in conjunction with the ark, is the same word that's translated "atonement" in other Scriptures. The pitch sealed the ark against the waters of judgment making it a place of safety for those within. The Blood (atonement) of Christ makes our salvation secure. If a person is not "under the Blood" he does not have Salvation! Also, God was in the ark when He made the invitation to Noah, his family, and all of creation to enter the ark. It was time for judgment to fall. But after the animals and Noah and his family were securely inside the ark, God left the door open another seven days so anyone else could come into that ark of safety; but none came.

"And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in."

Underline that last phrase in your Bible; it's tantamount to New Testament doctrine. It says, "The LORD closed it behind him." The word "LORD" in all capital letters in the Old Testament always refers to "Jehovah." With maybe a few exceptions, Jehovah is God the Son - Jesus' Old Testament revelation. When the LORD, Jehovah, God the Son, invited them into the ark, He became the gyroscope that maintained the safety of the ark throughout the flood, and when we look at the flood closely, we'll see it was more than just calmly rising water. So, God shut the door! There was only one door in the ark, and in the New Testament, we are told over and over there is only "One Door!" John 10:1-14 uses the analogy of the Sheepfold Door: the only door to the sheepfold is The Lord Jesus. Peter also makes this plain in Acts 4:

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Later on Paul uses this analogy in I Corinthians 3:11:

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

This is the reason there was only one door going into the ark, and when that door was shut, there was no possible way anyone else could enter. There was only one window in the top of the roof, but it could not have provided access to someone from the outside. There was probably a band just under the eve or roof-line of the ark for ventilation, but the water couldn't splash into it as the seas rose. All these things are pertinent to our own Salvation experience. There's only one door to Salvation, and when we enter that door, God seals it. There's not a human latch on that door - God shuts us in!

With that background (as there is so much controversy and confusion today about the whole concept of eternal security, I am teaching it as I believe The Lord has revealed it to me, for that is where my responsibility lies), coming from the perspective of the ark, we want to stop and analyze this particular doctrine. Are we secure once we've entered into the ark of safety? Is the Blood of Christ sufficient to take us through those times of testing and the final judgment? Go to Romans 8. We have established that God "shut the door," and it was the pitch - the Atonement as it were - that sealed out those waters of judgment for Noah. It's the Blood of Christ that secures us from any judgment from whatever source. This is a tremendous promise for us. Can God lie? Absolutely not! If we believe The Bible is the inspired Word of God, then if God said it, that settles it! There's no controversy. Verse 1:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,..."

That's conditional! That's qualified! That doesn't cover the whole human race. But for those members of the human race that are "in Christ Jesus" the promise of God is that we will never face condemnation. I don't use the rest of the verse given in the King James Version because almost every scholar that has looked into these things maintains that the last part of verse 1 was never in the original manuscripts. It has only shown up in a few, and they feel that somewhere along the line, someone who was not inspired added that portion that reads "...who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It comes up again later in the chapter where it is appropriate.

"There is therefore now no condemnation..." That means exactly what it says! There is nothing that God can bring against us in condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus! Why? For the same reason that once Noah and his family went into the ark, and the door was shut and the ark was sealed against the waters of judgment, no harm could come to them. In the first seven chapters of the Book of Romans, the Holy Spirit has been mentioned only once or twice. That's what leaves Paul in such a dilemma in Chapter 7 verse 15 when he says, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I." Then he breaks out in Chapter 8 with the remedy, The Holy Spirit. In this short chapter, the Holy Spirit is mentioned nineteen times! Verse 14:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Not they "might be," or they can "hope to be," but they are! That's a present tense verb. Take a contemporary situation, a husband and wife with two or three children. One of the children becomes a belligerent renegade - he is an embarrassment to everything the family stands for. Finally, his parents say, "He is such an embarrassment that we don't even want him to partake in the inheritance. Let's go to the law and totally disinherit him. Let's not even recognize him as a son." And so they do. But know matter where that child goes, whose blood is flowing through his veins? His Parents'!

