1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23,
we'll read 23 down through 25. It says, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever for all flesh is as grass. and all the glory
of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falls away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."
And we began looking last week, as I mentioned before, I've preached
on this. It's been quite a while back
since I've preached on it. And then you've heard me refer
to this, often in a lot of the things that we talk about around
here, but we're looking at the two seeds or the two generations
that is represented in mankind. And we began last week looking
and seeing, as we see here in this passage, we see that there
are two seeds. There is the corruptible seed
and then there is the incorruptible seed. There is the one seed that
is corrupted. There is the seed that is incorrupted. One seed is represented by Adam
and is the seed of Satan, okay? And we'll see that I really didn't
get much into that last week, but Adam being the man who brought
sin and death into the world, he is, the one who portrays or shows
forth that natural man, that natural seed, which is the seed
of Satan. And then we see that there is
the other seed, the seed of Christ, which is the incorruptible seed,
which is a spiritual seed. So you have one seed is a natural
seed. You have the other seed is a
spiritual seed. One seed we are by birth. The other seed we are by natural
birth, that is. The other seed we become by a
second birth or a birth from above or a spiritual birth. Okay,
one birth is in the flesh. One birth is of the spirit. Okay,
whenever we are born from above or born again, Jesus said that
you must be born again Okay, there is two births there. There
is a natural birth that he is speaking of, and then there is
a spiritual birth that only comes from above. We cannot force it,
we cannot make it be, we cannot, you know, all the evangelical
army of God can't go out and make people born again. The preaching
of God's word, the declaration of the gospel, That isn't what
causes people to be born again. To be born again is a work of
the Spirit of God in us. He gives us new life, that life
that is from above, the life of Christ, and it takes residence
in this body of flesh, and that is that new birth, to be born
of above. The Bible says that it is a new creation. Okay, it's a new creation. See, there's a lot of thought
out there that says that whenever we're born again, we just take
this old soul, this old spirit that's in us, and it just revives
it. Or it says that we are just made
new again, that we were, was new in the beginning with Adam,
but then we lost that, but now we're being made new again. But
as we saw, Last week, Adam never was made spiritual. He was created
natural. He was created of the earth earthy. He was created mutable, able
to be changed. He was created without the ability
to keep God's law. He was created a natural man
who cannot perceive the things of God. He was created as that
one who would bring sin and death into the world and to manifest
that from within, okay? And so Adam was the representation
or the natural head of all of that natural seed, okay? And we'll find out today that
we'll see that that is the seed and all those that's in that
line is the seed of salvation. But Christ, as we see here, Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, Adam, but of incorruptible
seed by the word of God, which liveth and by forever. And as
I mentioned last week, I believe that that is not speaking of
the preaching of God's word or the Bible, but that is speaking
of Jesus Christ himself. We are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
in, because we know that Christ liveth and abideth forever, right?
We also know that in verse 25, it says, the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word by which
the gospel is preached unto you. So we see here that Jesus is
that word by which the gospel is preached unto you, okay? Speaking
of Christ, we don't preach the word by the word. Okay. We don't
preach the word of God, meaning the Bible or the gospel by the
gospel. We preach Christ by the gospel. All right. So with that being
said, we look at Genesis last week, and if you want to go ahead
and turn there. We've seen that there was a principle
laid down in Scripture at the very beginning. And I know this
is just kind of a recapitulation, but I needed to recapitulate
so we can get to where we was today. In Genesis, God laid down
a principle. And in that principle was the
fact that everything is made after its own kind. And everything
being made after its own kind reproduces after its own kind. And everything that is made after
its own kind has its seed within itself and that life that is
in that seed is the life of all other seeds. Okay? So whenever we talk about Adam
being natural and not being able to do that which is right before
God, not able to keep God's law, that he is of the earth, earthy,
the Bible says that we are born of flesh, that which is of flesh
is flesh and it cannot please God, okay? So that is who we
are and in Adam was the life or the seed, as the original
seed, Adam, All seed that came from Adam has that same kind
of life. I give you the illustration about
an apple tree. You know, whenever God created
the apple tree and it bore forth fruit, that in that apple there
was a seed and then that seed, you know, in that one tree and
that fruit of that comes every apple tree that has ever been
made, okay? So the life of that seed has
within it Every tree and every apple that will ever come from
it, the life of that is in that one seed or the original seed.
Same thing with Adam. And it reproduces after its own
time. We don't see oranges coming from
apple trees, okay? So Adam is going to reproduce
Adam. And nobody can change that nature. The nature of Adam is Adam. Adam
is of the earth, earthy, not spiritual. Not from heaven, he
is of the earth. He was created of dust, he is
of the earth, and therefore is earth. And when the Bible says
that God breathed in him the breath of life and he became
a living soul, that does not mean that he became a born again
or a spiritually alive man with God's spirit. No, it means that
he breathed in him the breath of life and he became a living
person. That word soul can be used as
a term. We say how many here? We have what here, you know,
seven souls here today. You know, eight souls here today. It's not talking about giving
him spiritual life. It gives him natural life. He began to breathe. He began
to function. He was animated. Whenever God
breathed in him, the breath of life, he became a living soul.
