> Transcripts of Ray's Audio's and More Teachings
WHO AND WHAT IS JESUS? & WHO IS HIS FATHER? . Nashville Conf 07
Kat:
2007 Nashville Conference:
-post 1 at the top is (audio 6) 'THE UNIVERSE!'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_6.mp3
-post 2 (audio 7A) 'WHO IS THE FATHER?'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_7A.mp3
-posts 3-4 (audio 7B) 'WHO AND WHAT IS JESUS?'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_7B.mp3
-posts 5-6 (audio 08) 'IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS.'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_8.mp3
-posts 7-8 'last part of audio 1 and 2.'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_1.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_2.mp3
-posts 9-10 'audio 3.'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_3.mp3
-posts 11-12-13 (audio 4) 'WHERE DID JESUS COME FROM?'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_4.mp3
-posts 14-15 (audio 5) 'ONE GOD!'
http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_5.mp3
Audio no. 6, last half
THE UNIVERSE!
The whole thing is as bizarre as it can be.
Think about space, if you took God away, what is left?
Is there anything out there left?
Is there space?
Is it dark?
Is it light?
What is it then?
We think if we take away the creation you have black, cold, space. Three things in space, it’s black, dark and very cold, absolute zero and not a lot of room to do it in.
It’s interesting that most scientists don’t believe that space is eternal. They believe it came into existence with a big bang and time. Hence we have the space, time and matter continuum. All started at the same time.
So I say that God is perfect, that’s why He doesn’t change now and Christ doesn’t change. But did He ever? Because I have to answer a question. Where did God get patience?
[Someone ask the question: where did He learn obedience?]
I think He learned obedience before He was born and reduced down to a man and so on and so forth.
Left to His own we know what He could accomplish... nothing. He said so, “I can of mine own self do nothing:” (John 5:30). Because He had the Spirit without measure, He could not sin. Now Christ had to sweat bullets to do it, but it was still God doing it.
God puts us in the same situation, we have to live our lives. You may say, well I’ll just kill myself. Not unless God wants you to, you can’t kill yourself if God doesn’t want you to. Everybody that ever killed themselves, it was after God said... okay, now you are going to kill yourself.
He is in control of EVERTHING, through circumstances. He doesn’t make anyone kill themselves against their will, no. But He puts them into situations where they can’t tolerate life anymore and their own will becomes, I want to kill myself.
[Someone ask the question: Is that why Christ was always in prayer?]
Well yes, it’s like the old saying; act like it all depends on you and pray like it all depends on God. That’s the way you should live your life. He could not help but pray.
What appears to be contradictions are not contradictions, when you have a higher spiritual understanding of what it’s talking about. Let me show you a perfect example and it sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not.
Phi 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Doesn’t that contradict this whole thing... we’re saved by grace and not of works? Now we’re to work out our own salvation? What is that? How do you explain that “Of Myself I can do nothing” (John 5:30)? And He said "YOU can do nothing" (John 15:5), to the apostles. Then Paul says “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Well it does sound like a contradiction. But read the next verse and He tells us why. "For" now that word always means ‘because' or it’s another word for because.
Phi 2:13 For (because) it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Some of you probably still don’t get the answer, but it is there. "Work out your own salvation," is not the gist of that saying. He is not saying, work out your own salvation, period. No, He’s saying “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that’s where the emphases is, on fear and trembling, not on working out your own salvation.
You work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, why? Because it all depends on God! If God doesn’t do it, it won’t happen, IT WON’T HAPPEN! So we live in fear and trepidation.
I cannot drive down the street, being the safest driver that I can be and know that I will avoid an accident, if God has already determined I’m going to have one. What it doesn’t mean is you can drive down the road foolishly... or you don’t need to wear a seat belt... or close your eyes for a while... or something like that. But you do have to act it out. Why? You have to, He makes you.
He made you come out of your mother’s womb and He made you cry. Not that He forced you, but circumstances, He brought about all the circumstances. He made you cry, makes you grow and makes you fight with your kid brother.
You do all these things and people reach a place where they get tired of it. So we have plays like ‘Stop the world I want to get off.’ It's like I’ve had enough, I’m at the end of my rope and it’s the end of the line. Well it’s only the end of the line IF God has determined it’s the end of the line.
If say you came to that conclusion at 8:30, and He knows you won’t die until your 77 1/2, then you're not going to end it.
That’s where the fear and trepidation come in. It ALL depends on God, there’s nothing you can do. But YOU have to work it out. YOU have to get up and go to work. YOU have to do all this stuff.
Then you say I don’t want to anymore, well circumstances make you. So you think, I’ll just end it all... then your child comes up and says ‘Mommie.’ Now you say, oh my gosh I have a child, I can’t kill myself I’ve got to live for my child. You see? So God makes you live this life. He makes you do all this, HE MAKES YOU DO IT. But not against your will. He puts you in circumstances and that’s the only way you can go. The ONLY way!
You think, 'I shouldn’t have done this or that.' That’s right you should think that way. You should think that... 'I shouldn’t have done that,' because then you're learning. When you learn, you will then put that into practice. Because God doesn’t have you learn things so you can’t put them into practice, He has you learn things so you CAN put them into practice. But the only way you will learn them, is if you see how stupid it was, and you say if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have done that. So YOU HAD TO DO THEM! Because that lead to a lot of trouble and pain and sorrow But did you learn your lesson? 'Well yea.' Then don’t do it again okay, now their back on track.
But the whole human race does not comprehend that they do not have free-will. They have a will based on everything that everything makes them do. That’s their 'free' will. When you think about this you can go crazy, because the whole thing is bizarre.
You think if this is what God wanted and He is eternal, why didn’t He do it a zillion years ago? So this plays right into the hands of what I am talking about, but not completely, because we have this thing of eternity, which has no beginning. I mean if anything exists, something has to eternally exist. That’s just it, at least as we understand the law of physics and so on. If you have nothing, you cannot from nothing have something. Something eternally must exist, because WE exist.
This (knocks on table) is here... I’m here... you’re here and we know we’re here and we know we did not eternally exist. Because you have a birthday, same day every year, so you’re here and can’t deny it. So we know we weren’t always here and as we study history and people study paleontology, anthology and all the other -ologys, nothing eternally existed. Then you get into quantum mechanics, astrology, astronomy and astrophysics and all those things. We find that nothing in it’s present state, always existed.
So then we see all these galaxies out there and they are moving, and they're moving outward. Well if they are moving out, they must have been at one time 'in,' makes sense, right? If they were 'in' this far back in history, then further back they must have been further in too. So if you keep backing up, just sheer logic would tell you that it all came together at one point.
