Salvation Is By Faith, Part 2

Rev. Raymond M. Jackson

WE ARE STILL ON THE SUBJECT, “SALVATION IS BY FAITH,” SO WE WILL JUST CONTINUE ON FROM THE LAST ISSUE. BROTHER JACKSON ENDED BY SPEAKING ABOUT THE ETERNAL DAY, THAT COMES AFTER THE MILLENNIUM OF RESTORATION AND THE FINAL JUDGMENT FINISHES CLEANSING THE PLANET.

First I want to explain a little bit about the chart you see back behind me. Do not let it confuse you, because there are two things represented. You have to look at how I express it to you. The line itself represents from the first day of the lunar month when the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt, chapter 12 of Exodus. We know this, seven and a half days later, the moon is half. You come to the evening of the fourteenth day, getting ready to go into the fifteenth day, the moon is full. If you study what is written about the Passover, there is a lot there that people fail to see. There are a lot of people in the world of religion, especially of the Gentiles, that have taken parts of the Law, turned them around and sowed confusion with their version of it. They pretend to be wise but they are deceivers. They only deceive an element of people that are destined to be deceived. I have studied this thing and said, Lord help me to say the things that are to be said, in the right way. What I have to say, is not pointing my finger at any Seven Day Adventists or Jehovah Witness, Methodist, Church of Christ, or anybody. Christendom has suffered a battle ever since it was born two thousand years ago. That is why I want to take you into this study of the lunar month. Do not say, Well I am not interested in a lunar month or any such. You will do well to listen. The first fifteen days stand out in the calendar of God. I want o show you by these first fifteen days of that lunar month, Abib, God was already telling the children of Israel that the Law that He was giving them would only be good for fifteen hundred years. It is all typed that way. A lot of your Adventists, do not see the types at all. They only see written scriptures. Listen to what I am saying, If you do not see the types that are built into it, then the types will derail you as you try to teach on these scriptures. God ordained it to be that way. You read in the 12th chapter of Exodus, “And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Alright, so we realize they were making their departure at the beginning of that lunar month and it was a new moon. You have a small disk. These fifteen days were a type that overshadows fifteen hundred years of time. Because it was in 1491 that they were called out of Egypt. We have historians today that are out to do their best to tear up and rip up everything that the Bible states. I received a News item from Israel the other day, just before the Passover, as they were getting ready to keep the Passover. Here is the way they wrote the article, Three thousand three hundred and thirty six years ago when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. Well, it was thirty five hundred years ago that the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. What they are telling you is that from 2000 back, it was only a thousand three hundred and thirty six years. So they are a hundred and some odd years short.

ESTABLISHING A TIME LINE

I will ask you to look at the chart back here: It is here, to prove to you that what is written in the Bible is what we go by. I have very little use for a historian or archaeologist who has his nose in the ground looking for a fossil of some kind. I have to place some trust in what is written here in the scriptures. Here, in 1st Kings the 6th chapter and 1st verse, King Solomon has just taken over the kingdom. He is in the fourth year of his reign. He decides that he is going to carry out his father’s vision to build God a temple. It plainly tells you in the four hundred and eightieth year after the departure, do you know what that does? That brings them down to approximately a thousand and fifteen. Then when you take that and go on into the writings of Chronicles, you will see that when the temple is finished and dedicated, the year is one thousand and four. Then from a thousand and four, when you come down into Jeremiah, you can see that approximately four hundred years of time goes by, and from 606 to 598, when you look down the chronological writings of Jeremiah, concerning the sieges, there were three invasions by Babylon as they would come against Jerusalem. It started in 606 and was finished up in 598. That lets you know how, by dispensations the years are passing. Then in 534, according to Daniel, Cyrus had made the decree that the Jews can go back home and rebuild that which lay in ruins. They had already spent seventy of those years that was prophesied that they were to stay in Babylon, to let the land rest for seventy sabbatical years. Then from 534 to 397, you have that dispensation there from Malachi the prophet. They never had another one. That is the breaking down of the fifteen hundred years from Egyptian departure until you come to the year 2000. So I could not care less today, what these modern writers are doing and saying. That is why I have all that written underneath on the chart. That half of a month from the first day of the new moon to the fifteenth day, the full moon, is a type that the Law that God was going to give the children of Israel as they depart out of there, was only going to be good for 1500 years. You tell any doctor of divinity, historian, whoever you want, but regardless of how they do it, here is the way they search through the Bible, Well the Law says this, then they go here and say, Well, see here Bro. Jackson, what that says? Brothers and Sisters: You just do not read the Bible like that. We have people going in circles because of that. They let the devil read this scripture to them, then that takes them back to the Old Testament, back under the Law. Well when they read one thing there, here they come back this way. You simply cannot read it that way, and come out with a revelation. God had a reason to build this type into the Law. If this Law was to be effective, to be a means for salvation to mankind down through time, there would never have been just fifteen days of the month, it would have covered a lot greater span of time than that. Believe me saints: If we read this the right way, the Law was going to be good for a certain period of time only. How do you get that Bro. Jackson? When you come to Jeremiah, the 31st chapter, and read from verse 31 down through the 34th verse, God Himself said, A new covenant will I make with the house of Israel after those days. That is pointing back to these days because each day was a symbol of a hundred years. That is exactly why, when that fifteen hundred years has come to the precise year that there was to be a fulfillment of all that it had typed, the Messiah was on the scene: the man that was to be the Passover Lamb was on the scene, and the year that fifteenth day typed, in the fifteenth hundred year it fell in, He was sacrificed, not only for the sins of the Jewish people, but for the whole world. That was the end of the Law for righteousness. Do not let anyone tell you it is different that what I have explained it to be. That is why the Bible said Christ is the end of the Law to every man for righteousness. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” These that have got all twisted up with the Law and the Sabbath, are all going in circles. I know they point the finger at us Gentiles and say, See, they observe Sunday as the Sabbath. That is the mark of the beast. I will tell you, it is not the mark of the beast. I am going to prove to you, it is typed right here in the Law that the first day of the week would be the day that the New Testament Christians would choose to observe the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not resurrected on the Sabbath, neither at sundown on the Sabbath. He was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbath closes, that occurred in that Passover season. You can read that in Leviticus. I am saying these things to you this morning, and I ask you to read the Law, in Exodus. Then you can go read in Leviticus how the Law is administered, how people are to observe it, how obedient, but then you also see the types built into it. The types are in a natural setting, but if you do not see what the type is pointing to down the road, it is just like you are closing your eyes and walking off a big cliff somewhere. You fall, but you do not know where you are falling to.