And he reproduced after himself. We've seen that whenever he bore
a son, through Eve, that son's name was Cain, and the Bible
says that he reproduced after his own likeness. Okay, so he
reproduced after himself. So who Adam was naturally, all
men that come from Adam, now all women, all children, everybody
comes from that same seed. But if you look there in Genesis
chapter one, we see, it says, verse 11, let the earth bearing
Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth, and it was sown. And the earth brought forth grass
and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that
it was good. Verse 14, and God said, let there
be lights in the firmament of the heaven. Divide the day and
the night, and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days
and years. and let it be for life in the
firmament of heaven. Now there's a lot there I can talk about
as well. But dropping on down, I'm sorry, dropping on down,
verse 20. And God said, let the waters
ring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl
that may flap on the earth and in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created whales and every living creature that moved with
which the waters brought forth abundantly and after their kind,
and every wing fell foul after his kind, and God saw that it
was good. And God blessed them saying,
be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas
and let the fowl multiply in the earth. Verse 24, God said,
let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind, cattle
and creeping things. the beast of the earth after
his kind, and it was so. And God made the beast of the
earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that
it was good, and then God made man. And so we see that there
is a principle of everything reproducing after its own kind
because the life of the seed is in itself. and its likeness
is in itself and it reproduces after its own kind. That's why
we don't believe in evolution. God made specific kinds. He made
them originally that way. He didn't make, like I said last
week, He didn't make the primordial sludge and man evolved out of
that, okay? He made man the way that man
is. He made him the way that we are today. He made that man
that way. He made the cattle. He made the
birds. He made the fish after their
kind. So there is no such thing as evolution. observations here, lest I have
a bunch of comments in the bottom correcting me on some things. Whenever we look at Adam, of
course, we know that there are types and foreshadows all throughout
the Old Testament pointing to spiritual things, that the natural
things that's found there points to spiritual things. And Adam,
yes, does Adam represent the natural head of all of the incorruptible
seed. Yes, he does. Okay. He is the, from Adam by one man,
sinning in the world, death by sin, death passed upon all men.
Okay. So because of Adam's sin, we
all become sinners. Okay. Why? Because he's the natural
seed and we all come from him. Just because there is a type
and foreshadow of Adam in that regard doesn't mean that there
can't be a type and foreshadow of Adam in another regard as
well. Because Adam also can be a type of Christ as well. We learn that the Bible says
about Adam that God made him and called him Adam and he made
him male and female. Before Eve was ever manifested
out of Adam, the Bible said that he made them male and female
and called their name Adam. Verse 27 of chapter one. So God
created man in his own image and the image of God created
him, male and female, created he then. Now, Eve had not been
brought forth yet. This is Adam, right? And he called their name Adam.
He called their name Adam. But whenever Adam was hung, look
over in chapter two. Verse 18, and the Lord God said,
it's not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help
me for him. And out of the ground, the Lord
God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the fowl
of the air, to every beast in the field. But for Adam, there
was not found a help me for him. And the Lord God caused the deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of
his ribs and closed up the flesh and stood thereof. And the rib
which the Lord God had taken from man, made me a woman and
brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, shall leave unto his wife. They shall
be one flesh. And they were both naked and
the man and his wife were not ashamed. And so, Adam's wife
was in him before she was ever manifested outwardly, right? God created Adam and in Adam,
he created male and female and called their name Adam. The word
Adam, it just basically means of the earth, okay? But he called them earthy, of
the earth. But out of Adam came his wife. And the Bible teaches that Christ's
people, his bride, has been in him from everlasting. We were
in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, but we have not
been made manifest yet. Whenever Christ created, and
then thus, as time goes by, the people of God began to be manifested. at the marriage supper of the
Lamb, whenever Christ comes again, all of the elect of God who have
been in Him will be manifested at that time, will be shown,
will know who they are. And so we've got metaphors here,
we've got, don't let the vision or the metaphor be too detailed,
okay? The bride is speaking of, you
know, we're like a bride, Just like how Eve was in Adam, okay,
before, and then she was brought forth out of Adam, kind of like
a seed, she came out of Adam, we came out of Christ. Our life
came out of Christ and was manifested in time. And it manifested who
we were. Eve was manifested who she was
whenever God give her life out of Adam. We are manifested as
God's people whenever God gives us the life of Christ and manifest
us just like Eve was out of Adam, we are out of Christ in the spiritual. So we have two generations of
people, two kinds of people, two seeds of people here, a natural
and a spiritual. and we see it allegorized, or
we see it in type of foreshadow in Adam. So yes, Adam can be
a type of both, and we don't have to have exclusively one
or the other, okay? I've had conversations with guys
who are adamant that, oh no, Adam is the type of foreshadow
of Christ, and not of the natural seed. Well, he's the type of
foreshadow of the natural seed because he is actually The natural
seed out of him stems all natural life, okay? So he shows picture
of that and everybody who is of the natural seed, who is not
a part of that spiritual seed, therefore is of that other seed
and stays that other seed. Never has the spiritual seed
put within them. We'll see them identified here
in Genesis three, look with me. Verse three, or chapter three,
verse one. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He said
unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it
lest ye die. Now, God didn't say don't touch
it. He just said don't eat it. Verse four, and the serpent said
unto the woman, yea, or you shall not surely die, for God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened
and ye shall be as God's, knowing good from evil. And when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes and the tree was to be desired to make one wise,
by the way, there it is, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life, all wrapped up in one thing.