But now you got another quandary though. Since it comes together, so it was together at one time. Is that how it started out?
The reason it came together, is because gravity drew it together. But it couldn’t have always been that way, because then gravity couldn’t have drawn it in, because it was never out. Oh well, maybe it was out and it drew it in, then it exploded out and then drew in. So what? It’s the same thing.
Modern man doesn’t go back 50,00 years on this earth, of course not. So if you have the pulsating universe you solve the problem. So you got to go back to the first pulse Where did that first matter come from? That first pulse? Your mind goes crazy. You say well it’s just there and it got so tight, it just explodes. But wait a minute, how did it get tight?
Maybe it never came in, it only goes out. Because if it comes in and goes out that’s a two process thing, and we want to look for the original process. So if it didn’t come in first to go out, then it only went out. So if it went out first, out from where? It was gravity that was drawing it in. Your mind can’t handle it! There is nowhere to go with that!?
Where did the blob that drew itself in and then exploded into the expanding universe, where did it come from? If it eternally existed, how could it eternally exist in a state that would allow for that? It’s drawn in so tight it’s going to explode, so how can it eternally exist in a state that won’t tolerate that? You see what I’m saying? Well then where did it get that way? You see what I’m saying? Where did it get that way? You think well it was that way eternally. But it couldn’t have been eternally that way. Because it can’t function in that form, it would blow up. Well where did it come from? How did it blow up? Your brain can’t take this any further!
Space is endless and you keep going and going. It just can’t be. Do you come to a wall? Well what’s on the other side of the wall? Nothing? That’s what space is?
So I say the whole thing is bizarre. And I say that in love and hopefully with a little wisdom. This whole creation is bizarre. God is doing like He said in Isaiah 28:21 “a strange work.”
I want to be honest with what I know and what I learn. But I don’t know where to find it. I read all these books and all this stuff and most of it is garbage, if you want to find answers. Now you can learn knowledge, but you won’t get any answers.
The religious people hate the scientist and the scientist despise religion. Yet a creation demands a creator and it demands a beginning. But how can you have a beginning, if there is not a starting point? Yet the scientist are forced to believe that it had a creation. It had to start, but from where? From out here or in here or where did it start? If it started there, how long was it there? You say, well it had to be eternal. Well it can’t stay in that state, eternally, that’s why it blew up and moved out.
Now do you know what they discovered about this? Well here’s the theories about what’s going to happen to the universe.
1) Some say it will expand indefinitely, just keeps on going forever.
2) Then some say it will just expand until everything is just so far away from everything that the gravitational pull is like nonexistent and it will just stagnant out there.
3) But still others say it will slow down and slow down, stagnate, come to a stop, and eventually, even though the gravitational pull is very very slow, it will very slowly start to bring it back. But of course as it comes back further and further and the bodies get closer and closer and gravity gets stronger and stronger, the bodies will move faster and faster and it will come crashing back in again and then explodes again!?
But they have discovered something recently. I don’t know how they discovered it, they do this through the doppler effect and all that stuff.
4) But now the theory is, if it started in an explosion because it appears that everything is moving out. It’s moving out at millions of miles an hour, very fast. But if it started with an explosion and it is moving out, the initial thrust would send it out at a certain speed, right? Then logic would tell you it would have to slow down. Guess what they found out? That it is speeding up!? Where all the mass is centered some place, rather than pulling it back, it is pushing it out faster and faster. How do you square that with anything we know in physics?
[comment: gravity has never been fully explained...]
Not fully explained... fully? I just read this someplace, this one scientist said there is not two astrophysicists in the world that can even begin to give us a logical explanation about how a child’s magnet works. You say, 'they have not fully explained it.' They have no clue about gravity, not a clue.
[comment: the sun keeps the earth in the gravitational orbit, it’s a balance so the planets won’t go flying off into space.]
Yes, but not completely. All of the planet bodies are needful of it, but if you pull Saturn out or if you pull out Mercury, eventually we’re going to die. They all balance this elliptical orbit and the speed and everything So if you pull any one of the planets (well maybe not Pluto-laughter), but if you pull out Jupiter or Saturn or Neptune and you pull them out of the solar system, we will die.
[comment: what would happen first, say if you pulled the sun out? Would it get dark first, what would happen first the gravitational pull or the lose of life?]
Well either way, we’re gone.
[comment: If the sun was pulled out, how soon would the gravitational pull take us out into the universe?]
The gravitational pull to the outside is very slight. A scientist said in relation to astrology, as they say you are born under a certain star, it has to do with the gravitational pull on something. Well he said there is a thousand times more gravity exerted on the new born child by the physical body of the doctor, then the whole outer space combined. It was the doctor’s physical mass holding the baby, that exerts a thousand times more gravitational pull on the baby, which is almost infinitesimally nothing. But still it is a thousand times more than the sun or any other body. It’s very very little.
Now you get the big orbit of the earth. You have that because there is no friction in space, strictly centrifugal force keeping it out there. Speed will keep it out there, but then you got this crazy orbit thing. If you had round orbits it would make sense, but you have an elliptical orbit.
So if it flies by the sun and goes all the way out here and makes the swing and come back, why doesn’t it come back and crash into the sun? Well it’s far enough out and the speed that it by-passes it, without that happening. But it needs all the other planets to do their thing. They’re all orbiting and doing their thing to the fraction of a thousandth of a second, it is perfect timing.
The earth is so finitely balanced with a thousand other things, if you move any one of them, we’re all dead!
[comment: Just like God made it.]
Just like God made it.
Kat:
audio 7A
WHO IS THE FATHER?
When we hear of Elohim, El, or Jehovah Elohim, it is as much from the Father as it is Christ, because they are one.
Jesus Christ is the spokesman for His Father. No matter what Christ says, He is the mouth piece for the Father. He’s not Charley McCarthy, He’s not a puppet, but He is the mouth piece for the Father, they are in agreement. I don’t know if the proper phonetics and all that are given to Him by the Father and if He really has no latitude of His own.
But in Spirit... the whole thing has to do with spirit and attitude, they are ONE!
So it says in Acts 5:30 “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus.” But when we read in the OT “the God of our fathers,” it was Jesus. But what I want to show by that is the Scripture themselves gives us the latitude to recognize that no matter who the person is, whether it be the Father or the Son, it’s always God.
It is always God. Even Christ in His humiliation, in His physical form, where He was severely limited as a human being. It may say it’s Jesus Christ speaking, but it doesn’t matter if it says it’s Jesus Christ speaking or the OT it’s Jehovah speaking. We know if someone is speaking it’s NOT the Father. Because He does not speak, except through the Son.
