by
Pastor Mike Taylor
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might
be the firstborn among many brethren.
30,Moreover
whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called,
them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also
glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)
How I love the book of Romans,
especially the 8th chapter. Here the Apostle Paul chronicles the
blessings and promises of God. Many will look at their Christian walk
and ponder why things don't seem to work out as they envisioned. They
grow discouraged and become listless in their daily walk with God.
They wonder if God is really on their side. They fail to take hold of
the promises of God, grasping it with both hands and endure what they
must suffer in this life. Let us examine some of these promises and
why you should be joyful and singing the praises of Almighty God for
His wondrous mercy.
Look at the opening verses to this message
and ponder for a moment the ramifications of what Paul is attempting
to preach to them, and to us. This is not a confirmation of
predestination, but God in His infinite knowledge, knew that you
would accept payment for your sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.
God who knows the beginning from the end, and saw you make that heart
felt decision to accept the gift provided by His Son, long before you
even knew it yourself. In no way does this foreknowledge affect your
own self will to make that decision on your own. It's just that God
saw you do it.
God has a purpose for all this and it was
for your salvation before time began. Some will say, “Then why does
God allow suffering in this world, if He called me out of it before
time began.?” Why does God allow Christians to go through trials
and tribulations of this world? God has a specific plan in place for
refining each of us into the image of His Son through sanctification.
It's not random occurrences that we have no control over .
“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)
|
God is the Potter, we are the clay. He is the One doing the shaping, the molding, the creating. "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." |
I
am a firm believer that God does not allow one thing to happen to a
born again Christian unless He allows it. Why would God do
that?
BORN
IN SIN
Understand
that man is a mortal being that has a sin nature that wars with the
spiritual man daily. He will never totally escape it, until Jesus
comes and perfects him by changing him from a mortal being into
immortality and remove our sin nature for eternity.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1st John 3:1-3)
That
will come when Jesus breaks through the clouds and calls His church
to join Him at the changing of us, “in the twinkling of an eye”
we know as the Rapture. But, Paul lamented over his sin nature in the
previous chapter of Romans :
15 “For
that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but
what I hate, that do I.
16 If
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is
good.
17 Now
then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For
I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for
to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I
find not.
19 For
the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that
I do.
20 Now
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me.”(Romans 7:15-20)
Paul was distraught
that he could not, nor could any other man escape his sin nature. But
what does Paul say in the final verses?
“24 O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?
25 I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of
sin.”
Many don't know that Paul was making reference to a
Roman practice for those condemned to be chained to a corpse and the
soldiers betting on how long it would take for the condemned to
resort to cannibalism to prevent their own death. It was an analogy
that many during Paul's day would have recognized and being chained
to a sinful nature of death. Who frees them from that body of death?
Jesus Christ is Who frees us.
If God allows us to be tested,
to be refined, and to experience difficulties in this life, then what
is the purpose for God allowing this to happen?
The Bible says
that even a sparrow in the sky is so important to God that not one of
them shall fall to the ground without His knowledge and
permission.
29 “Are
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your Father. 30 But
the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear
ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”
(Matthew 10:29-31)
What is the purpose here? Does God have
a purpose? Concerning the analogy of a sparrow, it is more than mere
rhetoric. If God cares about a sparrow and not one falls from the sky
without it being part of His plan, then how likely is it that He
allows you to undergo trials and tribulations for no purpose?
God
foreknew us and determined to call us before He ever made His summons
known to us. By doing so, He was making a prognosis. We are in this
elite group, (the called), only because the great God of heaven and
earth specifically and personally summoned us by forcibly bringing
the good news to our attention so we would be motivated to choose to
respond freely to it. But that is only the beginning. We are
then in the school of God's Holy Spirit that will refine us, smooth
off the rough edges and make us into the image of God's only Son. It
is a lifelong process of being molded, or sanctified.
THE
LESSON OF JOB
Remember
the story of Job? Here was a righteous man who endured unspeakable
trials in his life. This was allowed to test Job and to refine him
even through boils that raised up on his body, the loss of his family
and all of his wealth. Now granted, this is an extreme case of God
allowing adversity to come into a man's life, but can we draw a
lesson from the book of Job? In the final analogy, Job learned that
you must have total faith and reliance on your Heavenly Father. For
He cares for us with a Divine love that was shown by the death of His
only Son. It comes down to value.
If God values even a
little sparrow and we are worth more than many sparrows, and worth
more than the life of His only Son, then what was God's purpose? It
was that God saw you as valuable. Your value,
in God's eyes, is such that Jesus Christ died in your place so that
you might have everlasting life. Your purpose is
also clearly outlined in Scripture. When you were lost,
your purpose was
to be saved. God had a desire for a “family” and made man in His
image. God was ultimately “reproducing Himself” when He made man.
