Adoption And The New Birth

People ask the question, what is the difference between the new birth and the adoption? Well, there is so much difference that it would take a while to explain it. There is a whole lot of difference. You know, of course, because we've explained somewhat to you, or to some measure, we've explained to you and you know something of it. But there is a difference. There is definitely a difference.

I preach to you sometimes about going on to perfection, and I try to encourage you in getting an understanding of the things of God. The Bible says with wisdom get understanding. When Solomon prayed for an understanding heart, the Bible says, it pleased God well. He prayed, Heavenly Father, give me a heart of understanding that I might be able to teach Your people and guide Your people, for he said, Who can speak to these people, so great a people, who can speak to these people? And so then, I say that even in my day. Jesus said to God's people, He said, Ye are gods. Ye are gods. If ye then be gods, as to whom the Word of God came, then ye are so great a people. And who then can speak to gods? And then the question arises, What is meant by calling God's people gods? Those are they that live eternally and forever. See? A god never dies. A god is in the mind of one generation, and then when the generation ceases to be, the god is still there in their mind and they go on worshipping the god. See? Because to them, god lives on and on. There is no beginning of days, even with our God, and no end of years.

So then, we are one with Him, and the Bible says because of the works of Calvary, we have passed from death unto life and shall never come into condemnation, and that no one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, for it is God that justifies us. It is Christ Jesus that died so that He could justify us. So then, we are God's elect according to His foreknowledge, for by foreknowledge, He elected us unto grace, and them that He predestinated He also did call at the time that the ministry came forth with the Word. And He has sealed those that He called, in that, I remind you one more time, He hath, once and for all, sanctified us by the offering up of the body of His Son Jesus at Calvary, and the Bible says He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So then, having the perfectness of God through Jesus Christ, and this being that that overcometh the world, even your faith and confidence in His finished works, then we find ourselves the privileged children of God, and the Bible says if we are children, then are we heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So, it's so wonderful to be a Christian. It's so wonderful to know about this wonderful Word, and when we speak of the adoption, there is a lot to be said about the adoption.

But anyway, let's read just a little bit of Scripture here out of the book of St. Luke, the thirteenth chapter. Jesus says here in the thirteenth chapter of the book of St. Luke, the 20th verse. 

Luke 13:20-35: "And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

That is to say, they will not see Him until after that tribulation period, as to fight with them, and just prior to that, as to the middle of the week, when He will make Himself known to them and they will be under so much oppression, under such weights, until they will say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. It says here, Jesus said, Go tell that fox, speaking of Herod, I do cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected. That's a strange thing to hear Jesus talk about being perfected. Somebody would say, "Well, I thought Jesus was perfect. When He come into the world, I thought He was already perfect." Well, it says here, And the third day I shall be perfected. He tells us to go on to perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of dead works and of dead faith toward God, but that we should go on to perfection, and it tells us, concerning Jesus, that though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered, even to death at Calvary. And therefore being made perfect, He became the author and the finisher of our salvation.

So then, we have to remember that though God is perfect, God the eternal Spirit is perfect; yet He would be made manifest in His human body to the very ultimatum of His desire and of His thought and His ambitions, as to His project in the earth, as setting up His kingdom and of redeeming His people to Himself. So then, the body of the Lord Jesus being human, it had to go through all the stages of a man, as to a little babe being born into the world, and then it had to begin to mature as to a brain, as to a mind, just like you did as a little child, and had to grow up as a teenager with the same conflicts of life. And the Bible says, as to humanity, He was tempted in every way the same as you've been tempted and not in anyway was He ever found in sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. So then, He says, I'll be perfected. Or what He was saying was, I'll finish My program. I'll finish My program. When I go this last step as to tomorrow, I'll finish My program and that will be it. I will have finished my course, as Paul said. So then, the thing that we're looking for in our life is to finish our course, and as Paul said, to finish our course with joy. We seek to do this with joy.

