Predestination

Sam Soleyn
7/2002

I have been concerned lately, actually occupied lately, with this scripture from the book of Romans the 9th chapter. I would like for us to begin at verse 10. "Not only that but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told that 'The older would serve the younger.'"

Now it was normal for the younger to serve the older. "Just as it is written 'Jacob I have loved but Esau I hated'. What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy I whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.' It therefore does not depend on mans desire or effort but on God's mercy. For the scriptures say to Pharoah, 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. One of you will say to me 'Well then why does God still blame us? Who can resist His will?' But who are you O man to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it 'Why did you make me like this?'"

"Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay, some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath prepared for destruction, and what if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory, whom He has called from not only the Jews, but also from the Gentiles."

"As he says in Hosea: 'I will call them My people, who are not a people, and I will call her my beloved, one who is not My loved one. It will happen in the very place that it was said to them 'You are not My people,' they will be called sons of the living God.' ''

"Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His righteousness on the earth, with speed and finality.' It is just as Isaiah said previously 'Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendents, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.' What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, have attained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who has pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they have stumbled over the stumbling stone."

"It is written: 'See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that causes them to fall, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."

These are difficult, tough, scriptures on the human mind that sees everything, and measures everything, according to how man determines what is fair. These are the scriptures that we want to leave alone, you gain no following by opening these things. And in a sense, although God has not sealed up these things in the book, we have sealed them up because they forbid us in terms of resolution, they forbid us to approach them by reason and by logic.

I was sitting in my backyard the other day when the Lord assaulted me with this and I said "Why have you chosen me?" Laughter.. The people of God are coming now to a place and a time of maturity and the hidden things are meant to be revealed. In a sense, we have picked the low hanging fruit and now we have to climb up into the tree if we are going to eat. For a people have risen upon the earth and the hour has come, for them to take a hold of the treasures of God's riches and the glory of our inheritance.

These seemingly very difficult scriptures hold the keys to some of the most fabulous promises God ever made to man. We are told with no uncertainty, "That everything that can be shaken, will be shaken.... but that there are some things that cannot be shaken." And you have received the things that cannot be shaken. For you have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Have you noticed how as the spirit of deception has come into the world, how in the information age, the spirit of deception has corrupted our information. And mighty corporate giants have fallen on something so fickle as information corrupted. If God permits I will talk about the four horsemen of the apocalypse at the end of this conference. Because the first rider who attempts to present himself as the True Rider on the white horse who comes at the end. He comes in the hope that mankind will believe that a counterfeit is the truth. And Jesus told us ahead of time, "The first one who is coming is not Me." Even if he says he is. If that horseman has not yet appeared on the scene, we're within the sound of the hoofbeats.

The mighty corporate giants are reeling under the weight of the spirit of deception which has corrupted information. How will the sons of righteousness rise up in their day? We will rise up because we have been adorned with the treasures of wisdom and understanding. And the security and peace that are meant to be ours, when the things that are hidden are revealed. What is hidden and what is to be revealed is nothing short of the Person of the Lord Himself. The hidden manna was never meant to be merely information, the hidden manna was meant to be from heaven. Jesus said, "I Am the Bread of Life come down from heaven, eat of Me and you will live."

So we're being introduced to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the of glory of the Father. We're being introduced to glory of the Father. And in the glory of the Father we shall live, and in the Person of Christ, we shall be secure. It is interesting to me that the book of Revelation is called, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him." So He shows, He shares with the children the inheritance that is His. We are meant to be joint heirs, not independent heirs. We have no right of independent inheritance from the Father, we have been made joint heirs with Christ. And part of what Christ was given by the Father is revelation. And it's written down. The first words of the revelation are, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him." It's His revelation and He intends to share it with us and it will be the children's bread in our day and in our time.

And its in the difficult scriptures that God has hidden the marrow that is meant to be our very lives. As men and women have come along in the path of history, they have picked up the difficult things simply because they were there, not because it was time for them to opened. We felt compelled to address issues such as predestination hundreds of years ago before the wisdom and revelation had been given to us. So we picked up and we addressed them in the matter in which we always address anything apart from revelation, and that is by our reason.

And so we sought to understand the hidden things by exogesus. A more inadequate tool for the understanding of hidden things one cannot imagine Because it puts you on the wrong track 'ab-initio', from the very beginning. It is impossible to apprehend spiritual things by rational processes. The process is not designed to capture the essence of the thing you are pursuing. So the whole matter is frustrated from the beginning because God will show you what He wants to show you when He wants to show it you and until then you can't have it. Laughter..Because some things are hidden, and their meant to be hidden, until the day. And its not that one person is intelligent and another not, it is God who gives you whatever you have. No man can have anything unless God gave it to him. Whatever one has is meant to be for the whole Body, the gifts are for the Body. And each part is meant to supply that which they have been entrusted.