So when Christ said, “I have come to reveal the Father” or in John 1:18 where John says Christ came to reveal or unfold the Father, it doesn’t necessarily mean that now Christ is going to tell us all about the Father. He’s going to tell us how the Father communicates now and in the past. All we have to recognize is the Father communicates through the Son.
So when Jesus Christ said, “before Abraham was, I Am” they should have begun to realize... wait a minute are You saying that was You? You talked to Moses?
Now we know that some of the apostles, got it for sure. Paul understood that spiritual Rock was Christ, that is who it was.
Now at the last supper Philip did not know, he just didn’t know. So He said “have I been with you so long, and you ask who the Father is, if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” Then He went on in different places to say a number of things.
I and the Father are One. (John 10:30)
I am in Him and He is in Me, We are One. (John 17:21)
The Words I speak, I speak of the Father. (John 12:50)
It’s like, 'ooh, now I get it.' By the time of the crucifixion and the next day after the resurrection, even doubting Thomas, he only doubted that Jesus was raised from the dead. But once he knew it was Jesus and if you talked to him and said Thomas do you believe in God? He would say, 'yes, sure I believe in God.' Do you believe in the God of Abraham and Isaac? He was there at that last supper and he would have said, 'sure I do.' But did he really comprehend who that God was, that he thought he believed in?
Now that Christ was crucified and they thought, the jig is up. Then the apostles said 'He’s alive,' but Thomas said I’ll believe it when I see the holes in His body. So Jesus said to Thomas come here, put your hand in My side, see the holes in My hands. What was his reaction? He knew it was Jesus Christ and if Jesus Christ could come back from the dead, then everything that He ever said was true. Everything that Man said was true. Now it’s “My Lord and My God.” Now Thomas not only acknowledged Him as the resurrected Jesus Christ, but if that Man came back from the dead, He’s also God.
God doesn’t change. When you have perfect character, perfect love, as Christ and the Father say that they have, you don’t change. There is no variableness of turning in God the Father and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jehovah Elohim is the Lord God of Malachi 3:6, which is Jehovah Elohim and just as much God as Jehovah and “I change not.”
Now He talked through that night about how He is in God and God is in Him. Then He starts to incorporate the disciples, now it’s “those whom You have given Me.” He’s praying here in chapter 17 after He said, return to the glory I had with You before the foundation of the world.
Then He says, “those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as (in the same way, in like manner) We are one,” (John 17: 20-22).
We don’t become mass hypnotized robots, but we become one in spirit, one in perfection and one in love. He goes on to say, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us….. that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one;” (John 17:21-22)
These are some of the reasons, you will be hearing me say more, everything is one. It all comes down to one thing. There is one God and God is above everything there is. There is one God.
So everything really is ONE. All the other little twos, threes and fours are really of no consequence, compared to the ONE, see. The One, the all.
So we read in Ephesians, Paul understood this, he didn’t copy it from some other place, he understood it.
Eph 4:1-3 “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit…”
See “the unity of the Spirit” there is the key, we are one in and through SPIRIT. We are individuals, I have my personality, somebody else has their personality and some don’t have a personality, you know. But we’re all individuals. But we can be all one in spirit, that is what binds us together as one, spirit. So “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.”
Now the church is trying to create a unity. They want to get a united council of churches, they want to create a unity. But you can’t create your own unity, there already is a unity. Now either you come into the unity or you don’t. But you don’t create a unity, because the unity is already there. Now if you are on the outside that’s your problem. You don’t create some unity with somebody else, you don’t bring two heretics together in unity. The unity is there and we have to endeavor to keep it and stay within it.
So then He says in verse 4, “…the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (and harmony). There is one body…” The body of Christ.
We are all part of the body of Christ and in Corinthians Paul likened us to different parts of the body. You know one might be an ear, one might be the mouth, one might be the hand and one the foot. Maybe we think the foot is not that comely a part of the body, but it is an very important part. Because the foot carries the hand wherever it has to go to do it’s thing. All are very important parts of the body.
But there is only one body, one spirit. Even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There’s only one baptism that counts, that’s Christ’s baptism. Now if your not baptized into Christ, your water baptism is of no value whatsoever. But people want to do the physical, keeping the physical. They think well I have to keep the baptism and circumcision, and every year we have to wash one another’s feet, and we take the Passover or communion, sometimes it’s six times a year, sometimes it’s twice a day, whatever.
Paul says they love the letter, their little communion thing and their little wafer (such a cute little thing) and they take their communion cup and say bless you, bless you, bless you and send me money, money, money. You have to have an anointing cloth and the hands laid on you and rubbed with oil... You got to pay your tithe and keep the Holy Days... You can’t wear mixed fabrics... The clean and unclean foods... You have to keep the Sabbath... You can’t work from sunset to sunset... and it just goes on and on and on. You do all these things and you will be a holy person, it will just make your heart so wonderful. But what it does is it makes hypocrites and heretics out of people.
It’s only ONE baptism and that’s Jesus Christ. We are baptized into His death. You say I thought we were suppose to be baptized in water? No. We are baptized into His death, that’s the thing that counts. It is only one baptism, there is only one circumcision, you either get that one or you have none at all.
Col 2:10-11 And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands…
No skin, no hands, no knife, that's circumcision, okay. Continuing verse 11 “… putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” That's what it represents, “the flesh by the circumcision of CHRIST!” That is the only way it counts.
Col 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in whom also you were raised through the faith of the working of God, raising Him from the dead.
Then you say, 'alright Ray there it is, we have to be baptized, can’t you read it in context?' The circumcision is without hands, the baptism is without water. This is Christ’s circumcision, Christ’s baptism, Christ is the anointing, it’s Christ, Christ, Christ, all of it.
If you don’t see that, you are just spinning your wheels in physical rituals. You don’t get any more obnoxious than holier than thou, seventh day Sabbath keepers and holy sacred name societies. Maybe it’s a secret handshake, it’s like you belong to the Masons and you get a secret handshake and your in, you see.
'Praise Shuah, praise Shuah,' ...ah, you're in now and you understand all truths? It’s total nonsense.
I get nasty letters from these sacred name societies. (Here’s an example)
Ray, how can you say you teach the true of God, when you still talking about that pagan, Jesus Christ. Don’t you know the name of Shuah, the name of the Father?
This one guy said, 'we are given the name of the Father, why do you use these pagan names and stuff. We are suppose to call upon the name of God.' So I wrote back and said, what is the name of the Father? He didn’t answer me. So I wrote back again and said, by what name did Jesus call the Father? Nothing. So I put an email on a Word program and every week I would send it to him... What name did Jesus Christ call His Father? You say I’m a lying, two-faced hypocrite, teaching paganism. I demand of you, what name did Jesus Christ call His Father. Zero, I never heard back from him. So I stopped sending the emails.
