Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Isaiah chapter 46 verse 10 says
this. Declaring the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times things
which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established
and I will accomplish all my good pleasure, so the.
Lord says from the end or declaring the end from the
beginning, which tells us when God speaks he's already seen its
completion. Now this is a very powerful
principle, because if God is truly talking to you about
something and speaks to you the minute He talks to you, you
should consider it over, even though it's not in
manifestation, because God is not going to say something to
you at the beginning that he hasn't already seen its end.
This is why when God gives a word to you and you take it by
faith, it will come to pass because He's declaring you in a
beginning of hearing something already finished.
Are you hearing me? You know as well as I do when we
when God began to speak to us concerning purchasing the mall,
I'll never forget that particular Camp Living Faith
conference that Pastor Kenneth Estrada and Pastor Roddy
Schaefer were here and we had heard the Lord and so we decided
in that service based upon pastor preaching on moving
mountains. That and this was in 2015.
We didn't sign officially till 2021 that it became ours.
But in 2015, which would have been a January in 2015, US 3, we
came over here to this area, right here, and we began to
dance and shout like we had signed papers and it was
finished. So the day that I actually
signed, I didn't jump around and shout because I had done it six
years earlier. Come on, you hear what I'm
saying. So that's how it is with God,
with you. If he says by his stripes you
were healed, well, then guess what?
You are. So that means your body must get
alignment as long as you fail not to believe.
Amen. Now, there may be some things in
the process between your belief and its manifestation that
you're going to do some things. That's not just God alone, OK?
Because God may have some different methods by which he
brings that healing to pass. And when I say that, I'm not
saying don't continue to hear God in the process.
But you never abandoned. I can only be healed.
I have to walk in wholeness because again, Jesus, with some
that were didn't have the ability to see at a word they
saw, but with others he puts mud on their eyes and tells them to
go wash it off. With one he spoke to and I think
he may have spit in his eyes or did something, maybe just spoke
to him or laid hands on him. And he opened his eyes and he
said, what do you see? He said, well, I see people that
look like trees, which means when he opened it wasn't
instantaneous. So the Lord laid hands on him
again. The next time he opened it was
crystal clear. Well, you understand that man
didn't get mad at God and say, well, how come I didn't get it
like blind man, Bartimaeus. The problem with believers is
sometimes they want their manifestation of healing to be
like somebody else's manifestation or their
manifestation of faith would be a better way, you know, like
someone else got, which that's not the point.
Do you get the end result? I said, do you get the end
result? That's the issue as you want to
be able to stay with the end result.
So he says, he declares the end from the beginning.
He says, my purpose will be established.
I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
So then we brought up this because we're talking about the
power of the will, OK, in God's Kingdom, OK, there's there's a
power contained within the will. In fact, God's creation has
within it a will of its own. We talked about this last week,
that there are created beings that are in God's Kingdom, that
he's given them a will and they can choose.
And God doesn't stop their choice, even though He may know
their choice will bring death. If you weren't here last week, I
encourage you to go online so you can see that even in the
realm of angels, there was the capacity or the ability for them
to think on their own. And one anointed cherub, he was
called the Morning Star in Isaiah chapter 14.
Because of his beauty. He got lifted up in pride and he
decided that of his own free will.
I'm going to take over the throne in heaven.
I'm going to take God, the Creator of all things.
I'm going to take him off his. Throne.
He made a choice. Now do you think God wanted him
to make that choice? Absolutely not.
But he allowed him and he and he received the consequences of
that choice, which means Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like.
Lightning out of heaven. Right.
I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Not only did he fall, but a third of the angels with him,
which means he was able to convince a third.
I said a third to to exercise rebellion against the Creator of
all things, and they were convinced they could do it.
Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our
likeness. The minute he did that, he gave
you a will as well. So when he places man in the
garden, he said, Let us make man in our image.
Genesis 126 According to our likeness, let them have
dominion. God has dominion, He has rules.
So he gave man rule and dominion on the earth.
He describes what it was on the earth that he had dominion over
and then he set a parameter for man to determine does man love
me or not. Now man should love him because
he was creating the nature of God and God is love.
However, love is not known unless love is exercised.
So he said you can eat from any tree of the garden, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You shout on to eat for the day you eat.
You will, surely. What do you think God's will?
For Adam was to live, to never ever eat the fruit of the
knowledge of good and evil. Don't you believe that was His
will? Do you think the Lord was like,
I really want him to die? I'm going to put that tree here
because I really don't like him anyway.
No. We know it was his will for him
to live and be like him. However, Adam had the free will.
And you know what the Father didn't do?
The Father did not go against his will.
I said the Father did not go against his will.
He bore the consequence of his decision.
And love 'cause God is love. Put Adam out of the garden.
Are you hearing me?
So when we hear this because again, why are we in this series
Again, just to help connect the dots, right?
We started this year out calling the reigning spirit because we
have the reigning spirit greater is he that is in you than he
that's in the world. If the same spirit that raised
Christ from the dead dwells, where in you we have the third
person of the Godhead, He is the Holy Spirit.
He is the reigning spirit and all other spirits are subject to
him, right? And if we have the reigning
spirit, then why are we listening to other voices?
OK, because and because of this whole context, we came out of
Timothy. When Paul wrote to Timothy and
he said now listen. In the last of the last days or
in the latter times, he said the spirit explicitly says meaning
the spirit is saying this is going to happen.
You can't pray away. You can't fast and pray that
it's gone. This is going to take place, he
said. In the last days, he said, some
will fall away from the faith, paying attention to doctrines of
demons and seducing spirits. So then, it's going to behoove
us to understand the realm of the spirit this year, but also
understand how we need to keep ourselves connected to the
reigning spirit and then attack certain things that are being
spoken in the in our circles. When I say our service, I'm
talking those who call themselves believers that we
need to deal with the cliche statements that have a form of
godliness. But it actually lacks power.
