If you are in the book of life you are a new man. Your race, gender, or social status holds absolutely no significance to you. In fact, the only identity marker that has any value is your identity IN Christ Jesus. We need to get out of the superficial markers that mark the world and divide people. Now in order to effectively do this, we must get past the general assumptions and really define what it means to be IN Christ.
Are you in Christ? Did you obey and humble yourself to Jesus words? Or are you exulting the words of an organization, a man, or years of tradition? Did you take on the name of Jesus, like a faithful bride takes on the name of her husband? Do you know that this name is the only name that can save you? (Acts 4:12) I'm not talking titles...I'm talking about the very name of God. I'm talking about being "IN" Christ for the REMISSION of sin, not to join a silly man made institution. We know that Jesus is the completed and revealed name of God himself. God does not share his glory and is not composed of three co-equal spirits that make up his complete being. He is ONE and has revealed himself as a pillar of fire, cloud, angel, man, and a spirit. His word, which cannot be separated from him, teaches us this. Now if we separate HIM from his word...then yes, we make up things like a trinity which is NOWHERE MENTIONED IN HIS WORD. We are getting real this morning, we are talking about being IN Christ.
Now if you want to know how to get "IN" Christ and take on HIS very name, like a faithful bride, you need to read Galatians 3:27 and Acts 2:38? Let's be transparent and real on this one...I'm talking about a spiritual self examination. Did you repent of your sins and realize that Jesus righteousness is the only way we can be righteous in HIS sight? Do you know that we are saved BY and THROUGH HIS NAME? (Acts 10:43 and Acts 4:12)
Words are spiritual and He is a Spirit, He IS HIS word...and you can't separate HIM from his own word! It's like if I am speaking, it's impossible to separate me from the words I speak. In fact, even in death, I can't speak any more words so my words are just as much a part of me as I am with them. Also...what is the means by which we really get to know someone? Is it not through their words? Is not the word of God (The Bible) The means by which we know Jesus, what he did, and how to apply what He did? 1 John 5:8 tells us that the word, the water, and the blood is in agreement. In fact, the word of God is the ONLY Connection to the blood! THIS IS WHY AND HOW Jesus CAN COVER YOU! HIS word IS and reveals HIS very NAME and HIS BLOOD. His name is what we must confess as LORD or GOD, and have called over us for the remission of sins in full water immersion. (Baptism defined in Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16) This covers us with the blood of Jesus and forgives us of our sins. HE IS HIS WORD and his word is forever living and still speaking to us!
Now the connection with HIS blood and HIS word is so deep that scripture tells us in Hebrews 12:24 that HIS BLOOD STILL PEAKS! Blood speaking? Don't words speak?Again, the connection of the blood and the word is in such unity that they cannot be separated. As we stated earlier, they are in complete agreement. This is why if we continue to repent after we are covered by His name in baptism, he is always faithful and able to forgive us! HIS BLOOD IS STILL ABLE, because HIS blood alive and connected to HIS WORD, which is also alive! According to Leviticus 17:11, we know that the life of the body is in the blood. Now according to the new covenant, Jesus tells us in John 6:63, that his words are spirit and life! The connection between the blood and the word rings true, though out the entire Bible. The connection is made evident with the proper understanding of the two covenants that God himself establishes. One physical, one spiritual. One completed and one established and ratified IN JESUS.
So again without the word...we have no connection to the blood! Without the Bible, there is no Jesus story, no crucifixion, and no concept of a blood sacrifice for our sin. Not to mention, there is also no resurrection, no concept of heaven, no concept of eternal life, and not even a concept of LOVE! God's word is so essential, and it amazes me how so many simply dismiss it or brush it off. I can not stress how important the word of God truly is.
Hebrews 12:24 tells us that Jesus blood speaks out a better word than the blood of Able! (Abel's blood cries out for revenge and justice in Genesis 4:10) When you apply the blood of Jesus is just as if you have never sinned! Now that doesn't mean his blood is a green card to sin, in fact we are no longer a slave to sin because we are endowed with power and a new spirit when we take on his very name, the name of Jesus! I'm not saying we are going to be perfect, but we will mature and be more like him, because we are now united with Him! (Colossians 1:28) We need to get in his word and cut ties with the bondage of sin, and leave behind our "slave mentality" that we are "sinners."