I do that sometimes just for fun. I just let them know, YOU are a lying, two-faced hypocrite. You have no idea what you are talking about, and yet you will accuse somebody of being pagan. Give me a break.
I had a guy apologize this week though. I don’t remember what I said, I remember my ending line to him was, 'and you're accusing me of lacking knowledge?' I had used his own quote, “lacking knowledge.” He wrote me back and apologized and said, “I’m sorry, you're right.” I get about one a year like that. But it does my heart good.
One hope... one Lord... one faith... one baptism... one God... one Father of all... who is above all and through all and in all, that’s the ONE! You don’t get more than that. It’s all one, in one, at one, over one, through one, all in all, it’s just one.
My thing now is after I teach the details of all this stuff, sheol, gehenna, hades and all the Lake of Fire stuff and all the stuff on prayers and all the many articles I have and so forth, then I’m going to start to bring it all together with one, see. I’ve already started doing that a little bit. But I’m going to do it in my next installment of Lake of Fire. The first caption is going to be ‘Too Many Words.’
I like the movie ‘Amadeus.’ I’ve watched it 12-14 times I guess. It is such a study on human nature. It’s just beautiful. It won the Academy Award for best picture, back in ‘82 or something.
There is one scene in there where the Emperor had just listened to a private session with Amadeus, a new composition or something he had just wrote. So afterwards they came together.
The Emperor thanked him and said-- That was good, yes it was good, except I think... oh how should I say it, ah... too many notes.
Amadeus responds-- There are too many notes?
Emperor replies-- Yes too many notes, take a few of them out and it will be better.
Amadeus asks-- Which notes should I take out?
Emperor-- I don’t know. Then looks around at his entourage and says am I not right in saying, too many notes? They all agree, he is right, too many notes, oh yes your highness, there are too many notes.
Amadeus-- There are neither too many or too few, it is just right!
So anyway, I’m going to take off on this with ‘Too Many Words.”
When I was younger and I was reading the scripture. Especially when I would read the evening of the Passover, chapters 14-17. I would think there are just too many words. You know too many 'you' and 'to' and 'us' and 'together,' just too many words. Now I wish there were more.
So I got to thinking about it and I want to cover words that are used in the Scripture that nobody has the foggiest idea what they mean. You just read right over them. Words like sanctification, propitiation, justification, reconciliation, reformation, what all these words mean. There’s lots of them, repent, repentance, redemption, renewal, rebirth. There are about 20 of these words, like sanctification, reconciliation, justification, propitiation.
What in the world do those words mean? So what I want to show you, is they all mean the same thing. I don’t mean that they don’t have a little different definition in the dictionary. But I’m saying from the scriptural prospective, there is one Lord, one baptism, one God, one hope, and one faith. It’s all one! When you understand it, it’s all one. All those words are one thing. I’m going to try to bring that down, though I’ll have to do a little defining of words. Although they are different words, they are all the same.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, wrote it with parables. Parables about leaven... fish... mustard trees... sowers of seeds... drag nets... building houses on the sand... rich men... the lost coin... and all these parables. None of them mean what they say. Not a one means what it says, that’s why they are parables. What do they all mean? They all mean the same thing. All the parables are one parable. All the parables and all the redemption, renewal, reformation, conciliation, reconciliation, justification, propitiation they are all one word. All the words and all the parables are one.
That’s what I want to start teaching, the simplicity. The simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. It all comes down to this one parable in the first chapter of Genesis. “Let Us be making man in Our image.” One image. All these images, all these sinners, all these stupid ideas and vanities out there. You got to bring it all into one spiritual image. Everything is ONE. All heading for one goal, one destiny, one body, one God, one family.
I hope God will give me the ability to bring this off, as now we’re out there in a lot of different subjects. Hopefully one day we’ll start bringing it all together, simplifying.
Partly what Jesus Christ was doing when He was revealing the Father, was letting them know who He was. Before Abraham, “I Am” that was Me. What? Yes that was Me. Not only was that Me, but here, Me, the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah in the flesh, this is the Father. Everything that I say is the Father. Everything that I do is the Father. Then they started to understand it and believe it.
That’s why Paul could say that there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father, of all, because he understood it, and they understood it too, at the end. You can tell by their writing they were beginning to understand it.
Peter makes an interesting statement.
2Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
So they had a privilege we don’t have. Remember what Christ said to Thomas.
John 20:29 … Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
You felt the holes and you believed, and that is good, you know. They won’t see what you see, but they will believe. How can we believe? What gives us the ability to believe? Spirit! “By My Spirit”!! Everything is by His Spirit, you can’t work these things out intellectually.
Not so many any more, but a couple of years ago, there were several people saying to me; 'Okay Ray, you can level with me, where did you find all this stuff, what books?' One guy said and almost demanded all the books, manuscripts and references, where had I got this. Because he wanted to check it out for himself, to see if it is really what I say. So he wanted every place where I got this information, to check out the books and authors and so on.
There is no authors, there is no internet sites. I sit down at the computer and type, I don’t even take notes first. I just sit down and type. But oh no it's, 'come on Ray, don’t give me that nonsense, you can talk to me.' They want to know if I found some book written in the 1400’s, that nobody knows about and they want to see them. Well if you can find them, I want to see them too.
So we are not eye witnesses to these things. But we can believe them.
Another guy, some kind of atheist, said, 'Ray, why do you believe this? You can’t seriously believe in one of these gods and this dead sea scrolls stuff. Surely you don’t believe in one of those gods.' To the carnal intellect, they don’t believe this stuff. I believe it. Though I think it is rather bizarre, it’s very strange, but God says;
Isa 55:8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts...
I don’t do it the way you do it, I say amen to that Lord.
Kat:
audio 7B
WHO AND WHAT IS JESUS?
I want to show you something about this picture. That’s a beautiful man isn’t it. That is the best an artist could do. They put the nose, eyes and cheek bones, ultimate perfection in the male face is there, right. An absolute handsome dude.
Isaiah 53, from the Revised Standard Version;
Isa 53:1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (and now there is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, here)
v. 2 For He grew up before Him like a young plant(tender plant in KJ), and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form of majesty that we should look at Him, and nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
For the moment I want to zero in on , “He had no form of majesty( KJ says comeliness) that we should look at Him, and nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
Now here is what it says, on this picture, ‘who really was Jesus?’ What? These people show me a picture like that and they’re going to tell me about the real Jesus, get out of town. I don’t have to hear a word they say. They’re going to tell me about the real Jesus? This guy makes Tony Curtis look like an ugly slob.
