We've been speaking about "The Grant and Adoption". And we learned there are two types of agreement in Scripture. The "grant" speaks of the New Testament which is of grace whilst the "treaty" speaks of the Old Testament or Covenant of the Law, and works.
"The "grant" is an unconditional gift or promise by a donor, presupposing the loyalty, in our case, faith of the recipient, and constitutes an obligation of the master to his servant.
The "treaty" is a conditional agreement which constitutes an obligation of the servant to his master in return for protection.
Now let's turn to our first Scripture, the wonderfully accurate prophecy of Isaiah 53:6-12, seven hundred years before Christ:
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation (seed or lineage)? for He was cut off out of the land of the living (before marriage): for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His (Spiritual) seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see (the fruit of) the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many (by grace through faith); for He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great men, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
Isaiah 65:17-18, 23, "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But you be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy .... They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them."
That's Christ's generation, His elect or Spiritual seed, and their Spiritual offspring or children in the Gospel. You asked me "How does the Lord choose His Own if the election is not arbitrary". He sends forth His Word in Its season. That's the Wedding Invitation calling or choosing His Bride. When we hear It, the decision or choice becomes mutual, and we can accept It by faith, and become the seed of Christ and children of God by Him, or apply wisdom and reject It.
"Adoption" in Scripture is "placing" or recognition as worthy and responsible one who is a son. It is the father's seal of approval and confidence in the character and nature of his child. Biblical adoption is not taking-in a serpent seed child from some foreign land and giving it your name and nurture. It's because we are sons that we can be adopted, or approved as sons and heirs.
Galatians 4:1-7, "The heir, as long as he is a child, differs not from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (through Israel's rejecting their redemption. Remember the story of Ruth? Before Boaz could marry his Gentile Bride, he had first to redeem Israel).
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father".
(Abba means "father", and indicates our recognition or revelation of the Headship of Christ and proves we are His "generation" or Seed).
Wherefore you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
No man can come to the Father except through the Sacrifice, or new birth. Before we can enter the Presence we must be reconciled with the Word (God) and identify ourselves as His elect Seed by oneness with Him through Christ our atonement.
We were born sons by predestination.
ELECTION looks back to foreknowledge. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (or new birth)" (I Peter 1:2). Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins or atonement.
PREDESTINATION looks forward to destiny. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1:5). Our ultimate destiny is to rule and reign through eternity as joint heirs with Christ.
By foreknowledge we always were Sons, and always had eternal Life. How one suddenly become eternal? From the foundation of the world when He foresaw Christ crucified on Calvary God foreknew the elect in Christ who would choose grace. Before there was an atom or a molecule, when God was alone with His thoughts, represented by the dots in the circle, He foreknew the elect in Christ. The circle is not God, the dots in the circle represent His Attributes - what He is. Once He spoke or express them in Word Form, they'd manifest in their designated and decreed season and time what was spoken.
Being His elect we're predestinated to glory as the New Jerusalem, God's dwelling place, where He will be worshipped by the "saved" throughout eternity, in the Form of the glorified Jesus Christ and the His Bride, the glorified New Testament saints. My fellow saint of God, you didn't suddenly receive eternal Life when you were born-again, you simply realized who you are. God's elect.
Luke 2:11, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." By God's foreknowledge of His own choice, He predestinated Jesus to be "Christ the Lord". Now He did not have to be the Christ. Even though He was born of a virgin and met every Scriptural condition, Jesus did not have to go to Calvary. He could have married and raised a family like any other man. He could have built up the carpentry business to a franchise. He might have called it, "Doors R Us". But He lay aside His own will when He overcame in the garden of Gethsemane, and by His own choice declared, "not My will but Thine be done" (Matthew 26:42). Frankly, had he not gone to Calvary of His own free will, He would not have qualified as Adam's perfect substitute, and his Kinsman Redeemer.
Adoption consists of three phases - all of them are predestinated. Therefore, if we receive the first phase, the others must follow. Hence Paul could state with perfect confidence those with the Holy Spirit are "sealed unto the day of their physical redemption".
Brother Branham said, "Until the day that the Book of Redemption has been revealed, and the Redeemer comes to claim His possession" (Seals 77:1-79:3). In other words so long as the Bible was sealed and the Church had only part-Word and a Mediator, they had better exercise caution, because they were in all error. Were they not in error, they would have had no need for a Mediator. And so long as the Book was sealed, they could not be 100% certain of their new birth, for they could not be 100% sure of the parameters or Word-boundaries defining the Body in their day. Now the mystery of God is finished, we know precisely where we stand. We were and are "sealed unto the day of their physical redemption".