LETTING THE LAW EDUCATE US

Let us open our Bibles to Leviticus. The children of Israel were still in the wilderness at this time. When we go to the writing of Leviticus, this was also written by Moses. He gives them all about the month, the sacrifices and everything. Then when we come into verse 11 the Lord is pointing on ahead of time, to the time when they will be in the land. Not while they are in the wilderness journey. Let us read from the 9th and 10th verses of chapter 23. “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel , and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, (They were not reaping any harvest in the wilderness. They were living on manna then, but once they came into the land they were going to sow their own grain.) then ye shall bring a sheaf (It is just a little bundle they cut and tie of standing grain. You thrust in the sickle, it is just a large handful, stalk and all, and you tie it into a bundle.) of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest: (I like this type, which to the Jew was just a natural observance. Did they see what it pointed to? They did not. Each one could only see, well that is what it says, so I will do it. The fact that they did not see what it was pointing to, just kept them doing that same thing year after year. Now who was this sheaf to be brought to? It was to be brought to the priest. We know, that for a long time they worshiped where the tabernacle stood in Goshen, but later on their offering was brought to Jerusalem, so these sheaves of grain were always stacked in the outer court area at this particular time of the season. It was going to lay there waiting for a definite day. When a definite day would come, it tells you here in this verse, exactly what will take place.) And he (the priest) shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow (the next day) after the Sabbath (That is not just any Sabbath in any week. It is only the Sabbath that occurs within the Passover week.) the priest shall wave it.” Well Bro. Jackson, I don’t see any salvation in that. I have to tell you this morning, it pointed ahead and was sufficient for the time. Do not look back to when they were waving this sheaf, because the apostle Paul used this to show that the offering our Lord Jesus made when He offered His own blood, was what all of that was pointing to. His one offering was sufficient for all who would ever accept it from that time onward, and paid the sin debt for all who worshiped God in His prescribed method all the way backward. That is what we have to look at, so when was the priest to offer it? Was it just any old day he wanted to? Absolutely not! If he thought, Well I want to hurry up and get started with this, so I will start this evening, would God accept it? No, that sheaf offering had to be waved on the sunrise morning of the next day after the Jewish Sabbath that has passed within that total Passover season. That set a precise type for later. Now look at verse 12, “And ye shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.” Of course this was all in the natural; the Passover lamb has already been slain the evening before, but this part here, is after His resurrection and this occurs on the next day after the Sabbath. We call it Sunday: we get that name of the week from the Greeks. With the Jews though, it is only the next day after the Sabbath. We could call it the sixteenth day, or seventeenth day. Let us follow this on down. Those that like to harp on the Law, like, Oh Bro. Jackson, I want you to know, it plainly tells us here that this Law was forever. Please Mr. Advent man, will you just sit down and listen for a moment? Sure it says here in the 14th verse, “And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” Alright, so it says for ever. Isn’t that something. I have to tell you, I did not get this going to Yale or Perdue, I got it by studying the scriptures. For ever, does not mean for all eternity. Well, I thought it did. Then where in the world did you go to school? Do you not realize, in the Psalms and in Hebrews, that it was prophesied that Jesus, who did fulfill the Passover side of this subject, when He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, what did He go to heaven to become? A high priest. Right? The Psalmist said, He hath been given a priesthood. For how long? For ever, after the order, or the type, or the similitude of Melchizedek. Well, how long does that mean He is going to be a high priest? It is more than one life span for sure, but do you know what? My Bible shows me Jesus’ High Priest office only runs for about two thousand years, period. That is not for ever, as we think of for ever. Will you agree with me on that? If so, then where does that put for ever? It puts it in the background. Does it not? We have got to read it right, according to the revelation we have. I am saying today, Jesus Christ, who fifteen hundred years after the giving of this Law, was born precisely the year that this lunar month will absolutely have the Passover, and every day in the sequence that is involved will be in perfect order. That is why Christ ate the Passover with His disciples on Thursday evening as the sun was going down on the fourteenth day. (When the moon is coming up, it is coming up to be full on the fifteenth day. How many realize that?) The next morning, by nine o’clock, He (Jesus) is on the cross. Shortly after noon, He gives up the ghost. He dies, they bury Him. Now the Adventist folks would say, But He has got to be dead three days and three nights. That is because you say, Well look what Jesus said about Jonah. They did not embalm the body of Jesus. I have asked two different undertakers about this, and in seventy two hours, in that warm climate, mortification sets in. Take it back to the Psalms, and what does it say? “Thou will not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.” Therefore I am saying to you, that from the time He ate the passover and He is on trial, in agony in the garden that night, then by daylight He is before that bunch of hypocritical priests, and they are condemning Him to hell, He went through hell when He sweated drops of blood. Therefore from the time of His suffering, He put in the three days and three night in representation. Believe me, I know what I am saying. I am saying this, Christ rose on the first day of the week to fulfill that type. Let us see how far then the believers go, as we come on down to the 15th verse. Here is what will happen to the followers of Jesus. “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow (that is the next day) after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; (You can read this in the book of Acts.) and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.” Praise God. If Christ was the firstfruits when He rose from the dead, then believe me, after He rose from the dead and was seen of many brethren over the space of about forty days, as He appeared here, and He appeared there. He was not seen every day. The same time He came forth from the dead, it tells you in Matthew, that many of the saints that slept in the ground or in their graves, came forth. They did not go to heaven immediately. They could not go to heaven until He has ascended first. That is why Paul could pick it up in Ephesians 4:10, like he did. Now He that ascended is the same that descended first into the lower parts of the earth, and He set the captives free. Let us read Ephesians 4:8-13. We find a powerful message written here in few words. “Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” This is part of what the apostle Paul wrote about Him. 8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Ephesians 4:9 (KJV)

9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

Ephesians 4:10 (KJV)

10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:11 (KJV)

11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Ephesians 4:12 (KJV)

12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13 (KJV)