Now I tell you this again by way of remembrance that you might think upon the things that we spoke of concerning the redemption of the body. I say this so often, and a lot of times it's kind of hard for you to fathom, or get a hold of, but I say this to you anyway by way of remembrance. The Bible speaks of it in one place, where it says, I know that you know these things, but even though I know that you know these things, I still feel it's my duty, and it's certainly my desire, to stir up your pure mind, which is the mind of Christ on the inside of you. You know, it's like the day that gets cloudy. We have a beautiful sunshiny day, and the day star is always there. It doesn't go anywhere, but the clouds, as to an overcast, will bring a veil between us and that light. And it's the same way as to our spiritual inner man. This inner man is looking to God. He's trying to see that great light, and he's trying to look through that rent veil that Jesus rent at Calvary. But every now and then that mind of Adam and Eve, that mind of Lucifer, that mind of the flesh, that carnal human reasoning that is at enmity with God, that veil of death that fell over the mind of Eve that took away her faith in that she died in the day that that veil came over her eyes, that is to say, her eyes of understanding; this same veil gets between us and God. Our human reasoning, which is in the flesh, the iniquity that's conceived in the flesh, Paul said, Within my body, within my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present, but how to perform that which is good I find not, for when I would do good I find a law that evil is present with me. So then, he had a continual warfare between the body and the soul.

As it is said concerning science, that when the sun goes into eclipse, the moon goes into eclipse, when we look at these things, we realize that the world has got between, it has got between that which, as to the shining of the bright light and that which is the object that it's striking. See? Or that is to say, if the moon is going around, then it also gets in between, or which ever object is moving around the other, sometimes it will get in between and it will cause a shadow, and through the shadow we, of course, see the seven dimensional steps of the church ages and of those things. But through the shadows we see that this thing starts with just a little bit of shadow and after a while the whole thing is hid from view and everything goes into darkness. And that's the way it is with you and I. We allow that that is of the world to get in between that spiritual man on the inside and that great wonderful light of God that is trying to reach, as to the deep calling to the deep at the water spout of God, that bright light of God's understanding, trying to penetrate our veil of humanity, or get past this human physics of ours, or human anatomy, get down into that spiritual angelic being. So, we let our bodies get in the way. We let our desires get in the way. We let our human senses get in the way, or our carnal reasoning get in the way. See, and that causes everything on the inside, momentarily, to go into an eclipse and we find ourselves having problems with the creatures of darkness and we find a battle with the Satanic forces that's trying to trample down the minds of humanity.

But this is what we have to remember: we have been born again. We have been born again. See? We have already been born again. Now, if we are born again, then are we children. We are children. When someone is born into your family, that's your child. If we are born again, then are we children, and if we are children, then we are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So then, if we are born again into the God family, we've been born. If we're born again, then that means that we have passed from death unto life. I want to remind you of this again. The Bible says and He was delivered, that is Jesus was delivered to Calvary. He was delivered for our offenses. Because of our offense against God, He came down in a human body and was delivered to Calvary and smitten for my sake, and we esteemed Him smitten of God, and He that knew no sin was made my sin that I might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. All right. So then, He was delivered for my offenses, but a few days later He came from the grave, and the Bible says He rose again for my justification. He was smitten because of my wrongs, but He was brought up to live again in the resurrection as Christ. Being the resurrection, on that third day, He arose from the grave. He was raised up out of that grave for my justification to prove that death had no more power over humanity, and from that time we enjoy the wonderful Scripture as to where the angle appeared on the hillside to the shepherds saying peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind.

Today, we have an eternal peace toward us, toward the earth and this thing will never change. God is the unchangeable one. He has sworn by Him own self, because He could swear by no greater, that blessing He would bless us, that He would multiply us, and that He would never leave us, nor forsake us. And so today we are eternal gods. Having the measure of Christ in our heart, having the measure of His love, He said, Ye are gods. Though you still taste death, though they still put you in a casket, though they still bury you in the ground, He said, yet it's because of the lack of your knowledge. Ye are gods, but ye die like men from the lack of knowledge, the God knowledge. The Bible says since Calvary, now is made known unto the church the manifold wisdom of God. And when we speak of the new birth in passing from death unto life, there is a great mystery as to the faith in this, in that the faith comes by the hearing of the Word.