The woman saw that the tree was good, lust the eyes, And it was
pleasant to the eyes. It was good for food, lust of
the flesh. It was good to the eyes, lust
of the eyes. And the tree was desired to make
one wise, the pride of life. It gave me in stature. It's going
to make me wiser, eating it. She took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, the
woman whom thou gavest to me to be with me, she gave me of
the tree and I did eat. All right, now we're gonna start
blaming each other, okay? And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. Now she's blaming the serpent.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done
this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast
of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, And thus shalt
thou eat all the days of thy life. Kind of a side note, that's
kind of strange. Here we have a serpent. And now
the serpent is being cursed to now walk or to travel on its
belly. So obviously before it wasn't
crawling on its belly. And that is called a cattle. And every beast of the field,
we think of a snake as a reptile. So, you know, I'll be honest,
I don't know all of that. There's probably, I can probably
do some research into the words there and see if they may have
different meanings back then, but they kind of seem strange.
Verse 15 though, here's where we get into the nitty gritty.
And I will put enmity between thee, the serpent, and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. You see that? Now, this is the
first mention, pretty much, of the gospel right here. This is speaking
of Christ and what Christ is going to do. This is speaking
of the seed, which is Christ, between her seed, It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. I know a lot of people don't
like that verse. They want to rip that out of
the Bible. But it is there. Not in a mean, vicious way of
ruling, but there is an order that God has laid down. But notice
if you would hear there's enmity that it's going to be between
the serpent and the woman between his seed and her seed. Now, I believe that this is speaking
of first and foremost Christ Jesus. But I also believe that
this is speaking of all of Christ's people as well. There's gonna
be enmity between the seed of the serpent, the generation,
the lineage, the people that come from him, the natural man,
and there's gonna be enmity, and then there's gonna be this
seed that comes from her, which is Christ. Now, it's kind of
odd, Women do not have a seed. Male has a seed. OK, it is the
male who has the seed, not the woman. But yet here God says
between the serpent seed and her seed. And so I that's why
I believe that it speaks of the one who is to come from the generation
that stems from her and the birth that she'll give to the nations
as a come into being. As the natural head, Adam, he
has the seed in him, but the woman is the one who will bear
and bring forth the children. Notice
in verse 16, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. OK, so she's going to be the
mother of all the living. She's going to be the one who
brings forth all the children, the seed. So the seed will come
out of her, but the seed is not, you know, of her. There is one who is the one who
is the progenitor of the life, and that is the male. But she
is the one who brings forth or manifests that life. Okay? And so it is with us. Christ
is the one who gives us life. The life is not in us. He brings
forth that life in us and we manifest that life. The people of God manifest eternal
life that is put in us. Okay? Now, let's look and see
if this duality of seeds or this two seeds is found throughout
scripture. Look at Genesis 17, if you would. Genesis 17, we find this two
line of people, the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman, or the seed of Christ. That's how I would put them,
is the seed of Christ and the seed of Satan, the seed of the
serpent, as the two seeds. Look at Genesis chapter 17 and
verse seven. This is and I will establish
my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
generations for the everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee. So here he says, I will put enmity
between thee and the woman. OK, so there's going to be enmity
between the Satan seed and the woman seed. Now, in verse 17,
we see that God is going to establish a covenant between him and the
seed of Christ after the other generations for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed or Christ seed
after thee. Look at Genesis chapter 26 and
verse 4. Here God is speaking to Abraham. Christ is speaking to Abraham.