And not only does it lack power, but it actually has a seduction
to it. And if you take hold of certain
aspects of things that are just flippantly being said, without
you examining it yourself to determine its truth, then it can
take you down a road to deception.
That you'll begin to view scripture through a clouded lens
and be firmly persuaded that you love God and you are doing his
intention. All the while, the devil has
made you powerless and have no significant.
Effect on the earth. Amen.
So we. Are dealing with the power of
the way. It is the most powerful force
God created. So powerful that He doesn't
violate yours. He does not violate your will,
but He will hold your will against His, and ultimately His
will wins. Now, He does this not because
He's making you. He does this because His will is
His word and His word is life, and he's giving you the
opportunity to submit to life. In fact, Joshua said it this
way, which was really powerful and it just resonates all
throughout Scripture. He said.
I set before you life and. Choose.
Choose life. But who gets to choose it?
Who does? OK, so if we have the reigning
spirit, you have to understand the reigning spirit is not
making you do something. And since he's not making you do
something, 'cause if God made people do stuff, don't you think
he would have made Adam not eat the fruit?
Could God had closed his mouth. I mean we know this happened in
the Gospels with was it Zechariah?
Is that his name That was, you know, the husband of Martha.
And he's like, how in the world my wife going to have a kid now
And the angel's like, bro, you didn't believe my word.
You know, that's Pastor Earl's paraphrase.
And he said because of that you are not going to be able to open
your mouth. Now he can open his mouth and
eat, but he could not talk, which means the Lord caught tied
up his vocal cords. That doesn't mean Zechariah
couldn't communicate because he could write.
He could carry on whole conversations right now.
I'm not saying that he started sign language.
I'm just saying he could write ultimately.
But when he acknowledged that his son after he was born with
his name would be John, then Lord loosed his vocal cords and
he began to speak again. Well, don't you know that God
can shut mouths? Well, we know he actually can
shut physical mouths so they don't open up when he did what
he what he did for Daniel and the lions den because you know,
those those lions were hungry. I don't believe the the lions
were satisfied where they had no hunger, pain.
I believe the Lord made them more hungry all night long.
In fact, I surmise that when Daniel laid down with the lion
that could not eat him but his stomach was grumbling.
It's much like you having one of these beds today that that that
will massage you while you're sleeping.
So he was being massaged by the rumbles of the lion's stomachs
and went to sleep and slept great because the minute they
pulled Daniel out and he threw the ones who came against Daniel
in, they couldn't even hit the ground.
And those lions said about time we get to eat, we were we were
held 24 hours. My point is, if God is in
control like people say, then why did he not shut Adam's mouth
or wither his hand? Oh, OK, come on now.
'Cause we know it's God's will, that he doesn't eat it, and we
know he's all powerful. But he doesn't stop.
He doesn't stop him. You know, God sees it when he
eats, Because when God comes down and says, Adam, where are
you? It's not because he was blind.
It's not because Adam was a good hider, right?
No, he's like, you're out of position.
He's just trying to get him to take responsibility for his
action. Have you eaten the fruit?
I told you not to. So we need to be careful when we
say God's in control because we can mislead people.
In fact, I'll just be honest with you, there was a whole
article written by someone at one juncture who was having a
hard time with God and Jesus because they had heard the
statement God's in control so much that says, well, if God's
in control, he's doing a really horrible job right now because
why are there famines? Why are there women being raped?
Why is there inequality and unjustice in nations?
Why are there this? If this is God, then I don't
want to serve him. And the reality is God is not,
you know, wanting famine. God is not wanting people to
kill each other. God is not wanting women rape.
That is not his will, so he's not the author of those actions.
Yet we, in our illiteracy of Scripture and the knowledge of
rightly divine the truth, will begin to give God a power he
himself doesn't even possess, to try to justify him as if He's
greater because his ways are higher than our ways and his
thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
And if God wants a woman to be raped to teach her something,
then that's on God and they ought to just accept it.
He is not unjust like that. He's not, because really the
word control means to have power over.
Well, does he have power over? Ultimately, his word has power
over Does he exercise, restraining or directing
influence over? I would say he definitely gives
influence. How did he control Adam?
The most he could control Adam was this Adam.
See all the trees? You can eat from any of them.
Now see this tree right here? Don't eat for the day you eat,
you're going to die. And that's all the control he
had over Adam. He was trying to.
Influence him because what did he say?
This fruit, what did he tell him?
Don't eat it. He told him what to do.
Don't eat it. Because the day you do, you'll
die. So did God.
Make Adam eat the fruit. No, Adam chose, although he had
the answer to not. So we've got to be.
Careful when we start saying, well, God's in control.
He doesn't control. In fact, let me just go ahead
and drive on a little bit so I can prove this to you.
Some things. Again, God cannot force anyone
against their will, but only influences it by giving them the
right answer. But ultimately, you decide, OK,
go ahead and look at your name and say I decide, don't be
blaming God for all your mistakes.
Don't think God willed it, OK, no, I'm not going to go there.
God will let you do anything you want to do, but we'll hold you
accountable to whatever you do according to His will.
Because at the end of the day, what is will?
Will is the. Decision to do.
An action something. And at the end of the day, who
has the ultimate say so in anything?
OK, now you say we do. You have the ultimate ability to
do anything you want. To but the ultimate say so is
the Lord's. And if you choose not to do it,
you get the consequences of not doing it.
But it was still your choice, because he sure didn't make you
right. How many of you felt forced by
the Lord to be here today? How many of you did the Holy
Spirit come up out your body, snatched your sheets off your
bed this morning? Threw you out of bed.
You're like, what? Get dressed.
And I I don't feel like going today.
And he picked your arm. You put your jacket on.
You're like, I don't want you. And he's brushing your teeth.
I don't. Want it done.