It's the same way here. Once we have entered into this kind of a relationship, and we have become bonafide children of God by virtue of all the acts of God that are attendant to our Salvation, who can change that? No one, it can't be done. We may think that God should kick someone out of His family, but the Scripture stands. If that person has genuinely entered in, he is in permanently. This is where I make the qualifications. I am a firm believer in eternal security only for those who have been genuinely saved. For a genuinely saved person, there is no condemnation. But I'm not talking about people who may have gone through some set of rules whereby they became church members and automatically by rote repetition are qualified as a Christian. I don't buy that! People who just simply walk the aisle, following whatever procedure may be given to them, and doing it by rote repetition, are not genuinely saved.

That's not Salvation. But for the person who has genuinely come under the power of The Holy Spirit, and has genuinely believed the Gospel with all his heart, then I have to maintain what the Scripture says, "There is therefore now no condemnation..." He is a child of God and always will be. Let's read on starting with verse 15:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." "...ye have received..." - this is past tense, it's been done! We come into that relationship with God as complete, mature sons. That is brought about to a fuller extent in verse 16:

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" There are no if's, and's, but's or maybe's! We are children of God! The Spirit makes us know we are sons of God.

Look at these promises! If we're children, then we are heirs of God; and if we're heirs of God, then we are joint heirs with Christ. Do you know what it means to be a joint heir? It means that everything that is His is ours. But on the other hand, everything that is ours is His also! Many believers don't like to accept that thought. Just as surely as everything that's God's is now ours, He expects that everything that's ours is His. If he expects it, He doesn't command it - He doesn't demand it. And this is the beauty of Grace.

Occasionally, people say things that just make my day. One night as I was leaving, I heard a dear lady that I know has been a believer for years saying to a friend, "It wasn't until the last two or three weeks that I've come to understand the Grace of God." We had been discussing Genesis where Ishmael came on the scene. Hagar had become pregnant by Abram and she was causing such trouble in the home that Sarai finally said, "Abram, get her out of here, I can't stand it." So Abram did. But God came on the scene and told Hagar to return to Sarai's tent. Why didn't He just leave her in the desert where she and her son finally ended up anyway? Because of God's eternal purpose in this situation. It would be a living example of a New Testament truth.

A few years later, Abraham's son of promise, Isaac was born. He was the one that God has said in the beginning would be born. As Isaac became a young boy, Ishmael made life miserable for him. Then God entered the situation directly and instructed Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness, for Ishmael will not live under the same roof with the son of promise, Isaac. That sounds almost cruel, but God did all this because Paul was going to use that as an allegory in Galatians 4:21-31:

"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman (Ishmael) was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman (Isaac) was by promise." Ishmael stood for Law and legalism; Isaac stood for Grace. To prove those two can't let live under the same roof, Paul says:

"But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."

So even as Ishmael was sent out, so also must Law and legalism be sent out, because Law and legalism cannot live under the same roof with the son of promise, Isaac, who represented Grace. We have to come to the understanding that we live under Grace - the very grace of God which is beyond our human comprehension! That's the only reason I can stand here and teach that if you are once a genuine born again child of God, you can never be cast out. Arguments arise by those who say, "I know so and so who did such and such." My answer is, if God hasn't begun a disciplining process in their lives, I doubt if they have ever been genuinely saved.

The Bible makes it so clear that if you're a child of God and you begin to waver in your walk, He will begin to discipline you. Then we also can see that the Bible says that if discipline doesn't work, and we get rebellious, God will take us home. He's not going to let someone stay and continue to bring reproach to His Name. Remember I used the illustration of the Redeemer, and how one was bought out of the salve market and totally removed from anything that would tie him to the slave market. His Roman master gave him his freedom so that he could go anywhere in the empire with a purchased citizenship. What was the servant likely to say? "You, my master, have done so much for me, I want to stay here and be your servant." That's exactly how Salvation works. Once we have come into the grace of God and comprehend all that God has done for us, how can we help but want to serve Him? We're going back to Romans 8:22. This is a whole different thought in here and we'll come back to it another time. Paul continues:

"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

Paul says that we as believers have the "firstfruits of the Spirit." He goes on to say that we are waiting for the "redemption of our body." Most believers have sat under teaching about the Salvation of the soul, but I've found as I've gotten into The Word, that God is not just concerned for the soul, but He is concerned about the redemption of the whole person: Body, Soul and Spirit. In light of that, turn to I Corinthians 12. We're following this same concept, that once we enter into that ark of safety (which for us is the Gospel of Salvation - that Christ died, His Blood was shed, He was buried and He rose again) and when we believe that with all our hearts, then we enter into eternal redemption. In I Corinthians 12: 12,13, we see Paul expressing this concept of being in the "Body." Instead of the ark, he uses the illustration of the human body as a type of the "Body of Christ." The human body is made up of all its various parts; fingers, toes, eyes, etc. These are all different organs with different functions, but they all operate under one center of operation in the mind and make up One Body.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