13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: When He (Jesus) did go up, He took those resurrected saints with Him, but they did not go up until then. We are simply saying this, When He was the firstfruits, then He took all those Old Testament saints with Him. They also had been dead, but they were righteous. We can say they came up and they would have white robes, and He took them to glory. This was fulfilled also on the first day of the week. That is why, after about forty days when Jesus was seen of the disciples, then He ascended to heaven. He had told His disciples, Go back to Jerusalem and tarry or wait until you be endued with power from on high. He did not say, eight, nine days or what, just until. He just said wait until ye be endued with power. That tells you what they were waiting for. They did not wait until the eighth day, then the ninth day, they just waited. It says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” That was on this day right here (pointing to chart), this second type. As they are sitting in that upper room, the Holy Ghost descended from heaven and filled that whole house. This was the beginning of God creating a new creation, something He had never done before in four thousand years. As we read in Leviticus, so just imagine the natural Jew, to him it was just a matter of killing the Passover lamb, making a feast and eating it on a certain evening, going through all the rituals without understanding what all of that was a type of. But the next day the priest comes out. Now these Seventh Day Adventist, (I have their writings.) like to prove that Christ did not rise in the daylight hours, He rose just as the next day was getting ready to start, because they like to use sundown of the one day and the beginning. Who was to wave this sheaf? Not the farmer that brought it, but the priest. The priest, at that time of day, is sitting at home talking with his wife and children, because he has already been to the temple and fulfilled his ceremonial duties. How many heard what I said? He does not come late in the evening, he comes early in the morning and fulfills all his functions. Then when he leaves to go home, he is not back on the temple grounds any more. Please tell those characters that Jesus is going to come forth from the resurrection of the dead at the same time that priest is getting ready, and that is not in the evening hour, but the next day in the daylight hours, to wave that sheaf offering. That is because it is a type, the firstfruits from among the dead. Look, after fifteen hundred years, by the time fifteen hundred years have come, that Jewish nation has ritualized everything, ceremonies, they have even added days. They have even added moons. They made holy days out of things that are only historical. Everything is natural, but by the same token, we Gentiles have done a lot of worse things as well. That is why, as far as the Law is concerned, its duration, and its effect, and its meaning, and its purpose was all fulfilled. But after fifteen hundred years, it had fulfilled its obligation. Well how can you prove that, Bro. Jackson? What does it say in Matthew, chapter 5, verses 17 and 18? “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” Did not Jesus say He came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. When you fulfill something, you carry out the objective of whatever it was ordained to be. You do not add to it nor take away from it. Therefore Jesus knew that He was here on earth to fulfill a purpose ordained of the Father. He knew Himself, He was going to be the Passover Lamb that would die on the cross one day, which would fulfill every sacrifice, every type, everything within that written Law. When it is done, then all the natural aspect of the Law is finished. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, for every man that believeth. Then what was the Law for? It was to teach the natural man that we are, that we have a fallen nature inside of us, making us subject to the devil’s devices. Now let me say this, The word Sabbath itself, never occurs in the Bible until you see it in Exodus. It is in Genesis, but that is where God created the heavens and earth in those six creative days. You Pilgrim Holiness, you Nazareenes, and all the rest of you, I tell you again, Those six creative days were not days of twenty four hours. They were days of a thousand years each. Well, Bro. Jackson, how do you know? I had never realized it, but I was going through some of Bro. William Branham’s sermons, reading how he came to a place where he said those six creative days were days of approximately a thousand years. Then he went to 2nd Peter where Peter wrote how that God looks upon a day as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. He said those creative days were approximately a thousand years each. I thought as I read that to myself, This makes more sense than anything else I have ever heard. I have heard doctors of divinity and historians, how they sound like a bunch of crickets at night. They say they rub their back legs together to make that sound. I don’t know much about that, but that is about what these religious characters do, as they speak of those creative days. When they get finished, they have only made a racket, not shedding any light upon the subject. Well, now that we have seen what the types were, I will ask you to go with me to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the prophet that lived approximately six hundred and some years before the fall of Jerusalem. Israel had been in the land for nine hundred years; and Jeremiah was the prophet that saw exactly why God was going to send them into captivity by letting the Babylonians come and tear up the beloved city, the temple and everything, and lay it all in ruins. Jeremiah sees something. I want you to realize, that Ezekiel, in the sixth century, as he is carried away into Babylon, was also a godly man.

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

One day God picked Ezekiek up in the spirit, by the hair of his head and carried him back to Jerusalem in a vision, and set him down in a certain position so that he could look over the city. He saw exactly how the glory of the Lord had left that city before the attack had ever occurred. He saw the Shekinah glory leave the temple and go up in the air and then went east. That is exactly the route that Christ came. When He rose from the dead, He took His disciples and went over on the Mt. of Olives and there is where He gave them the last words and He departed and ascended into heaven. When that Shekinah glory went up six hundred years before Christ, it never did come back. Do you know why? This set in order the fact that it will never come back to set in that building. It is coming back to dwell in a stone, the chief corner stone. That is why He said, Tear it down- and I will raise it up in three days. He is the beginning of God’s new temple. So when I look at Jeremiah, in the 31st chapter, I believe Jeremiah could weep when he could look over the children of Israel and begin to see what was happening. Why? Finally the 31st verse of the 31st chapter, we read this, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, (I like that. You don’t have to have a college degree to read and understand that. It means exactly what it says. Even so we still have religious characters around today, that like to bind you up somewhere and sew you up in a corner and make you feel like you don’t have anything unless you go along with them. Jeremiah was plainly telling Israel, and Israel did not listen. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel….) and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (We just read about that.) which my covenant they brake, (so they broke it and they were consistently out of line,) although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, (Oh, I like this, because it was written for one and all, I will put my law in their inward parts.” How is He going to do that? I like this, because it means God is going to get inside of us and that old temper we used to have, like, Shut your mouth, you dirty so and so, or I will kill you, no longer has a place for such a display. Do you know, it takes a fallen nature to act like that, and I believe all of you will agree. Then when the Sabbath does come, you may hear something like this, Well I will observe it, but I can hardly wait until it is over because I want to get back and open my business. That is the natural man we are born to be like. We do not know how to be righteous, we do not know how to serve the Lord. I think of when I used to smoke cigarettes. I grew up in the country and did not know a lot like young people do today. I did not even think there was anything wrong with smoking a cigarette. Nevertheless when God finally did get hold of me, I made a commitment and something took place inside me. I slept the night through, and when I woke up the next morning, I had lost the taste for those cigarettes. It was not because I had read something somewhere, but because something had gotten inside me that changed my desires, I didn’t even want those things any more. I have said this to illustrate how God works on our behalf, and how the New Covenant Jeremiah wrote about was designed to work. The Jews had always been bound by what was written, Do this; and Do not do that. That is why I say, concerning that new covenant, God was going to stop writing things, like, Thou shall not do this, and thou shall not do that. Instead, He was going to come and get inside of believers by His Spirit. For some reason, you just lost your taste to be like that old person you had been before. You lost your quick, out of control temper, you lost your taste for liquor and cigarettes; and after awhile you begin to realize, I have been crucified. This old flesh is dying. It is losing its former appetite. Old things have passed away, behold all things are becoming new. Isn’t that wonderful? You go to bed with it and wake up with it. When the old crowd sees you six months after that change you hear, Well what happened to you? Well I met Jesus one day. Where was that? It makes no difference where it happened, nor what race or culture you are of, when God does come inside of you, He changes you from head to toe. You will never be that same old you again. You present yourself entirely different that you did before the change. Well I had better get back to where I was, dealing with this new covenant God caused Jeremiah to speak about. This new covenant was given just before Israel went into captivity. Did it mean anything to them at that time? No. They could read it, but what good did it do? Five, six hundred more years came and went. They have been in Babylon. They have been scattered all over the world, some were to return. Then, two thousand years ago, the time had come when all those types of that Passover month were in place. The Passover season, the day within it that the Passover lamb is going to be slain, and when that wave offering is going to be presented, the man that is going to fulfill all the sacrifice in its types, is on the scene in Jerusalem. Jesus did not come walking down the street, Look at me, I am the one that is going to fulfill your Law. I have to say, We have to depend on God, a sovereign Spirit, for all things pertaining to our new life. He knows my heart and my mind, and He knows what I need. He knows you likewise. He knows what you want to do with your life and also whether you want Him to do something with your life. I can see this, When Jesus Christ was actually taken by the very religious people that could boast, Oh we just celebrated the Passover. Everything they talked about was just the opposite of what they should have been talking about. That part is just like Gentiles. We get so traditionally carried away, we do not see the meaning of these spiritual things. Unregenerate mankind is just naturally that way. Well, let me bring this to the point I want to make: When Jesus did give His life, hanging there on that old cross that day He cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani, My God, my God, Why has thou forsaken me?” and His head went limp. Immediately there was an earthquake and it rent the veil of the temple. That was the signification and the sign, no more will that Holy place in the temple ever be used as being the place where the Shekinah glory would dwell. Because He has fulfilled it precisely to the letter. That is why, when He stood on the outside of that beautiful temple one day and His disciples said, Look at the majestic beauty of this. He said, Tear it down, and in three days I will raise it up. They did not know what He meant: He was really referring to His own bodily temple which would come forth in three days. The resurrection of His body would be the beginning of a new temple. When we see how these things developed, then I have to say this, That morning when Jesus rose from the dead and His disciples went looking Him, He had risen precisely to fulfill that wave offering of the sheaf. To the priests at the temple, it was just a natural thing to do, a part of his responsibility. He may have thought, Oh, I am getting so tired of shaking these things, but you know, fifty days later, those same people that brought the wave offering were to take out of the same harvested grain and make bread out of it, and then they were to bring two leavened loaves of bread out of the same grain itself, and present them to the priests. For what? So that on the day of Pentecost when the Church would be born in the upper room, they were to come down and offer these leaven loaves of bread as a burnt offering, because it speaks of leaven, meaning sin within the makeup of the human believer. That morning, those one hundred and twenty disciples of Jesus that were in the upper room, were all in one accord. They were not trying to outrun each other, nor to be more important or anything like that. They were not like that bunch that claim to be followers of Bro. William Branham’s message. They were not arguing, nor questioning each other, Now what did he say? Exactly how did he say that? No, that is not the way I heard it. (That has been going on among them all the years since Bro. William Branham’s death.) All those disciples of Jesus that were waiting in that upper room, were all in one accord. All of a sudden, down in the temple court, that priest was waving the two loaves, then he throws them in the fire. At that same time, that was being fulfilled in the upper room as God watched that observance by the priest. There, in an upper room, was gathered an hundred and twenty people waiting for a promise; and yes, they still had a little carnality left in them, but they were all presenting themselves as a product of the very grain that Jesus is the firstfruits from. The Holy Ghost, which is the fire of God, came down and consumed them, setting in motion the birth of the Church. The Church was born right there. Nothing like that had ever taken place up until that time in the history of mankind. It was a new beginning, a new creation has started. Yes, it is a new kind of people, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. They saw things differently. They saw the future differently. That is why Jesus said to them just before He was crucified, (John 16:12-15) “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Nothing will be withheld from a true believer, as he or she seeks truth to guide their lives. In another place we find Him saying, (John 15:7) “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Nothing that has been written by prophets of old, or apostles or anything will be withheld, if you and I have an honest heart and an open mind, and it is time for it, God is going to cause that to come off of those pages and it is going to become a reality inside of us.