So then, we find that with this, we've passed from death unto life, because we have been born again. We've been born again. How am I born again? Nicodemus said, Can I enter the second time into my mother's womb and then be born again? And Jesus said, You being a master of Israel, you don't understand these things, or He could have said, These spiritual things? That's when He used the terms, No man has ascended up into the heavens, except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and who is in the presence of God, or in heaven. So then, we find ourselves God. Then how are we gods? If we die, how are we gods? the question arises. Jesus could die, how then was He God? The Bible says He was God manifested in the flesh, and that the Word in the beginning came forth God, and He was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld Him as the glory of the only begotten of the Father. Whereas, I say again, He tabernacled in the body of Jesus, not in measure but in the fullness, and the Bible says Jesus is the full measure of God, being the full measure of God, or the express, or the given image of God. The only image there is as to the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ was the only object, as to the object of worship, in that the word God means object of worship.

So then, we find that we're been born again and now we are gods. We are gods, but here Jesus is. He died at Calvary. Though He was God, He could die like a man, and yet no one could take His life from Him. He said, No one takes My life from Me. I lay My life down of My own self. I can take it up of My own self, for this commandment I have of My Father. So then, we find that though He had appeared in glory with Moses and Elijah, He came back and died as a man, and we find that according to the Bible, though Moses and Elijah are right now at this present moment in glory, but they are coming back on this earth and they are going to die like men. So then, we find that the human body, this part, has never yet been changed to godship. It has in the sight of God changed, because by foreknowledge this was given to us in Christ before the world ever was, and brought to light at the rent veil of Calvary and preached down through the church ages, and we're told that we're to comprehend the heights, the depth, the width and the length of this. See? But in our bodily parts, though in God's sight He sees us already changed, the Bible says all of His works are known unto Him from the beginning, He sees the end from the beginning; but as a human being, we have not been changed in our body. Though we are the sons of God, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, that is, by the foreknowledge of God, God sees us already changed. He never sees this image as a bastard child image. Having been born in Adam, in Adam all die. He never looks at us again from the time of Calvary as to our new birth. He never sees us again as that human being of faults and failures. He never sees what Paul refers to as the body of this death. Oh, wretched man that I am. That that I would do I do not and that that I hate that I do. He said, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, or that is the flesh was weak, he could not perform it, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh and nailed it to the cross, and made an end of sin.

So today, I'm free from the body. As to the body, the spirit goeth back to God who gave it at death. So he said, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin by the body of the Lord Jesus, and alive unto God. So then, we are hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoring of all things, or the bringing in of the millennium, or the correction of that which is in the earth, as to all creation that emanated from God. So then, we find ourselves, though we're human beings, yet in the sight of God we are spotless. We are without sin. He that is born of God cannot sin, for Christ's seed remaineth in Him, that is the seed of God, even the Sonship Himself. God having sent the Spirit of His Son into our heart crying, Abba Father. So Christ Jesus within you is the hope of that glory, for He alone was made heir to the glory of God. So we have the seed of God on the inside and Paul said, I travailed until Christ be formed within you. As to the divine conception, Christ is inside of me, and it brings a travail to the body, because from the time that Christ Jesus comes on the inside, there is a continual warfare between the body and your spirit, because Christ comes into your spirit with the mind and desire of the Heavenly Father to do always the things that please God, and Satan, Lucifer, the god of this world, is inbred within your flesh. Paul said, Within my body there dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present, but how to perform that which is good I find not. So then, the continual warfare is there. And so he said not to let sin reign in your mortal body, not even for a moment.