Now, does the Holy Spirit baptize with water? No! So, this is not talking about water baptism, yet nearly every Christian group will not accept a person for membership without water baptism. Do you really believe that every member in your congregation is a born again child of God? Of course not! We are all members of congregations where there are unbelievers who have been baptized under whatever form of baptism their particular group uses. There are still people coming into every group who are totally unsaved; they're baptized and they are members there, but they are not members of the Body of Christ. There will be no unbelievers in the Body of Christ because that's the work of the Holy Spirit - to immediately place or baptize them into the Body of Christ. The reason Paul uses this analogy of the human body is that some believers' roles are no more that that of a little pinkie finger. Some may even have the role of a little toe, which most people never see. Others may be in more visible roles, but every one of us, regardless of where God has placed us in the Body, has a function in that Body, be it small or great.

We'll get back to Romans 8 in moment, but here in I Corinthians 12, it shows very clearly what God expects of His children. Here, Paul mentions the gifts that really amount to something; the very gifts Christ uses, by an act of the Holy Spirit, to search the heart. The Holy Spirit will never place an unbeliever into the Body of Christ. None of us can examine someone else close enough to screen him from the membership in our local church. We can't do it, and we're not supposed to. That's why Jesus gave the illustration during His earthly ministry of the "tares and the wheat." Years ago, when I was teaching in that concept of the tares and the wheat, an agronomist at the college brought in some tares and wheat. You couldn't tell the difference, but one would never give a grain and the other would. It's the same way in the church. We can't judge and say, "That church member is not a child of God." That's not our job. But, we have to be aware that in the Body of Christ there are no false professors - only the genuine believer is in the Body of Christ, and that's the only Christ there is.

So that's the membership you'd better be sure of. Don't worry about whether you are member of the biggest church in town or the smallest; just be sure you are a member of the Body of Christ, and remember the qualification: It's for all! "For by one spirit we were baptized into one body!"

Take your Bible and join in with us for this study. Once you get into the Book of Books you just can't beat it. It is just so fabulous. So many people have the idea it's just a musty, dusty, old Book and just a bunch of Bible stories, and it's not. Everything fits from cover to cover, and it's all written so miraculously. That's why we know it's not an ordinary Book, but rather the Divine, inspired Word of God, and is everything that God said it is. As I've said before, I just want to look at the "overall plan of the ages," as someone has put it, and hit some of the high points, and some of the passages that questions arise from.

In Matthew Chapter 12, beginning with verse 31, we have a few little verses that have raised so many questions. This passage used to bother me also, but when you come to any portion of Scripture, be ready to constantly ask questions from your own point of view. Right here we have what people normally call the "unpardonable sin." When something is unpardonable, that means it's going to be your doom. In other words, if you are guilty of the unpardonable sin, then you have no hope of glory, and are headed for the lake of fire. I've looked at these verses in the knowledge that, the only sin that is going to condemn anyone, Jew or Gentile, black or white, rich or poor is not any particular thing we have said, or deed we have done. There is only one thing that will condemn a person to the lake of fire, and that is "UNBELIEF."

We are not talking about unbelief here, we are talking about something that is spoken. Let me prove my point. Before we look at Matthew 12, let's look at the Book of Hebrews Chapter 3 for a moment. Maybe I can make my point from the reverse end. I don't want someone to go through life scared to death that maybe they have committed the unpardonable sin, which most people feel, according to Matthew 12 is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is a sin, and there is no doubt about it. But if I understand Scripture correctly, there is no sin that the Grace of God doesn't reach beyond. In other words, the most violent of sinners are still candidates of the Grace of God. But what do they have to do? "BELIEVE."

I think the Apostle Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews that we are now going to look at. He is taking the experience of Israel having just come out of Egypt, with God leading them to the Promised Land. When they got to Kadesh Barnea, who's idea was it to send in spies? It certainly wasn't God's. God had never intended for them go search out the land. God said, "Go in and take the land, and I'll send in hornets ahead of you and drive the people out." But Israel couldn't even take God at His word at that point in time. So they hedge and say, "Well let us spy it out first." God in His goodness then condescended to their request and said, "Alright, choose out twelve men and let them go in." And that was one of the biggest mistakes that Israel ever made. Ten of them said, "Oh, we can't do it. There is no way we can drive out the Canaanites, we are as grasshoppers in their sights." God had already said that He would drive them out. So what was their problem?

"While it is said, `To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation (in other words, as Israel was there in the wilderness). For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he (God) grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that (what?) believed not?'"

They had committed many sins of immorality; the golden calf; all pagan practices of worship. But God is not holding that against them - He doesn't even mention that, as vile as it was. He could forgive that kind of sin. But what was Israel's problem? "UNBELIEF." They couldn't believe what God had said.

"So we see that they (the children of Israel) could not enter in because of unbelief."

Has anything changed? No! God can forgive to the uttermost, any sin except the sin of UNBELIEF (when people refuse to believe that Christ died for them, paid their sin debt, and rose from the dead in power. And that's all He's asking). So believe it for your salvation! If a person refuses to believe that Gospel, then that person's doom is sealed. Remember Hebrews 11:6 says to you and I in the Age of Grace:

"But without faith it is impossible to please him...."

Let's go back to Matthew 12 and look at the unpardonable sin. We need to leave this verse right where it sits. This is God dealing with the Nation of Israel. This doesn't mean that we can't take some warning from it. I certainly don't tell people to go out and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because after all, God will forgive you. I would never do that. All I'm saying is that this is something that doesn't fit Church doctrine. If you can learn to leave these things where they belong, you don't have to pigeonhole them, and say you'll come back to this at a later time. It's so perfectly set. So to the Nation of Israel He says:

"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man (Christ), it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world (age), neither in the world (age) to come."

Now let's look at a parable that explains this so beautifully in Matthew 21. Jesus is speaking again to the Jews:

"Hear another parable: `There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:'"

"And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants (to get some return on the investment that he had made) to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits (or profit) of it."

"Therefore say I unto you, `The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.' And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables (plural, not just this one, but everyone that He had spoken), they perceived that he spake of them."

They suddenly understood that Jesus was pointing His finger at them. Now what was the parable all about? God called the Nation of Israel out, and gave them the Covenant promises. He called them His son, His favored nation. And He dealt with them through the Old Testament years by sending the prophets. What did they do to the prophets? They killed them. We always like to talk in terms of the Trinity. So let's look at it this way. Remember the Jew only knew about God the Father. So God the Father sent the prophets to His Covenant people and they killed them, or threw them in the dungeons. They refused to hear them. Did God cancel the Nation of Israel because of that? No. God sent His only Son next, The Christ. And Christ presented Himself to the Nation of Israel, on the basis of the covenants that we have been emphasizing for months. And what did they do with the Son? They killed Him. So these Pharisees are picking up on it. He's talking about them. And so it is in all of Jesus' parables.

But we have one Person of the Trinity left out. The Holy Spirit. Let's look at the Scripture that pertains to the Holy Spirit. And if you can't go along with this, don't worry about it. I've always said in my teaching there is room for you to disagree on some things, and this is one of them. But to me it makes sense in light of the fact that there is one sin that condemns us, and that is unbelief concerning the Gospel. In other words, I maintain, someone could blaspheme the Holy Spirit tomorrow or next week and God can still save him in this Age of Grace. But let's not lose sight of what the unpardonable sin is dealing with, and that is Israel the Nation! She is the one that is coming under this anathema of God.

Now go to Acts Chapter 6. Israel has rejected the overtures from the Father by killing the prophets. They rejected the overtures of the Son by killing The Christ. But how are they going to deal with the Holy Spirit, because here is the unpardonable part now - how they deal with third Person of the Godhead. He could forgive the first two, but not the third one. We have, in Acts Chapter 6, the appointment of seven men, normally referred to as deacons. They get the word "deacon" from the description of their duties. We find in verse 3 that the early Jewish church in Jerusalem was having some problems and so the following happened:

"Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."

"And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,..." Now we have the Holy Spirit mentioned twice in two verses. So Stephen comes before this whole Jewish crowd.

"And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel."

What is permeating Stephen? The presence of the Holy Spirit. It was so radiant they could see the difference. Go to Chapter 7 verse 2. Now watch the language of whom Stephen is addressing:

"And he said, `Men, brethren, and fathers (all Jews), hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham,...'" Can any Gentile claim that? Of course not.

If you ever want the history of the Nation of Israel in a nutshell, read this whole chapter. It even gives a lot of little details that the Old Testament leaves out.

"And when they (these Jews) heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth."

"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost (do you see the emphasis over and over that the Holy Spirit is on display here?), looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus (not sitting but rather) standing on the right hand of God," In a future lesson, we'll pick up the reason these Jews got so mad when they heard Stephen say that Jesus was standing.

"And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, `Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, `Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep (died).'"

From this point on, what is the future as we see here in the Book of Acts concerning the Nation of Israel? All down hill. And why? Because they had now committed that unpardonable sin of not only rejecting the Father and The Son, but now had also rejected the Holy Spirit. And for nearly 2000 years, what has the Jew been going through? Suffering, turmoil, in a state of spiritual blindness. Here in America they are pretty fortunate, but overall for all this time, basically they have been going through the mill. But when this age ends and we come into the next age, which is the millennium reign, Israel is going to come into God's goodness and Grace. If you don't like that approach about the unpardonable sin you don't have to agree. But for me it fits so beautifully, because we have left it in place. Notice we didn't take it out of the Nation of Israel and try to put it in the Church Age, but left it right where it was, with the Jewish economy.

Another point I would like to make is this. After the stoning of Stephen and the Holy Spirit aspect, the next event of importance in the chronological unfolding is the conversion of what great man? Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Even though Peter will go to the house of Cornelius in Acts Chapter 10 (after Saul is converted in Chapter 9), Chapters 11 and 15 mention Peter, and from there to the end of the Book of Acts Peter is never mentioned again. Why? Israel is now falling out of all the things that God had been promising, and now here comes Paul with the Body of Christ, the predominately Gentile Church. When we study the Book of Acts, I'll show you the transitional aspect of this Book, how God deals with His Covenant people Israel under the Law with all the Old Testament promises; and how when they rejected it, God now does something totally different - something the Old Testament knew nothing of. He turned to the Gentiles with the Apostle Paul.

Turn to Genesis 1:1,2. Last time we talked about Christ's being the Person of the Godhead who called everything into being. We talked about how the Hebrew word "Barah" indicates not only creation, but perfect, beautiful creation. God can't create something that isn't perfect and good. Throughout Chapter 1 of Genesis, we see that as God made things, He inspected them and recorded that "it was good." Yet, when we come to verse 2 of this Chapter we read: "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

That hardly sounds perfect and beautiful. Rather it implies a "mess," chaos. If God, in verse 1, created the earth beautiful and perfect, (we have no indication of the time element between these two verses) and now, in verse 2 it's less than that, it's obvious that something drastic has happened. That beautiful creation of verse 1 has been changed into something ..... "without form, void, covered with water, and enveloped in darkness."

This is the first flood. A flood condition existed over the entire face of the planet. This may be an explanation of why God told Noah in Genesis 9:13,15: "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth...And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh ."

Why would God make so big an issue of not ever destroying the world again in this manner? Because He made this covenant with Noah, following the second worldwide flood which destroyed all life. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep." Here the earth was covered with water and that which God had originally created perfect and beautiful was undone. All we can do to understand this situation is to search the Scriptures for an explanation. Turn in your Bible to Ezekiel 28:13-15. Remember when you study Scriptures, ask yourself questions about what you're reading. What is being said; about whom is it being said; who's doing the talking; etc. Now verses 13-15:

Now, let's look at these verses phrase by phrase:

Who do we know, according to Scripture, was in the Garden of Eden?

These beautiful gemstones mentioned here are mentioned again in the book of Revelation in the description of the New Jerusalem. (Again we see that what began in Genesis, we will see ending in Revelation).

Now, because we know that God is not a created being, this indicates that the passage must refer to Adam or Eve or Satan.

In Scripture, people are never referred to as cherubs or angelic beings; so here we see that God is addressing an angelic being, and through the prophet Ezekiel, is revealing that angelic being to us. So we can deduce that this passage is referring to Satan. The term "covers" in Hebrew refers to "rule." So we see that this angelic being is a ruling being.