TRADITIONS ARE HARD TO GIVE UP

I want to show you something else now: we have come through the time when the Law that was given, we came through Leviticus, and we came through Jeremiah, and we came through the crucifixion and the resurrection. A lot of those Jews were so immersed in the Law, you could not get that Law out of them, and that is exactly like getting denominationalism out of people today. You can hear, I have been a Catholic all my life and I see no reason to change. (That is just an example.) I am not here to point my finger at Catholics. There are some ex-Catholics in this congregation. I am so thankful, that when God gets hold of them, because it changes them and eventually delivers them from the routine they had before. They lose their taste for the wafer and the hail Mary’s. A genuine experience of salvation is supposed to do that. There is not an apostle mentioned in the New Testament that had the revelation like the apostle Paul did. When you look at his testimony, when he testified who he was, as touching the Law, he was blameless. However as touching the faith of true believers, he said I persecuted it. But when God took him out there in the desert and taught him, he came back a new man. God revealed to that man who was so educated in the Law, (because he was on the Sanhedrin Court) that when he came out of there, he had to have an understanding, of, where does the Law stop; and where does Grace start? That is why we titled this, Salvation is by Faith. It is not from anything you can do to make yourself a better person. Therefore let us pay attention to the apostle Paul, after he had that experience on the road to Damascus and then went into the desert for three years to be taught by the Holy Ghost. Regardless of what epistle he wrote after that, he was always running into somebody that had a little hangover with circumcision and other things of the Law, Don’t eat this or don’t eat that, observe this day according to the Law and so forth. Everywhere he went, they were there. Paul and Barnabas had been gone awhile, then they came back to Antioch, and do you know what happened? Somebody had come up from Jerusalem telling them, Except they be circumcised after the manner of the Jews, they cannot be saved. That is like the Adventists saying today, If you do not worship God on Saturday, the Sabbath, instead of Sunday, you are wearing the mark of the beast. Well you can tell them for me, If they cannot accept the pattern of the early Church that worshiped on the first day of the week, they may just as well go jump in the creek, because their day is just about over. They never have put a true Church together, and furthermore they never will.