So we see this, that we have something in the body warring against our mind. And Paul said, Though on the inside I delight in the things of God and in the laws of God, I desire to do the will of God, but I see another law in my own members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the sin that is in my body. O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? And he said, I thank God that what the law could not do, God, sending His Son in the likeness, or image of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh by taking this body to Calvary, nailing it to the cross, taking my sins out of the way, and now the body of that death is gone in the sight of God and He never again sees my faults and failures, my stumblings and my staggerings. He never sees them again as I go through life. All of these are forever gone. He looks at me, not as that that was an offense unto Him, that was delivered unto Calvary and smitten, but He sees me as the resurrected Christ, for He was made my sin, as to the offenses, and the deliverance to Calvary that I might be made His righteousness, even the righteousness of God, which is in Christ Jesus, that I might be made the righteousness of God through the resurrection. And today, I am one of them that dwell in heaven in His presence, as to my spiritual being, and my spiritual being being translated into the kingdom of God, even the Spirit of Christ, so the kingdom of God is on the inside of me. This is why the Bible says the law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, or the kingdom of God has come. Thy will be done when the kingdom comes.

So the kingdom come at Calvary. Now He said, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus was walking the earth, He told them this: You pray, Father, Thy kingdom come, or that is, I'm going away, Jesus said, in this natural body, as to be delivered for your offenses, but I will return to them that look for Me the second time without sin unto salvation. The world will not see Me, but I will be with you. I'll be in your heart. I will walk on the inside of you. I will dwell on the inside of you, or that is to say, I will be your God and you will be My children. I will live on the inside of you. That means we have eternal life. There is but one that's heir to the glory, and that life of Jesus Christ is eternal life. And the life I now live is the eternal life of the Son of God that I live, because my temporal life I live it no more. My temporal life is gone. The body is dead because of sin, but now have a new life. I'm not the old one that was born in Adam unto death, but I am the new one that's born into the God family by the washing of regeneration into the God family. I've come and I am now alive forever more. My spiritual being has been translated into Christ's Spirit. My angelic being, my inner man, as the Bible calls it, my spiritual being has been translated into a oneness with Christ, and now that means that I'm in heaven, for the kingdom of God is one thing, even Christ Jesus, for the fullness of God dwelt within Christ, and all things, whether gold, silver, pearls, diamonds, knowledge, wisdom, whatever, emanates from the bosom of Christ Jesus.

So then, we see that we are gods. We are gods to the extent that we, as a spiritual angelic being, the Bible says, are equal with the angels who cannot die. And gods cannot die. So then, our body profiteth nothing, our flesh profiteth nothing. It's crucified by the body of Jesus. It's buried in the watery grave in the lovely name of Jesus, as being identified with Him. We've been baptized into Christ, and the Bible says as many as was baptized into Christ has put on Christ. So then, as we've been buried with Him in baptism, so are we to be raised with Him in the likeness of the resurrection. So, as to being buried in His death, so are we resurrected in His life, and we live with Him, and it's not us living but the glorious body of the Lord, because the Father never sees our image, as to that which He doesn't like. Never again. He doesn't see that, but He sees the image and body of His resurrected Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ. So He looks over the chasm of this death, over the shadows, the valley of the shadows, and He looks to the high mountain top of that coming of the Thessalonian change to see me as I am in Christ Jesus. And the Bible says at that time, He will appear with a shout with a trump, the voice of the archangel, the dead in Christ shall rise and we which are alive and remain shall be changed and then caught up to be with Him in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort ye the brethren with these words. That is, everyone that hath this hope on the inside of Him, even Christ, the hope of glory, he purifies himself. By faith God purifies the heart, even as Christ, Himself, is pure.

So then, we find this wonderful thing has happened to us. What is that? That is the new birth. Our angelic being was translated into the kingdom of God by faith, for the law and the prophets until John, since that time the kingdom is here, the kingdom has been preached and men press their way; that is, against the flesh and ambition and gullible desires of the flesh. They by their spiritual inner being press their way into the kingdom of God, or that is to say, into the Spirit of Christ which is the kingdom of God, which is on the inside of you. So then, we know that we're been born again. We sing that song I'm born again, I'm free from sin, I'm happy night and day. See? It makes me shout. There's no doubt, I know that I've been born again.