I was approached by the Lord on this subject of predestination and challenged to consider it in a new and fresh way and I want to present to you some of what I believe I've received and where it leads to. I was talking to the Lord about this question, "Why did God make humans, knowing they would sin?" It wasn't like He didn't know because before He formed Adam from the dust of the ground, the Lamb of God was already slain. Before He executed the reality, He prepared for the eventuality. And it wasn't like He thought, "Maybe they might sin, maybe they might not." Laughter...The salvation that was provided was a complete salvation, anticipating the ultimate depravity and the entirety of the depravity.

So the question is, "Why did God create humans knowing they would sin?" Seems to me that you could avoid the problem all together by simply not creating them. Laughter.. And we have to admit that we have been more than a little trouble for our Maker. Laughter.... We've often even grieved Him. But it is important that you understand that He knew we would sin, and yet He created us. Its important that you understand that. Because for one thing, you must understand that no matter how grievously a person might sin, that God anticipated that and His love reaches you anyway. It isn't like God had to figure this out as He went along. God never thought up the idea of mortal and venial sins. Laughter... He provided for both, if we were to so categorize them. He provided a total salvation before He created man, before. Which means He fully anticipated all that we would do and made provision for it. So when we discover that provision, though it might be a shock to us, it was exactly what God had anticipated, before.

But why? I mean its alot of trouble. Why, why? The Lord said to me, "Its an engineering problem." Laughter...Its an engineering problem, its not a mechanical engineering problem, its a spiritual engineering problem. What God wanted, when He set about to create man, what He wanted to achieve could not be achieved apart from the ultimate risk. Now what God wanted was heirs. Now to have an heir, your heir must be from you. Your heir must be begotten. Thats why God never said to any of the angels, "You are my son, this day have I begotten thee." As Creator, certainly the angels might be called the sons of God, but God has but one Begotten Son. And whoever is a son of God is part of what God regards as the begotten, of Himself. Thats what God was after, His heirs. His heirs who would be in kind and nature, like Him.

An animal cannot be your heir, even if you left things in your will to your dog. Laughter..... An animal is not your heir because being an heir means more than simply inheriting 'something'. Because what God had to give to man is a bequest of His nature, not merely 'things'. And He had to have a creature who was made in the image and likeness of God. Just like He said in the beginning, "Let Us make man in Our own image, after Our own likeness." Every other creation, and by this I specifically mean the angels, have been created for a particular purpose. All angels are ministering spirits. So who they were was already determined by virtue of their creation. God did not create the angels with the capacity of being His heirs, He created them to be ministering servants. First to God Himself, and then to the heirs, for God assigned them. In as much as He anticipated that He would have heirs and He would assign them to His heirs.

Some of you who heard the message spoken previously about why the devils are as angry at us as they are. Its as God announced to the heavenlies His intention to have heirs who were not the angels, then the angels understood that they had been bypassed. And it was the basis of the revolt against God and the hatred of man by the demonic. But today we are going in a different direction, so I won't redevelop that theme. If you would like a copy of that tape, thats a series entitled 'Spiritual authority' and I took the matter in the direction of spiritual authority.

But tonight we really want to talk about God's heirs. In the discussion of predestination, we're talking about the heart of God relative to human beings, as its revealed in the matter of God's choice to make humans. And the threshhold question that must be addressed is, "Why does God create human beings knowing they would sin?" Sin being of a fundamental nature opposed to who God is. Why does God create creatures who in their actions, displaying their hearts, would be opposed to God? And as we said, God said it was an engineering problem. What God wanted were creatures who could be like Him. And He made creatures who would be like Him.

He didn't start out making creatures who would be servants, ministering servants, and then He sort of changed their programming, you know. And updated them and then rebooted them and fitted them into a different role. Angels were a different creation than humans, and deliberate so, deliberately so. One of the principle engineering feats that you had to incorporate into this being, is he had to be endowed with the ability to choose, with the ability to choose. Because if you didn't give him the ability to choose you have already made him to fulfill a particular purpose, like serving, and he couldn't end up being anything but that.

So choice was God's way of removing the limit upon what this creature was made for. Ahh, but what a mystical thing choice is. For choice to be choice, can choose, not you. If you make these creatures capable of choosing, one of their choices is to reject their Creator. Do we have a track record of that? Laughter.. So as a matter of practical fact, the creature is capable, the creature has displayed a redundancy toward rejecting its Creator. Perhaps we could say it this way: theres a consistency in the creature toward this choice to reject the Creator. Its the history of our race, from Adam. And God knew it, before He created man. And knew for sure that he would reject his Creator.

Knowing that, what is the benefit of creating this creature who would reject you, and that you would have to redeem? What is the benefit? The benefit is: as surely as he can choose to reject you, he is capable of the ultimate choice; which is to be just like you. And thats what being an heir is especially about. And the thing is, unless God had simply broken off, allow me to use this rather silly mental picture, unless God had simply broken off and cultured pieces of Himself, then He was stuck with having to create this thing that would become like Him. Unless God could somehow replicate Himself, in which case you haven't produced heirs, you've produced clones.