I don't want to go. He hits you and spit the stuff
out, and he throws you in the car and he drives for you while
you're sitting there hitting the brake, and then he makes you
come in today. Did he do that?
So why are you here now? Does God want you here?
How do you know that? Because it's in his word, do not
forsake the assembling of yourself together.
And all the more as the day draws near, as some do, they
forsake it. So don't do that.
And all the more as the day approaches, What day?
The day we're waiting on. The day when the trumpet sounds,
The day that we are changing The moment in the twinkling of an
eye and we jump up out of this place.
Yeah, all the more. And if there's ever a day that
that day is, it's today. We're closer than ever.
We should be the best perfect attendance people on the planet.
But that comes by free will, and that's not religion, That's
choice. Hallelujah.
So will is the power to control one's own actions and emotions.
Mental powers manifested as wishing, desiring, choosing, or
intending to determine by an act of choice.
And we all have this. I had a choice today of what to
put on. The Lord did not talk to me and
say, put this on. Now if the Lord told me what to
wear, I would put that outfit on.
I would do that. But if He didn't, He did tell me
this though, to put on an outfit in a general sense.
Why? Because he said that I need to
be modest. So coming in here naked would be
pretty embarrassing, right? I mean, that wouldn't be God's
will for me to say I'm free. I'm free.
I'm back in the garden, people. I'm free.
No, no. I mean, I'm not building a
doctrine on nudity. Right?
Come on now. Now we're all free.
We bat like the original Adam. We in the garden.
We just have a nudist church. I can see it now.
I can see them now. Getting off that bad.
I'm not attended people I am not attended.
I have. I have never heard of any nudist
colony that the people look good.
Anyway just to let you know funny story.
Funny story. So I have a pastor, a friend of
mine who used to be a district director for Rhema out in the
Tampa area and he had a person in his church said hey, my mom
or my father. One of those.
I think it was my mom or father. I think it was father.
You know, he's sick and he needs.
Would you go by his house and pray for him?
He's like, sure, because, you know, pastors pray for people.
A person, a friend of someone, OK, So he's sure he got the
address right. He was ignorant of the address.
And he followed the address, got there, showed up at a gate
because there was a gated community.
You know plenty of gated communities, right?
In Florida, for sure. And so anyway, drives up.
Well, all of a sudden, you know, he, you know, says you know what
he needs to do. And then the guard who worked
for the place said a guy drives up, rides up on a bike naked.
So it was a nudist colony. He said, oh, I know where he
lives, just follow me. So he said here I am following a
guy on a bike, naked. He said his.
Pastor. He's like he, you know, I kept
my word, he said. I just felt like I had blinders
on the whole time, he said. I didn't look to the right or to
the left, man. I just got to the house, prayed
for the person looking in their eyes and then left the
neighborhood as quickly as I could.
Right. No, but you understand people
are goofy. I'm telling you, people are
goofy because they do not rightly divide the word of
truth. I mean, you understand, I could
sell you all kind of false stuff in Scripture.
Well, if we're back in the original purpose of man and
man's in the garden, then we're in the garden and we were free.
But no, and they weren't wearing any clothes.
We were unashamed. So we can all come here together
unashamed. Yeah, right.
It's not true. Come on.
It's not true. Quit looking at people.
Stop it. Stop it.
Right, and don't listen to that. If you're ever going to do
public speaking, just imagine everybody naked.
Don't do that. That's that's worse.
It's like I can't even preach now.
Are you hearing me? But it's will you decide.
Say I decide. You are in control, so no one
can control you. You're in control now.
You can be in places where they limit your ability to do, and
most of those places that are really tight is called prison.
Now, in prison, they tell you what to wear, what to eat and
when their movement. But even in prison, there's some
liberty. But again, a prisoner can still
choose to either be in the general population, or they can
even rebel against what layers of boundaries are set there and
find themselves in solitary confinement.
They didn't have to be in solitary confinement, but
because they will not get along well with the general
population, so there's still a matter of choice, even in
prison. But if you're not in prison, you
understand your job doesn't control you, 'cause you could
quit. Your spouse doesn't control you.
You could get a divorce, You could.
Are you hearing me? Getting pregnant doesn't even
control you. There are people who make
choices to not be pregnant anymore.
Are you hearing me? If you are speeding in the
police officers, you can choose to either pull over or keep
driving faster, right? So it's kind of crazy when
people are always acting like people are trying to control my
life and then begin to get on social media and talk about the
abuses that are happening in the workplace or, you know, among
their family. Especially when it comes to
church. You know, because you know,
pastors are the most controlling people on the face of the
planet, apparently. But the reality is no one's
controlling you. You control your own life.
Even right now. I don't control you listening,
'cause don't think. There's not been plenty of
people that while I'm preaching, some are like praise the Lord,
thank you Lord, and are receiving the engrafted word and
renewing their mind. And others like I don't believe
that I'm not going to do that, but yet smiling the whole time,
Hallelujah. And there are some that even run
down and shout, but then on Monday, cuss.
What happened to Sunday? You.
Where's the Sunday person? It's your choice.
Well, you know, at work, you know, they made me.
Nobody's making you. I said nobody's making you,
nobody's making you. And you know, in the United
States you really have no say. So it's not like you're in these
dictator countries and. Even then, the dictator
countries, there's still the ability to choose because you
could choose to go against the dictator and just leave the
planet quicker. Right.
I mean, you could do that. Just say Amen.
But why do people want to put the control card on others?
It's because they don't want to take the responsibility of their
own choice. They want to accept the lie.
And you know what? It came from the believer saying
God is in control. Because if God can do something
to me that I don't want, if God forces, if God's making the
choices in my life and I'm basically walking down those
paths, period, well then you understand it's easy to put that
on anyone else. Well, the reality is, God lets
you take your own path. Now how do we know this?
Let's, let's destroy a little little false doctrine here
first. John 15 says this.