[Question asked; who is Tony Curtis] Tony Curtis is the father of Jamie Lee Curtis and she’s not a slob either. Since my wife isn’t here I can say this. I had a girlfriend once, she was a looker, southern belle from Georgia. One time she said to me, I don’t know if Jamie Lee was on TV or what, but she said; Ray what do men see in her, seriously now. She thinks she’s sexy and nice and all that.’ I said, well she’s not to bad to look at. She said ‘I just don’t see it.’ But anyway that’s who Tony Curtis is, Jamie Lee’s father.
A funny story is, one time I saw Harrison Ford, he is one of my favorite actors, and a movie I really love is ‘Witness.’ I’ve only seen it about 6 times. Somebody is interviewing Harrison Ford (who at the time was making 11-12 million for each film), and he was saying how he couldn’t get a job. He tried out for a job and they said they didn’t think he was that good or what ever. This casting director saw the TV that was on and there was a rerun of some movie with Tony Curtis in it. He was playing a bell hop, and he was saying his lines or something and the director said to Harrison Ford, now you look at that man there and you can see tell, there’s a movie star. Harrison Ford said, hmm, I thought he was suppose to be playing a bell hop. Which I thought was a pretty good come back. Because if you looked at him and said there’s a movie star, then he’s not doing a good acting job, because he’s suppose to be a bell hop.
The truth of the matter is Jesus Christ is not handsome at all. Now being the very Son of God and the creator of man and I’m assuming that Adam was about as handsome a man as ever was and I would suppose that Eve was as equal in every way on the feminine side.
But Jesus Christ was nie unto homely. Why? He’s the Son of God, isn’t He suppose to exemplify God and power and majesty. Why would God make Him homely? Think about it, you don’t see this is the movies, you never see a movie that comes close to who and what Christ was.
I gave a Bible study one day and I went through showing a little bit about the ministry of Christ, to offset all the things we see in the movies, okay.
And there followed Him great multitudes… (Mat 4:25)
And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, (Mat 5:1)
Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him… (Mat 8:18)
But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; (Luk 9:11)
And there were gathered unto Him great multitudes… (Mat 13:2)
And as these went their way, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes… (Mat 11:7)
But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, (Mat 12:15)
Now there went with Him great multitudes: (Luke 14:25)
All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; (Mat 13:34)
And there came unto Him great multitudes … (Mat 15:30)
Send the multitudes away, (Mat 14:15)
Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down….the disciples; and He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples gave to the multitudes. (Mat 14:19)
And you can just keep on going like this. Now most of you didn’t know it, but that’s the way Jesus’ ministry was. Hundreds and thousands of people were pressing on Him all day every day. Now where did you ever see that in a movie? You see Him strolling down the dirt road, with His merry men.
Page after page after page the multitudes and multitudes. The reason He went out on the boat or up in the mountain, was always to get away from the multitudes. Did you ever see that in the movies? He just couldn’t get out of the crowds, ever. Ever see a movie where Christ wasn‘t good looking? You can take every movie you ever saw about Jesus Christ and you can scrap that. Because you are already way off base to what the truth of God’s Word is.
So why was Christ nie unto homely? When it said no comeliness what-so-ever. Why though? To humble Him! Because Christ did something that we just don’t always see. (Aren’t you lucky you came to this Bible study, because I’m going to teach you some of these things, that you can get a better view of what’s going on here.) No comeliness what-so-ever. Nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him (Isa 53:2). So first of all, if you have this man that was not anything to look at, why did the crowds come? Because they loved Him? They wanted to get healed! Oh one other reason was the free meals, and I bet the fish He multiplied were really good. Like the best wine at the wedding, “…You have kept the good wine until now!" (John 2:10)
There is nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity(sickness and disease);
What are you going to do with that? Jesus Christ was sickly? Yes. Diseased? Yes. Full of infirmaries? Yes. What was it like, can you imagine the extra strain it was on Him, to not be handsome at all. Knowing in His own heart and mind He was the Creator of the universe, and that He had splendor that would knock your eyes out. He can’t say, well you should see how I use to be. You should see Me when I get that John Edwards $400 hair cut. You know I clean up pretty good.
Did you know that Jesus Christ Had brothers and sisters? “For even His brothers did not believe in Him.” (John 7:5)
We think that Christ was a Godly man and His mother loved Him and all that stuff. What did He say? “And a man's foes shall be those of his own household.”(Mat 10:36)
So you say alright fine, so they didn’t believe on Him, that’s not the end of the world. Well it goes a little deeper than that. I don’t know why I never thought to teach on this before. I never taught on this, I don’t know why I just didn’t do it. But today I was to talk on Christ and I thought, well yea I need to talk about this.
Mark 3:20 Then He went home, and the crowd(multitude) gathered again, so that they could not even eat. (ESV)
Even when He went into the house the crowd pushed on Him and pressed on Him. Remember that one person wanting to get healed so badly, that they took the roof off. Because they couldn’t get near Him. When He went home the crowds came and gathered against Him so, that they could not even eat.
Mark 3:21 And when His family heard it, they went out to restrain Him, for they were saying, "He is out of His mind." (ESV)
So His brothers didn’t believe Him and people were saying the man is crazy, and nie unto homely and He’s sick and diseased. This is our Jesus?! You got to disdain Him or have a better feeling toward Him.
In Luke 4 you have heard this, but never understood, just never put it together.
Luke 4:21 And he began to say to them( He said listen, He‘s talking to the multitude again and the Scribes and Pharisees), "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
v. 22 And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
Well yes. Because He wasn’t much to look at, but boy when He talks. They said, how does this Man know all this stuff? I thought this was the carpenter’s boy, how does a carpenters boy know all this?
Luke 4:22 …And they said, "Is not this Joseph's Son?"
v. 23 And He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to Me this proverb, 'Physician, heal Yourself.’
Did you get that? Doubtless He said, your going to say that to Me. Why? He healed people, right? But He was sick and diseased! So your going to say to Me, well if you’re the great Physician and You're healing all these people, surely you're going to say to Me, “Physician, heal Yourself.”
Christ had a burden to bare. He was nothing to look at though, sickly and diseased, “a tender shoot out of dry ground” (Isa 53:2), sick, diseased with infirmaries.
Now it says in Isa 53:3, “He is despised and rejected by others, a Man of suffering (Heb.-pain).” Because when we say suffering, right away we think of some spiritual thing. You know He suffered persecution and things of that nature. It’s still suffering, but the word is pain. Why was He in pain? Because He had infirmaries. Is this a different Jesus than you have been thinking about?