Unless God could somehow divest Himself, or pieces of Himself, which would become totally like Himself, He had to begin with a creature. A most fabulous notion because: a creature who has a beginning and an end, become like his Creator? An engineering feat, an incredible spiritual engineering feat, to produce this result. And thats whats worth it to God, thats why He took the risk. Now knowing that this creature was going to sin, how are you going to redeem him? If you create another creature whose purpose is to redeem him, then you don't solve the problem of redeeming him because that creature has no choice but to be a sacrifice for him.

So when God created man, He knew that to redeem man, God Himself has to redeem man. He knew that you could not do this apart from putting yourself on the line, to rescue this creature. And thats why "The Lamb of God was slain from the foundations of the world." He made the decision to redeem him when He made the decision to create him because there was no way to have what you want out of this creature without knowing and anticipating that he would sin. Its not like there was a chance he wouldn't sin, it was certain that he would.

Now its somewhat like this, I was telling Nick this example: I was visiting the Smithsonian Institutions Air and Space Museum a couple of years ago and there was prototype of a new kind of aircraft, some of you I am sure have seen it. The wings of this aircraft are exactly backward from conventional aircrafts. And the video that explains the display and the engineering theory said, that this aircraft was inherently unstable. And in fact, it was so unstable, that it could not be flown by a human pilot, that its functions had to controlled by six separate computers.

Now the question is, "Why do you create an inherently unstable aircraft?" One so unstable that, if the computers failed, it had to crash. Because the pilot at the controls was simply incapable of making those adjustments to keep it flying. Why would you create such an aircraft? The answer is: because it is unstable, it is phenomenonly maneuverable. And you can do with it, things that would rip the wings off of an F-16. And compared to the F-16 the capabilities of this aircraft, in a dogfight, would be somewhat almost like a spitfire against a sopwith camel. Laughter... Some of you who are airplane buffs.

The technology was so vastly advanced, and the capabilities so stellar by comparison, that you would render conventional aircraft, fighter aircrafts, in dogfights, you would render them essentially useless. So you take the risk to create the instability because the payoff is greater, produces in fact, a whole different level of avionics and of capabilities. That was what it was for God. We were the ultimate risk. And the question is, "Why would you create them knowing they were going to be so much trouble to you?" The answer is: that the payoff is that you have your heirs.

God could not have the result that He wanted apart from the type of creature that would be produced. And He knew it ahead of time, and chose to do it, and chose to plan the redemption of the creature. So your salvation is not an accident. And even when you sin, you can return. And God loved you, so that even while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. Now that is a very different approach to predestination. That I believe is a fundamentally different approach to the subject of predestination.

We've always talked about the subject of predestination only from the standpoint of whether God knows whether the man will be saved or lost. And when you start from that hole, you really cannot come out into the light. Because then you find yourself sitting in judgment on God without the knowledge of God. Now what does that tell us about God's assumption relative to the creature? God's assumption relative to the creature is that he will be a sinner.

Now it used to be pretty clear to us along the road of history, that humans by nature, would sin. By the way, if humans are not by nature not given to sin, why do you need to plan for their salvation? Take your chances on the ones that didn't sin, scoop them up. Create enough of them and your odds are improved. Laughter.. How many do you want? Factor the equations and scoop up the ones that come up. We sit and look at these things as in, "You can't do that." Well of course you can, if your God. I mean how cheap is dirt? Laughter....

We're troubled with these things because they untie our hands from religion, they untie us from the bondage of religion. Because if the nature of the creature is that by what he is created to become he has more than possibility, the certainty that he will sin and you love him anyway and you're going to save him, then it doesn't bother God that everybody starts out being lost. Thats where He knows you're going to be. As in Adam, we all died. And we look at that as if to say, "It can't be that!"

When Jesus comes He doesn't come as the lineage of Adam, He comes as the Son of God, He comes from God. You can't create a creature, to save the creatures, you have to come yourself. The form in which He came of course was the form of man. His intent was to relate to man in that form but He is the living God when He comes, because He cannot not be God because that is the only way the creature can be redeemed. God planned to redeem him before He created him and God understood that He was the only One who could redeem him, so in the fullness of time God sent His Son into the world, to redeem the world. Thats the scripture, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

"God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." We have so commonly seen this scripture as the property of Baptists, that we think thats where its suppose to apply. Laughter... These things speak of the known love of God determined before the foundations of the world, before the creature sinned. So when God speaks of a creature made for wrath, is God unjust? No and thats what Paul is saying. He's not saying, "Shut up O man and don't argue with God." Laughter...He's not asserting this wall of confidentiality that forbids you from asking the question. There is an answer to the question but you're not allowed to sit in judgment on God. "Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

And that was before the foundations of the world, not how you live that out in time. You will live out in time the things that God knows, but our venue is not limited to time and space. Time and space represent the theater in which the things that are known before are lived out. So if you are going to sit in judgment on God you must understand the mind of the Lord prior to time and space. Thats at least fair judgment assuming that you have the right anyway to sit in judgment on the Most High.

So God can create a vessel that will sin, every vessel He created was going to sin, every one of them, and you have to begin with that assumption. "God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dies for us." So the matter is not whether or not God knows that we will sin, and therefore we are bound to sin, God already knew that. The choice of man is not whether or not he will sin, thats a given, the choice of man is whether or not he'll choose to be saved. Thats his choice. Because thats the only choice that materially alters his condition or his destiny. Thats why God gave him that choice.

When God sent His Son into the world it was because there was no other choice for man to make except to die, except to go to hell. So when He sent His Son it was to give him choice. The choice is to be redeemed...the choice is to be redeemed. Now how secure is all of this that I am telling you? If you flee to take refuge in Christ, how secure are you? These great subjects of predestination and the security of the believers have been around a long time. And they seem like dry and dead subjects. Especially in the day and time when our primary issue and our main concerns are: to generate enthusiasm in our gatherings. And so generation, after generation are produced without any basic understanding of the nature of God.

One of the most interesting things to me is that young people who actually sit down and hear these things, are amazed at the answers that God has for them. I have made little effort to try and persuade my son to see things the way I see them. But I am amazed, I watch him, he's almost 20, and he comes around at times and says, "Dad, what about this?" And he's asking the tough questions. Now if he asked his peers, he will get the wisdom of his peers. We've turned over our young people to their peers and we wonder why they remain as infants when they ought to be strong in the Lord, even in the days of their youth.

We should not flinch to declare the counsel of the Most High to our young people, thats really what they want to hear about.They live in a world where the conflict of powers and of the occult is very real and their wanting the real answers. We continually feed them an inappropriate diet and wonder why they're malnourished.

Let us look at something here from Hebrews the 6th chapter please, verse 13. Now what we will look at in this chapter, in this reading, is something that will help us understand the security of God's promises to us. The security that we might have in God's promises to us. This is Hebrews 6 at verse 13, "When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself saying, 'I w ill surely bless you and give you many descendants.' And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. For men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised," we have been taking about the heirs, so because God wanted to make clear, to you, the unchanging nature of what was promised. In other words, the total reliability of His promises to you. Because God wanted to do that, He confirmed it with an oath. "God did this so that by two unchangeable things", which are the oath and the promise, "by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us might be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure, it enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus who entered for us, on our behalf, has become a High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek."

Now I want to go forward and pick this up from verse 17 of chapter 7 "For He testifies: 'You are a Priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.' The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect; and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. It is not without an oath, (other priests became priests without an oath but He became a Priest with an oath when God said, 'The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.') Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant."

What I want to do is just to center on this reading, for a moment, and look at what is said about how God makes promises.

Part 1B

Because all that I have told you about His decision to save you, before He created you, depends upon His integrity. And God wanted for you to know, that you can rely upon His promises because they are absolutely certain. God wanted you to know that. So what we're about to look at is the nature of how God actually promised you, what He has promised you. Because you have fled the corruption of this world, you've fled the sinful nature, to take hold of the promises that God made to you, that He will save you. Not just from going to hell. But having saved you He will conform you to the image of His Son by which you become, in His Son, part of the begotten. So that when the earth passes away God will gather from the earth, those who are His children. This was the intent of God, and this is what you are living out now.

So lets look for a moment at this promise, what is it that God has done to assure us of this. It will not surprise you then, that since God anticipated that He would have to save humans by coming Himself. That the conditions for the salvation of the human then, will in no way depend upon the human. Pretty straight up. Laughter... I know what you're thinking, I know what you are thinking, "Does that mean we can live like the devil, and still have it made?" Laughter....Let us separate out 2 very distinct things: one is HOW you are SAVED, and the other is HOW you are PERFECTED. He saves you, to conform you to the likeness of Himself. And Himself was presented in the earth as His Son. So He saved you to be conformed to the likeness of Himself, in the Person of His Son.

The matter of conforming you to Himself is the question of your continued sinfulness, and that is about the issue of discipline and training, and not about the issue of salvation. OK? So those who said, "Once you're saved, you're always saved." But with that didn't know how to address the question of sinning after you've been saved, as stuck! And those who see that and say, "Well that can't be right." That once your saved there ought to be some process by which you go beyond being saved, so that you're not living like you used to live before you were saved. Being concerned about that they created something else, which is to say that, "Once your saved, if you don't live right, then you can lose it."

And they will say your saved by grace through faith but you continue to remain saved by works. And then they will say, "If you're lost again, after you are saved, the latter end is worse than the beginning. " So why take the chance? Laughter....Just stay unsaved, because at least its not the worst you could be. Laughter....It gets curiouser and curiouser. But no one would be addicted to these follies, no one would actually believe these follies, if we understood the distinction between; how man is saved and how he's perfected. And the matter of being saved, and the matter of being perfected.

And even as we divide it out like that, suddenly you could begin to see. Well of course once your saved a change which is meant to be observed in the way you live. But if say you are saved, not by works, but you are perfected by works, then you can also be lost if you don't do the right works. Which means that, ultimately, you can only be saved by works. Ultimately you can only be saved by works because if your final destination is heaven and once your saved, to get there, you must work it out. If you don't work it out and you don't get there, then all is lost. So ultimately, the only way you can actually be sure you are saved, is by works.

I am amused at the conundrums of the logicians, when they take up theology as their hobby. Laughter... The things of God are revealed, there are not logically inferred. The things of God are meant to be revealed, they can only be revealed. You cannot pluck them out of the heavens by the long reach of reason. They're revealed. And when they are revealed, they are frightfully simple.

God knew the creature would sin before He made Him, otherwise its foolishness to suggest that there was a necessity of God Himself rescuing him. And God planned to rescue him, before He made him. Which tells you what God knew about what He would do. Now if God Himself planned to rescue him, it meant that man could not rescue himself, and he would need to be rescued, the whole lot of them. So do not be surprised then at the process of salvation from sin, does not include anything that the human might do. God intended to do it all for him. Now when you see it unfold here it will bless you, in a profound way.

And then we'll talk a little about the matter of perfecting him, and there we'll address the question of his conduct subsequent to being saved. What does this passage tell us then about the way that guaranteed that man could be saved if he would elect to saved? How does God guarantee it and why does it not involve man? The answer is: that God swore on oath to Himself. God swore to God. Did you see that? God said to God, "So help me God..." Laughter...

That went by so quickly so lets spread it out a moment, lets spread it out a bit and we'll grasp the intent. In a covenant, and these are about covenants. In a covenant, there is a party of the first part and there is a party of the second part. In every covenant, when 2 parties come to a common ground, to make a covenant, they stand upon a common ground, they're equals. If you enter into something with another, if you enter into a covenant with another, it means this: that you have something that the other needs and you're willing to give and the other has something you need, that he is willing to give. This is a mutuality of exchange. Because of that, when you come to forming a covenant, at least with the respect of exchange you stand on the ground with equality because here is a need on both sides and the ability to fulfill that need on both sides. And whatever else may be true, at least in that exchange, you stand in equality.

What did God have to give? God had salvation to give. What did God need? Heirs. What did man have to give? Laughter.. Nothing he could. Man had nothing to give, he's a creature. He's a creature. How then was God going to accomplish what God wanted? God swore to Himself that He would do what He said He would do. Now when God swears to Himself, how secure is that promise? I read somewhere about how heaven and earth will pass away but His word will not. Is that what we're talking about? Sure. Alright, look at now. In the Old Testament it tells us when God made the covenant with Abraham, it refers to Abraham as 'The heir of what was promised.' Not the party of the second part but the heir. Not the party of the second part, the heir. What's an heir? An heir is a third party beneficiary. That means, he's not the party of the first part, not the party of the second part, but because the covenant exists, he benefits.

It's like this: Lucy and I have a covenant of marriage. I am party number 1 and she is party number 2. Nick and Tamron are our heirs. They're not party number 1, I'm sure of that. Laughter.. And I'm equally sure they're not party number 2. Neither Nick nor Tamron, our children, are parties to our marriage. Thats why they're free to leave us and cleave to their husband and their wife. We are the only 2 parties. Now they were produced out of this relationship, and they are our heirs. That means they benefit simply by having showed up. Laughter.. You see? Thats what a third party beneficiary is. You benefit simply by showing up.

All of the things scripture speak to, about whether you must believe. These are not exchanges that we give to God, these are just what sets us apart from the pool of humanity. We believe. We qualify as the heirs by believing. Believing is not what we offer to God, it's not what God gets out of it. Heres the other thing about party number 1 and party number 2, they both have to perform for the thing to work. Party number 1 has to perform and so does party number 2, they both must perform. What if party number 1 performs and party number 2 does not? Then you don't have a covenant, you have a broken covenant.

How reliable would man be to perform, if he's party number 2? Then God could never have His heirs if it depended upon man performing. Never could. Leaving aside the fact that man is not the equal of God. Because this is what it's telling us, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His promise very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He swore on oath to Himself." Why did He swear on oath to Himself? Because "There was no one greater for Him to swear by." And in a contract, you have to be at least equals, and man is never on the platform of equality with God. So in the Old Covenant, God swore to God that He would have heirs. And He made Abraham the beneficiary by saying, 'I'll choose you. And I'll bring out of your lineage the One through Whom I will finally do this.'

Thats why He gave the commandments to the lineage of Abraham, when they refused to enter the incidences of the covenant that He offered them on Mount Sinai. The law then became a schoolmaster, that would lead to Christ. A training, a discipleing, a discipline. Restraining the flesh but doing nothing about the sinful nature. In the fullness of time and when it was time for God to fully execute upon the salvation He promised, then God sword to God. Who was party number 1 to that? The Father. Who was party number 2? The Son. God with God. Where was this agreement entered into? Behind the veil..behind the veil.

Now because he is working with an imagery in Hewbrews, of the temple in Jerusalem, he explains what veil he means, by this. That He entered behind the curtain. Because in the temple in Jerusalem there was a very tall curtain, I think it was 68 feet tall, very thickly woven. And behind it was the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant, symbolized on earth, the presence of God and the place where God met with man. Did Jesus go behind that curtain to enter into this transaction, because it was present in Jerusalem in the day that Jesus died? Why couldn't He go behind that curtain? Because no one from the tribe of Judah was a priest, under the order of Levi. No one ever from the tribe of Judah, and no one but the tribe of Levi could enter and go behind that.

So He didn't go behind that curtain. Where then did He go? Here it is. It says He entered behind the curtain. Hebrews 7:19, "We who have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary, behind the curtain, where Jesus Who went before us on our behalf, entered and has become a High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." The offering was made in the presence of God Himself. Why the whole thing of the temple and the tabernacle and the altar and all of that, and the Ark of the Covenant? Because that was an earthly symbol of what was meant to happen in heaven. Thats all it was. It was an earthly symbol of what was meant to take place in heaven. How else would humans have known what was in the intent of God, except that He put it on earth to symbolize for us what meant to happen in heaven?

So when Jesus made the offering, He entered God with God and established the covenant, God with God. How secure is that covenant? It was secured by an oath. God wanted heirs and Jesus offered Himself as the only Begotton of the Father, in Whom and through Whom the heirs might come to the Father. The Father accepted it and said to Him, "I swear to You O' God" calling Jesus God, God said to God, 'This I swear to You O' God whoever is found to be in You, I will treat in the same way that I treat You.'

Firm!! Secure!! Unshakable! Unshakable. The deed was done! The thing that had been promised for long ages past had been accomplished when God entered with God. How might you be an heir of a Son? What is the only way that someone might be the heir of somebody else's son? Marriage, marriage. Marry the heir. Because marriage allows you to be one. We do not have an independent inheritance from Christ, we are joint heirs with Him. Meaning, we share in His inheritance. What did He get? He got the right to present the Father with heirs. Because He dedicated Himself to the purpose of God and because of that Jesus has the Name above all names. He is known forever as the One who accomplished what God desired.

I wonder how high will His name be, forever? I wonder how exalted He will be? World without end. Age upon age. The whole thing was accomplished because of God's fidelity to God. Because of God's love for God. And we who are in Him, then, are being made to be like Him. So the security that we have, this promise that we have, of being saved if we would choose His salvation, is not something that comes and goes or fades with the times. So once you are saved, you are always saved.

Now what about the thing about how you live after your saved? Once you're saved, you become His child. Once your saved you become His child. You are in the Son and you are His heir. That means you are His child. Now, what child is left to discipline himself? A fatherless child is one who is left to discipline himself. A child without parent is left to discipline himself. But we have a Father in heaven Who's obligated to discipline us and to raise us up. Can we reject His discipline? Sure, we do all the time. What does He do? Does He say well, I don't like you anymore? Laughter....No. He beats you. LAUGHTER....He's not afraid of the HSD. Laughter....He beats you, I have it on good authority. Laughter...Whomever He receives as a son He...(background 'chasten') Yeah, we like the word chasten, I like the word beat. Laughter....Chasten sounds very King James. (British accent) 'I say they shall all be chastened'. Laughter.......... That doesn't sound like a beating, it sounds like 'christen'. Laughter..... No. Chastening means beatings. Floggings will continue until you straighten up. Laughter.....

Now the truth of the matter is of course, God's discipline is both instructive and corrective, and the majority of God's discipline is instructive and does not involve a beating. In fact, the older you get in the Lord, the less God deals with you in that way because you should grow up. He means for you to grow up. You only correct an unruly child. Now what if you see some people who say their saved but in fact there really is no evidence that God is dealing with them and their living like the devil? You see, in our culture today, we have this idea that anybody can say, "I believe in Jesus", and their saved. It's not like that at all. We teach something that we call a salvation message that has practically nothing to do with salvation. It has to do with numbers in the pews but it doesn't have to do with introducing people to the living God.

Now here is the matter, here is the truth, OK. Here is the truth. When you are saved, God gives you His Holy Spirit, thats how you are confirmed as saved. That is how you are confirmed as saved. He gives you His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit is meant to work in you, so consistently, that over time He will conform you to the likeness of His Son, to the Son of God. Now on the offchance, on the offchance, and I am just going to say this and I'm not going to develop it because that will take me in a whole other direction. On the offchance that you show a remarkable ability to resist the Spirit of grace, consistently over time, then He reserves the final phase of discipline for the millennium. And there, those unfortunates, who did not see the need to submit to His discipline and be conformed to sonship will be dealt with with 'a rod of iron'. That means, He's inflexible.

This is a day of grace through faith, but that is a day of strict obedience for the wicked servants. I understand from the scriptures that this will be the minority, not the majority. Whoever He truly receives as a son, the evidence of it is the confirmation by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit in fellowship with the human spirit produces the likeness of Christ in you. Thats how the matter is 'sewed up'. So yes, after you've been saved, the day after your saved, your characteristics will not be significantly different from the day before you were saved. There will be no noticeable change the next few weeks, there may be some changes, but He has a lifetime. He knows how long you are going to live and He knows what it will take and He knows exactly how to discipline you.

Interestingly enough, as He moves on in the process of disciplining you, you find that He seems to settle on particular areas of your life but He seems to ignore whole tracks of you life. And we watch each other and we say, "Well he can't be saved because..God is still letting him get away with all of this." And we feel its our duty to inform the Lord, "Well Lord, why do you let so-and-so get away with this and me if I blink your on me?" Well because it takes more with you. Laughter.... What God deals with with you has to do with the areas in which the enemy has been successful in entrapping your soul. And so He'll visit you there again and again because when He frees you there, He's freed you everywhere.

If you can make it there, you can make it in New York. Laughter.. If God is not concerned, brothers and sisters, and this is a safe audience in whom to say this, if God is not concerned about some area of your life, you're free to leave it alone. I know what your thinking, your thinking, "I just heard him say 'Its OK if I'm failing, that is I'm sinning, in an area of my life'". Yes I'm saying that, you know why I'm saying that? Because God knew you would sin. Before He made you He knew you would. It's not about how you save yourself out of it, it is how you cooperate, with the way in which and the sequence and the time in which He's bringing you to the end of the process.

He loved you while you were a sinner, you think now that your a son He doesn't love you, if your sinning? No. And I'm not saying 'resist the discipline of God' I'm saying 'If He is not touching it, don't listen to your enemy when he accuses you of it.' Because the work isn't finished yet, but it will be. Can you hear this stuff? Can you hear this? Because if you can hear this it will bring you freedom and peace. Not so that you can just go out and blow it all and be wild and crazy. It sets you beyond the place where your enemy can harass you and torment you.

I know any number of young men, lets say, now lets use a common sin. I know any number of young men who regularly struggle with pornography. And they love God. And you know what the enemy comes and says to them, "Chh how could you say that you love God, when your mind is so dirty." and they promise God, "O' God I'll never do this again. " And they'll hear the enemy say to them, "Ya, sure." But what is true is that when you sin you should repent. Because by repenting you never let it get a hold of your soul and you don't allow yourself to think this is not sin. When you repent, you're acknowledging this is sin. But rest. Rest. Repent and let it go. Because when God is ready He'll break the back of that thing in you and you'll be free.

But heres the thing, you don't understand, that before God deals with that, there are other things He has to fix. If He just fixes that and leaves the foundation, the roots out of which that thing has sprung in your life, then guess what'll happen to you? Then your enemy will really get a hold of you because your trapped. So God will center in your life on the fact that your father rejected you, if thats the root. God will center on that thing, the Holy Spirit will work in you, in that area and show you time and again. And indeed the very fact that He waits to deal with it, and yet you see Him loving you and receiving you, while your in it, is the very evidence that He loves you. And that thing about being rejected and unloved is what He's breaking in you. And He's doing it by showing you His love in the midst of your sin.

And when one day it breaks through to you, and you see it, that spirit that controls you will be out of their before you could tell it to get out. And my point is, until then you don't need to pick it up. Just repent and go on. Did He not tell you that if your brother sins against you 70 times in one day that you ought to forgive him? Now what if you sinned against Him 70 times in one day? Will He forgive you? Religion says, "He can't." Thats cheap grace. Laughter.... Listen, when are you going to exhaust the supply of His grace? What are you going to do to exhaust it? Nothing. Because its the expression of His unfailing love. I'm sure that people who will hear this tape will say, "You know, I heard that brother preach about just, you could do anything you want to." Are you hearing me say that tonight? No. But people will hear that.

What your hearing me say is: God, before He formed you, knew that you would sin. He knew it. So the fact that you sin is not a surprise to Him. His whole plan to redeem you does not require your cooperation, indeed there is no place for you to do anything except accept what He's done for you, He did it ALL for you. Then the process of conforming you, because He saved you to make you His heirs, its why He created you in the first place. To make you His heirs. Not just to save you but to make you to be like Him. You need to understand that He's totally committed to making you to be like Him, and He has sworn to Himself that He will do it. Do you think He will succeed?