This is the message we have heard from him and announced to
you that God is what light. And in him there is what there
is what there is what. No darkness at No darkness at,
No darkness at So God is what now Colossians says that he
redeemed us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into
the Kingdom of his of the Son of light, his beloved Son, or the
Son of Light. So darkness is associated with
evil and disobedience and rebellion and light is
associated with life. And he says there's no rebellion
in God, There's no evil in God. In fact, Jesus said it this way
in John 1430. He said, I will not speak much
more with you, for the ruler of this of the world is coming and
he has nothing in me. He has what?
Nothing. So you understand one particular
thing we see all the time is the yin and the Yang.
The yin and the Yang. You know, it stands that in
everything evil there's a little bit of good and everything good
there's a little bit of evil. And so we actually think God's
all good, but yet he can dabble in darkness if he chooses,
because he's in control and his ways are higher than your ways.
And we've accepted that as truth.
But that's conflicting, because how can a holy God and a just
God play with the devil? In fact, how can he employ him
if if the devil's on his payroll?
Come on, he's on his payroll. Are you hearing me now?
Again, let me read James 1st, and then I'm going to deal with
you. Job and false doctrine.
James 112 to 15 says this blessed is a man who perseveres.
Under what? Under trial.
What's he do? He perseveres under trial, for
once he has been approved, he will receive what the crown of
life which the Lord has promised to those who what, Let no one
say when he is what? Tempted I am being tempted by
God for God, What cannot be tempted by evil?
Well, if he can't be tempted by evil, and in him is no darkness.
And the God of this world, or the rule of this world has
nothing in him. So there's nothing in God that
uses evil to teach you a lesson. I don't know why the Lord let me
get in a wreck. The Lord didn't let you get in a
wreck. The Lord was not the author of
your wreck. There's a devil that comes to
still. It's amazing.
We want to give all the devil's weapons and his warfare
attributed to God. I know, we know that God is
ultimately the source of authority and his will reigns
supreme. But there are other forces and
there's other humans that are functioning of their own free
will and they're trying to thwart and come against God's
ultimate will. And God can take the will of
someone against him that can come against you.
So in essence, what the devil meant for bad, God can turn for
good. But he wasn't the author of what
the devil brought. Let no one say when he's tempted
I'm tempted by God. For God cannot tempt by evil,
for he himself does not tempt anyone.
Now notice this comes off of verse 12.
Blessed are the man who perseveres under trial.
I mean, this is how powerful God's word is.
The minute he makes you known the answer.
He doesn't care if something comes against you, because he's
already giving you the power to overcome God.
Never. Told Adam.
Hey, son, we tide. And you know I love you, right?
Look at all this fruit I've given you.
It's pretty awesome, right? And you know you can't eat this
tree. This tree right here, son.
You don't eat it, right? I've told you that.
Don't eat this tree. You'll die.
I've said this to you. Every time I come to the garden,
I tell you that I just remind you.
But listen, where your daddy lives.
I had a problem. Now I take care of problems, but
I cast one of these creative beings.
I head out and I'll be honest with you.
I think he's coming to see you. I just want you to know that way
when he shows up, you'll be ready.
He never told him that. Never.
You think why in the world would
the father not warn his son? Well, how in the world can Adam
die no matter who shows up? There's only one way to die for
Adam. It's to eat the fruit.
Tempting. Being tempted won't kill him.
Being tempted won't kill him because Jesus was tempted on all
accounts like us. But he didn't sin now.
He became sin. He didn't willfully divulge in
rebellion. He took on what he resisted his
whole existence because he did the will of his father.
So he didn't ever warn him that he was coming.
He just said don't eat this tree so you understand why the devil
comes in. It's like I got to figure out
what God said. Because his will is what he
supports, and if you go against his will, then you get the
alternative. And so I got to find out what
his will is. I need to know what his will is.
Let me ask Eve. Let me just ask Eve.
Let me see if I can get it out of her and she lets him.
No, no. We can eat from any tree of the
garden, bro. Just this tree right here.
We can't eat because the day we eat we going to die.
And he's like, that's it, that's it, that's it.
OK, OK. I'm going to tempt them with
what evil? I am going to tempt them.
Not the God. And God didn't send him the same
power that God had Adam possessed in the earth.
He could have cast the devil out of his realm, but instead he
chose to rebel against his own father.
It was his choice. That's why Romans 5 says it's
through one man's transgression, not because of the temptation,
but because of the choice. So when we get over into then
and let's go on, he said. But the one who is tempted is
carried away and enticed by his own lust.
So there was something that fabricated in 'cause you
understand? When God created the anointed
cherub that we call Satan today, he didn't put any evil in him.
He conceived that himself he'd started to lust.
And then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to
sin. And when sin is accomplished, it
brings forth what? Death.
So when Adam, he began to lust for power that was never his,
and he made the choice to act on it because he thought he could
get it. But in turn he just gave his
authority over to the devil. The devil usurped in essence
through deception was able to receive freely from Adam.
Not stealing, but receive freely through manipulation and
deception. The power of dominion over the
earth. That's why he was called these
is called the God of this world or the systems that are on it.
That's why Jesus called him the ruler of this world.
It's not the earth, it's the systems.
In essence, he is functioning in the systems.
He's established those systems because he's Lord.
He's king over them. But I've come to destroy the
works of the devil. Get.
Can I get an Amen? He wants to bring God's Kingdom
back. So if you jump back over into
Job and you can study this for yourself when you're reading the
account and you read these other accounts, you have to know then
God himself is not wanting to destroy Job.
It's not God's will that he loses his kids, loses his
livestock. The enemy comes to the Lord in
the heaven realm because he is the God of the world.
And the Lord says, have you considered my servant Job?
He's a righteous guy. The devil did.
Satan did. And he begins to say, yeah, he's
blessed all right, you sure are blessing him.
But if you take the things you've given him Now, what gave
the devil rights anyway? Well, what was Job doing?