And he's speaking of himself, by the way, here. It says, I
will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven and will
give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed, Christ's
seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Now we
know because of the New Testament that, this seed that was being
spoken of to Abraham wasn't speaking of seeds plural, but seed singular
and was speaking of Christ, okay? That by Christ, the original
seed, the nations would be blessed and that there would be many
other seeds that would come from him, right? We are the seed of
Christ, but he is the original seed, just like Adam was the
original seed, that give us the natural. Christ is that original
seed that gives us the spiritual. And so we are a generation or
a we are a pro progeny of Christ spiritual. Look at Genesis chapter
27 verse 29. But notice if you would, the
covenant was only made to Christ seed. It wasn't made to Satan's
seed. It wasn't made to the serpent's
seed, the natural seed. It was only made to the spiritual
seed. Genesis 27 verse 29. It says,
let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee. Speaking of
Christ's seed here. Be Lord over thy brethren. Let
thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
curses thee. Christ's seed. And blessed be
he that blesseth thee, Christ's seed. Now, what is this? This is talking about Isaac blessing
Jacob, right? Isaac's blessings over Jacob.
And he's saying, let everyone be cursed that curses thee and
thy seed. And blessed be he that blesses
thee. Speaking of Christ's seed again.
Verse 30. And it came to pass as soon as
Isaac had made an end of blessing, Jacob of blessing Jacob. And Jacob was yet scarce gone
out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother,
came in from his hunting. There you see the two seeds.
You see Jacob and Esau. God blessed Jacob, but not Esau. And it wasn't anything that Jacob
did that caused that. All right. We know that to be
true. Now, some might say, well, yeah,
it was because Jacob was the one who supplanted Esau and went
in there and pretended to be Esau because Isaac was blind
and couldn't see. And so he's the one that put
the hide all over him to make him feel hairy and went in and
made his father's favorite suit and all that kind of stuff. Now,
it wasn't about anything. We know that to be true because
the New Testament tells us that the children having not yet been
born, and having done neither good or bad, so that the purpose
of God, according to election might stand, the elder will serve
the younger. And this is what it's talking
about here. Let people serve thee, okay? The people of Christ, and that's
why I've said here before, you know, the elect of God, the reason
that God continues with the reprobate, and the reprobate, it seems like,
you know, people say that there's common grace, that God has given
common grace even to the reprobate because even then he gives them
life. He let them, you know, that it rains on the just and
the unjust. It rains on the unjust, but that's
not God blessing them. It rains on the unjust because
God is reserving his wrath for the end. The rain is for the
just. It falls on the unjust because
the unjust are there to serve the purpose of God in the redemption
of the unjust. Jerry Maurer, a friend of mine
that recently passed away, I heard him say it this way one time. He said, the world of the reprobates
is basically a scaffolding for the use of the elect. God has
been long-suffering, so to speak. God has been patient with the
reprobate, with the seed of Satan, for the sake of the elect. But
yet, judgment is being heaped upon them for the judgment. They're not going to escape.
God's not letting that pass by. just because they may live a
life and some people may live and die and really never feel
any kind of, you know, judgment of God in this lifetime. But
yet God is not forgetting about that. That is being stored up
until the judgment and that will be meted out upon them at judgment. So just because it so speaks,
looks like good things happen to the bad people. That does
not mean that God is showing them grace. Grace is only, only
redemptive. Grace is only given in redemptive
purposes. And so what we see among the
heathen, among the reprobate is not grace and mercy, but it
is a storing up of wrath on their head. but yet the blessings are
upon the people. And so these people are here
to serve the seed of Christ. Let people serve thee and nations
bow down to thee. You remember when Joseph, he
had the same dream, remember he had a dream and he dreamed,
he said, you know, I have this dream and all these people are
bowing down before me and his brothers got mad and like, how
arrogant of you, how proudful of you. Now, physically, we've
seen that that happened, right? We physically seen that eventually
they all came and bowed down to Joseph whenever he became
the king, or the assistant king. But he came and he was over,
or ruled over them, and they bowed down. But what we see here
is that the seed of the serpent will always be the servant to
the seed of Christ. They're always for the seed of
Christ. The people of God, they need
places to work. They need places to live. They need groceries. They need food and water. And
I mean, so this, these people are there for a purpose and they
are to serve us. I know that's hard. I know that's
hard teaching. And I know some people are going
to say, well, that's very, bigotry of, that's very, that's being
very bigotrous if that's a word, of you. So you're saying that
God has created a people and that that people are being, the
only reason the other people exist is to serve him. I'm not
saying that, that's what the Bible is saying. The elder shall serve the younger. Now who is the elder? That which
is not spiritual was first, but that which was natural. That's
what Corinthians says. The natural came before the spiritual.