Isa 53:3 “...and as One from whom men hide their faces…” that’s not what it says in the Hebrew, it should say “As One who hides His face,” Imagine the Son of God, Creator of the universe and in a body that’s uncomely, diseased, infirmaries and pain. It’s like when you go through a crowd, you don’t want to call attention to yourself, because there’s nothing here to see, you know.
Isa 53:3 …He was despised, and we held Him of no account. V. 4 …and carried our diseases;
Do you understand where this says He was tempted in all ways as we, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). We think once in a while a pretty girl passed Him, He had to say, well I’ll look the other way. No! This is a whole lot more real than that.
He carried our diseases, oh. They will say, no He went to the cross for our diseases. No, He carried them in His body. Now is where they say, God just really beat the living day lights out of Him? That we count Him stricken down and afflicted? Who would say that?! It says WE. It doesn’t say God struck Him down. That is blaspheme. WE accounted Him stricken down and afflicted, we that’s a people. When they saw Him, they said 'this Man is being cursed of God, look at the pathetic thing. God is cursing this man bad, I wonder what He did wrong.' And then He would heal the people.
I mean it wasn’t the first time where He said, I know your all looking at Me saying, “heal Yourself Physician.” That must have come up many times, you know. It’s not in the Bible though it says;
John 21:25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
I mean how many hundreds of times did someone say, Lord you’ve healed me, I’m whole, why doesn’t God heal You? He would say that’s not My job to be healed and walk around whole and handsome, fortified and all that. He came to carry your diseases. I heal you, but I carry them in My body. WE account Him stricken down by God and afflicted, because that’s what you would conclude and that’s what people would look at.
Look at me I’ve got bad feet and ankles, horrible knees, diabetes, sleep apnea, heart murmur, high blood pressure and a huge blood clot on the brain. People would say, Ray why is God cursing you like that.
Kat:
page 2 'who and what'
Isa 53:5 ‘But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
So not only did He have to carry all of our sins and shortcomings and everything else to the cross. But all His life He carried the pain, the sickness, the disease and the infirmaries in His body. Why? Because God is not going to put us through something that He is not willing to go through Himself! That’s why we follow in His footsteps, see. Now you have to understand in the same way that God spoke through Christ, every time He opened His mouth and God healed people, every time Christ said stand up or walk or whatever, the Father was doing it! In the same way, the Father is suffering through His Son.
Do you not suffer when your children suffer? Would you not trade places with them when they hurt and when they cry? Doesn’t it hurt you more than them, right?
This one little boy, his Dad said now son this is going to hurt me more than you. The boy said, well Dad hit yourself then. But really it’s more painful for the parent to see a child suffer, then it is for the kid to suffer I think. Because we see their youthfulness, their weakness, their innocent and we say, just give it to me Lord. Just give me their suffering.
So God was suffering through His Son. What is this all about? Is this more of this bizarre stuff? What is this all about? Here is the Son of Man, all filled with diseases, sicknesses, infirmaries and all of that. He put the iniquities of us all on Him.
Isa 53:7 “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.”
Now it is coming down to His crucifixion. First we start out we a tender shoot, you see.
Isa 53:8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined His future? For He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
Isa 53:9 They made His grave with the wicked and His tomb with the rich, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth.
Isa 53:10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him with pain. When You(the Lord) make His life an Offering for sin,
So why all this stuff? Why couldn’t Jesus Christ have been this gorgeous, handsome looking young man? Why was He somebody who was on the verge of ugly, diseased, and sick, bent over in pain and misery? FOR US!
I don’t think the church gets it. I don’t think Christianity knows what’s going on.
Did Jesus Christ have to do this? NO.
Did the Father have to take Christ to the cross? NO.
But you say, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin and we all sin. HE made the rules! He didn’t have to make that rule, that His Son had to die. But why did He make those dumb rules? He makes the rules, right? Here is where I see that, let’s see if we agree, if we are all of the same spirit.
God is a certain way. I don’t know if He was always that way. I just know He always will be that way now. I don’t know what God went through, and some people will call me a heretic for that, but I really don’t care, it’s just something I feel in my spirit. That God knows evil and good, first hand, some how. His Son was not the first to suffer evil, I believe that happened, some how. Now you will say, how? Where? Well He had a knowledge of good and evil before there was a creation, He had that. Where did He get it? He got it from somewhere.
Now there is nothing like God in the universe. There is nothing that God has made, that is anything like God in the universe. God obviously (because He said so), uses the phrase, ‘He has a desire unto the work of His hand” (Job 14:15). "He has a desire," now that is scriptural. God has desires. He has what the KJ calls pleasures, goals, things that He wants to accomplish. He wants these things, you can’t scripturally deny that. God made everything for Himself. But He is not a selfish God, because there is part of the creation that involves angels and humanity.
Now He doesn‘t want to make puppets. It‘s, 'oh Ray we‘re just a bunch of puppets according to you.' He doesn’t want puppets or little play things. Like I have kitties, I love my kitties. They are fun and cute and wonderful. They each have their own personality, I understand them. Sometimes they even get excited about me, but not too often. You all know you don’t call a cat and they come, they don’t do that. But sometimes my favorite cat, which is a Mingcoon cat, long hair, big bushy tail. Sometimes I’ll go to the window and I’ll say, Stumpy, Stumpy and he jumps right up on the window and I pet him through the screen. To me that is worth a million dollars, I just love that cat.
But God wants more than just a little toy or kitten or whatever. He wants creatures that are very intelligent and that think three dimensional, subjectively. Who can appreciate the beauty, harmony and music and so many things that the human psyche is capable of. But He wants these creatures to be like Him.
Now you can say whatever You want, you might not approve of what God is doing or how He’s doing it. I mean I have thought already, as most of you will, sometime in your life, if you ever think deeply about these things. Surely this could have been done in a better way. But that’s why God says, My ways are not your ways, I don’t think like you and you don’t think like Me and not by just a little bit.
Isa 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
That’s how far apart our thinking is. But I want to bring this together. The way He’s doing this is you’ve got to go through a living hell on this earth. It’s the only way, it’s God’s way.
Whatever is, is not because man screwed up and through his free-will, he thwarted this beautiful garden of Eden, and all such stupid nonsense. Like I heard Hagee and Copeland chit chat about a few days ago. How wonderful their walk with God is, perfect harmony, they were the very image of God (they went through the whole thing, nonsense) that people who are in the spiritual image of God do not sin.
They sinned, quickly and easily, you know.
So what IS... that’s what’s suppose to be. Right here and now, this is what God wants. Why? Apparently this is the best way for Him to get what He wants, out of us. To go through this, is the best way! It’s not only the best way, it’s the best of the best ways.
You know I think about so many things in my life. I look at a tree and I say it’s beautiful. But if I were God I would have it symmetrical, every leaf would be exactly geometrically perfect. Everything would be that way, perfect. Everything would be in cubes and orbs and rectangles, in perfect sizes and every facet perfect. But we all know that would be rather boring, wouldn’t it. But then snarled bushes and weeds and stuff and we pull those out and burn them. Somewhere in between there, that’s where we need to be.
I had this hedge and almost pulled them out. There was 3 or 4 different kinds and colors intertwined, some were rotted, just a mess. I chopped the heck out of them and ended up with 3. They weren’t hedges, they didn’t come to the ground, they were like trees. So I trimmed them all at the bottom and some of them went off to one side, so I trimmed the top flat, so they looked like those trees in the African savanna and they looked pretty good. They were ugly, I would have cut them down, but the roots were so, I would have taken a farm tractor to pull them out. So I trimmed them and they looked awkward, like those trees on the plains Africa.
So not everything has to be geometrically perfect and precise, to be pretty. Our faces are not that way. It’s interesting you take the most beautiful or handsome person in the world and you duplicate one side twice and flip it over. So your whole face is exactly like the right side of your face and do the same with the left side, both sides. Guess what? You’ve never seen this? It will scare you. One side is when you duplicate it and flip it over, you look handsome or pretty. The other side you look ugly or mean or nasty or something. Everybody. Well you look at it now and say it looks the same on both sides. But not when you duplicate it, it’s a whole new person and it’s not pretty. What did that have to do with today’s lesson? I thought it fit there someplace.
So this is the best that God can do, but it’s not pretty and it’s not fancy and it’s not always happy. It’s painful and sad and much of our lives are misery, you know, laughing on the outside and crying on the inside. It’s not always happy happy happy, but it’s necessary. Is it right, that God should put us through something like that?
We have no say about it, we didn’t ask to be born and we didn’t ask to get lung cancer or whatever. We didn’t ask for this, God puts us through it. Is it fair for Him to do that? Why is it fair? Well there is something good in store. But is it necessary that we would have to go through all of this bad first? It’s true, you have to have the contrast. But sometimes I just say, Lord I think I’m at the place now, Lord I think I’m there. You can take away the bad and see if I’m not thankful.
He sent Jesus Christ to go through the same stuff we go through and that’s why I wanted to bring these out today. Because most of you never knew that, Jesus Christ lived a pretty painful life. Paul lived a pretty painful life, he said I learned to be content in all things. God put His Son through what we have to go through, because He loves us! He didn’t have to.
Jesus Christ did something between His creation and the creation of the earth. He did something to acquire God’s glory, something. Because He had it and He didn’t get it for nothing.
God wants creatures, He wants children, He wants sons and daughters. He has a desire to have something like Himself. But for us to be like Him, we have to go through some pretty tough stuff. So He sent His Son as an example, as how you can go through it and never get angry or upset with God. To never turn against your fellowman, because of what you have to go through. He lived a perfect life, of the perfect man, sick and diseased, in pain and He lived it perfectly. But God was living in Him, the Father was going through it just as much as He was, you see.
Christ had to die, it said He had to die for our sins. That’s true, that’s the scripture, Christ died for our sin. But then we have a scripture here that doesn’t mention sin.
John 3:16 "For God so(thus) loved the world,”
Thus or in the manner, a lot of people think it’s saying He loved us so much, but that is not what this is saying. What this is saying is God loved us, in this way. This is the manner and way in which He loved us. In this way He loved the world.
“…that He gave His only begotten Son,”
He died, they killed Him on the cross, He died.
“…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Of course the Bible is written so man doesn’t understand it. That’s why some of these things are put in there, “that who-so-ever believes.” God knows and now we know, everybody is going to believe. So the ‘who-so-ever’ is going to be everybody.
But He gave His Son, now here’s the point I want to make and that is this, why did Christ have to die? Why? Why did the Father sacrifice His Son? Why did He have to do that? HE DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT! He didn’t have to do anything, HE’S GOD! Why DID He? Because whether you recognize it now or later in life or those in the resurrection to judgment or for the rest of eternity, we are going to know it for sure. That God died for us for no other reason than to show us that HE LOVES US! He did not have to die. He said, I will do it to show them. How can I show them that what I am putting them through has real value? What can I do? I can promise them the world, I can give them mansions and youth and joyful life. I have all that to give, but they will say, you are only giving out of your abundance, of what you have. What can I really do, that you will know that I really love you? God said, I will DIE!
But God can’t die, He’s eternal, He has immortality, deathlessness. If you have immortality you can’t die. So He made a Son. He made Him great. To show us how great He was, He said, let Me show you what I can do when I make a Son. Create the universe first, now become a man, and now die.
Then they will know We love them.
Then they will know.
Kat:
Audio 8
In The Footsteps of Jesus
I said a little bit the other day, about how we have these little poems and things, about how life is.
"Life is but a poor actor, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more."
"A tale as told full of sound and fury signifying nothing."
"We all live lives of quit desperation."
"Life is a bitch and then you die."
These are philosophies that people have when they live a miserable life.
And we sing songs about it,
‘What’s it all about Alfie,’
Or Peggy Lee’s, ‘Is that all there is.’
Is that all there is to life? Is that the best they got to offer?
Well if you are human you have problems. So I don’t care if you are born into royalty and you don’t need to worry about earning a living or any of that stuff. You are catered to and servants and everything else. You still have problems, you still get sick, and have frustrations, you still have romantic heartaches and break ups, you still have all that stuff. You still have fears, and you still know you are going to die. So the things that you have, that other people covenant, you don’t even see the value in it, because you always had it. So your not any more happy, with it.
Which just proves this whole thing. If you don’t suffer evil, you don’t know good. If you do without for a long time and then you get something, then you say, wow, I really appreciate this. This is good, I’m thankful for this. Not that you’re never thankful, in the pass. But you are especially thankful, you know.
If somebody is out on a raft in the ocean or somebody is out in the desert and they think they are finished and they are going to die. When they go their last 100 feet and they look up and there’s a farm house and water. I mean, wow. What a marvelous feeling. Yet you are not going to have anything better than that poor dirt farmer has. But boy, are you thankful for it, you see.
But it just doesn’t matter, whatever our lot in life is we always want to change it. We want new clothing, a new hair style, to work out at the gym and look different. We want to get a different car or apartment or job. We want a different husband or wife, and why? Because we are not really happy with what we have. Maybe we say I’m fairly happy, but I could be happier if I can get rid of that women of mine. I could run off with that school mate, that lost her husband and I think we could get along pretty good.