God was not content to just throw man away, when he fell at the
temptation brought forth by Satan and man sinned against God. It is
why God sent His only Son, to be the propitiation (substitute)
sacrifice for our sins, so that we may be justified because of HIM.
Jesus redeemed what had been lost, as our “Kinsman Redeemer”.
It
really isn’t that difficult a concept, if we are willing to accept
God as He describes Himself and accept the Bible as a true
record.
You were to be conformed to His Son through being
justified then for the rest of your life, sanctified as the opening
verse testifies. “Conformed” is the English rendering of the
Greek word, “summorphos” meaning,
“jointly formed, fashioned like unto.” Note
that you didn’t
conform yourself to the image of His Son, it was done for you.
You were foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, sanctified and
destined for glory– all in the past
tense indicating
that it is already accomplished.
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” (Titus 1:2)
God
cannot lie. Eternal life was promised, not
according to our works,
before the world began. You were foreknown, predestinated,
called, justified, sanctified and glorified to the Glory of God the
Father and His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
It
isn’t a linguistic trick. It isn’t a mistranslation or a
misunderstanding of either the original Greek or in our English
translation.
To every thing there
is a purpose, the Bible says, and for every purpose
God has appointed a time.
“ No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at
the last day” (John 6:44)
God
works even to make sure that His people have the faith they need! God
supplies everything except one's decision—and even in the decision
a person makes, He keeps poking us in the ribs, shoving us in the
back, to move us in the right direction. He does not give up easily
once He sets his mind to do something. We
must come to God by faith, but even that faith to believe on the FULL
payment for our sins, by Jesus Christ was given by the Father God in
heaven.
THE
COMING TRIBULATION
Jesus proclaimed to the Apostle John that His chosen Bride will not see one second of the coming Tribulation.
10 "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also "will keep thee" from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." (Revelation 3:10-11)(paranthesis is the Greek word "EK". which means being removed from the time and space of a coming event. What event? The Tribulation is that event.
If
we are being refined now, sanctified into the image of His Son after
conversion and being baptized, then what is the point of the Church
going through the Tribulation that is coming at us like a locomotive? The above verse says we will not go through what is coming upon the earth. What is the purpose of the Tribulation? In my discernment of what the
Bible teaches, the only answer is two objectives by God.
1,To
bring Israel to the knowledge and recognition of her Messiah that
they had crucified 2000 years ago and to cry out in agony, “Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
2,To completely destroy all rebellion of a Christ rejecting world and purify the world of those who take the mark of the beast, as prophesied in Revelation. God will wipe this planet clean of rebellion.
It
is called the Tribulation
Period. (Greek: thlipsis: “affliction,
anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble”). And, it is
called, “The time of Jacobs
trouble" for an obvious reason. It is the time when God will
return His full focus on saving Israel as He promised.
The
affliction, anguish, burden, persecution, tribulation and trouble of
this time is to be inflicted upon all those that dwell upon the
earth. The Bible tells us that it will be meted out in the form
of 21 judgments. God will purge Israel, not leaving them unpunished,
but will save a remnant through this awful time.
25 “For
I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part
is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:25-29)
Those
that hold to a literal “refining” of the church during the
Tribulation in addition to the defined two reasons noted above,
negate the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ. To embrace a
mid-tribulation, Pre-wrath, or a post-tribulation model is to
diminish the work of the cross. Was Jesus sacrifice not good enough?
Was it lacking in its freeing the Christian from the penalty of
enduring God's wrath that shall cover the whole earth? Is this
not the same as the false doctrine of Catholic purgatory, which we
know is a lie?
9 "For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1st Thessalonians 1:9-10)
When are we forgiven our sins? Is it
not when we accept Jesus by faith and the Holy Spirit dwells within
our spirit? Then why must we be refined? So if there are extra
requirements that must be brought to the table, they are extra
requirements imposed by you, not by God. God says,
“whosoever
will.”
At
the moment of salvation, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit
takes up residence in us and bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God.
16,“The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17, And
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. “ (Romans 8:16-17)
That leads to another
problem with the concept of error that the church of Jesus Christ
must endure the Tribulation. Jesus promised us that He would send us
the “Comforter” the Holy Spirit and He would never leave us or
forsake us.
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17,
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you.
18, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)
Jesus said He would
never leave us alone, but the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is
taken out of the world to allow the indwelling of the spirit of Satan
in the Anti-Christ and he will overcome the “saints”
4 “For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God?” (1st John 5:4-5)
But Paul reveals that the
Holy Spirit will be taken out of this world!!