We are of the natural seed before we become of the spiritual seed
in this time. Now, granted, before the foundation
of the world, that spiritual seed was hid with God in Christ. OK, our life was hid with God
in Christ. before the foundation of the
world, because he is life. And that life is then given to
us in time when we're born again, or born from above. But that
life was there. However, in this time, that which
was first was that which is natural. We are born natural, and then
we are born again spiritual. Jacob doesn't come before Esau. Esau comes first. but Esau will
be the one who serves. By right, Esau should be the
one who is served because he is the first child. Even though
they were twins, and even though as they were being born, they
came out and Jacob had Esau's heel, and they came out almost
as one, which shows us the duality of who we are in the flesh and
the spirit. As one man, we're one man, but
yet we have the spirit of God in us, We have that which is
of the flesh and that which is of the spirit in us. We are of Adam, but we are also
of Christ. And we see whenever Esau and
Jacob was born, Esau came first and Jacob came afterward, even
though he was hanging on to the heel, Esau by right should have
been given the birthright, been given the inheritance. But God
said, that's not the way that's going to be. The inheritance
is going to be to the younger. It's gonna be to Jacob. Jacob
hadn't done anything better than Esau. Jacob wasn't more righteous
than Esau. Jacob hadn't done anything any
better than Esau. As a matter of fact, Jacob, if
we take scripture for what it was, I mean, Jacob was even worse
than Esau because of his deceit and his lying and his supplanting. But yet God chose out of one
lump to make one a vessel of honor want a vessel of dishonor. Esau hadn't done anything worse
than Jacob, but God chose to make Esau the vessel of dishonor
and Jacob the vessel of honor. That's hard for our human fleshly
nature to say, amen, praise the Lord. It's only by the mind of
Christ that we can say, so be it, God is sovereign. God is
sovereign over those things. The potter has the right to make
of the clay whatever he wants. And I know people are going to
say, well, that's not fair. That's unjust. Paul deals with
that in Romans chapter nine. Who are you? Who are thou, old
man? Who replies unto God, why hast thou made me thus? See,
we don't have that right. God has distinctly said here
that there are going to be two seeds. There are going to be
two kinds of people. We're going to see that here
in a minute, but there are going to be two kinds of people in your womb. There is two nations of people
or two kinds of people in your, in your womb. Two manner of people
in your, in your womb is actually how the scripture puts it. There
were two manner of people within her womb. There's the seed of
Satan. There's the seed of Christ. There
is the righteous, there is the unrighteous. There is the two
seeds that come forth, the seed of Christ and the seed of Satan. Now, look with me if you would
over in the New Testament. Now there's a lot more that we're
gonna look at in the Old Testament as well, but turn with me in
John chapter eight. He said, well, you're just interpreting
things wrong, preacher. Well, let Jesus make it very
plain and clear to us all here. In John 8, look with me, if you
would, at verse 33. Then answered He, or answered
him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou ye shall be made
free? Cause what had happened? Well,
Jesus had just been talking about, um, right above that in verse
31. He says, if you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed? And you shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. I said, well, wait,
wait a minute. We're not in bondage. We're Abraham's
children. We've never been in bondage. We're Israelites. We're the people
of God. Jesus answered them, verse 34.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the
servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. So what's he
talking about? Free from being a servant of
sin. See, every one of us by the natural
seed is a servant of sin, but only by the incorruptible seed
Only by the new birth, only by the work of God and being the
seed of Christ, do we become a servant of Christ, not a servant
of sin anymore. He makes us free from sin. He doesn't make us free from
sinning. He makes us free from being a servant of sin. He makes
us free from the condemnation of sin. If the Son, therefore,
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye
are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath
no place in you." The incorruptible seed. Remember, the Bible says
that we are born again by the incorruptible seed. The Bible
says also that this seed that is in us, this incorruptible
seed that is in us is perfect and cannot sin. And speaking
of Christ, Christ is in us. Christ is that incorruptible
seed that is in us. And he said, you seek to kill
me because my word has no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father and ye do that which ye have seen with your
father. Oh, wait a minute. Now we're seeing two fathers. We're seeing two progenies. two
different seeds, a children of one father and a children of
another father, right? They answered and said unto him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto him, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. What
were the works of Abraham? Nothing. He just rested and believed on
Christ. He didn't do anything. He just
believed on Christ. That was what he, what he did.
But see, they don't believe on Christ. They believe on their
words. The Pharisees and ultimately the Judaizers, as we get further
on into the New Testament and into the churches being bogged
down by some of these men, are the Judaizers who are going back
and saying, Hey, we got to keep doing this. It's by the works
of the flesh. It's by keeping the laws, by doing all this stuff
that we are made righteous and kept righteous. But see, that's
not what Abraham did. Abraham rested and he trusted
that Christ was his righteousness. And so he's saying here, if you
were Abraham's seed, you would do the works of Abraham,
which would be no works at all. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that had told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This
did not Abraham. See, Abraham didn't get riled
up about the fact that he said that he was God. But look at
verse 41. He says, ye do the deeds of your
father. So you're acting in accordance
to your father. My seed are going to act in accordance to their
father. He's acting in accordance to
his father, God. He did what God showed him to
do, okay? Now remember, Jesus is God. We're
not saying Jesus isn't God. And we're not saying that there's
two gods, okay? There's one God, okay? But Jesus
as God manifested in the flesh and God being omnipresent and
a spirit bears witness in a tri-unity way. He bears witness as the Father.