Whenever believers are addressed in the New Testament, every time they are called "SAINTS." If we are baptized INTO His name, we are part of His very body and are saints. We share identity with him and in him. We are covered by his righteousness and daily maturing in HIM! We are and should be called saints, not a sinners, do not put that slave mentality on the people of God. Encourage God's people to meet that standard of maturity that is only made known, IN Christ. God's people need to be encouraged to walk in unity with HIS word, which is HIM. We need to encourage each other to forsake this slave mentality of being a sinner because God has taken us from our bondage of sin. We are no longer in Egypt or spiritual bondage, serving the Pharaoh or spiritually, Satan. Of course that is...IF we are really IN Christ. If we are in Christ we are promised HIS Spirit IN us, which WILL give us the power to mature! Again, the physically story of the Exodus, rings true with the spiritual story of the of the exodus from this world's bondage which is sin and it's master, Satan.
Do we understand truth and how this truth (Jesus is the truth) is applied? It's about being IN Jesus, this is how we are cloaked in HIS righteousness. Jesus is the book of life and his words are living. This book is spiritual, filled with the very word that God speaks and revealed to us. It shows us HIS righteousness and reveals to us his very character and name. (His Identity...which people can inherit, if they truly believe his complete word, not just John 3:16 or Romans 10:9)
Without HIS word...we have NO connection to him. We have no story of him, no death or blood sacrifice for the cleansing of sin, and no resurrection. His word must be esteemed and it must be what we humble ourselves to. We must do our best to obey, live under, and walk in each day we live. We must conform ourselves to HIS word, like the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The word of God was the standard which defined the identity of God's people. This is how these three Hebrews could say in Daniel 3:18, "Let it be known to you, O king, that we don't serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected." This was a death sentence and these three Hebrew men knew it. They stood in the standard of God and told the King, that they could not conform to him and his words.
The King's God was just the work of his own hands and imagination. The Hebrew men would not worship this flawed perception of a "god" that the King just made up. They truly lived by God's word, which was their standard. The the standard which the God of heaven and earth gave them, through Moses, who lead them out of Egypt. Egypt was their testimony of God's power, now not a single one of these men saw the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, but they knew the story through the word and they knew that this same God could deliver them from the King and Babylon. These three Hebrew men chose to live by God's word, and if necessary die by God's word as well.
Now in the book of Revelation, God tells us that it is only those who are written in the book of life that inherit eternal life! The book of life does not have a physical cover but it will physically and spiritually cover you. It is not filled with pages of paper and ink, but it is filled with spiritual words that instruct us and teach us who God is and how we can be made right with HIM? God himself (JESUS) is that living BOOK OF LIFE! Again, we must be IN HIM! He reveals to us who God is by his very character as a man! He shows us that he IS the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Remember God was concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testaments. When God was concealed his standard was under a physical representation of a spiritual covenant. This covenant is now revealed and is for Spiritual Israel! (Not a fleshly race of people, but a spiritual nation of people who only share their identity in JESUS.) In fact, the only way to be a child of God is to enter into this covenant. Now to enter it, we know that we need to be born again as Jesus stated in John 3:5 and when this happens we receive a new heart and a new spirit.
It's interesting because circumcision is the means by which the ancient Hebrews under the Old Covenant entered into covenant with God and were given identity as HIS PEOPLE. It's an exact shadow of how we now get into the New Covenant, which is baptism! (Colossians 2:11-12) Now if an ancient Hebrew did not get circumcised, his identity was stripped. He was to be cut off from His people, sent away as a gentile and never counted as a Hebrew. (Genesis 17:14) In fact, circumcision had so much to do with one's identity that a Hebrew boys were ALWAYS named at the time of their circumcision, on the Torah mandated 8th day. In fact, Jesus was no different. Luke 2:21, tells us that Jesus was GIVEN HIS NAME, at the time of his circumcision, on the 8th day! This is why scripture says that He was born UNDER the Torah law, to redeem or "buy back" those UNDER Torah law, that they may receive the adoption of being HIS SON'S! (Galatians 4:5)
So now it's all about believing HIS words and getting into Covenant with Him! Remember, Jesus is the covenant and we must get INTO Him! If we simply believe that and do nothing....will our belief be counted as righteousness? Absolutely not...In fact, Hebrews 11:8 defines what SAVING faith is. It says "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, OBEYED; AND HE WENT OUT, not knowing whither he went."