He was very concerned that his kids may sin against God, so he
was doing sacrifices for them. Oh, thank you, Jesus.
He was doing sacrifices for them in hopes that in the event that
their kids did something and they died, that they could make
it into God or be with God. In essence, he was trying to be
the sacrifice for his own kids, but his kids had opened the door
themselves and so it gave him, gave him the right and it said
he feared this. He was afraid, very concerned
that his kids weren't living according to the will of God,
the known will of God. At the time.
It gave an open door for the devil to come and kill his kids,
kill what they were responsible for, which was his livestock.
They oversaw a lot of his stuff. They were response.
He was able to destroy all that stuff in hopes that he would
begin to think God as a bad person.
Now he never called God evil and it was obvious he did not have
any context of Satan like we do. We've been given letters and
context of Satan, which is why he said the Lord gives, the Lord
takes away. Why?
Because he is not aware of the entity or the person.
Called the Devil. But we are not ignorant of him.
Again, You understand somebody can do something for you and
you're unaware of it. I mean, I've gone to
restaurants, somebody pay for my meal.
I have no idea who did it. Now I could just say, well, the
Lord blessed me, the Lord paid for it.
Well, the Lord ultimately did in one sense, but he did it through
a human being, right? So again, when he's making the
statement, it's in ignorance. The whole book of Job is him
trying to understand why all this befell but would befall him
when he's been living righteous in the 1st place, you say?
Well what about the sickness? Man was made out of the dust of
the and Adam had a a dominion over all thee.
So when he says if you touch the man's skin, if you get sickness
on him, he'll curse you to your face.
And what did God say? He's within your power.
Both times he said that he's within your power meaning.
But he he limited what he could do to Job's suit, he said.
Because he's righteous, you can't put a sickness on him that
he would die where his spirit would have to leave.
He's done nothing deserving of physical death, so you cannot
put anything on him that would cause him to die.
So God limited what the tempter could do because of the
righteousness of Job. And we say God's in control.
Now again, when the scripture in Job says you've tempted me to
move upon my servant Job, all he's saying is, is you're trying
to have me come against him, but I'm not.
He's within your power, but I'll still protect him because you've
given the condition, Satan, that based upon what's in your power.
If you come to kill, steal and destroy it, he will curse me.
I don't believe he'll curse me. He's a righteous man.
Just like I don't want Adam to eat the fruit, but it still will
be Job's choice. But you know what?
Job always chose to maintain righteousness and everything.
The three friends came and said he rebuked them.
Fact they had to do a sacrifice and get Job to pray for them.
But after it was all said and done, what did God do to Job
because of the trouble the devil brought?
I'm giving you double for your trouble.
He got double the kids, meaning he got the same amount on earth
because the other three had already died.
Which means then there was something that happened in the
process, that they were still a candidate to be with the Lord.
I can't tell you what that is. All right.
So with that being said. Turn over to Romans Chapter 9.
I'm going to have to start in verse one and I didn't.
I put this I I put this technically as just Roman 9
because there are verses in here I need to go to and even this
morning I'm like Lord, I need some clarity here because I need
to be able to explain this with clarity.
I need to explain this with clarity because this is the
issue. This is the chapter everybody
goes to and says God's in control, God's in control.
God's in well, God is in control of His word.
He will control His word because His word is Him.
It's who he is, and it's the highest word, period.
But we get to choose whether or not we get to do it.
And if you don't choose God's word, you get the alternative.
His word is life. So if you don't choose His word,
what do you get? Death.
And who decides death. Who decides death?
And this is in any situation in your life.
You decided. You decided OK.
But let's start in verse one, because verse one sets context.
I said verse one sets context. Paul says this.
Look what Paul says. He says.
I am telling the truth in Christ.
I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me
in the Holy Spirit verse 2. That I have great sorrow and
unceasing grief in my heart. Next verse for.
I could wish that I myself were cursed, separated from Christ,
for the sake of my brethren, my kins, kinsmen according to the
flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons
and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and
the temple service and the promises whose are the fathers
and from whom in the in is in Christ according to the flesh
who is over all God bless forever.
Amen. Verse 6.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed, and I'll stop
right there. Now what's important about this
passage? So leave it up so I can kind of
go to it. What sets context of Chapter 9
is Paul's opening statement. He is saying.
If I could take the responsibility of the choice of
every one of my kinsmen, that I could bear that responsibility
and their some of their choices, so that it's me who will be
eternally separated from Christ forever.
And by doing that, although it was their choice, I'm taking
that choice. And if that could have happened,
I would gladly do it. So all of them could be with
Christ. If I could be their will.
If I could just somehow be the one who took on all of their
choices and got accounted their choices to me so that the
choices they make aren't accounted to them, then I do it
because I have this grief. I want them to be in Christ.
But what does he conclude? You can't.
If there was a way possible that the will of man could be
overturned and they could be with Christ independent of their
choices, I'd be the first one to take it on.
And he said, why would he do that?
Well, he's really demonstrating the heart of Jesus in one sense
because Jesus, although he can't take on your choice, he can take
on your sin, which by all right is your choice, meaning he took
on your wrongdoing. He's paid the price for death so
that you can now, being born of God, born of him and the
reigning spirit lives in. You can always choose the side
with God's word, live the life that has life, and no longer
longer make the choice of wrong. But you still have to make the
choice. So what Jesus could do for us,
He did. Which means I will pay the
payment for the sum of all your choices.
However, you still have to choose me, because here's the
thing. Has Jesus died for the sin of
all humanity? Has he done it once and for all?
Does he ever have to go back to the cross?
No, he's done it so before we were ever thought of in a womb.
In the natural, God already paid for the sum total of all of our
sins that we would ever commit while we were on the planet.
Yet we cannot be born again. Although the blood has been
applied to our sin, it is forever settled in heaven.