AS IT IS WRITTEN, SO IS IT

Well at this time I am going to a verse of scripture that you need to take heed to this morning. I like the way the apostle Paul said it. Go with me to Galatians. All through the Galatian letter, there are things that Paul had said to try to balance the faith, the understanding of the believer, that being a Gentile, no matter what we have been in the past, if we have allowed the grace of God to come into our lives, we are saved by faith, by grace, not by anything that we have done or can do. I like this part in the 4th chapter of Galatians, starting in the 4th verse, notice how he says this. “But when the fulness of the time was come, (Paul was looking back to this, but when the fulness of that season which has been typed, for fifteen hundred years, has come, God did what?) God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, (born of a woman) made (or born) under the Law, (To do what?) To redeem them (Think of that. Redeem them. Why did they need to be redeemed? They have been under that Law all these years. That was because the Law was only written to have certain meanings and a time of fulfillment. To redeem them ….) that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” You can keep the Law, but that does not make you an adopted son of God at all. You have to repent of your ungodly sins, asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. The next two verses are precious, Galatians 4:6-7 “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” When that Holy Ghost comes to reside in your soul, God has accepted you, you are His adopted son through the fact that Jesus Christ paid the price for your redemption. No longer does the Law have anything to do with the salvation of a soul. You are a new creature when you truly come to God through Jesus Christ. From then on things are going to be different. Old things are going to pass away. Yes, your former friends may think you have lost your mind. Well you have in one sense, you lost your dirty mind and God gave you a new mind. That is the way you look at it now: the Law is no longer in the picture, except as a school master. It was fulfilled in Christ. Did you know, there is not one verse in the New Testament that gives you the right to go back there and play with the Law: It is dead. It ended two thousand years ago. I feel sorry for these people who want to play with it, but they do not want to hear what we have to say. I have to say to any such person, If you are going to play with that Law, to try to make yourself a better person, then you have never been born again. That is for sure. You have the same old carnal mind that you have always had. To redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption, which is by a divine act of God, because He is the One doing the adopting. God is not looking at circumcision, meat eating, observing of certain days, or anything like that any more. He is looking at your repented heart. When you open up your heart and say, Lord, help me, He comes upon the scene and it is Him placing His Spirit within you. You will not gain anything by having some Adventist get a hold upon your life. It is a shame, that Israel was blinded all the years since Calvary. It is a shame that the apostle Paul, years later, had to come along in the 11th chapter of Romans, as he had labored all those years and then seen how the Gentiles, by Grace, through faith had accepted this message, and later saw the fact that God had, in part, blinded Israel, in part, until the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought in. That is why He is dealing with us in these last days, washing us up, getting us out of all our traditional ideas, getting out of our minds all the things the devil has thrown in there, things that take the meaning of scriptures and tend to confuse some. Jesus warned of false prophets, and false messiahs, (anointed ones) as being a mark of the last days, even to the extent that the elect would be deceived if possible. Paul issues a similar warning in 1 Timothy 4:1. In fact, in Paul’s day there was the danger of being deceived, for he warned of “Satan disguising himself as an angel of light” and “his (Satan’s) servants also disguising themselves as servants of righteousness” and that they might actually “receive another spirit.” (2nd Corinthians 11:4, 13-15.) We must “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” 1 John 4:1) I preached two weeks ago, that God started a new creation two thousand years ago. I want to put this in your heart. When you turn to Revelation 3:14, Jesus had a reason why He spoke this in the writings of Revelation, and the people of the church of the Revelation in that 14th verse, that is talking to you, because you are the church of the Laodicean Age. Will you agree with me? Keep in mind the Laodicean city does not exist any more. It only set a type. But we are the Laodicean Age. Out of this age He is selecting a people. Jesus says these words to them, “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” Give me your attention, this has nothing to do way back when God made the stars. Jesus, the Son of God, was the person in whom God came down and dwelt, in the fulness of His divine nature. He (Jesus) did not create anything. God, the heavenly Father, created all things. Why would Paul, in the Corinthian letter, always refer to God being the head of Christ, then Christ being the head of man, and then man the head of the wife. That is the divine order of headship. You do not take the Son of God and put Him up here on the same level of headship as the Father. The point is, there had to be a precise time that the Son came into existence. He never created a star, a moon, or anything. But God, before the foundation of the world, predetermined that one day He would bring forth from His bosom, His very heart throb. This is when God would begin to take out of His fallen human race, and redeem a people back to Himself through the death of His Son, who was willing to take my place and your place. He is the firstfruits from among the dead. He is the firstborn among many brethren. He set it all in motion. He is the beginning of a new creation. No wonder the devil has tried so hard to mess it up.

DENOMINATIONAL CONFUSION

I want to pick up right where we left off yesterday and try to show you a lot of the confusion that has been going on in the Gentile, Christian world: it is due to a lot of ignorance upon the part of Christians. It is a shame that our so called doctors of divinity within the denominational realm, somehow or other do not seem to have the inspiration to know how to combat it or deal with it. Yesterday, I believe I closed out reading Paul’s writings from Galatians, the 4th chapter, so if you have your Bibles, turn back there with me. I am not going to repeat what I said yesterday, but the 4th and 5th verses, I want us to look at very carefully. Paul had a reason for saying this in this manner. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons.” I ask this question from the advent type people, Why can you not agree with what Paul wrote? I have their writings. I did not come to the platform ignorant. It is a sad thing that they have taken the Sabbath of the Law and made it their ultimate goal, to keep the Sabbath. I have to say this morning, They like to tell you that the thing of Christians worshiping on the first day of the week is pagan. That is a lie concocted by the devil, because of spiritual ignorance. I have the Bible and I have the writings of the anti-Nicene fathers. Paul had a reason for saying, But when the fulness of the time was come, so I ask the question, What was he talking about? That is why I wanted to stipulate the fact, that of what represents fifteen days of that Passover month that the Jews, each year, had to kill the Passover, have a meal, and go through the ceremony and rituals of doing what it says in Leviticus, chapter 23. Many people today, do not realize what the types were pointing to. I have to say, Fifteen days brought the moon to fulness. That is exactly where Paul got his revelation. All of that proves, that from the time that God called the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, 1491 B.C., fifteen hundred years later, the season had come for those types to be fulfilled, the Messiah was on earth, and the people that had used that ritual fifteen hundred years, were blinded to reality. They did not see that all of that was a type. Actually the type is when fifteen hundred years is completed, the Law has accomplished its purpose and never to serve that purpose again. That is what it all adds up to be. With that in mind, I have to ask the Adventist people, How do you explain Jeremiah 31, which says, after those days? It means after that period of time of the Law. God would give Israel a new covenant. Why was it necessary for Him to give them a new covenant? Because the old one had fulfilled its intended purpose and would no longer be acknowledged by the Creator. Then you come along and want to reach back into that old covenant and pull out the Sabbath and add it to some kind of New Testament structure. How ridiculous! I have to say, I know I am not going to convert you who are doing this, because you are too stubborn to be converted, but I have to say these things anyhow, because they are true. You can only convert people that are hungry and have a willingness to have a spiritual mind and a spiritual ear. We have the chronological writings of the prophets, that lets us know how long that span of time did last. When I got the News bulletin from Israel the other day, they were getting ready to celebrate the Passover, whoever the writer was, referred to the Passover that they were getting ready to celebrate, was started three thousand three hundred and thirty six years ago. To me, that goes to show they do not even believe the biblical part of it. I just have to say to you, There is a lot of stuff going on in our world of religious ignorance today; and we need to have confidence in something that is biblical, so that we know where we are in time. First let us ask ourselves this question, Did the early Church in the book of Acts teach what we believe? Did they practice worshiping on the first day of the week? The best place to look for answers is in the Bible. Let us go to Acts, the 20th chapter. I have heard Adventists preachers say, Wherever the apostle Paul went, he always went into the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day and preached, or testified. Well yes, I say that also, but my reply is this, Where in the world do you think you are going to find a bunch of Jews gathered together so you can preach to them, if not in their synagogue on the Sabbath day? They will not be assembled on a street corner waiting for you: If you are going to preach to Jews, you have to go where they are; They are not going to come to you. They are so headset on that Sabbath, in the synagogue, you have to go there on their terms. That is what the apostle Paul had sense enough to do, using wisdom in going there. We do not know how many places he went throughout those Gentile regions where Jews were, in dispersion, but we do know he eventually got a few Jews out of those synagogues. They became part of his early Gentile structure. In Acts, the 20th chapter, we find that by 59 A.D. Christendom had been established by Paul among many Gentile areas. Paul was on his way out of Macedonia. We start reading in the 6th verse. He has arrived in Philippi, so he says, “And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them in Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week ,(This is not the Jewish Sabbath. This Church is absolutely one that has been established by Paul in former months of time. Why did they assemble on the first day of the week? Because the crucified Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week; and He is the first born of God’s new creation.) when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” That is where the man went to sleep and fell out of the window and it killed him. The building was packed, there was no place else the man could sit. The point is, How did this Church become people that worship on the first day of the week? All because most of these churches that we are going to read about have been established by Paul. I ask you, Do you think he is going to establish one on the first day of the week to worship, and others worship just any day they choose? I don’t think that is the way we should look at it. Let us see what he writes to another church, as we turn to 1st Corinthians the 16th chapter, the1st verse. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, (Well if he has given orders to the churches of Galatia, he has written to them the same thing that he is saying here.) even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Now the Adventists would say, Well, you see, they were not supposed to be messing with money on that holy, sacred Sabbath day. Isn’t that something? Jesus stood watching a bunch of them go into the temple one day and here is the woman that cast her last mite into the collection. Some people can get things so twisted, so out of shape, and once they get that inside their system, they cannot ever get it back up: it just will not come out. When I go to the writings of the anti-Nicene fathers, here is Barnabas who is also referred to as an apostle. He writes this, Upon the first day of the week the saints were all assembled for the breaking of bread and fellowship together. Then when you go to Irenaeus, ( He lived on into the second century.) He says the same thing. Therefore do not tell me this practice of worshiping on the first day of the week started from Catholicism. It did not start from Catholicism. Catholicism had nothing to do with making Sunday, the first day of the week, the proper day for Christians to worship. It started from apostolic practice in the beginning of believers gathering together to worship God. With that in mind, I believe we should just let it rest there as we look through the epistles. I am not going to read them all: I am just going to refer to them to bring out the expression of the apostle Paul. He had constantly, in every church, established them through his teaching, preparing them for that other bunch of renegades that always came along trying to pervert a pure revelation, like, Well they have to be circumcised in order to be saved, and they cannot eat this and that, or if not that, they would be preaching something else about the Law. Paul had already said, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to them that believe, but there were always some that wanted to continue on at least keeping a part of the Law. Saints, you cannot mix Law and grace and call it true Christianity.