6, “And
now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his
time.
7, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he
who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8, And
then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming: “ (II Thessalonians 2:6-8)
But
the Anti-Christ overcomes the Tribulation saints........
“And
it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome
them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and
nations.” (Revelation 13:7)
So
which is it? God
dwells with us forever, but leaves us defenseless and powerless to
the conquest of the Anti-Christ? Since God cannot lie, it is obvious
that if the Holy Spirit is removed to make way for the spirit of
Anti-Christ that shall overcome the saints, then since the Holy
Spirit was removed, then so is the Church. Each Child of God
has an earnest deposit of God's Holy Spirit which is our guarantee of
future glorification at the return of Christ. So if the Holy Spirit
is withdrawn, as Paul reveals through Divine inspiration, then so are
the vessels He dwells within.
GOD
HAS A PURPOSE
Christians
undergo trials and tribulations in this life according to His
purposes. What is the purpose behind Blood-bought,
eternally-saved, indwelt Christians being separated from the
indwelling Holy Spirit so that they can undergo half
or all of the judgment period set aside for those that rejected
Christ?
Why would the Lord subject His own Bride to judgment
for sin after He had already redeemed that Bride from judgment for
sin at the Cross? It is a conflict that those who don't discern the
purpose of God make the error that the Church must be refined, right
along with the rest of a God rejecting world.
We
endure the consequences of sin all the time because the world is
created in sin, but consequences aren’t the same as judgment.
WE
ARE BEING TRANSFORMED NOW
“I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
2, And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
3,
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith.” (Romans 12:1-3)
The church has a
glorious future that no one can begin to imagine. As it is written
“eye hath not seen, or ear heard, or entered into the heart of man,
what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1st Corinthians
2:9)
And the Bible states further......
14, “For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15,
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father.
16, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God:
17, And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18, For I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans
8:14-18)
WILL
YOU BE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE HEIRS OF GOD?
One
fly in the ointment so to speak, those who are being made into the
image of God are those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, and God knows in advance who that person is, each of us.
Those who read this message, or have not taken the free gift of
eternal life with a repentant heart (meaning change your mind about
sin and about God) cannot embrace the glory that awaits those that
have. God will not beat you into submission, but will continue to
convict you of your condition, until you are beyond hope of recovery.
God knows when that time is, that you are “irredeemable”. So you
ask me, what must I do to have this type of eternal existence and a
glorious future?
Realize you are a sinner. “ For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Realize that God made a way for those sins to be forgiven and live with God forever.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Confession before God in a broken and contrite heart calling out to God,
“That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
You say, that “sounds
simple”...yes, it is simple that a child can understand it...I did
when I was 10 years old. But you must believe in your heart, not just
in your head with “childlike” faith. It must enter into a humbled
and contrite heart that knows that without God you are doomed for a
devil's hell, or to experience that hell on earth, called the
Tribulation and possibly even the Lake of Fire if those years of the
Tribulation don't call you to repentance before God. The horrors of
the period are too gruesome to even ponder, as hardly any flesh will
be saved and many will be martyred by beheading. Sounds awful and
it's all right there in your Bible in the last book of Revelation.
You don't want to find out I'm right by first hand experience.
The
saints of the church are being sanctified, conformed and transformed
into the image of Jesus Christ, one lesson at a time. I know that I
will never be perfect in this life, but I will be perfect in the next
life when Jesus comes for me and all who believe by faith in His
death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father in
Heaven. But it's not about works, but His mercy and grace....and the
best part...IT”S FREE FOR THE ASKING....We await the coming of our
Lord with a trumpet blast, that could sound very soon...very soon.
Because all the signs point to this great event on the near horizon.
I've written extensively in detail of that coming period on my blog.
If you have time, check them out.
Don't wait too long, as you
are not promised even tomorrow. To stand before a Holy God and not
have Jesus as your substitute payment for your sins, is a vision I
wish for no one, no matter what you have done. Jesus awaits your
decision...call on Him today...be justified today by the sacrifice of
our Lord, then submit to Godly instruction on how to be sanctified
and being made into the image of His Son, as humanly possible this
side of the coming of our Lord for His Church.
This is
pastor Mike Taylor, praying your acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior. Should you need counseling, prayer, or just
a listening ear, email me at pastormiketaylor@yahoo.com,
or visit me online for more biblical teachings from the Word of God,
at www.pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com, .
God bless you all........
TILL
WE MEET AT JESUS FEET