How is it that we get the blood applied to our account so that
we can become a new creature in Christ?
We choose of our own free will to accept Jesus Christ as our
Lord and the substitute of our payment, the one who paid the
price of all of our wrongdoing. And when we make that choice, we
become born again. At that point, we begin to do
everything in life still based upon choice.
It's just now we're attached to life and our spirit man is no
longer dead. Separated from God who the some
choices of a spirit separated from God is only death.
Because we're we are eternally rebellious.
Now we've been empowered with the choice of life and we can
choose life. I said we can choose life.
We can choose life. Now the reason why this is
important, if you jump down to verse 13 as he begins to deal
with some things that says this, and it was written.
Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then?
There is no injustice with God, is there?
Paul answers it. May it never be.
I love Jacob. Hate Esau.
OK. So I have problems with the
stupid billboards that say God's not mad at you.
God hates sin, God hates rebellion.
God's giving you a way out. But if you keep doing it, wrath
is being stored up for those in disobedience.
So to give the world this idea that God's happy with them, come
on, we have bought this lie that if we don't tell them what's
wrong, then inevitably the wrong just disappears.
Again, Robert can go to the doctor and he can say I found
this. Well that doesn't move the
covenant child, thank you for letting me know.
Now that I know I can speak to and do something.
Because if I was ignorant of it, it could have taken over My
whole body, brought me, took me out and I all the while I'm like
I didn't know again if the Doctor.
Said. Well, Robert, you know, I feel
like he's a little bit older and you know, he's probably lived a
good enough life. We'll just, I don't want him to
have a hard time the rest of his life.
You know, I'm just not going to tell him, Robert, you know, you
got some high blood pressure. That's, you know, we'll we'll
deal with that and deal with different symptoms and don't
even tell him what's going on. Man, you're looking good today,
all the while knowing he's got cancer and we're telling the
world God's not mad at you, God's mad at sin.
God hates sin. God hates the Sinner.
It's like we've tried to separate the spirit of a person
from themselves. I mean, a Sinner functions in
sin. I mean, a person dead, separated
from God is a Sinner. In fact, Jesus called them their
father was the devil, not him. Now their original risk creation
was in the image of God, but the minute they sinned, they fell
from that dominion. They no longer have the life of
God and their father by All right is the devil, and God does
not love the devil. And that's not being mean.
That's saying we have an answer. We have an answer.
Well, you think you're better than me.
I don't think I'm better than you.
I'm alive and you're dying. Period.
I just saw one minister do this. He took a a a goldfish bowl, put
it on the sanctuary on a stage, and he took the one of the fish
out and put it on the table and walked away and it started
flapping and it fell off the table and they gasp.
He picked it back up and stuck it back on the table.
And he says this fish is dying right now and everybody's just
shocked. And then he picks it up and
throws it back. And he says you're more
concerned about this fish dying than your neighbor who's dying.
If they're not born again, they're done.
If they're not born again, God is going to his wraths being
stored up from them. And you have the answer to get
them out of it. But yet you don't want to offend
them. We don't even want to give them
a right diagnosis. We don't even want to give them
an opportunity. Look, if Robert chews, I don't
care. I'm going out this way.
God can't even stop it. God can't stop it.
God won't stop it, but at least he now has the He wasn't robbed
of the choice. We shouldn't rob people of the
choice to get over into life. But he goes on and says this OK,
Jacob Babla Esau hated. Why shall we say then Is there
no injustice what God is there may it never be for he who for
he says to Moses I will have mercy on who I have mercy on.
I'll have compassion who I have compassion.
So it does not depend on the man who wills are the man who runs,
but on God who has mercy. That is really kind of unclear
man when you first read it. But again, we're talking in
context of Paul saying now if I could take on all their choices
so that when they make their choices, it doesn't matter and
they get to be with God because I'm the choice, I take the
choices. But he's like, I can't do it.
They have to make their own choice.
In essence what he is saying is, is that God knows some things.
And this is the problem. That's why I titled the message
Known, not made. Just because God has knowledge
doesn't mean he's going to make you.
Because God actually already knows the sum choices, sum total
of all your choices. But they're still your choices.
And God's word's going to come to pass because God's eternal,
He's very patient, which means God can say, I'll wait till a
spirit raises up that will obey me so that that objective can be
accomplished in the earth. And if there's a generation of
nobody obeying, he'll wait till one comes around where someone
will of their own three will say I'll choose to obey God and it
keep moving his plan forward. God is on an eternal timeline.
So at the end of the day, what God says going to come to pass.
He is patient for a spirit that he is placed in the womb in the
ark to be able to fully be persuaded that his word is his
word and he'll use that person to continue propel his word
forward. Although it's not God making
them do it, it is God knowing that it is their choice to do it
and he's influenced them to make the choice and of their free
will. They do it so just because God
can prophecy about a John the Baptist before he ever shows up,
there's a voice crying in the wilderness.
Isaiah said he knew that when the opportunity that I
influenced this guy, this child that's going to come into the
womb of Martha, when that spirit hits him, he will of his own
free will, will do my will, but it's still him.
So he goes on and says so. Then that doesn't depend on the
will of man, which means this God is saying, it's that my
word. Things are coming to pass, and
it's not by a man's will. By himself.
It's a man submitting his. Will to God's will for the
Scripture says to Pharaoh for this look at this.
Very purpose. I raised you up to demonstrate
my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed through
the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom He
desires and he hardens whom He desires.
That's misleading when you just read it by itself.
If you don't know what He's saying, you will say to them why
does he still find fault? Who can resist his will?
Well, you understand that that's a very good question, because if
God's in control, well then how could he find fault if he makes
you do wrong, if he makes someone else do wrong by you?
So he's trying to set context here in essence.
In fact, when it comes to Pharaoh, you'll read it if you
go over to Exodus that says then a Pharaoh rose up that did not
know Joseph. Now that's very powerful
statement that we gloss over all the time.