Paul sets a good example for us in Philippians 4. Here is really the answer to it. He is talking to them about being without and so on. He thanked the Philippians because he said they came to his rescue, twice in fact, when he needed help. But none of the other churches helped him out. They did help him out and he was very thankful for that.
Here is what he said in Phil. 4:11, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.” That word ‘content’ in Strong’s means self complacent, contented to a fault (you know you say, he is giving and loving so much that people take advantage of him, that sort of thing) eager to please, cheerfully obliging. So he learned to have that. Of course it is a really a gift of God, but he certainly put forth the effort and that became his philosophy of life. If he fell among robbers or if he had a hard winter and he was cold, he didn’t always have a place to stay warm, you know. He would be, it’s alright, God will see me through it alright.
I know if you are as human as I am, that you have these feeling of inadequacy and some of you have other feelings, that I don’t have any more. Some of you feel spiritually inadequate and you wonder whether or not you are going to make it. You wonder if you are the called or the chosen. You think, ‘if I’m only called, how do I become chosen. Is God pleased with me? Seems if He was pleased with me I would have more answers to my prayers and things would be going better for me. I’d have a better job, finances wouldn’t be such a problem, my wife wouldn’t be such a problem, kids wouldn’t be such a problem and my neighbors wouldn’t be such a problem. I wouldn’t have such a problem with my heating and air conditioning and my car. If God really was for me, some of these things would run a little smoother, I think. I don’t think God is too pleased with me.’
Some of you have secret sins. When I say that, those of you that have them, it’s like a little chill just went up your back. You think, does Ray know? I don’t care. Don’t tell me your sins, no I really don’t care. But not that I don’t care about you or for you, I don’t care about your sins. They are all the same, you don’t have one original sin in your body. Your just all copy cats, all of you.
But it’s not pleasant to feel inadequate. It’s not pleasant to wonder why you’re not up to snuff. Are you up to snuff? Can you be up to snuff? You might think, ‘I use to be up to snuff, I was doing pretty good, but then I back slide.’ Just condemning yourself. You already have people that think you are nuts. Because you follow a ‘cult’ you know. They say, ‘Ray is a cult.’ Lots and lots of things. Alright we are going to talk a little bit about this stuff, okay.
I’m not trying to give you all a better self image, by puffing up your ego or something. That’s the last thing on God’s earth you need, a great ego. Not that a good self image is an ungodly thing. It depends where that confidence is that gives you a good self image. You see what I am saying? If I have a good self image, why don’t you have a good self image? Because I have confidence in Jesus Christ in me. Because I’ve felt like some of you feel, or some of you felt a little while ago, or you may feel tomorrow or next week. I mean I’ve thought all that. Sometimes I just say, well I’ll just come up in the resurrection to judgment and that’s just the way it will be, you know.
But there are some things that you can do and think about, to give yourself certain peace of mind and security. That we really should have. I’m sure, not all of you have it. Some of you grasp at learning more than others. You think, ‘I’ve got to learn more about life and I’ve got to learn this stuff Ray is teaching. If I could just learn all this stuff. I’ve got to learn, learn, learn. I’ll get it down and I’ll be there, I’ve just got to learn.’
Now some of you may not be meant to learn a lot of stuff. What I mean, some people are just not good learners. It’s not necessary that you learn all this stuff, you know. I give you all this teaching and all these scripture and all these explanations and so on and you can’t remember it all. That alright. Did you get anything out of it? ‘Well yea, I know what I’m saying.' That's good, your getting something out of it. You got a feeling, you’ve got a sense of appreciation, you got a sense of ‘I like God better now.’ You don’t think God thinks, you’re as bad as you think you are, sometimes. Whatever goodness you get out of it, hang on to that. Don’t worry about all the technical details. I think that Paul sensed that people felt that way. He certainly wanted to encourage them.
To me the 8th chapter of the book of Romans is one of the most profound chapters in the whole Bible. It’s just so much stuff in there, and good and profound stuff, marvelous stuff. Romans 8 read it often.
If you are sitting here and you put forth the effort to get here, driving a car, filling up the tank, packing your clothes or buying an airline ticket. You got to know that God is drawing you to something. You’ve got to know that, don’t you?
If you are saying, 'I believe in this not so handsome Jesus'... but who was diseased and bent over with pain and suffering. Where everybody said, ‘why don’t you heal yourself.’ If you are saying, I can see where God would do that, so that we can sense that I can be unattractive, and fat and diseased and I don’t need to hang my head. The very Son of God lived that way!
So you say, ‘okay, I’m going to believe this Jesus Christ.’ He could have been handsome, strong and powerful and looked like Charles Atlas and all the movie stars combined. He could have, you know, but it wouldn’t have been good for His vanity, His human nature, you see. God would rather have taken Him the way He was, humble, because He had nothing to be vain about. But He had plenty to be vain about, as homely as He was, He still walked on water and raised the death! That could become a little point of vanity, if He let it.
But you say, ‘okay I want to believe in this Jesus Christ. I like the idea that God would be willing to figure out a way, that He could die for His creation.’ The only way He could do it, since He is God, eternal, and immortal, He did it through the most precious thing He had... HIS SON! ‘I will prove to them, maybe they don’t get it now, but one day, maybe in the kingdom they’ll all know, that Me, the God of the creation, the God of the universe, I died for you. I didn’t have to, I did it to show you I love you.’
‘Well if you really love me God, why don’t you die for me?’ He says, ‘okay, I’ll do it.’ I mean what else can He have done? What else could God do to show us that He loves us? He said, ‘I'll die for you, I don’t have to, I’ll just volunteer. I will die for you, will that show you!?’ You say, ‘okay, that’s pretty good.’ Christ said, “Greater love has no man than this…”
We’re not talking about a man throwing himself on a hand grenade to save his buddies. We’re taking about somebody who pulls the hand grenade when there is nobody to save. ‘I’m just going to kill myself.’ Why? ‘To show you that I love you.' Wow, why would you do that? 'Because I want you to know, no other reason.’ Wow, that’s insane, who would do that? God, the One who does strange things, “A strange work He has on this earth.”
Now so you accept this Christ, you say, ‘alright He said to believe and I believe. Maybe I don’t believe as good as I could or should, but I believe. I’m going that way... you’re the Man, Jesus.’
“There is no more condemnation for those in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
Now that’s where you are. Except there is one escape clause. Paul said, unless you are faking it, unless you are just a total fraud. But if you do believe in Jesus, if you do in your heart say 'yes, I do,' in your heart you really do. Then this is your lot in life, there is therefore no condemnation in them which are in Christ Jesus! NONE!
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