So here it is, we must choose to PUT ON JESUS, (Galatians 3:27) that is IF we actually believe HIS word. If Abraham would have just said "I believe that you have given me this promised land and I will follow you to it." but never picked up his feet and left, would he have inherited the land and the promises of God!? HOW FOOLISH, OF COURSE NOT! This is why the Bible tells us that we must believe and OBEY the Gospel message! (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
The Gospel message that we must believe in, is defined to us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. How we obey this message is explained in Romans 6:3-6! Of course this all lines up to the first time the complete Gospel message was preached in Acts chapter 2. This was when the body or church of Jesus was originally manifested. Remember, Acts 2:41 tells us how were people added to the church or "added to their number." What did they have to believe and obey? Acts 2:38!
We must remember HOPE does not save us, hope requires no action and can be passive. Faith on the other hand requires belief and also ACTION. Remember faith without works is dead. action. The real Gospel message always INVOKES a response. Acts 2:37 tells us "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" If the Gospel message does not cut and invoke this type of response...then it is not the correct Gospel message. In fact it's another Gospel that the apostle Paul warned the church at Corinth about, in 2 Corinthians 11:4!
Remember, the word, the water, and the blood are in agreement and they are the means by which we are made new. This agreement happens at full water immersion in the name of Jesus (The ONLY ONE God) for the forgiveness of sins. He is his word and this is how we apply Him, through and by his word as stated in 1 Peter 1:23. Jesus died for the world, but the world is not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact the Bible tells us that few will inherit the Kingdom of God and it belongs to the meek and the humble who have ears to hear HIS word...which is the seed as Jesus himself made reference in a parable, in Luke 8:11. In this same parable, Jesus speaks of an enemy who went on the owners field and sowed false seeds all over that became "tares" or a false replication of the real thing. (Which was wheat)
In fact, one could only tell the difference between the wheat and the tares at harvest time. The wheat bowed and produced fruit or as it's called "ears" So here it is, the difference marker between those who hear God's word and those who don't is this. Those who hear Gods were are bowed or humble and have ears to hear his words.
Jesus himself tells us in John 10:27 "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." The sheep of God and know his word, they can tell the difference between the real seed or word of God from the false seed or counterfeit word of God. They know the real Gospel from the false Gospel, from another Jesus. They are aware of Paul's warning to the church in 2 Corinthians 11:4, because they esteem the word of God and the men of God. They are in agreement with Jesus and covered by HIM, the book of life and living word of God.
Are you IN Jesus, the living book of life?
Are you in Christ? Did you obey and humble yourself to Jesus words? Or are you exulting the words of an organization, a man, or years of tradition? Did you take on the name of Jesus, like a faithful bride takes on the name of her husband? Do you know that this name is the only name that can save you? (Acts 4:12) I'm not talking titles...I'm talking about the very name of God. I'm talking about being "IN" Christ for the REMISSION of sin, not to join a silly man made institution. We know that Jesus is the completed and revealed name of God himself. God does not share his glory and is not composed of three co-equal spirits that make up his complete being. He is ONE and has revealed himself as a pillar of fire, cloud, angel, man, and a spirit. His word, which cannot be separated from him, teaches us this. Now if we separate HIM from his word...then yes, we make up things like a trinity which is NOWHERE MENTIONED IN HIS WORD. We are getting real this morning, we are talking about being IN Christ.
Now if you want to know how to get "IN" Christ and take on HIS very name, like a faithful bride, you need to read Galatians 3:27 and Acts 2:38? Let's be transparent and real on this one...I'm talking about a spiritual self examination. Did you repent of your sins and realize that Jesus righteousness is the only way we can be righteous in HIS sight? Do you know that we are saved BY and THROUGH HIS NAME? (Acts 10:43 and Acts 4:12)
Words are spiritual and He is a Spirit, He IS HIS word...and you can't separate HIM from his own word! It's like if I am speaking, it's impossible to separate me from the words I speak. In fact, even in death, I can't speak any more words so my words are just as much a part of me as I am with them. Also...what is the means by which we really get to know someone? Is it not through their words? Is not the word of God (The Bible) The means by which we know Jesus, what he did, and how to apply what He did? 1 John 5:8 tells us that the word, the water, and the blood is in agreement. In fact, the word of God is the ONLY Connection to the blood! THIS IS WHY AND HOW Jesus CAN COVER YOU! HIS word IS and reveals HIS very NAME and HIS BLOOD. His name is what we must confess as LORD or GOD, and have called over us for the remission of sins in full water immersion. (Baptism defined in Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16) This covers us with the blood of Jesus and forgives us of our sins. HE IS HIS WORD and his word is forever living and still speaking to us!