What it's saying there is that all the exploits of Joseph and
how it was herald from that Pharaoh that brought Joseph on
that saved Egypt and acknowledged that his God was
God. Although they didn't quit
serving gods, but they understood the God of Joseph.
There was still something in the land about the God of Joseph.
Finally a pharaoh came up that had no testimony of that and had
no concern. And in fact he was so dedicated
to his gods and so resistant and then began to pressure the
Israelites, made him a slave, had his own self-interest.
Why did he make them slaves anyway?
They were productive without it. They were bringing a blessing to
the nation without it, No, he didn't want them to side with
another Kingdom and come up and overthrow his Kingdom.
So through selfish ambition and self preservation, he made them
slaves. He forced that.
He controlled them the best he could.
Now again he may control their movement, but he doesn't control
their mind. They have to give that I got.
I got to go on. I got to go on.
So my point is, is that when Moses shows up, he says I'll
harden his heart. Well, how did God do that?
If you just understand scripture, how's he going to
harden Pharaoh's heart? There's one way hearts are
hardened. He's very consistent in
Scripture. It is when the word is spoken to
you and you resist. It you harden your heart, come.
On even right now in this room, you can harden your heart by
what I'm saying, and that word can either soften you so that
you get your mind renewed to it, you begin to let the life of
God, or you can keep entertaining your own will and
your own thoughts of what you want it to be through the lenses
you want it. And when I say something that
can set you free from your own thought pattern, but you love it
more than God's as the the prophetic word came forth, you
like that throne more then all of a sudden.
You harden your heart. How did he harden?
He said go to Pharaoh and tell him God's.
The Lord said, let my people go, He said.
Let my people go. And what would Pharaoh say?
I don't even know your God. That's right.
Come. On he didn't say, well, I got
quite a few gods myself. Who's yours since you're telling
me he said something, right? I mean, the guy's got a lot of
gods anyway, pretty confused. So you know what's another one?
But then he he is so adamant against it he when Moses leaves
he says you make it worse on those guys.
So that what this guy has just told me to them they'll think
it's a lie and that's what deception will do.
Reception tries to make what truth is a lie in the hearer's
voice And Moses already went to the nation of Israel and say the
Lord has sent me he wants to deliver you.
We going to come up out of Egypt and they're like woo you the man
Moses we love you Moses go tell Pharaoh go kicky man let's do
this thing right. Moses came back and he said what
he say. Well, he said he wasn't going to
let y'all go. And then they end up having to
do it worse, labor. And now they're mad at Moses.
Like you need to take yourself back to your sheep, bro.
Just you need to leave town. But Moses like Nah I'll just do
the will of God anyway so he keeps showing up.
Every time he shows up, the fairy says, the Lord said.
Every time he comes, this fairy says, the Lord said.
Every time he comes, the Pharaoh says, the Lord said.
How do we know there's a hardening of heart?
What did the Lord say about the Israelites when they're
wandering in the wilderness? He said.
Why are they stiff neck and heart of heart?
Every time I tell them what I'm going to do, they don't do it.
So you understand, some of the places where it's the most
difficult is church, because the minute you decide, you take
everything I say personal and not examining it.
As the word of God. Come on.
Oh man, Last week at Rhema man, I was.
I was sliced bread. I mean, they just don't know.
Oh, that's Pastor Earl Glisten. Oh, I heard you were in town.
I came to listen. Well, they, I told them.
I told the class. I said everybody loves me till I
correct them. But in the words you're going to
correct people. You know, and as long as I
travel around and don't correct. And I just tell them how who
they are in Christ and how they walk in the Kingdom and give
them these great words, they're like, wow, they're so amazing.
They're so great, right? Then you're awesome.
When you hit, people get healed through your ministry, whatever
the case, which is God doing it all.
But you know, they equate you. But then to make you crack
somebody, now all of a sudden they're waiting for you to blow
it, because they want you to blow it now so they can tell
everybody you've blown it and everything you're saying to set
them free, they just harden their heart.
More and more and more. And it's not God doing it, It's
you doing it by resisting His word.
So when he is talking about these particular things, he is
saying, I've raised up a pharaoh to show my power, 'cause I just
happen to know that every time my word comes he's going to
resist it. And I'm coming now to deliver my
people, because they have got accustomed to the gods of Egypt
and they know I'm out there. They've started crying out to
me. And so I'm going to demonstrate
to them, because if they're going to be firmly persuaded to
me, they got to know that that I'm greater than the God of Raw,
the God of the sun, and all the other gods that they worshipped
in Egypt. That's why the plagues
personally attacked what those gods were known for.
It was God declaring to his nation I am supreme.
And it's not that I didn't give the guy an opportunity to let
you go at my word, but when you resist my word, I have no
problem giving you the alternative.
So Pharaoh brought destruction to his nation through the sum
total of his choices. That's why his people let her,
Own said. Man, let him go, bro.
Let them go. Y'all all right.
With that being said, look at Hebrews chapter 4.
We'll wind down a little bit so we can carry it into next week.
He again fixes a certain day. Hebrews 47 He again fixes a
certain day today, saying through David after so long a
time, just as it has been said before today, if you hear His
voice, and do not harden your hearts.
For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken
of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest
for the people of God, For the one who has entered his rest has
himself also rested from his work, as God did his.
From his Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so
that no one will fall through. Following the same examples of
what disobedience. So we could, we could sum this
up pretty quick in one statement, And that is you want
a perpetual Sabbath. Always be doing the will of God.
You'll constantly interest Jesus, was accused.
Often of working on the Sabbath, the actual day.
But he's like, look, the Sabbath was not set up for God.
It was set up for man. And that's what puts you in,
remembers who's who's, who you supposed to be listening to.
And he says, my father's always working.
That's kind of crazy. I thought he's resting.