So then, we're born again, but then what about the body? What about the body? The body was not born again, only in the mind of God was it born again. But the Spirit actually came as the Spirit of Christ into your spirit, and it is now a new life, even the life of Christ. But the body is waiting for the change. And the Bible says we wait to wit the redemption of the body, as to the change. We are waiting to wit, not waiting for the redemption. It is the purchase possession, and Christ Jesus dying at Calvary, died, gave His blood to purchase the body and the dispute is over the body. Because God is a Spirit, He made the body for Himself, that through this body, He might enjoy all natural things. And Satan has disputed over that body to take that body in that he stole it from God through the weakness of man in the garden. He stole this body and he wants this body to make himself manifest in this body that he might have control of the world and all of the things, and the Bible says until the Lord comes in the brightness of His coming, as to the revelational light, that he sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is god. And the Bible says, with this wonderful, bright revelational coming, that God will destroy him, even Satan, with the brightness of His coming, as to cause him to completely be gone, as to the knowledge of the Lord and faith in God. There will be no shadows, not even a shadow left.

So then, we that are born of God keep ourself and the evil one toucheth us not because we are born of the God of light on the inside and darkness cannot fellowship light. Light causes darkness to dissipate, so Satan cannot get near us. That intellectual darkness hath no power over us, though it works in our natural minds like a repercussion of somebody having a flashback after they've got off of dope, or whatever. But nevertheless, the man on the inside, the Christ on the inside has sealed our human spirit on the inside to where all that is done by the body, as to faults and failures and stumblings and staggerings, cannot be charged against the spiritual man. So, all my weaknesses of the body, as I stumble and stagger, as long as I'm living holy and godly to the best of my ability, I'm trying to pray, I'm trying to fast, I'm trying to follow God, do everything I can, it doesn't matter what I do as I stumble and stagger, not one time will any of those faults ever be charged against my inner, angelic, spiritual being. Never. Because it is sealed with the great Spirit of Christ. And the Bible says grieve not this precious Holy Spirit that you are sealed with, as to your inner man. I say again, as the safe guard that becomes interwoven with the garment, grieve not that Holy Spirit that has sealed your inner spiritual man to where he can't sin. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto that day of the redemption of the body, or the change.

So then, we've been born again, but we still wait for the change of the body, to wit the redemption, as to the purchase possession. What is that? It's called the redemption of the body as to the adoption, or the Bar Mitzvah. At twelve or thirteen years old, the Jew comes to his Bar Mitzvah, and at that time, he comes into the power of control as to whatever measure. Jesus amazed the wise men at the age of twelve. So then, coming into the Bar Mitzvah, then what does this mean? We come into the adoption, to the adoption. Why does God use the terms adoption when He tells me to be born again? If my child is born into my family, most assuredly I wouldn't have to adopt him into my family. But nevertheless, the Bible says we have to come to the adoption. Why is that? Because as Jesus made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ. There is a body and there is a spirit. That spirit can be born again, translated into the Spirit of God, into the kingdom of God as a child of God in that God is the Father of spirits, or a heavenly Spirit. So then, that is our new birth, but our body cannot do that because it was born into the family of Adam, and therefore, the only way that this body can ever be God's, or the only way that this body can ever come into God, it must be adopted in. And I say to you again, for that to happen, it has to go through the law. To adopt a child you have to go through the law and this is why that Calvary, at Calvary, though the law was folded up and laid away; yet it must come again at the end of the Gentile age and must come again at the time of the coming of the Jews. When the days of the Gentiles are over, then comes the Jew again. When the Jew comes then comes the law again, because their body is under the constraint of the law. And when they died at Calvary it represented the body going out of the presence of God. As the head, Jesus Christ, to that body was smitten, so was the members, as to this Jewish body smitten. As the head has come to us, as to the spiritual Christ, so is the spiritual members as the inner man knitted together as to having been baptized by one Spirit into this glorious spiritual body.