Now the connection with HIS blood and HIS word is so deep that scripture tells us in Hebrews 12:24 that HIS BLOOD STILL PEAKS! Blood speaking? Don't words speak?Again, the connection of the blood and the word is in such unity that they cannot be separated. As we stated earlier, they are in complete agreement. This is why if we continue to repent after we are covered by His name in baptism, he is always faithful and able to forgive us! HIS BLOOD IS STILL ABLE, because HIS blood alive and connected to HIS WORD, which is also alive! According to Leviticus 17:11, we know that the life of the body is in the blood. Now according to the new covenant, Jesus tells us in John 6:63, that his words are spirit and life! The connection between the blood and the word rings true, though out the entire Bible. The connection is made evident with the proper understanding of the two covenants that God himself establishes. One physical, one spiritual. One completed and one established and ratified IN JESUS.
So again without the word...we have no connection to the blood! Without the Bible, there is no Jesus story, no crucifixion, and no concept of a blood sacrifice for our sin. Not to mention, there is also no resurrection, no concept of heaven, no concept of eternal life, and not even a concept of LOVE! God's word is so essential, and it amazes me how so many simply dismiss it or brush it off. I can not stress how important the word of God truly is.
Hebrews 12:24 tells us that Jesus blood speaks out a better word than the blood of Able! (Abel's blood cries out for revenge and justice in Genesis 4:10) When you apply the blood of Jesus is just as if you have never sinned! Now that doesn't mean his blood is a green card to sin, in fact we are no longer a slave to sin because we are endowed with power and a new spirit when we take on his very name, the name of Jesus! I'm not saying we are going to be perfect, but we will mature and be more like him, because we are now united with Him! (Colossians 1:28) We need to get in his word and cut ties with the bondage of sin, and leave behind our "slave mentality" that we are "sinners."
Whenever believers are addressed in the New Testament, every time they are called "SAINTS." If we are baptized INTO His name, we are part of His very body and are saints. We share identity with him and in him. We are covered by his righteousness and daily maturing in HIM! We are and should be called saints, not a sinners, do not put that slave mentality on the people of God. Encourage God's people to meet that standard of maturity that is only made known, IN Christ. God's people need to be encouraged to walk in unity with HIS word, which is HIM. We need to encourage each other to forsake this slave mentality of being a sinner because God has taken us from our bondage of sin. We are no longer in Egypt or spiritual bondage, serving the Pharaoh or spiritually, Satan. Of course that is...IF we are really IN Christ. If we are in Christ we are promised HIS Spirit IN us, which WILL give us the power to mature! Again, the physically story of the Exodus, rings true with the spiritual story of the of the exodus from this world's bondage which is sin and it's master, Satan.
Do we understand truth and how this truth (Jesus is the truth) is applied? It's about being IN Jesus, this is how we are cloaked in HIS righteousness. Jesus is the book of life and his words are living. This book is spiritual, filled with the very word that God speaks and revealed to us. It shows us HIS righteousness and reveals to us his very character and name. (His Identity...which people can inherit, if they truly believe his complete word, not just John 3:16 or Romans 10:9)
Without HIS word...we have NO connection to him. We have no story of him, no death or blood sacrifice for the cleansing of sin, and no resurrection. His word must be esteemed and it must be what we humble ourselves to. We must do our best to obey, live under, and walk in each day we live. We must conform ourselves to HIS word, like the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The word of God was the standard which defined the identity of God's people. This is how these three Hebrews could say in Daniel 3:18, "Let it be known to you, O king, that we don't serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected." This was a death sentence and these three Hebrew men knew it. They stood in the standard of God and told the King, that they could not conform to him and his words.
The King's God was just the work of his own hands and imagination. The Hebrew men would not worship this flawed perception of a "god" that the King just made up. They truly lived by God's word, which was their standard. The the standard which the God of heaven and earth gave them, through Moses, who lead them out of Egypt. Egypt was their testimony of God's power, now not a single one of these men saw the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, but they knew the story through the word and they knew that this same God could deliver them from the King and Babylon. These three Hebrew men chose to live by God's word, and if necessary die by God's word as well.
Now in the book of Revelation, God tells us that it is only those who are written in the book of life that inherit eternal life! The book of life does not have a physical cover but it will physically and spiritually cover you. It is not filled with pages of paper and ink, but it is filled with spiritual words that instruct us and teach us who God is and how we can be made right with HIM? God himself (JESUS) is that living BOOK OF LIFE! Again, we must be IN HIM! He reveals to us who God is by his very character as a man! He shows us that he IS the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Remember God was concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testaments. When God was concealed his standard was under a physical representation of a spiritual covenant. This covenant is now revealed and is for Spiritual Israel! (Not a fleshly race of people, but a spiritual nation of people who only share their identity in JESUS.) In fact, the only way to be a child of God is to enter into this covenant. Now to enter it, we know that we need to be born again as Jesus stated in John 3:5 and when this happens we receive a new heart and a new spirit.
It's interesting because circumcision is the means by which the ancient Hebrews under the Old Covenant entered into covenant with God and were given identity as HIS PEOPLE. It's an exact shadow of how we now get into the New Covenant, which is baptism! (Colossians 2:11-12) Now if an ancient Hebrew did not get circumcised, his identity was stripped. He was to be cut off from His people, sent away as a gentile and never counted as a Hebrew. (Genesis 17:14) In fact, circumcision had so much to do with one's identity that a Hebrew boys were ALWAYS named at the time of their circumcision, on the Torah mandated 8th day. In fact, Jesus was no different. Luke 2:21, tells us that Jesus was GIVEN HIS NAME, at the time of his circumcision, on the 8th day! This is why scripture says that He was born UNDER the Torah law, to redeem or "buy back" those UNDER Torah law, that they may receive the adoption of being HIS SON'S! (Galatians 4:5)
So now it's all about believing HIS words and getting into Covenant with Him! Remember, Jesus is the covenant and we must get INTO Him! If we simply believe that and do nothing....will our belief be counted as righteousness? Absolutely not...In fact, Hebrews 11:8 defines what SAVING faith is. It says "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, OBEYED; AND HE WENT OUT, not knowing whither he went."
So here it is, we must choose to PUT ON JESUS, (Galatians 3:27) that is IF we actually believe HIS word. If Abraham would have just said "I believe that you have given me this promised land and I will follow you to it." but never picked up his feet and left, would he have inherited the land and the promises of God!? HOW FOOLISH, OF COURSE NOT! This is why the Bible tells us that we must believe and OBEY the Gospel message! (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
The Gospel message that we must believe in, is defined to us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. How we obey this message is explained in Romans 6:3-6! Of course this all lines up to the first time the complete Gospel message was preached in Acts chapter 2. This was when the body or church of Jesus was originally manifested. Remember, Acts 2:41 tells us how were people added to the church or "added to their number." What did they have to believe and obey? Acts 2:38!
We must remember HOPE does not save us, hope requires no action and can be passive. Faith on the other hand requires belief and also ACTION. Remember faith without works is dead. action. The real Gospel message always INVOKES a response. Acts 2:37 tells us "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" If the Gospel message does not cut and invoke this type of response...then it is not the correct Gospel message. In fact it's another Gospel that the apostle Paul warned the church at Corinth about, in 2 Corinthians 11:4!
Remember, the word, the water, and the blood are in agreement and they are the means by which we are made new. This agreement happens at full water immersion in the name of Jesus (The ONLY ONE God) for the forgiveness of sins. He is his word and this is how we apply Him, through and by his word as stated in 1 Peter 1:23. Jesus died for the world, but the world is not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact the Bible tells us that few will inherit the Kingdom of God and it belongs to the meek and the humble who have ears to hear HIS word...which is the seed as Jesus himself made reference in a parable, in Luke 8:11. In this same parable, Jesus speaks of an enemy who went on the owners field and sowed false seeds all over that became "tares" or a false replication of the real thing. (Which was wheat)
In fact, one could only tell the difference between the wheat and the tares at harvest time. The wheat bowed and produced fruit or as it's called "ears" So here it is, the difference marker between those who hear God's word and those who don't is this. Those who hear Gods were are bowed or humble and have ears to hear his words.
Jesus himself tells us in John 10:27 "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." The sheep of God and know his word, they can tell the difference between the real seed or word of God from the false seed or counterfeit word of God. They know the real Gospel from the false Gospel, from another Jesus. They are aware of Paul's warning to the church in 2 Corinthians 11:4, because they esteem the word of God and the men of God. They are in agreement with Jesus and covered by HIM, the book of life and living word of God.
Are you IN Jesus, the living book of life?