TRUTH MADE CLEAR

I will ask you to turn with me to the writings of Paul to the assembly at Ephesus. We are in the 2nd chapter of Ephesians. This Ephesian Church was a Gentile Church. It became a model within the Gentile realm, that stood as an emblem of that first century of Christendom. Here, Paul is writing to them; and I am going to start reading in the 12th verse of the 2nd chapter. “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments (And that includes the Sabbath keeping. If that was truth then, it is still truth today.) contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain (the Jew and Gentile) one new man, so making peace; And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” The Law did not give that access to God. Go with me now to Hebrews. In the Hebrew writings, looking at the 19th verse in the 7th chapter. “For the Law (that includes the Sabbath) made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; (Hallelujah!) by the which we draw nigh unto God.” Now as I said yesterday, This symbol right here, or this type, stood for fifteen hundred years. That brought us to the year 4000 B.C. so that was the end of the Law. We all know this, that the moon get its light from the Sun; and in this spiritual setting, we find that light comes from the SON, The only begotten Son of God. The moon gets its light from the sun shining somewhere, Is that not right? Therefore if it is utterly dependent upon the sun, which is the source of all light, then the type illustrated here, proves to us this is not the perfect revelation, but it is only pointing ahead to a time when the true light would come. Therefore Paul knew exactly when to say, When the fulness of time has come, because he had a revelation. This is proven also in the book of Revelation. Go to the 12th chapter. When John saw that phenomenon hanging there in the heavens, he saw this woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet. She is crowned with the crown of twelve stars. One time Bro. William Branham said that was the Bride of Christ crowned with the gospel of the twelve apostles. Another time he said it is Israel fleeing for her life. Why was it portrayed in the various dispensations all represented there? It was to let us know she is the nation that came through that moon period, which was the Law. It had a meaning. Nobody received the Holy Ghost under the Law. The Law was only a means of following the way God had provided, that as they obeyed it in all the rituals and ceremonies, it made an atonement to push their sins ahead another year. Then when the fulfillment of the Law came, as far as the sacrifice was concerned, Jesus His Son, was God’s true Passover Lamb, so once He died on the cross, the Law became a dead ritual, without its former meaning. It is like me driving beyond the duration of my driver’s license. Did anybody in here ever drive beyond the duration of your driver’s license? It is bad when you get stopped and that officer asks to see your driver’s license, and then asks you, Did you know your driver’s license is out of date? I am using that as an illustration, because that expired license is useless as far as its original purpose. There came a time two thousand years ago that God struck an end to the law of commandments, made them void. The gospel of the revelation of Jesus Christ from then on was what the Law was pointing to. If Paul, here in Hebrews, could say that the Law made nothing perfect, then where is the perfect plan? It came by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, and in doing so we receive the Spirit as a confirmation that we believe something in the right proportion. Let us go to Hebrews, the 8th chapter and the 7th and 8th verses. It took the apostle Paul to really set this thing straight because previously he writes concerning his testimony and said, As touching the Law, I was blameless. I have to say, God had to deal in that man’s spiritual mind and give him something that literally caused him to wash all that other out, to give him an understanding like he wrote in his many epistles. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, (Notice, he said, for “if” that first covenant had been faultless…) then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. (Now the apostle Paul is quoting Jeremiah 31.) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind.” I tried my best to illustrate what I meant by that which I spoke of yesterday morning. If the Law is only something written on door posts and such, each day you have to know what it meant, because you have nothing inside of you to help. But when God brought the new covenant in, He did not intend to leave the believer helpless. He was going to come, and when we realize our helpless state and repent of the fact that we are only sinners, and we say with an honest heart, Be merciful to me Lord, then and then only, will He come and get inside of you, and then He begins to change this inner nature that we are all born with. You who at one time enjoyed drinking that liquor, will soon develop a bad taste for it. Those things your flesh liked to do, something begins to rebel. It is God’s way of writing the laws, the real meaning of His law inside the person who honestly turns to Him. He is then inside of you, to help or enable you to live a new life. That is the way He wanted it to be. That is the way true Christianity started out years ago. Nevertheless down through the centuries of time, oh how the devil has raised up men professing to be wise, and only God knows what was really in the back of their mind, but when you read some of those things that went on in those first four centuries after the apostolic hour, they were painful for a true believer to endure. Now let us look at Hebrews, the 10th chapter. It is in this Hebrew letter, Paul was writing, that we get a true picture. He was not writing to Gentiles, He was writing to Jews that were out there in dispersion. That is why they are called Hebrews, because the word Hebrew here means foreigner. They were foreigners in the lands where they lived. He knows these individuals are not ignorant concerning the Law of Moses. Verse 1, “For the law having a shadow (Notice it says a shadow, a reflection of something better to come.) of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually (repeatedly) make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” I like the way Paul wrote these things. We will go to Colossians, 2nd chapter. Colossians is also a contemporary church along with the Ephesian assembly. Paul is explaining here in the 1st verse, “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, an of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” As we read that, we can see that there is a lot in it. I am going to save that for the message tomorrow morning. Let us now go on down to the 12th verse. From the 9th verse down, Paul has explained the godhead, but starting in the 12th verse it says, that we are “Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, (The Jews back then, hung on to circumcision like a Catholic would the rosary, because the covenant of circumcision was given to Abraham long before the Law was. Therefore all of this was just part of the ritual of life around them. We must be aware that Paul is talking to Gentiles right here where he says, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh…) hath He quickened together with Him, (with Christ) having forgiven you all trespasses; (Everything. Now from here on, to me, is the haymaker, if you know what I mean.) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances (all ten of them) that was against us, (which was contrary to our nature) and took it out of the way, (abolished it) nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” We are saved by grace through faith and we do not need Seventh day Adventist people telling us what or what not we should do, or when to worship God: our Bible gives us that information. We find Paul saying in verse 16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of any holyday, (That means you, Adventists, let no man, Catholic, Adventists, Jehovah Witness, Church of Christ, any of them, judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day…) Or of the new moon, (What does that have to do with it? Many of the feasts took place on a new moon.) or of the Sabbath day: (Praise God! It is not a holy day, it is only a type.) Which are a shadow of things to come.” I am thankful to God, that what Paul was talking about came two thousand years ago. That is when He (Jesus) was crucified on the cross and the Law was hung there in His flesh.