He bears witness as the Word. He bears witness as the Holy
Spirit. And so when Jesus is speaking
here, He's speaking of Himself, yes. He is God. He's every bit
of God. And He does exactly what God
has before the foundation of the world, has purposed in Him
becoming the Son of God in the flesh. And he says here, he says,
ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be
born, we be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, if God
were your father, ye would love me. For I proceeded forth and
came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word. Ye are of your father, the devil. See, these people that don't
believe or ever come to believe or ever given to believe, these
people are of their father, the devil. And it says, and the lust
of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. If
you remember, sin originated in existence with Satan. That's
where the first rebellion began. OK, now God purposed that as
well. God created Satan for that purpose.
Satan didn't just buck the system. He was this nice, pretty little
angel that just all of a sudden changed his mind and by his own
free will chose to do. No, God had made, the Bible is
very clear in this, that God made some angels to be elect
angels, some to be non-elect angels. Those non-elect angels
were created to fall and to become what we know as demons, okay? Evil spirits. And so Satan was the one who
first manifested this transgression or this rebellion against God.
Adam, though, was the first to bring it into the earth, into
the creation. Adam was the one, because the Bible says by one
man, sin entered into the into the world by one man, not by
one angel. OK, so the Adam is the one by whom sin and death
entered into the world. But all those who do not belong
to Christ, they come from this seed, the sinful seed. And Jesus here is very clear.
He says, you are of your father, the devil. That's pretty harsh words. If
I were to preach that to people today, it would probably go nuts. I'd be on the news. They'd probably
throw me in jail like they did this Canadian preacher. He says, he was a murder from
the beginning and a boat not in the truth because there is
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
ye not believe? He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Ye therefore hear them not because
ye are not of God. You see the two types of people. There is the people of the seed
of Satan. There is the seed of Christ.
Those who are the seed of Christ will eventually be brought to
hear the words of God. My sheep hear my voice. I call them by name, they hear
me, they follow me. Whenever Christ, by his sovereign
grace and his irresistible grace, his effectual call calls out
to his people, they come. They come. So look, if you would, at verse,
I'm sorry, Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter three. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He sayeth not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ. So Christ is the original seed. Now look down at verse 29. If ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So while the
promise itself was made to Christ as the original seed, The inheritance
is passed on to everybody that is in Christ. Just as in the natural, and I
know it's not a perfect illustration, but we know that whenever a man
makes a will, he makes it to his children as it leaves that
inheritance. Well, that inheritance is then
passed on to any of his seed. So if I would leave an inheritance
to my child, by nature of the fact that that child is mine,
then every seed of that child is also mine. So my grandchild, my great grandchild, They also, by right, are my heirs. They are in my lineage. And so
they would receive of my inheritance. So just say, I give all my money
to Caveman, okay? Don't worry, you guys will get
some of my junk too. But Caveman has a son. Say I,
if I was a millionaire and I give that million dollars to Caveman,
My grandson from Caveman would benefit from that as well because
I give that to my son. And then his sons would benefit
from that as well. And like I said, it's not a perfect
illustration, but as we see, because all the promises of the
covenant was made to Christ. What was the promises that was
made to Christ? That if redemption is made for
these people, I'm going to give you these people and they will
be your children. They will be your seed, your
generation. They will be yours. All that
the Father hath given me. They're His. Thine they were,
thou givest them Me. They were God's and they were
given to Christ. Whenever God manifested Himself
in flesh, He gave them to the Son to redeem them. And so the
promise was made that these people that I give you, that I will
justify them. I will glorify them and I will
glorify you in the works of that by you doing this, redeeming
them. And Christ did all that the father
demanded in his justice to save those people. And because of
that, now we have become heirs to everything that was promised
to Christ Jesus. That's why the Bible says that
we are joint heirs with Jesus, that we are his brothers. We
have received the inheritance. Matter of fact, the illustration
of cavemen and a grandson, uh, isn't as good as what we actually
see because we're not a grandson. We're on the same level. We are
an actual brother to Christ Jesus. It was as if we were also a son
of God. Matter of fact, the Bible calls
us sons of God, right? We are sons of God. And so we
are on the same level of inheritance. The inheritance is to be split
equally, to be enjoyed equally by all of us. And we'll be one
of these days. Look at 1 John chapter 3 and
verse 9. Says whosoever is born of God. OK, when someone is born from
another person, they become. The seed of somebody, right?