Yes He will, He will. He will. If you are particularly resisting, He has a cure even for that. Laughter... And He doesn't just necessarily wait until the millennium. He tells us that 'If your brother has such a problem with his flesh that I'm trying to deal with him, and he won't let Me. And he won't let Me deal with him through you, hand him to the devil.' He tells us how to do it. Go first to him, tell him privately, entreat him. If he doesn't receive that, 2 or 3 of you go, do the same thing. If he doesn't, the whole lot of you go. And if he doesn't then hand him over because his flesh can't be helped in any other way except by the one who was made to devour his flesh. So hand him over. When his flesh is devoured, he's desolate, he'll come back. And if he dies while he's out there I'll fix it. Thats the 'rod of iron' part. But He who started it will finish it.

The issue is whether or not you will choose God. Whether or not you will choose God. Because that is the only choice you have. You don't have a choice of being neutral and choosing to be lost. So the whole matter of 'Does God know that you will do that, or does God not know', thats irrelevant. If your condition is that you are lost, the only choice you have is whether or not you will be saved. And once your saved, once you choose that, then you become His. And He'll get a piece of you. Laughter.. He'll get a hold of you. He'll finish what He started, and He'll deliver you to Himself as His heirs.

When you begin to see this view of predestination, the glory of it is the faithfullness of God and the unwaivering commitment to His precious purposes. All of the sudden, when you're going through trials in your life, now you know its not because God saved you but now He's turned His back on you. When your going through trials what does it tell you? These trials tell you that God is disciplining your soul to respond to His Spirit. Not because He doesn't love you, what foolishness! This is what we offer to each other when our brethren are going through trials and when we are going through trials ourselves, "I don't think God loves you. I don't think I want to be close to you. That stuff might get over on me." Laughter... As if there will not be a time when you are in the barrel because we all know that we were born again complete. You are born again and ready for heaven. You were born again, the moment you were born again your perfect. Your spirit certainly was saved but your soul needs to be saved. It needs to be saved out of the deception in which you lived, when you lived in Adam. So that He might fully be about His purpose and His business in you. So He'll finish what He started.

So the word says, "Do not think it strange that you should go through trials of many kinds." Its not strange. It appears strange to use because we don't know why these things are so anymore. We've been so steeped in religion that the very discipline of a faithful Father is seen as a sign of rejection.That sounds more like our natural fathers than anything else. So go through the trials, go through the disciplines, and let the things that control you fall away. He knows exactly how to move it through your life to accomplish what He intends to accomplish. So let Him. And don't pick up the things prematurely that you shouldn't.

Now this is the basic, basic message, I believe, that God is speaking to us in this day because our enemy will come with every form of noise and distraction and every accusation taking full advantage of the work and the discipline of God, in your life at this time. He will do that, just know that he will. But your answer to him is, "No. I am a child of God. Look, the Holy Spirit lives in me. And what's happening to me is the faithfullness of my Father to me. I don't like it but He knows what He's doing, and He'll finish it."

Now as these messages continue, we'll get more into how God does this matter of disciplining us in a little bit broader sense of it. What does it mean to be in the Body of Christ and how does the government of God function to bring discipline, correction, instruction to us? You have to understand that when God saves you, because He intends to conform you to the image of His Son, He anticipated how to do that before He saved you. Not only did He know He was going to save you and not only did He know how He was going to save you, it is equally true that He knew how to perfect you. Are you with me? It says, "He gave some to be apostles, ,prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man." How do you measure his maturity? "To the fullness of the stature that belongs to Christ." Is that what the heirs look like? Yes. So His government was given to equip us for that result.

And God knew how to do it, and He gave us the equipping by which to do it. Our problem is that: we see spiritual things through carnal realities. We see the issues of the Kingdom and of sonship through religion and church membership. Now religion and church membership are creations of Satan. Why? Because they supplant, they bring forth, a false view in which to see spiritual things. They're a counterfeit, they're a counterfeit. Thats why they're not reliable. If you cannot keep the knowledge of the truth from the people, then bring to them a deception, so that the way they will see these things is corrupted.

Religion wants to get a hold of you in every step of the journey. So first it tells you that, "You can't be good enough for God to save you", that really, you have to beg God and plead with God, and promise that you will never be bad again, for Him to save you. And then once He saves you, then here comes the load of work upon your shoulders because hey, it was a bait and switch, you didn't really get it. He promised it to you but the fine print is, "Now you got to do all of this stuff to keep it." As the mythology of these follies, of these senseless doctrines, contradictory on their faces, is dissipating, the people of God, in their day of trial, will have the confidence of their Father. God who swears to Himself and has not retracted His word. We who have fled to take hold of this hope, we who are the heirs, might be greatly encouraged. And you have this hope as an anchor for your soul. It'll secure you in the times that are coming.

God knew that the human was going to cost Him, but He made him anyway. God knew that this creature was inherently unstable, O' but when he is led by the Spirit, could he fly. Hallelujah. Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I’m Sam Soleyn and I’ll see you next time.