"Wherefore", says Paul, "Comfort one another with these Words:"
"I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (We have hope, for the sleeping saints are sealed unto the day of their redemption).
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, (and He is our type and forerunner), even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. (So we know the First Resurrection will follow a massive earthquake, and we know it will start one "Good Friday", and that the manifestation of the Sons of God will continue until the day of Pentecost is fully come).
(Speaking of Resurrection and the end of the Gentile dispensation, you will recall out recent broadcast on the Millennium Bug or Year 2000 Computer Problem (radio083.htm), in which we said it appears almost certain it will destroy the present monetary and financial system along with the world economy. An article in one Australian business journal predicted at least 10% of corporations will be bankrupted by their own computer systems.
The Millennium Bug may be a natural sign, indicating to Christ's Bride the lateness of the hour. I say this because the end of the Gentile dispensation is the Pentecostal jubilee, the going-up of the Bride, the release of Hebrew servants - the 144,000 Israelites from their slavery to sin, and the cancellation of all debts. The Millennium Bug certainly has the potential to "cancel all debts").
For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord (and Paul is not speaking of the physical return of the glorified Jesus for the Millennium, the word Coming is "parousia", His Coming in Word Form in the Message of William Branham, the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7. Christ's parousia) will not prevent or hinder them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself (not a second or third person) shall descend from heaven (symbolized in Revelation 10:1) with a shout, with the Voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these Words." (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).
"Because you are sons", and Jesus is our type and forerunner, His adoption types our adoption. So let's compare the three phases of Christ's adoption with those of His end-time Bride:
1. Matthew 3:13-17, "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of You, yet you come to me? Jesus replied, Let it to be so: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed Him.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: (As God took His abode in the Temple of Jesus' body). And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". (Or, "This is My beloved Son, the Temple, in Whom I am pleased to dwell in". "For in Jesus dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily").
Here was Jesus' recognition as a Son. A proclamation by the Father in a public place. It's equivalent to the "Shout" of the Message of the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6, Revelation 10:7 and 18:4, calling the wise and foolish virgin out of Babylon into the Word. This is the baptism with the Holy Ghost or first stage of adoption for the wise virgin in our day.
2. Matthew 17:1-5 "After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and brought them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.
And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if You will, let us make here three tabernacles; one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him".
God proclaimed Jesus' maturity in a prominent place before three witnesses. Moses represented the Law and Elijah the prophets, they each had part of the Word but this is My Son, "Hear ye Him"! He is the Fullness of the Word. My Voice is in Him (John 8:26).
Likewise, we learn from I Thessalonians 4:16 that Christ's Voice is in the end-time Bride preparing us for the manifestation of the Sons of God, or "third pull", to build what Brother Branham termed "rapturing faith" for the body change. In that time, what we say, God will do. We'll be in harmony as Christ prayed in Gethsemane. We'll only be asking, "Thy will be done". Preeminence.
The Voice of the Archangel is Christ in the Bride, as God was in Christ, confirming the Message from Genesis to Revelation, calling us into oneness with the Word. It's His re-incarnation in His many-membered Body, and our maturity.
3. Matthew 28:9, 18, "And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "All hail". And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. ... And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth"."
At the third phase of our adoption the Seventh Trumpet calls a new wave offering by the manifestation of the Sons of God, after Los Angeles and 1500x3-400 miles of California sink beneath the blue Pacific. Then "All power" is given unto Christ's Bride in a brief but powerful display of the Spirit, providing for her necessities, and ending with her full adoption, which is the body change and translation.
Paul shows us that as Christ is our type. The resurrection power God wrought is Jesus when He raised Him from the dead will bring the saints to their inheritance in glorified bodies. He says we will know "what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, Which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:19-23).
If "All things are under His feet", and He is the Head and we are the Body, then "all things" are under us, as the feet are part of the Body, and through the marriage Union we are one. We are joint heirs with Christ and have "all power" under preeminence.
NOW is the "dispensation of adoption".
Ephesians 1:1-4, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus (everywhere and in all ages): Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings (Gifts - visions, dreams, tongues, wisdom, the five-fold ministry; Fruits - love, joy, peace...) in heavenly places in Christ (the Believer's position or dispensation in the Body): According as he has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love".
We were "in Christ before the foundation of the world", because He was to be the fullness of the Word manifested in virgin-born flesh in the fullness of time. By His foreknowledge, God knew who would receive and become written epistles of their part of the Word. God saw us crucified in Christ on Calvary before there was a speck of stardust.
This takes us back to our diagram which illustrates the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world for His elect sheep who were foreknown in Christ and written in the Lamb's Book of Life, which is the genealogy of Jesus mentioned by Isaiah in our text (Revelation 13:8).