These children are my seed, they were born of me. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot
sin because he is born of God. In this, the children of God
are manifest and the children of the devil. So here you see
there's two sets of children, the children of God and the children
of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this
is the message that she heard from the beginning that we should
love one another. OK, so there is two kinds of
people. Matter of fact, he gives an illustration,
not as Cain, who was of the wicked, that wicked one. See, he said
that Cain was of that wicked one. And slew his brother. and wherefore
slew him because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. Marvel not brethren, speaking
of God's people, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him." Now whenever he says no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him, he's talking about no one
who hates his brother. He just said, whoever hateth
his brother is a murderer. So whoever is a, whoever hateth
his brother. So that's why I say I find it
hard to believe whenever people who profess to be Christians
like to attack and slander other Christians who are all about
being quick to just, you know, speak ill of them or speak bad
of them or don't wanna be around them or don't wanna have anything
to do with God's people. There's something wrong with
that because whenever the life of Christ is in us, the Bible
says the way that it's made manifest is that we love the brethren. The fact that we are children
of God makes, is manifested in loving. What does that mean? That we have to strive to love
each other so that we can be God's people? No. It's the nature
of the seed. Remember, those guys could not
believe. Why? Because they were not of God. It is not in the
nature of the seed of Satan for his people to hear and understand
and believe and trust God. That's what's in our nature.
Whenever as we come from Adam and his seed, we come as unbelievers. We come as enmity against God. We hate the God of the Bible. It isn't until we're born from
above and God gives us spiritual life, then out of that flows
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
temperance, faith. We love the brethren. We love the word of
God. We love God. God has shed his love and brought
in our heart that is manifesting in us. It's not manifested in
the people of the devil. And that's not my words. That's
God's words here. Whosoever hated his brother is
a murderer, and he know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he
laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives
for the broken. But whosoever hath this world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his vows of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Now, little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in
truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall
assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us,
God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved,
if our heart condemneth us not, then have we confidence towards
God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive
him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Let's
not get that mixed up. It's not, let's not do the decalogue.
It's let us believe on the name of his son. That's the commandment.
And love one another. Let us believe upon Christ rest
upon his work alone and love the brethren. If you keep those
commandments, then you're his. Not if you keep those commandments,
the condition will be he'll make you his. If you're his people,
you will keep those commandments. You will look to Christ alone
for your righteousness, not to your self works, look to Christ
alone, and then you will love the brethren. But see, if you're out there
thinking that you can keep your own righteousness, make your
own righteousness by keeping even the things of God, and if
you don't love your brethren, the Bible says that you're not
of his. That's what is made manifest. He that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit which he hath given us. See, it's not
by our own ability that we do these things. It's because that
Spirit of God has been put in us. And that's what produces
us. Now, that Spirit of God that
is in us is what he was talking about. If we go all the way back
to verse nine, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for
his seed remaineth in him. He's talking about the Spirit
of God. Christ is in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. But see, the children of Satan,
they do not have that. They will never possess that.
They may be for a time, be able to outwardly mimic that, but
eventually that wears away. Have you ever seen it? Why? But
there are so many who, despite our faults and failures within
the people of God, that we still love each other. We still care
for each other. We still are patient with one
another. Why is that? It's because we
have a love for the brethren. And that love, the Bible says,
covers a multitude of sins. It doesn't hide a multitude of
sins. That love covers a multitude of sins against us. Our brethren
may sin many times against us, but that love covers it. We love
them. We want the best for them. We
want to see the best in them. We want reconciliation. We want
We want to have fellowship, one with another. And that's what
we strive for. It isn't all about, well, let's
nitpick so many people to death and try to weed out as many as
we can. And, you know, it's just going
to be us and five of us here, you know, and we're going to
do all we can to make everybody go away. I'm not quick to run
somebody off. I mean, even Christ, whenever
he talked about this, and we've talked about this one earlier
before we started this, message before cameras came on. Even
Christ, whenever he set up discipline within the church, didn't make
it at an immediate, as soon as somebody does something, bogey
out. It's in love we go to that person. We go to that person
again. We take somebody with us. If they don't listen to that
person or somebody, whenever they come with the witnesses,
then we bring it before the church and the church in lovingly instruction
and discipline. talks with that person. Why?
Because we're there to try to get the person to come back to
the right. We see so often today what we
see in many churches and especially among Facebook and things like
that is we see people that just quit to dismiss everybody. Oh,
you don't believe like me? Well, you're gone. You don't
think like I do? Well, you're gone. Well, I'm
infringing. I want to tell everybody about you. You're a heretic.
You know? Oh, you have a thought different
than how our group of people thinks? Well, then you must not
be born again. See, we're quick to judge those
things. But see, the Bible says that we're not. We're not to
be that way. That brethren love each other
and actually go to hide. We do more to hide those things
in the other brother. We don't want to make our brothers
and sisters look bad. The seed, the children of the
devil are totally different. They're ready to just expose
everything at the drop of a hat. Now, I'm not saying that there
doesn't come a time that we have to discipline. And there is a
time whenever we're to expose false teachers and things like
that, that does come. But there's even a method in
how we're to do that according to the scriptures. Most people
don't even follow that either. But see, we see that there are
two seeds and these seeds manifest themselves in this way. And there
is a difference. There is a distinction. But what
I want you to understand is the Bible, not me, not some theological
group, not some denominational group or some old church from
old, has distinguished that there are two groups of people. There
is the people of Satan, Father, the devil, and there is those
who are of Christ, those who are natural, and continue to
live in a natural way and think naturally and walk naturally,
then there are those who are of the Spirit of God, who walk
in the Spirit, who think in the Spirit, who perceive things by
the Spirit, and they obey the commandments of Christ by the
Spirit of God. And that's how they're made manifest.