JESUS PAID THE SIN DEBT FOR ALL OF US

Jesus died for the sins of the world, so that through Grace God could be merciful both to the Jew and the Gentile, to take of the two categories, pagan and the Jew, and make a new man. When He takes the two of us and puts us together with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we become a new creature. We become a part of the family of God when we come to God by faith, believing the provision He has made for us is sufficient to blot out all our sin debt. All of that Law was a shadow. The type was there. That is why those first fifteen days of that particular Passover month, each represented a hundred years, and it pointed ahead. But God knew exactly that two thousand years ago, when the fulness of that dispensation came, the Law had accomplished its purpose and the time has now come, that all of which has absolutely been in the bosom of the Father, (and when I say that, it was John the Baptist who spoke that Jesus was the one that came out of the bosom , meaning it was God’s heart throb), should be manifested. It was God’s heart’s longing, waiting the day He would send forth His Son, who was not already a being standing there by His side, millions of years back, and the Father said, now you go do this. So the Son was trotting off, carrying out what He had said. I hope you everyone realize I am just expressing what a lot of Gentiles believe, but in error. We all know that is just a concoction of supposedly smart minds. These doctors of divinity have taken this Bible and turned it upside down, giving out outlandish pictures of their own mind. Jesus, the Son of God, that was born two thousand years ago, did not pre-exist as a being prior to two thousand years ago. He was only in the mind of the Father. Before there was a twinkle, twinkle, little star, God always was; and He is the Great Creator. Jesus was that ultimate thought, that one day He would create in the womb of a virgin woman, a cell of life that would bring forth His only begotten Son. Can you not see that this great salvation is by faith? The agnostics and atheists say, I can’t believe that: it is impossible. I like to get under their skin and make them itch, because they take their theology that they come from a college with, and think they have the answer to everything. I call those places colleges of stupidity, where they get a degree of know-nothing. When the advent of Christ came, there was not a politician in that day that knew what was about to take place. Think of it. Not even the religious elite knew anything about it. The Lord likes to get down on the sheep herders level, the farmers’ level, down where the common people live. That is why the Bible is written with types and shadows. For some reason or other, sometimes the people do not see the word: they see the shadow. The apostle Paul was the apostle of Jewish nature, all the teachings of the Jews, as touching the Law he was blameless. He could boast that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, but when God had changed him, He gave him an insight into something others had not seen. Paul had to get down on the Gentiles’ pagan level because God was going to say, Paul, you humble yourself, you get down on their level where you can communicate with them. You crawl through the filth where they have crawled, you try to look through their eyes. I am so thankful, that across the pagan world, the eyes of the pagans began to blink. They could see something begin to shine. They could begin to see some hope. I am not trying to put on a show, but I want you to know I was born and raised right out here in these hills, eighty years ago. I can remember when all this area along here was farm land and that highway out there was a gravel, rock road. I have been around a little while. I can remember when my Dad traveled up and down that road in an old Model T. Right down here where the Best Western motel stands, there was a mule farm. Back then, those mules were more interesting to me than anything else. I used to like to see how many mules I could count while we were passing by. I was a person who never desired to be too religious. I did not want to get too close to that sacred book. I believed every home should have a Bible; and that it should decorate every night stand, but I did not want to get too close to it. I had read about people cutting their fingers off, because they read, If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off. If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out. I heard of people doing that, so I just adopted an old carnal attitude, I don’t want to get too religious. However, as many of you already know, when I came home from the war, I knew God was merciful, letting me get through that and return home. I could have been laying in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean somewhere, so I recognized the grace of God. Well the very next year, God went to work on me. Right up that old road, I was almost taken out of this world in a bad wreck. The book that I never did want to get too close to, I now find a great attraction to it. I said to myself back then, If God is going to call me to preach, He will teach me, I don’t need doctors of theology teaching me, nor anything else like that. I have to say, You do not learn it all in a day’s time, but slowly, as the time comes about and necessity is laid upon you, and the responsibility, you begin to see what God has laid in front of you. He teaches you from within, because what He puts inside of you has got to respond to something out there, that whatever it happens to be related to be recognized, be opened up to you. When I read the writings of the apostle Paul I have to say, Thank God for a man like Paul. What he said has stood the test through all of time since. Anyhow I will say this morning, No, you will never convert denominational people of the world of religious ideas, because they are all twisted and not open to receive anything else beyond where they have stopped, at least not until God begins to stir them within. Saints, I am so glad that we are a part of that universal body of Christ that God is putting together. He is going to see to it, that we do have a true picture of what has been written, what the fight has all been about, what the confusion is, and what started it. God is going to give us a clear picture of how to look at the truth of His word, how to embrace it and allow it to mold us into vessels of use in His kingdom. He is going to get inside of you and do for each of you who do truly believe, exactly what He, through Jesus Christ, has done for me: He has adopted me, and you, to be His children. We do not have to turn and look on the doorpost every day as we go out, like the children of Israel did, in order to be reminded of how we should live. There is a new covenant, that is written in our heart’s. Every night, when you lay your head on the pillow, you do not have to pray, Now I lay me down to sleep, and if I should die before I wake, because God does not sleep. He is in there just the same, day and night. He is our keeper, protector and provider. When Paul said, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ,” he was telling them this new covenant has freed man from those things: we are now subject to the one who died to set us free from traditions that could never pay our sin debt once and for all time, like the blood of Jesus Christ did. As I have been saying in this message, There are still people that get side tracked by people that are promoting such things as we have covered in this message, but our sure anchor holds us steadfast. I am looking at Romans, the 7th chapter. Here, the apostle Paul is writing to the Roman people. This is a church that was never established by the personal ministry of Paul. He is writing to them anyhow though, because, although he was the apostle to the Gentiles, he still had the word of God for all believers everywhere. People would say, Well how was the Roman church established? Don’t forget, there were Jews from Rome in the streets of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost fell upon those disciples that were gathered in the upper room waiting for the promise of the Father. When all those devout Jews that were gathered out of all the nations of the old world, saw what had happened to those disciples of Christ, how that hundred and twenty of them came out of the upper room staggering like drunks, speaking in other languages and so forth, all those devout people began to ask in the language wherein they were born, What is this? I hear the wonderful works of God spoken to me in the language wherein I was born. Can you not see the Roman Jews that were there, how they must have been impressed as they heard those disciples speaking Latin, their native language; and proclaiming the wonderful works of God, that they surely went home repeating what they had heard? That is how many churches got started, just by someone who had heard the word of God and seen the wonderful works of God, repeating what they had heard. God honors His word wherever it is spoken in honesty. Through some of the Galilean Jews there, the dialects being spoken, were those of all the Jews that had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover from many other nations. (I believe it lists about 16 different ones.) When Peter said that day, (Acts 2:38-39) “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” that registered in the heart’s of those hearing him and their faith caught hold. Those Roman Christians had their first experience right there, before they went back home. Verse 1, Romans 7, “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? (He is speaking of the law that governed the acts and deeds of the natural man.) For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.” Paul is using a type right here, showing that while the law itself applied to every man and woman married under that covenant, the woman is bound to the marriage contract of what the law requires. But if the husband be dead, the woman is free. Paul is using that to illustrate, that from the standpoint of a believer, as long as the law is alive, the believer is like the woman that is subject to that Law. But if the husband of the natural woman is dead, she is free. So here in this respect, if the spiritual Law of commandments is dead, it has already served its purpose, so then, the recipients are free, not to be bound by it any more. It goes ahead and explains here, But if you seek to be justified by the Law, you are an adulteress, you are fallen from Grace, as it says in (Galatians 5:4) “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”4Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.4Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. That just goes to show, no matter what letter you read from Paul, he has got something written that hits at the Law. He knew that Law never made anybody righteous, that it only pushed things ahead until the day came that what had been foreshadowed for so long, would be brought forth in its fulness. The sacrifice Jesus Christ made was for all mankind, so that put an end to keeping the Law for righteousness.

KEEPING EVERYTHING IN LINE WITH THE SCRIPTURE

The Advent teaching through the years has caused a lot of controversy, because different historians have put together different findings that do not always line up with the scriptures. Some have got it recorded, that Christ was born in April. I have some writings here from an Adventist, claiming that Christ was born in April in such and such a year, and that He was crucified in April 30 A.D. Well I want to say this morning, The man is actually saying that Christ was not thirty three and one half years of age. I have been in the Middle East and I know enough about the breeding of animals in the Middle East, that I can speak from knowledge. What did the Passover lamb being slain actually accomplish? What did that type? It means it is God’s deliverance. When did the children of Israel come out of Egyptian bondage? In the spring of the year. Right? But when they left there, don’t you think those sheep herders had sheep, but they were not in lambing season. You would not take thousands of sheep and start a journey like that during lambing season. You are going to lose something if you do. Do you understand that? So the passover lamb they have eaten, it has been a lamb born earlier, prior to that, possibly somewhere in September or October. Therefore it makes that lamb about six months of age when the Passover sacrifice is to be slain. I have raised sheep. So there is no such thing as Jesus being born in the spring of the year, if He was to be the Passover Lamb. He was born in the fall of the year somewhere in the later part of September: that is when that month fluctuates. That is why the Bible says He, being about thirty years of age, was baptized by John. Don’t you know, when I see Jesus being baptized by John, this is a good while before the spring Passover, because from His baptism, He is immediately driven into the wilderness for forty days. That is almost a month and a half. Then He comes out of the wilderness and begins to preach on His way back to Galilee and Nazareth. You read all the events where He preached around the Sea of Galilee. They that sat in darkness have seen a great light. So He started His ministry before the Passover. He is living in Nazareth. Up until that time He has not done one miracle. But He and His mother have been invited to a neighboring town to a wedding reception. So He takes His disciples along and goes. Now we know He got His disciples in the area around the Sea of Galilee. When they ran out of wine, somehow or other they came to Mary and asked, What are we going to do? She said, go talk to Him, meaning Jesus. Jesus said to her, My hour is not yet come. You know, that is the way we feel sometimes, like our hour has not yet come. But God has appointed an hour, so He forces it on you, He dumps it in your lap. Well here they came. Jesus did not say, Now go get a canteen. He said, to them, Fill the water pots with water. They were pretty good size containers. When they came back, He blessed the contents and said, Now pour it out and serve it. When they started serving it, they heard some saying, Where did you get this? This is better that the first: Every where else they serve the good wine first and the bad last, but you have done just the opposite. This is good. That was the beginning of miracles. He departed from there and they came down to Capernaum and the Passover was nigh. He left Capernaum and came to Jerusalem to His first Passover. This book will talk to you, if you will let it talk to you.

LOOKING AT IDEAS RUNNING BACKWARD

The Advent teaching was started in the years 1831 to 1844 by a Baptist man by the name of William Miller. None of the denominational people had ever talked about anything at that time, about the urgency that man could be approaching the period of time of the soon coming of Christ. Though they were Baptists, they began to be called Adventists, because they were talking about the second coming of Christ. The Sabbath day had not come into the picture yet. In those early years they began to calculate from Daniel’s writings, that Jesus should appear sometime in October 1844, but we know He never came then. Discouragement began to take hold of many, but the movement kept on. We come then, to a time when a young woman named Ellen White, married a young man by the name of James White. He was also a Baptist Adventist. She, being a Methodist, had already had an unusual experience. After she married James White, she began to testify and speak openly about this experience.