God says, "I placed you there." This angelic being was ruling because he was placed there by a sovereign act of God.

Again, in Scripture, unless a specific mountain or land area is mentioned, mountain is normally used to indicate a "kingdom" rather than just a "hill" somewhere. So God says to this angelic being, Satan, "you ruled over a kingdom I gave you."

These stones of fire refer to the gemstones named in the verses above. So we see that this angelic creature was ruling, by God's sovereign command, over a kingdom that was literally impregnated with these precious jewels, these glorious gemstones along with all the other beauties of nature. We see all these gemstones referred to again in Revelation 21 as a part of the New Jerusalem coming down - restoring the world to its original beauty of Genesis 1:1:

In verse 15, God is continuing to speak to this angelic being, describing his perfection "until" - a time word. At some specific point in time, this angelic being lost, dropped, destroyed his perfection and iniquity or unrighteousness was found in him. What was his problem? Turn to

Isaiah 14:12-14. Here the prophet says,

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, Which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.'"

In verse 12 we discover the name of this angelic being - "Lucifer," along with his actions "which didst weaken the nations." These nations refer to angelic kingdoms over which he had dominion, because mankind was not yet made for him to have rule over.

Now, look what he says. ..... (Notice all the "I will's"). "...I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;..."

This angelic being, Lucifer, was not satisfied with all God had given him. Instead, he wanted even more - even to usurp the very power and position of God. Satan is still trying that. Remember his temptation of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 4:8,9?

"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, 'All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.'"

He still attempts to bribe us into worshipping him today in much the same way.

The "sides of the north" are where some theologians get the idea that heaven is located somewhere behind the northern sky. It may or may not be. We can only speculate on this and we have more important things to contemplate.

Here God is quoting the heart thoughts of this creature. Lucifer is saying (and still is saying) in his heart, "I will be like the Most High." This angelic being has everything he could possibly expect ever to have: he's beautiful, he's surrounded by beauty over which he has total dominion. But the one thing he lacks that is not within his grasp is to be God or higher than God.

Soon in our studies we'll be coming to Genesis 3:1-6. We'll see Eve in the garden. She has everything she could possibly want: a perfect home, a perfect husband, a perfect environment. And what does Satan tempt her with? "If you'll eat the forbidden fruit, you'll be `like God.'" And she falls for it!

This is what I refer to throughout the Scripture as "The Lie" - that human beings can be "like God." When you hear that touted, don't believe it! Certainly we are sons, children of God; and Paul tells us in Phil. 3:20-21 that our bodies shall be changed to be like Jesus' glorified body, but we're never going to become God. That would be impossible. And that's the LIE! As this world is so fast winding down, with all the false teachings and movements like the New Age or "Shirley McLainism," what is the pitch we hear being offered by the cults? "You're going to become God." When the Antichrist shows up, he's going to promise everything including this LIE in order to get control of the world.

Always be aware as you study the unfolding of the human experience that Satan's big lie, the one most people will fall for, and the basis for all the cults is this very one, "You will become God," or "You will become like God." Lucifer found out that he could not become God, and God brought him down. Consequently, as a result of that judgment the earth became changed from what it was in Genesis 1:1 to what it is recorded as being in Genesis 1:2.

Look near the back of your Bible to the little book of Jude, verse 6. This describes the angels being chained, awaiting judgment. This ties in with a passage in Revelation 12:3-4 which reads:

We see that this angelic being, Lucifer, who ruled over an angelic kingdom, in his rebellion against God, actually convinced one-third of the angelic host of heaven to follow him in his rebellion, and they are referred to in Jude as "fallen angels," locked up and awaiting judgment. These are not the precursors of demons. The Bible doesn't tell us just where demons do come from, only that they exist as a part of Satan's forces of evil.

Looking back at Genesis 1:2, now we see that the earth is "without form." In judgment on Lucifer, God destroyed the earth and knocked him out of his place of authority and rule over that beautiful creation to become the great "adversary" or enemy of God. And God, in his sovereignty has permitted that.

Satan, Paul tells us, can transform himself into an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14). Don't believe the cartoon portrayals of Satan as dressed in red leotards, with horns and a tail and carrying a pitchfork; or as Milton described him as "the one who stokes the fires of hell." Satan is a powerful angelic being with great cunning and intellect. He is limited only by the sovereign power of God. Satan will do anything to promote his