And even Jesus was saying, the reason, yeah, Christ knew everything. He was God. But he was telling
them the reason you can tell these people from these people,
why these people believe in these people known is because they
are of God and these people are not of God. What does that mean? That means these people are born
from God. These people are not born from God. They're born of
the devil. These people are spiritually born. These people are just naturally
born. The natural man will continue
to do the natural things. The people of the spirit will
do that which is contrary to the nature of man. and do that
which is unnatural. They will love God. They will
love the brethren of God. They will love the word of God.
They'll do those things that is unnatural. Now that doesn't
mean that the flesh goes away and there isn't a battle. That's
where Paul came in in chapter seven of Romans and said, listen,
that flesh and that spirit, it battles. That old flesh that's
of the devil, it wants to sway. But that old spirit that's in
me, that's what I want to do. That's how I want to be. Praise
God, there's not any condemnation because of this old flesh. Christ
has redeemed me from that. So while yet we have to hold
on to that flesh until we die, praise the Lord, we're not condemned
because of it. We have been freed from it. The
children of Christ, or the seed of Christ, the elect of God,
if you would, have been redeemed They have been brought forth
and brought out of that death and sin. See, death has no dominion
over them. Sin has no dominion over them.
There is no condemnation of sin and there is no final judgment
of death. We've been removed from that.
We should not have any fear of sin and death. We should not
have any fear of any condemnation. Why? Because we are in Christ
Jesus. We are heirs of Christ. We are
His. And there are two strands of
people. There is one that will receive it, and there are ones
that will not. And we'll stop right there. There's
a whole bunch of verses more on this that we're going to look
at in the next couple of weeks. So we'll just stop right there. Anybody got any questions or
comments? Corrections? All right, let's bow and have
a little prayer. Father, we thank you for this
day, and we thank you for your mercy that you've given to us.
We thank you, Father, for the protection that you've given
us over the last few days through all this ice and snow and cold
weather, Lord. We thank you for the way that
you take care of us and provide for us. And Lord, we just ask
that you might be with us as we go this week, that you might
minister through us. We pray for, Those who are not here for Brother
Ed, Lord, we pray that you keep him safe. Lord, we ask that you
just might minister to him even today where he's at. Lord, we
just are so grateful and thankful that you gathered us here today.
And we're so glad to have Sister Beth back among us again. And
Lord, we just really are grateful people for all that you've blessed
us with. We thank you for Your mercy, we thank you for your
grace. We thank you, Father, that you have called us into
your kingdom. Lord, we don't deserve that.
We, by our nature, are very undeserving of all that you've given us.
But we're thankful that through the Lord Jesus Christ, we've
been saved and we've been called. And Father, that you've given
us this life that we can now love you and love the word of
God and love the people of God. And so, Father, I pray that you
just might continue to strengthen us in the faith You might grow
us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
might use us here in Joplin as a place and refuge to those who
are weary, to those who desire the truth and seek the truth.
So Father Lord, we just pray that you might strengthen us
in the days to come. This evil world that we live
in, this wickedness that we see in our country, Lord. We know
that you're not surprised by it. We know that you're in control
of all of it. And Father, we pray that you would help us to
stand strong and to be faithful as you empower us, Lord, in these
days to come, that we might be faithful witnesses of Christ
Jesus and that we might stand on truth despite what persecution
might await us. And Father, we do pray for our
nation. We pray, Lord, that you just might give us good leaders,
that you might give us people that look to you, Father, And
that you might remove these wicked leaders that you've given us
over the last several years. Father, we pray that there might
be a day of turning for this country to look back to you in
some form or fashion where we just pray. We know that the kingdom
of God is not of this world, and we know that America is not
the kingdom of God or the nation of God. But Father, we do, we're
thankful for the nation that you've given us to live in, the
habitation where you've put us. And we're thankful for the freedoms
that we've had all these years to live in it. And the way that
we've been able to freely preach your word. But Lord, we see that
in these days that we are living in now, that is not so much the
case anymore. And so Lord, we just pray that
as your sovereign hand is working amongst the nations of the world,
we pray, if it be your will, That you give us, once again,
good people to rule over us, to govern us, and that you might
change the heart of the people here in this country back to
you. And Lord, we are just so dependent upon you for all things,
whatsoever. We ask, Lord, that you'll just
be with us now. The food that we're about to eat, that you
might nourish our bodies by. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.