Paul wrote, "If one died for all then were all (of those foreknown in Him) dead (crucified in Him on Calvary) ...Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (because he was resurrected in Christ): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:14, 17). Certainly, we are already "seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" in the foreknowledge of God. Amen, all one Body we (Ephesians 2:6). Each elect has his position in the Word.
Ephesians 1:5-9, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace; Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself."
His "will" is His "Word" which He "made known" through the ages in progressive revelations by the seven-fold Spirit of God through the ministry of seven "angels" or Church Age Messengers - "Here a little, and there a little". Although we are all one Body, we are individual members, manifesting the measure of Word predestinated to our Age (Isaiah 28:8-13; I Corinthians 12; 13:10; Revelation 1- 3).
Ephesians 1:10-11, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times (that's now, when all seven "times" or Church Ages have been fulfilled) He might gather together in one (or in the unity of the faith) all things in Christ, both which are in heaven (the sleeping saints), and which are on earth (the end-time Bride); even in Him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will".
An "inheritance". Yes, we're joint-heirs in all Christ is and has (Romans 8:17). As Son of Man He's heir to the world; as Son of Abraham, He's heir to the royal grant - Palestine; as Son of David He is heir to the Throne and Kingdom of David - with His Queen; as Son of God, He's heir of all things.
We read in Ephesians 1:20-23, God set Jesus at His Own right hand in the heavenly places so He has Headship of the Body under which we have dominion over all things in this world and the world which is to come.
Ephesians 1:12, "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ". Yes, we are the firstfruits unto God of the harvest of souls. We share the birthright with Christ and like any man's good wife, are to the praise of His glory because all He was is manifested in His Wife. And all things work together for good to them that are the called, according to His purpose which is what we fulfill (Romans 8:28).
All power is given unto us, and in the New Jerusalem, we will rule with Him. As power without character is not fit to rule, we must know our place in the Body, our part of the Word, not impersonate.
The Book of Joshua types the Book of Ephesians. God made a promise to Abraham and his seed, of a land to call their own, where they could rest and no longer be pilgrims and wanderers. He made the same promise to the Church.
When the time of the promise drew near, God raised up Moses, a type of Christ, to bring them to that land (Deuteronomy 18:15). He led the children of Israel from the garlic and leaks (or sensual pleasures) of Egypt through justification by faith and baptism in the Red Sea, and sanctification in their wilderness wanderings (Exodus 16:13; I Corinthians 10:1-6). He led them to the Jordan, and he died. Joshua took them over and into the Land.
Joshua 1:1-7, "Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, "Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou may observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou may prosper whithersoever thou goest"."
Moses types Christ and Joshua, who was to do all God had commanded Moses, types the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 28:18-20, "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you".
Jesus gave the same charge to His disciples. The evidence that the Holy Spirit did precisely that is in John 14:26, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you". And in John 16:13, "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come".
Joshua typed the Holy Spirit.
Our Moses, Jesus Christ, took us to Calvary where we died in Him, rose with Him on the third day, and are now alive forever more and seated with Him in heavenly places.
Ephesians 2:4-7, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus".
After His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, Jesus returned in the Form of the Holy Ghost and took us over into our promise. Now He's showing us our place in the Body, as Joshua led the Twelve Tribes to their positon in the Land.
Now there were three kinds of believers in the days of Moses, and there are three kinds of believers today:
1. There was the un-believer Jesus described in John 6:49, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead".
2. The make-believer like Dathan and Korah, Matthew 7:21-23, "Not every one that saith unto Me," Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven"."
We must not be forgetful hearers only, but as James said, doers, putting faith into action.
3. Finally, there's the believer. The group spoken of in Hebrews 6 who have tasted of the heavenly Gift (singular), that's the new birth, and been made partakers of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Like Joshua and Caleb, the less than one in a million believers who are elect, they're sealed unto the day of their redemption.
After Moses died, Joshua crossed Jordan, and conquered and divided the Land among the Twelve Tribes who were joint heirs.
We're in the fulfillment of Ephesians 1:10, in the dispensation of the fullness of times. Our promise has been overcome, the Bride is just about finished, and the Body completed. Now Christ is gathering the living Bride into the unity of the faith, dividing our promised Place of rest among the joint heirs by revelation of our position in Christ.
Soon He'll gather us together with our brethren already in heaven, who've fallen asleep through the past 2,000 years. If the Seal of God is the Holy Ghost, then those without the Holy Ghost have the mark of the beast.
We have to know who we are and where we stand before we can manifest the Sons of God, and enter the eternal Land of the Millennium. bb971001.htm