Well, he's working in the context that he's performing.
His word. And Jesus has said, I'm doing
the same thing. I'm here to do the Father's
will. And he was doing stuff on the
Sabbath day. Did he heal people?
They were miffed that on his Sabbath he had the audacity to
heal somebody. And there are churches right
now, people who are letting, well, you know, we're going to
take a Sabbath, Sabbath Sunday. I mean, you want to get
perpetual rest. Just obey.
Now, that doesn't mean you won't have a rest day, because if
you're following God, he'll say you need to take day off.
Your body needs the rest, whatever the case may be.
But I'm not going to get into all that.
Let's go on at verse 12, for the word of God is living in acts of
sharper than intuit, sort of piercing as far as the division
of soul and spirit of both joints and mayor, and able to
judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
So what does this, The word? What does this the word?
What does the word do? It pierces, it pierces soul from
the Spirit and from both joints and marrow, That is spirit, soul
and body. What does it The word now turn
to 1st Thessalonians Chapter 5. First Thessalonians chapter 5,
verse 23 says it this way. Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be
preserved, complete without blame, at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The power for you on all three
levels of your being to be all that it can be rests in your
choice. And here's The thing is that we
can be very proficient at controlling an area of our life,
but yet not controlling the other areas.
There have been people that I've met that when you look at their
physical suit, they are disciplined, They control what
goes in their mouth, they control how often it goes in
their mouth, They control the regiment of their exercise.
Are you hearing me? And their body produces the
fruit of it. But in their soul realm,
emotionally they are whacked out, out of control.
Their bodies are as fit as they can be, but they're sleeping
with everything 'cause they have no control on their soul realm,
they're letting other things influence them.
Now when I say no control, they actually are controlling it.
They just haven't submitted it to God's will.
Here's the thing, most of us, we only want to submit our spirit
to God and not our soul. That's why there's a lot of
churches that know they're going to heaven, but they live like
hell on earth and then they act like God's allowing it to
happen, 'cause he's in control. He's in control of what your
body looks like. He's in control of your
emotional state. He's in control of the how
educated you are. He's controlling what all your
jobs are. But you know, at least I'm going
to heaven when I die. Yet it's our responsibility.
It says that God may appease, sanctify you entirely and may
your spirit be preserved complete well.
If God was in control, don't you think he would put all those
perfect None of us should have diabetes.
Come on, come on. None of us should have any
health issues. We should have no problems in
our emotional state or mental state at all.
Yet there are. We'll close with this scripture.
It got quiet. Well, everybody was happy.
We're doing good. I guess I should have stopped 30
minutes ago, Galatians 5 start verse 16,
Paul, riding under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
says. But I say to the church, walk by
the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the
flesh who's in control 'cause if God is in control, how in the
world could you ever carry out the desires of the flesh?
And he's talking to born again people.
I mean, really, he's rebuking this whole church.
This is 1 rebuke letter. This whole letter is a rebuke
letter. I don't know that they ever
invited him back to preach. Just one big rebuke from chapter
one all the way through. He's rebuking.
Although he's, you know, giving instruction trying to tell him,
hey look, come on now guys, let's get this together, right?
But he said, Now if you walk by the Spirit, but I say walk.
In essence, that word walk is implication.
You've got to do it. Walk by the Spirit, and you will
not carry the desires of the flesh, For the flesh sets its
desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh,
for those are in opposition to one another, so that you may not
do the things that you please. Now again, you can do whatever
you want to do. It's the large If you walk by
the reigning spirit, in essence, if you'll yield your will to the
reigning spirits will, then you will not carry out the desires
of the flesh that wage war against your soul.
He goes on and says, But if you are LED, if you are, what if
it's a conditional statement? This is a born again,
sanctified, completely righteous, made in the likeness
of Christ, believer in the spirit.
Yet if you don't do this, then you get the alternative, and
it's not God's fault, because God is not controlling you.
God has empowered you. Verse 18.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
law. Now the deeds of the flesh are
evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strive, jealousy, outbursts of anger,
disputes, dissension, factions. In be in being, drunkenness,
carousing, and things of the like Of which I forewarned you,
just as I have forewarned you so that those who what practice,
those who what practice, those who what practice, those who
what practice, that means they're doing this.
They're doing it. You know what they're in
immorality. They're doing sensuality.
They're gossiping, have strive, they have outbursts of anger.
They're all this is just like part of their life.
This is how they live. I mean this is like common
occurrence with them, he says. Those who practice such things
will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
I mean, we are given massive passes.
Instead of saying are you born again?
Come on, come. On Well, yeah.
What are you doing? Well, don't judge me, bro.
That stuff don't get in the Kingdom, 'cause our God's not a
God of injustice. You don't get born again and
keep living like your old way. That's not God.
His ways are not higher in our ways, where he gives you the
ability to habitually sin yet still make it into the Kingdom.
His blood does not give you the right to be like the devil and
still make it to heaven. No, but if you're led by the
Spirit, you won't do any of those.
Which means the Spirit's going to say don't go to sleep with
them, Don't say that y'all ready for this, but the fruit of the
Spirit is. Come on, say, Lovejoy.
Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness. Self, self, self, self, self,
self. It's a fruit of the Spirit.
You know what the Spirit says? He says I can't control you, but
I you can control yourself, he says.
You know what one of my fruits is?
Is I control myself. That's why I'm holy.
That's why I'm righteous. That's why I'm light.
I know how to control myself now I'm going to give you a piece of
my fruit. You control yourself.
Quit blaming people. I don't care where you're born,
what color you are, what track you were on.
I don't care how you came into existence.
He'll want to give you some self-control that you can live
the life of God. The best life ever.
But you've got to decide to do it.
You have to take the responsibility, I said.
You have to take the responsibility.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
with his passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us
also walk. And who controls that?
We do. You do by your will.
Let's pray. Thank you so much for listening
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