Now, so waiting for this body, waiting for this body, when the Jews come in, Paul used the revelation like this when he saw a great revelation. He said, I see a revelation. If the casting away of the Jews be the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of the Jews be but life from the dead? Or that is, when the Jews went out of God's presence, it indicated the death of the sinful body in the presence of God to where God will never have to charge anything against the body, and if that brought the Gentiles in, who at that time was alienated from God because of bodily sins, if that brought them in, that now their body was dead, that sinful body, God could accept their spirit. And today we are a spiritual church. Paul said, I would that you were spiritual. I'd like to speak unto you as spirituals, but then at the end of this Gentile age, then the spiritual side of life, as to the teachings of God, will be over. Then comes the body back in, as it was the Jew before the Spirit came in at Calvary. So, then comes the body back in, because they are the one that takes care of the body. They are the one that keeps the body. They are the one that tries to be holy in body. The Bible tells us to be holy in body and spirit. We are working our way up to this in the body. Not as to perfection unto salvation, but to make perfection that's inwardly manifested in this outer man, to bring it to that fullness of that wonderful redemption of the body, in that Christ was perfect on the inside and that perfection was manifested in His body day by day to His growth and change. As He came to a new day of growth, there came a new manifestation as to that measure.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we did that very same thing and never did get behind with ours, always stayed caught up with it like Jesus? Never was there any sin in His life, but we drag ours out a lot of times and we go through chastisement and whatever, for God to get our attention so He can change that body as it goes on to be made perfect. That is to say, allow this inner perfection to be made fully manifest to these mortal genes. So then, we find that when the law comes back in, the Jews coming back in, that will be the change of the body, for at the very time that the Lord Jesus appears to show them the nails in His hands, at that very time something is going to happen. A nation is going to be born in one day. But when the Lord comes for us in Revelation 19, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye we'll be changed from mortal to immortal and we will be changed from terrestrial, to the celestial in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Or that is to say, at the resurrection of the Jews, what will that be as to the resurrection of the dead? Or the resurrection of the dead, what will that be but as to the resurrection of the Jews? Or that is, the Jews will come back into the presence of God. No more holocaust, no more blinded in part, no more saying, Let His blood be upon us and the sufferings. But they will come back into the presence and the favoritism of God. And at that time it will indicate that the days of the Gentiles are over, because as long as they are out of the presence of God they go back to the Old Testament teachings of that goat that went away into the wilderness as the scapegoat to bear our sins.

So when the natural head comes to the natural members all of it will unite itself together to bring in a millennium, as to a nation born in one day, and Jesus the head of that nation, sitting on the throne, ruling through that thousand years millennium reign. All right. So then, we simply see, as to the adoption, that is why we wait for the adoption. This is why that the Jews had to go out of the presence of God and Jesus had to die out of the presence of God so that we could live in the presence of God, because if that had not happened, then today He could not spare us. But the blood being on the seat of atonement, all of the world today, their sins are gone. Though they are sinners, yet God so loved us while we were yet in our sins that He gave His Son to die for us. And so then, all the world has a blessing of medical aid and all these wonderful things as to good living while grace is here. But the days will be over at the ending of the Gentile time.

So, I say this in real simplicity to where you can understand it: that you being a sinner by nature, then there was no way that God could save you. He would have had to destroy you. He couldn't even look upon you, but by putting the blood on the seat of atonement, letting Jesus die and the Jews die out of His presence, then that meant your body was forever dead in the presence of God. He could never see your sin and iniquity again. The image of death, as in Adam, all that was now gone. John laid the axe to the root of the tree. That family tree was cut down all the way back to Calvary. Today now we're now the tree of life as to the spiritual side of it. See? And He has accepted us as a spiritual being, laying aside the body of this death to never look upon it, never charge any of our errors against it. And now He is bringing the Jews in after the Gentile age, or the church ages, and He will bring them in in body and let them rule and reign a thousand years in that perfect body, to the perfect order of His laws and whatever. So when the Jews come in then, that means that our bodily righteousness, which was perfected in Jesus, in that God made us to be in Jesus Christ His workmanship unto perfection, or that is to say, that perfectness of God that He hath accredited to us, will then come into view and we'll be changed like that. And that body that we do not see perfect now, that body will be gone and there will be a spiritual body in that this body will be changed into a celestial, and then that wonderful Christ body that we now have by predestination, as the foreknowledge and foresight of God, will be made manifest to where people can look upon it.

So then, we are waiting for the change and the redemption of our body. The Bible says great is the mystery of godliness, for God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles and caught up into heaven. So, our body is out of the presence of God and it's out of the sight of God as the Jews, and God never looks at it. It's dead, it's gone, it's buried. God delivered us from the body of this death, this corruptible flesh, and today He sees us as that translated spirit into the kingdom of His dear Son, as Christ in you the hope of glory, and He doesn't charge anything against you. And the Bible says He hath perfected you forever by the works of the Lord Jesus, or made you perfect, having translated you as a spiritual being into the wonderful kingdom of God, having translated you out of the kingdom of darkness, as to the intellectual mind of death, into the marvelous kingdom of light, as to this wonderful mind of Christ, even the Words of life.

So, we see what the adoption is. Soon the adoption will take place, but until that time, though ye be lord of all, ye differ nothing from a servant. You are under tutors until the time appointed of the Father, and then this glorious wonderful light, Paul said, shall be made manifest in your mortal genes. And they that have turned many to righteousness shall outshine the brightness of the noonday. So that ought to make you happy tonight to know that God has perfected you forever, that you cannot sin, you keep yourself and the evil one touches you not. And that, as I always say, the angel said, Messiah, four hundred and eighty-three years following that, as the prophecy of Daniel, has done away with death. He came and made an end of death, because He made an end of sin, and today you are free from death and you are free from sin. You are free from the transgression of the law, whereas the Bible says deliver me from the great transgression. So, we've been delivered from the great transgression and we are delivered from death and sin, and today we are free, but we need to praise God and love the Lord and not play around with the flesh, for the flesh profiteth nothing. We should not have our minds on the flesh, nor follow after the image and ambitions of the flesh, nor have the gullible desire of the world within us, for if the love of the world is in you then your spirit has not been translated into Christ's Spirit, for Christ's Spirit has no desire for the world. He said, I'm not of this world. The world loveth it's own. I'm not of this world. And when you are born again then you are in a heavenly place. You are, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, they that dwell in heaven.

So then, let's remember that and let's keep the body under subjection, bring it into subjection, cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, to bring it into captivity, every thought to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, not being you that live, but Christ that lives within you, and the life you now live you live by the Son of God. And when the time of the change comes, you'll be glad. We are witting the change. We are learning and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, speaking of the body. The body does go to sleep. It is not dead, as to being a Christian, because the Spirit of life will come and pick it up and change it. But if you go out to meet God and you go out to meet God without being born again, then that simply means that you are dead, because death is when your spirit departs from God, to never come back into His presence. Sleep is when your spirit departs from your body and shall return to pick it up. But your spirit is still interwoven in a oneness with God, so there is no death to it. It just departs from your body and your body goes to sleep. But because you've done the things that please God, in denying yourself and following after Christ, He hath given you the body as an inheritance and will give you the earth which abides forever with all the wonderful treasures of the celestial side of life, the new earth and the new city. He will give you the body so that you can enjoy all of these things as a spiritual being through that body while He enjoys all of them with you through the body of Jesus Christ, being your king.

There is a difference between the adoption and the new birth. There is a definite difference. I hope you can comprehend and understand what we are saying as pertaining to this mystery, and as we go on even as to the mystery of them that shall not sleep and to the mystery of the faith and many other things as we go on. Paul said, I'm a steward of the mysteries of God. And it's expected of a steward that he should be faithful.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord
