Relationship by Covenant

We will be looking at our glorious Salvation – of our being in Christ. Now there was a time when we were not in Christ. "But now in Christ Jesus…" Paul says in Ephesians 2 in talking to the Gentiles that there was this time when you were aliens from God. Peter says there was a time when you were not a people. Paul says you were afar off, not having God, without hope… but now in Christ. We are contrasting here not only the two conditions, but the two worlds, and the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was enforced upon those who were not in Christ. And that Old Covenant stayed in force until Christ came. But IN CHRIST the Old Covenant has no significance; it is not relevant, because there is a NEW Covenant altogether. These Covenants were understandings given of God. It was impossible to have a relationship with God under the Old Covenant unless you knew the Old Covenant. It was written in stone, it was written on parchment; it was in types and shadows; it was in offerings and ceremonies – the Old Covenant. And unless you knew the Old Covenant, and abided by the Old Covenant, you had no relationship with God. The relationship was by Covenant. The relationship was not by being in Israel, the relationship was by Israel walking in Covenant.

Ephesians 2:11-13 – Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

1 Peter 2:10 – Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Obedient to Covenant

It wasn’t enough to be in Israel; you had to be obedient to the Covenant. In fact, if an Israelite was not obedient to the Covenant, then they were put out, they were excommunicated from the people – set aside. So my point is that it wasn’t enough to be an Israelite born, even an Israelite circumcised, because the circumcision was the sign of something – of a Covenant. You had to keep the Covenant, you had to understand the Covenant. Well, we come here to Christ. We who are in Christ must walk in Covenant. But here the Covenant is NOT Law; here the Covenant is an understanding given of God: an understanding given of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here the Covenant is an understanding given of God concerning HIS SON. Here the Covenant comes when Christ is revealed. He is the LIVING WORD of the LIVING COVENANT, but there is no way that you can walk in Christ, grow in Christ except by Covenant – the understanding of God working in you.

Leviticus 7:20 – But the soul that shall eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.

Genesis 17:10,11 – This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

2 Corinthians 4:6 – For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Romans 2:28,29 – For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

And unfortunately there are many believers who are in Christ, in a New Creation, but living by an Old Covenant, and it is just confusing! They are living under an old comprehension of God. They see themselves as distant from God, they are looking for a city… and on and on. They have come to Christ, they have passed from death to life, but they are not in New Covenant; the New Covenant is not written in their heart. And that only happens when the Holy Spirit reveals Christ in you.

Hebrews 11:10 – For he (Abram) looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

A State of Being

But now we are going to look at how we came to be in Christ. How did we come from not being in Christ to being in Christ? You weren’t always in Christ – so how did we come to be in Christ? We’ll look at two places in the Old Covenant: Haggai and Zechariah. Our Salvation is the reality of BEING – it is a state of being. Salvation is not just merely a state of mind; it is not just a state of heart. It involves that, but it is a state of being. Maybe we have come to a condition of the heart that agrees with our state of being. We have a lot of people trying to get a condition of heart, a change of heart without comprehending a state of being. They are always "trying to be a Christian", "trying to be more like Jesus": having no comprehension that Christ is their Life at all! Trying to get to heaven – trying. I know Christians who just work themselves to death! I know people who just love the Lord – Spirit filled – who just work themselves to death. No rest, no peace – just trying, trying, trying to please the Lord, trying to do what Jesus wants. They are trying to make Salvation a state of mind without ever realizing it’s a state of being. Salvation is first a STATE OF BEING. Then the Covenant is written in our hearts; but the Covenant agrees with something. So what does the Covenant agree with?

A Reality

The Covenant agrees with something that is real. The Gospel that Paul preached; the Gospel that we preach is not a figment of religious imagination. It is the declaration of Truth as the Truth is in Christ. I’m not trying to make anything so; if it’s not so, I can’t make it so. I’m not trying to make something real. And when I speak I’m not really even trying to convince anybody that anything is so. I’m simply speaking out of a REALITY. I speak out of a state of being, and I really believe that he that hath an ear to hear – will hear; and eyes to see – will see; and a heart to receive – will receive, but what I’m telling you is this Life of Christ is NOT a difficult Life for me – it’s LIFE. It’s not difficult to Live – Christ lives! Christ is my Life – He Lives! I see Christians today that are having such a hard time, and I’m wondering why? Now I know that the world is a hard place: it’s full of liberals and idiots and bigots, and bureaucrats, and I know it’s a hard place.

John 16:33 – These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Christ is Life

But that has nothing to do with my Life! That has nothing to do with my being in Christ. And I haven’t found Christ to be a hard Life. I have found Him to just be Life – period! And everything else is simply not Life. You can live there and walk there, but I’m telling you it’s NOT Life. And it will kill you: it will wear you out because it’s not Life. BUT NOW IN CHRIST… They looked at Brother Paul and said he had a hard way. Brother Paul said, " For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:19) That is not one day off in the sky – IN CHRIST JESUS! "Christ in you, the hope of glory…" (Colossians 1:27) "… which shall be revealed IN US."

Life Lives

" For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) Understanding "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…" (Galatians 2:20) I am declaring to you: LIFE LIVES! Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life…" (John 11:25) Life lives! So- how did we come to be in Christ? Salvation is a state of being: it is a state of being IN CHRIST. And it is a literal translation. The word "in" in the Greek is an inclusive word, and it means ‘a relationship of rest.’ And according to the Biblical definition of being "in Christ", you and I are not in this building unless we were whatever this building is actually made of. What the building is made of, is IN the building. And that’s the definition of being "in Christ". Christ is not some place you are: Christ is what you are; and who you are – His Body, His Tabernacle. It’s not some place you are, but a state of being. And nothing can move you out of Him because He’s not a place, but the Being whose Body you are.

Recovery

How did we come to be in such a reality? How did we come to be in Christ? We are going to look in Haggai and Zechariah, but I have to give you a little background here. Haggai and Zechariah were writing to Israel during the time of the recovery. Israel had been 70 years in Babylon, but they are now being recovered. The Temple is being rebuilt, the City is being rebuilt, the Testimony of God in the earth is being recovered – first in the hearts of a people, and then at the hands of that people. His Testimony is being recovered, and He has a ministry for that, and part of that ministry are these two prophets among others. And so they are speaking to that recovery. But the wonderful thing about this is that Haggai, Zechariah, the last chapters of Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other prophets – though they are speaking with regard to this recovery, they are all speaking beyond this recovery to one that is yet to come. There has been something lost, and they have gone into captivity, and now they are rebuilding the Temple of Solomon, rebuilding the City of Jerusalem, and the Spirit of the Lord stirs up these prophets to talk about "when" – when it shall not be a rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple, but an Eternal Temple. It will not be a repair of the Old Jerusalem, but a New Jerusalem, and the prophets begin to speak of that.

The Plan of God

And they do that to encourage the people in the Work, but they are speaking beyond that. They are speaking to let them know this is in type and shadow; this is a foretaste of what is yet to come. Now this is what is going on here. Haggai 2:5, "According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not." The Spirit of God is always working toward the purpose of God; always working toward the will of God. Here the Spirit moved upon men, but He spoke of this: these prophets prophesied, but they didn’t know the time of their prophecies. They knew they spoke beyond themselves, but they didn’t understand how far beyond. But the Spirit of God that moved upon them did. And even when they were in Babylon for 70 years, God is saying here, ‘yet My Spirit remained with you, because though you left, though you went into captivity, though you forsook the Tabernacle, My Spirit did not forsake the Tabernacle; My Spirit did not forsake My Testimony. My Spirit is always working according to My Will, according to My Plan.’ "MY SPIRIT REMAINED AMONG YOU."

1 Peter 1:10-12 – Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Ephesians 1:11 – 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.

Ephesians 3:11 – According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Faithful To The Covenant

These men were just coming out of captivity. There were children born during those seventy years who had never seen Israel, never seen the Tabernacle, never seen Solomon, never seen the City of Jerusalem. All they knew was the mixture of Babylonian religion, and yet the Spirit of God was faithful. One day Daniel was praying, and the Spirit of God moved upon him. It was the Spirit that was ever watching, ever faithful. Although everyone seemingly left and had forsaken God, The Spirit of God did not forsake the plan. The Spirit of God had not forsaken The Covenant. What does that say? It says He could not deal with Israel except according to the Covenant. And I’m telling you – you who are in Christ; He can’t deal with you except according to the Covenant. He can’t show you some other Life. He can’t release you to some other Life, to some lesser form of Salvation. The Spirit will not show you that; the Spirit won’t compromise. He can’t deal with you except according to the Covenant as it is in Jesus Christ. He can only deal with you according to TRUTH. And that’s why we are so many times at cross-purposes with the Spirit of God.

Daniel 9:2-4 – In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments.

God can’t say, ‘Well okay, let’s got to Plan B.’ He doesn’t have a Plan B! And though everyone in Christ would forsake the reality of Christ, and would get involved in a Babylonian religion, The Spirit of God would yet continue to move, The Spirit of God would yet continue to work, would yet continue to seek out hearts in whom to reveal The Truth, because The Spirit of God is committed to the Covenant. He is after all the "Spirit of Truth". During all this time, The Spirit of God had not forsaken the Covenant.

2 Timothy 2:13 – If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

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.

The Spirit of God Moves

So Daniel prayed, and The Spirit of God moved upon Daniel and he was there at the time of the evening sacrifice. Now in Babylon there is no such thing, but Daniel, being a man of God; Daniel being a man after The Spirit, understanding that if we had not forsaken the land; if we had not forsaken the Testimony; if we had not forsaken the City and the Tabernacle – at this time our Priest would be offering the evening sacrifice. So Daniel is down on his face at that time of the day praying. While he is praying The Spirit of God moves upon Daniel and brings to his remembrance the words of Jeremiah who said this captivity will be for seventy years. Seventy years – seven times ten – it will be for seventy years. There will be ten sets of Sabbatical years because they had forsaken the rest of the Sabbath. And Daniel recognized this: this is it! The seventy years – that’s THIS year, and he began to seek the face of the Lord.

Daniel 9:20-21 – And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

And as Daniel began to seek the Lord, it is recorded in the book of Ezra that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the heart of Cyrus, the King of Babylon and Cyrus made a decree. Why did He do that? Because The Spirit of God had not forsaken the Covenant. Cyrus didn’t know anything about the Covenant: he only knew about Babylonian religion, but The Spirit of God moved upon Cyrus, and Cyrus made a decree: any Jew that wants to leave can go back! And The Spirit of God moved upon Ezra, and the Spirit of God moved upon this one and that one, and they began to rise up and return for one reason: it was for the rebuilding of the Temple and the rebuilding of the City of God. Ezekiel began to prophesy: Ezekiel was sitting among the captives on the river Chebar and The Spirit of the Lord moved upon him, and caught him up into the heavens, and there he saw the man of God’s glory. And he began to prophesy to the captives. Those were the same captives that went back to reclaim The Testimony. You see this going on in all of these men.

Ezra 1:1-4 – Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill –offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 1:1, 26,28 – Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

Zion

That’s the setting here in Haggai. The Spirit of God had not forsaken the Testimony of God, nor shall He ever forsake it! Haggai 2:6, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land." You read that in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews. Now there came a time when that "little while" came and right here at the Cross it was all shaken, and that which could not be removed – STOOD! And we now have an Eternal Kingdom in Christ that can not be shaken. He’s speaking of it here in Haggai: "…and I will shake the heavens, and the earth…" And of course that’s the OLD heaven and the OLD earth. We find that in Hebrews and in Revelation. Go to Hebrews 12:22, " But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." And this is – YE ARE COME! And where is this? IN CHRIST! In Christ ye are come to Mount Zion. Where? In Christ! Do you know what Mount Zion is in the Old Covenant? Do you know how Mount Zion is defined? Mount Zion in the Old Covenant stands for something. It stands for the spiritual condition of Jerusalem. You read in Isaiah 30:19, "For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem…" Zion is the mountain of the King. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." (Psalms 48:1,2) Zion is the place prophetically where God will reveal His Son. "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee."(Psalm 2:6,7) Zion is the spiritual condition: the very high thought of God. God’s Zion is the people who are in Christ coming to the high thought of God; coming to the realization of Christ; coming to a comprehension given of God. It’s God’s highest thought. And what is God’s highest thought concerning Zion? In the Old Testament it is just this: Zion – the place of His habitation, the place where He has chosen to dwell. "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation." (Psalms 132:13)

Coming to God’s Reality

What is the very reality that God wants you to come to – in Christ? Jesus said it in John 14:20, "At that day he shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." You will know that God has chosen you for HIS habitation! So Zion speaks of something. "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not (he’s referring back to the Old Covenant here) who refused him that spake on earth (through Moses, through the prophets, through the types and the shadows), much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven (Who hath spoke IN SON); Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised (that’s what we read in Haggai), saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." And that’s the whole structure of the Old Covenant - the heavens and the earth, not just the earth. No, we’re not talking about a mere seventy year captivity here. No, here I’m going to tear the whole thing down, and bring it back as a NEW creation in Christ: a NEW heaven and a NEW earth.

God Shakes the Old

And the writer of the Hebrews saw that this is what God was talking to Haggai about. And saw that this is what He was talking to Zechariah about – not just a reconstruction: but a NEW, an altogether NEW! But it would only come when the old was shaken to pieces, when the old was done away. And this is in Hebrews 10:7,9, " Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God…then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." That’s exactly what is being said here. He shakes the first heaven, the old heaven, the old earth, the Old Covenant order. HE shakes it: it is shaken to the ground by The Cross through His death, burial and resurrection, that He might establish in Himself an Eternal order, a New order, a New Covenant. This is so that you and I may come, not as those who are kept at a distance, but as those who are IN Christ Jesus, and live according to that Covenant. Hebrews 12:27-28, "And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." This is what all of those prophets were seeing.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.

Glory of the Latter House

Back now to Haggai 2:9, " The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." We’re going to be talking about Salvation unto glory, and here is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New; between the Old world and the New; between the Old creation and the New. The difference is GLORY. In the Old the glory was passing away, it was fading. That system could not retain the glory because the glory was not from within it; the glory was simply reflected upon it. That’s the reason this symbol is called the moon: it is nothing but the reflection of the sun, and its glory fades. Why? Because it can not contain it. The face of Moses could not contain the glory, but we will find out that the face of Jesus Christ does! The difference is in GLORY. In the Old the glory was fading because nothing there could keep it. Most of our "church" services today are under this Covenant understanding: ‘Oh brother, the glory fell!’ Well, where did it go? ‘I don’t know, but it came down!’ Listen, the glory ‘CAME DOWN’ in the Old Covenant! In the New Covenant the glory remains. You may not have seen the glory yet: but the glory is IN YOU nonetheless, waiting to be revealed. THE GLORY IS IN YOU! It is not to be reflected off of you, but to be manifested from within.

2 Corinthians 3:7-11 – But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Exodus 34:29 – And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with them.

2 Corinthians 4:6 - For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Not By Might…By My Spirit

"The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former." The GLORY is going to be greater. You can rebuild this House of Solomon all you want to: but there’s a House coming whose glory shall be greater than Solomon. That’s what He is saying. And He’s speaking this to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is a type of the Son building His House. " In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts." (Haggai 2:23) And over in Zechariah He is speaking to Zerubbabel, but in Zechariah He says HOW it will be done. Zechariah 4:6, "Then he answered and spake unto me, saying. This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Go tell Zerubbabel. This is actually a prophet speaking to Zerubbabel about this rebuilding, but it spoke way beyond him, because it was speaking of not only what he was doing, but what he himself could not do, but what a heavenly Zerubbabel would do. A greater House – but he tells Zerubbabel: it’s not by might, it’s not by power, it’s by my spirit saith the Lord.

Hebrews 3:5,6 – And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Friends, you are in Christ by THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. You didn’t get lost and fall in Christ; you are not there by natural birth; you are not there by accident. You are in Christ by the Work of the Spirit of God. You are not in Christ because you decided you wanted to. I have people tell me: ‘Well, I decided I want to do better… I decided…’ Well, you may decide that, but you are in Christ by a legitimate Work of the Holy Spirit. You didn’t just "decide" to get in Jesus, and there are three terms that define that Work of The Spirit by which you are IN CHRIST. These are New Covenant terms that describe and define the Work of The Spirit by which you are in Christ Jesus. The terms are: BAPTISM, NEW BIRTH and ADOPTION. We are in Christ by baptism, we are there by new birth, and we are there purposed for adoption. Now we can’t confuse the modern, social term "adoption" with the Biblical term "adoption" because it has nothing whatsoever to do with it. They are not even closely related.

Baptism

We are going to look now at Baptism. Turn to Ephesians 4 and let’s settle something. We are in Christ by Baptism. Ephesians 4:4-6, "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." ONE baptism – not two. Now immediately we want to argue with that. We think there are 50 or 60 baptisms, and I’m not talking about the stuff that man has made up in his theology. If you want to argue with this then you’ll have to say that there is more than one body and one Spirit; more than one faith and one Lord, because the one baptism is right there with that. One body – one baptism; one Spirit – one baptism. Now what I want to do in the scripture is to show you what that baptism is about. It is a Work of The Spirit.

One Baptism

Go to 1 Corinthians 12:12, " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." Then he goes on to say this is WHY that is so, "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Now it doesn’t make any difference whether we were Jews or Gentiles, whether we were bond or free – we are all baptized into one body. It doesn’t make any difference whether you are male or female; it doesn’t make any difference what you were before you were baptized. But then immediately my mind jumps and says, ‘Well now in Christ it is written there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free.’ (Colossians 3:11) Now wait a minute – we’re baptizing Jews and Gentiles, and bond and free, and blacks and whites, and males and females – everybody we can get our hands on we are baptizing! It doesn’t make any difference. But in Christ neither Jew, neither Gentile, neither bond, neither free… that must be some kind of a baptism! What kind of a baptism is it that starts out with a Jew, and ends up with One New Man? It doesn’t make any difference what it starts with, but as a result of that baptism there is just One New Man – no Jews left, no Gentiles left, no bond, no free. That’s some kind of a baptism friends! That’s more than getting wet! That’s more than speaking in tongues and jumping around on one foot!

This is some kind of a baptism! Now after we are baptized, those that are baptized, then we are made to drink into One Spirit – and the original shows it that way. But drinking into One Spirit is NOT the same as the baptism. We are all baptized by One Spirit into One Body – whether we be Jews, Greeks, Gentiles – it doesn’t make any difference. Paul doesn’t explain that here; he just says it, because his emphasis here is not to explain the baptism. His emphasis here is to explain why he just said that we are one body, being many members, yet one body. Paul says that’s because we are all baptized by One Spirit into One Body. Then he adds it doesn’t make any difference what you were: Jew or Gentile, bond or free. But my mind jumped ahead and said, well it may not make any difference who you were before you were baptized, but in Christ you are not a Jew or a Gentile, or any of that. And I’m thinking – My Lord, what a baptism! Well Paul explains it, so we’ll have to look at Romans 6 for that. Here Paul explains that baptism and asks those men and women that he is writing to if they have forgotten this. Do you not know, do you not understand what happened when you were baptized? ‘Well, we were baptized right into the Life of Jesus!’ No – you were not, and that is what I want us to settle.

Baptized Into His Death

I’ve had trouble with this. I kept saying that we were baptized into the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God was telling me: no, that’s not right. And I was arguing that it was right. I was using 1 Corinthians 12 as my reference, but when I really looked, 1 Corinthians did not say that. It said we were baptized into one body, and made to drink into one Spirit. That’s the Life of Christ; that’s the One New Man. But the baptism is NOT into the Sprit, the baptism is into the Body of Christ. You are baptized into HIS DEATH. If you think you are baptized into Life – you are wrong! You are baptized into death. That’s what removes the Jew and the Gentile. That’s why it doesn’t make any difference, because you are getting ready to DIE! ‘Come one… come all…’ You are just going to die! It doesn’t make any difference: you can be rich or poor, black or white… it doesn’t make any difference because you are about to die!

Baptized… THAT…

There’s just ONE baptism for everybody! That’s our baptism, but we don’t think about that. These believers here hadn’t been thinking about that either, so Paul says in Romans 6: 2,3, "… How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" He’s saying don’t you understand that there’s not a bunch of Jews and Gentiles, running around here trying to be one? Do you not understand the Covenant? But that was the problem: they were here still trying to live like Jews and Gentiles. You see that was their problem in Romans 5. Paul says, What? You are not many here. He has taken many and made One Body, and he attributes that you are One Body because you are baptized into Him by One Spirit. But in Romans 6 he actually says what the baptism by that One Spirit is all about. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Not only that: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death…"We are buried into His death, and there’s only One that comes out of there! "…THAT…" This word in the New Covenant always reveals purpose: not just sometimes – always! "That" will always tell you what it’s all about, what’s the purpose of it.

Purpose

We must come to this. Why are we – humanity who come to accept Christ: why is our baptism unto His death? That only ONE may live, and that all who live, live only by Him. Not I, but Christ. Who else should live in His Body? How many are supposed to live in one body? The problem comes when we have a Body trying to have a "body" life other than Christ. But there is no Life other than Christ! But it takes the mind of Christ working in each member of that Body before that Body can function as The One Body of The One Son. Covenant – every member coming into Covenant, understanding, having the mind of the Head. So that the hand is not having a life of its own, or the foot is not having a life of its own – which results in the hand saying I don’t really need the foot anyway! There’s a lot of that kind of Spirit in Christians today.

Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Ephesians 4:15 - 16 – But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

1 Corinthians 2:16 – For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Colossians 2:19 – And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

1 Corinthians 12:20,21 – But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Christ Was Raised

Knew ye not? That’s the point: don’t you understand something? Don’t you understand that as many of us as were baptized into His death… THAT like as Christ was raised up out from among the dead (the original says)… Remember the River Jordan – CHRIST raised up out from among the dead. The heavens opened and the Father said this is My only Son. That’s what happens here – THAT Christ and Christ alone may live in His Creation, in His Body. This Body lives by Him: it has no life of its own. We live by Him, for Him, to be the function of Him in the earth. We are to function as His Body. When? At all times! Where? Everywhere! Such is our baptism. The baptism is into His death specifically for a reason: that He and HE ALONE becomes Life. " That like as CHRIST WAS raised up…" You don’t read of anybody else in that. Like as CHRIST was raised up. " I am the resurrection and the Life." (John 11:25) See, He’s the first. He is the Resurrection. He was raised up – nobody else. Nobody lives now but BY HIM!

Matthew 3:16,17 – 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: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

New Birth

And that brings us to the second term – NEW BIRTH. Yes, quickened together, raised together, seated together – New Birth. Why must you be born again? Because you are as dead as a doornail! That’s why – because you are dead. Nobody can wave a wand over you, hook electricity up to you and bring you back to life. Resurrection is NOT me living again: Resurrection is CHRIST living in me. Resurrection is NOT the same as the doctrine and teaching of an "after life". The ONLY Life after this death is JESUS! One death – One Life: His death and Him Living. And He lives in you! That’s the whole point: He’s not living out here in the air – He’s living IN YOU! And by Him – you Live! And that’s the riddle Paul spoke in Galatians 2:20, "… Nevertheless I live; yet not I…" That sounds like some kind of an idiot! No, he understands – CHRIST liveth in me. How many believers understand CHRIST as being The New Birth?

Ephesians 2:6 - And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

John 14:23 – Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Colossians 1:27 – To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Not – But

We could make a diagram of man – created a living soul; that man has a body of dirt. That is man. Where is the "life giving Spirit" in this picture? It is not there because He is not there – NOT!

Body

Soul

BUT IN CHRIST we come from not…. Remember we said that: not a people, not a hope… BUT NOW IN CHRIST. And I told you that you are in Christ because Christ is in you. But there was a time when Christ was not in you. So you must be born again. That’s when we’re all made to drink into One Spirit. You must be born again. I’m not giving you three different Salvations; I’m giving you three terms that relate and define the Work of The Spirit in your Salvation. Born again – Christ in you, the incorruptible Seed of God – Christ. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8:9) Christ – virtually CHRIST IN YOU, filling the void, filling the "not". So now Paul says, "Not I, but Christ." That’s NEW BIRTH!

Body

Soul

John 3:3 – Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 1:23 – Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Adoption

Do you know what adoption is? Adoption is the revealing of That Son. Adoption is the revealing of Christ in you. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us for one purpose: that is for the increase of Him. That HE may be revealed; that HE may be formed, that HE may have expression. That’s what it’s all about. What else would His Body be for? But that He be revealed, and that He be formed – His nature, His character, His substance, and that He have expression. That’s Salvation. Adoption is essential to that Salvation. So in your Bible you will read that we who are in Christ are predestined (that means we are purposed) for a thing. And the thing we are purposed for is adoption. Adoption in Biblical language means the placing of a son – son placement, which is also the same as son recognition, son exaltation.

Galatians 1: 15,16 – But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.

Galatians 4: 19 – My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

Ephesians 1:5 – Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Son Placement in His House

Adoption is when a child is declared to be a son. You come from childhood to a son. But we get that all mixed up with US. We think that’s all us. No; it’s HIM! It is God revealing His Son. It is God saying "This is my Son, hear Him." It is God giving His Son placement in His Own House. It is God giving His Son ultimate and divine recognition. "Wherefore God hath highly exalted HIM…" (Philippians 2:9) Here’s what that scripture really means: so much so that here, in this place, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. Here in this place, because here is where He is exalted, here is where He is given a name that is above every name. This is the adoption – GOD REVEALING HIS SON.

Matthew 17:5 – 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.

Philippians 2:9-11 – Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So we come to be in Christ through BAPTISM, through NEW BIRTH, for the purpose of ADOPTION: all of which is a Work of The Spirit. This is something of the reality of our being in Christ. It’s not a make believe place, but a state of being that is brought into existence by The Spirit of The Living God; bringing us into a union with the Lord Jesus, and Him working in us the revealing of Christ.

Environment

I pray that we are being gathered into the Truth, and we must have an environment of that Truth. It begins in the heart of an individual, but the gathering of those individuals strengthens that environment. We are talking about the reality of being in Christ, and what is that except an environment? God has brought us out of one environment into another; from one creation to another, but this that the Lord has done is not some kind of a make believe thing – it is an environment where we who walk in the Covenant, do in fact live by faith in the reality of the faith – in Christ Jesus. What I’m telling you is that it is a real relationship; it’s a real environment. Now most Christians have no concept of a real environment. The only environment that they have any true concept of is the environment of the Old Covenant, the environment of taste, touch, hear, see – the environment of the senses, the environment that is passing away while you look at it; the environment that is changing while you are trying to get a hold of it. It’s the environment of the senses. Most Christians think that is the real. Their concept of heaven is just God making that environment better.

Colossians 1:13 – Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

I’m telling you, very few Christians are motivated by a real, eternal, everlasting, non-passing environment because that environment that is IN CHRIST has to be revealed in our hearts, created in our hearts, formed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that we quit living in a temporal environment. That is, that we quit being motivated by it, and that our motivation comes from the reality of substance; the reality of being in Christ. Do you know when that happens you bring stability into an unstable environment, rather than being motivated by the unstable environment and saying ‘One day God will take you to a better one.’ But by The Cross He has brought us to that environment already; but this is one you can’t touch with your natural hand. This is one that sense knowledge can not comprehend. If it could – then it wouldn’t be any good, because if you can touch it, it’s crumbling; if you can see it, it is passing.

1 Corinthians 2:9,10 – But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Looking

Paul understood that. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 he wrote, " While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The word "look" there means ‘set upon with our affections, set upon with our desires, seek to attain, look stedfastly, become motivated by.’ All of those definitions are applicable to this word "look". It is not merely to glance at, but to set one’s hope and attention upon it. "While we look not at the things which are seen…" They are not the source of our motivation; they are not that upon which we set our whole attention, our desire. Paul said this same thing in Colossians 3:1-3, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." It’s the same thing. Paul doesn’t change Gospels in each epistle. He declares the same thing in each epistle. He makes application of that Truth to different ones and in different places, but it’s the same Truth, it’s the same Gospel. He says the same thing.

Not – But

We’ve been looking at the side which is "NOT"; Not … but Christ.
" While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen…" It’s the same principle here. Not… but Christ; Not I…but Christ; Not flesh … but Christ. It’s the same thing all the way through the Bible. "… not at the things which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal…" That means passing away. They are part of that creation that is summed up in the Bible as ‘TIME PAST’. And if it is ‘time past’ it can NOT be called Eternal. And we are looking at the difference of NOT being in Christ, and being in Christ. We find that our Salvation is a state of being IN Christ. But to live there, we must live in that Covenant, that understanding of which Christ The Eternal Word alone is the mediator. This is not as Moses, Paul says, but as Christ. The problem is most believers who are in Christ are still living under an Old Covenant; having been brought into an Eternal environment, their mind is still obsessed with the carnal, with the natural. So rather than manifesting the One, the Eternal in the midst of the other, we are trying to make the other, the temporal like the Eternal. And that won’t work! We try to make it better, but why don’t you just manifest that which is already better? Why don’t you just manifest that which is REAL?

Hebrews 3:5-6 – And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Hebrews 8:6 – But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Hebrews 9:15 – And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

That = Purpose

We are looking at purpose, and we used the word "that"; it is all "that" – Salvation has one purpose – THAT. And that purpose is summed up in Christ – that He be revealed, that He be formed in you, and that He be expressed through you, that He has Divine expression. So Paul says wherever we are : "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place." (1 Corinthians 2:14) That’s why He might put you in some old stinky place, and you manifest there the savor of the knowledge of Christ. Unto God it is a sweet smelling savor that answers to the Old Covenant altar of incense. It is a sweet smelling savor. Try that! There are no artificial chemicals that will clean up the ill smells of the environment of humanity; but you manifesting there the reality of Christ – will do it!

Exodus 30: 1,7 – And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon; of shittim wood shalt thou make it.

Salvation Unto Glory

So we are dealing with the reality of being in Christ. Now we want to draw our attention to this glorious Salvation that we have in Christ Jesus – Salvation Unto Glory; and according to the scripture, whether it is the Old or the New Covenant, Salvation that is not bound up with glory is not Salvation at all. Even in the Old Testament, Salvation is set forth in its types and shadows; but even under the Old Covenant, Salvation is always inseparably bound with GLORY. Glory in fact was the proof; it was the validation of that Salvation. How did they know it was of God? The glory of the Lord appeared! It’s always that way. I don’t care if it was Moses looking at the burning bush, or with Abraham with his eyes lifted up – it is always connected with GLORY. Not disconnected: glory came along with it. Glory was the certification that this is The Lord; this is The Lord’s Salvation. And anything without glory was not of God.

Exodus 40:33-35 – And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

1 Kings 8:10,11 – And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

Exodus 3:2,5,6 – And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

Genesis 13:14 - And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward.

Genesis 18:1,2 – And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.

Glory Certifies The Lord

For instance, with Israel, when did the Lord show His great displeasure with Israel, and showed that Israel as a people were no longer a Testimony of His Salvation in the earth? It occurred when the Glory left Shiloh, and the Glory of God that left Shiloh NEVER returned to that natural Old Covenant type. Once it left it never returned under the Old Covenant dispensation. But the Glory that left Shiloh is returned in the Person of The Lord Jesus, and that is according to the prophecy given by Jacob in Genesis 49:10 when he said, " The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Now that didn’t mean much until later on in God’s dealing with Israel there was a place called "Shiloh" and the Temple of God was at Shiloh. But it was also there that Israel left the Lord and began on their downhill march toward Babylonian captivity, and ceased to represent the Sabbath in the land: that is, ceased to represent the complete Work of The Cross. All of this is in type and shadow, but it is all pointing to a fulfillment in Christ that you and I call Salvation, or that we should know as Salvation.

1 Samuel 4:22 – And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.

Psalm 78:58-61 – For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men. And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

Until Shiloh Come

And so the Glory left, but it is interesting that when the Glory left the Temple at Shiloh, even in type and shadow it never, ever returned. True to the prophecy of Jacob – until Shiloh come. The word "Shiloh" in an ancient translation means ‘The Lord coming in Israel’; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. The word ‘people’ there means Israel. And here in Christ is where we have the Israel of God; but here there is neither Jew nor Gentile, nor bond nor free, but One New Man – gathered unto Him, gathered into the Lord of Glory, gathered into the Glory of the Lord! Not waiting to go there…. Gathered into the Glory of the Lord. Now this is either true or we can just throw our Bibles away because this is all the way through the book!

Salvation Bound Up With Glory

I don’t know where our modern concept comes from – that ‘we are saved and ON OUR WAY TO GLORY.’ No, our Salvation is bound up with Glory. Salvation is bound up with Glory, but we’re looking for something with the natural eye, and the only glory you can see with the natural eye is the glory of the Old Covenant – smoke, clouds, and fire: which wasn’t Glory at all, but a TYPE of it. And it came and went – it faded. That’s the only thing you can see with your natural eye. But the Glory of the Lord to which we have come in Christ you can NOT see with your natural eye because that is the absolute, Eternal Glory of Divine Relationship. And that brings us to this consideration: Glory in your Bible is always defined and shown to be NOT a location, but a relationship. We said these two Covenants defined two comprehensions of God and consequently two relationships. In the Old Covenant the relationship of God was through a mediator – Moses. Here the relationship of God was through the mediation of prophets. Here the relationship of God was through the mediation of types and shadows. Here the people were kept at a distance, and the glory of that relationship came and went. They did not live in it.

Hebrews 1:1 – God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Relationship

But we have come from one Covenant to an altogether New Covenant and consequently we have come from one relationship to a NEW relationship altogether different. For instance, in the Old the relationship with Israel was as many. Here in Christ the relationship with you and I is as ONE – not as many. As One – as One House, One Household, One Body, even One Son. We have come from one relationship to another, and we have come also with that consequently from one glory to another glory. That’s what Salvation is: we have come from the glory of the Old to the Glory of the New. We spoke of the House, the Tabernacle, and we looked at Haggai 2: that the glory of the latter shall be greater than the former. The difference is in GLORY: the difference is in RELATIONSHIP. And yet 90% of Christians who are in Christ by the Work of the Spirit are not walking in a relationship of Glory. They are not comprehending relationship. They are in Christ with an Old Covenant comprehension! They are in Christ, but still living like Christ is one place and they are someplace else. Modern day religion has in my opinion accomplished one thing in the hearts of God’s people: it has decapitated the Body of Jesus Christ!

John 17:21 – That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Romans 12:4,5 – For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Ephesians 2:6 – And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Head and Body

Modern day religion has placed the Head one place, and has placed the Body another place, and it seems like the two shall never come together again! But that’s not the Biblical picture. That’s not what we have come to in Christ! He does not have a Headless Body; and we are not a Headless Body. We have come to Him. Head and Body is one union. Yes, we distinguish between Head and Body, but there is no separation between them. That is even so in the natural. You don’t see someone coming in the door and say, ‘There is John, and he’s got his body WITH him.’ Paul uses this analogy and says in 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." That is because by One Spirit we are all baptized into One Body – we looked at that. So the point is we have come to a relationship of ONE. Oh yes, there is a distinction between Head and body, but no separation: they are One New Creation. The one is to grow up into the fulness of the other in all things. Ephesians 4:15, " But speaking the truth in love, may grow up INTO HIM in all things, which is the head, even Christ." For what purpose? To become a manifestation of HIM in all places and at all times.

Ephesians 1:22,23 – 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.

Walking in Covenant

This is the Salvation to which you and I have been brought. Unfortunately it’s not the understanding that we are walking in. Unfortunately it’s not the Covenant we are walking in. Unfortunately it’s not the relationship that we are enjoying. All of the doctrines and dispensationalism and the futuristic doctrines are simply the imaginations of men’s hearts because there is no scriptural foundation for it – at all! None! There is no foundation in the scripture to project Salvation out beyond the fulness of Jesus Christ – none whatsoever. If it is testified to in the Old Covenant, it is fulfilled in the New. And the New Covenant is not another set of writings: the New Covenant is an understanding given of God in the Person of His Son. " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past…" He did speak in this way! "…Hath (at the end of) these days spoken unto us IN SON." (Hebrews 1:1,2) That means He summed up everything of the Old in His Son, because it was all fragmented pieces of it anyway. Now in His Son He has summed up the whole of it. The Tabernacle is summed up; the Priesthood is summed up; the Holy of Holies is summed up; the Ark of the Covenant is summed up; all of the seven Feasts of Israel is summed up; the twenty four issues of Priesthood – on and on and on.

Romans 10:4 – For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

2 Corinthians 1:20 – For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Walking Out of Reality

Do you know what modern day Christianity says is summed up? One in five sacrifices! Out of the five sacrifices, one was the sin offering, and so today we sum up everything that Jesus did and say He died on the Cross to forgive our sins. But out of the whole Old Covenant system, that is just one offering; that is just one offering out of five offerings! What about the rest of them; because all of that was a big picture of Salvation that was to come in the Person of God’s Son? So what happened to the rest of it? (See Leviticus chapters 1-5 for the five offerings.) What happened to Christ being our Eternal dwelling place? What happened to you and I being the City of God in Christ Jesus? What happened to a manifestation of Him in the earth? I’ll tell you what happened – it got dispensationalized out of reality! Glory was preached as a location rather than a relationship with God in the Person of His Son. And yet in every Old Covenant typology Glory is a relationship. So what happened? How did it over here in the New Covenant become a location? We say we’re "on our way to Glory." But IN CHRIST you’ve already come to Glory; but the reason is lack of understanding of Covenant. You can only walk in Christ what has been revealed in you, and the New Covenant is revealed; it is written in your heart. The New comprehension is written in your heart. The New comprehension of RELATIONSHIP is shown to you, the Bible says, "in the face of Jesus Christ". 2 Corinthians 4:6, " For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Covenant is the Issue

In the Old administration, Covenant was the issue. We’ve said that. It wasn’t enough to be in the camp of Israel: you had to walk in the Covenant, or you were put out of the camp. It didn’t make any difference if you were born there and circumcised; and it was even WORSE if you were circumcised; because circumcision said that you were in Covenant. Circumcision was the sign – not just that you were an Israelite; it was the sign of the Covenant. Now in the Old Testament this really was the same: being an Israelite and walking in the Covenant was synonymous. The Covenant is an understanding given of God. Yes, with Israel in types and shadows, but nonetheless they were true to that understanding, and as long as they were true to that understanding God honored it. It was when they weren’t true to that understanding that the Glory of the Lord left. Why? Because they weren’t walking in relationship; and Glory is relationship. So the Glory of the Lord left. This is what we see in the Old Covenant. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all pointing toward a reality in Christ. So if you were in the camp of Israel and not walking according to Covenant, you were put out; you were excluded from relationship with the people, with the body, with Israel. And you had to go through all kinds of rituals in order to come back into the camp. Then the Covenant was once again in you, and you walked in Covenant.

Genesis 17:11 – And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Exodus 31:14 – Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Leviticus 20:3,5,6 - And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

Numbers 12: 14,15 – And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not again till Miriam was brought in again.

New Covenant

Now, here in Christ Covenant isn’t done away: it’s a NEW Covenant, it’s a NEW understanding given of God. And the only way you can walk in Christ is in that understanding given of the Spirit. And that understanding is not in letters: that understanding is in the Person of Christ; God revealing His Son – showing inwardly, revealing inwardly His Son, showing you your relationship with Him, your union with Him; that you live in that understanding, that you live in that Covenant, that you live as One that is in Christ, that you live in that relationship – that you live in the Glory of God. Well, you do that in Christ: and you express that in the earth – there’s no two ways about that. But here’s the challenge – you and I as Christians, we are either expressing our ignorance, or we are expressing His understanding. In every situation, you are either expressing your ignorance, or His understanding. You are an expression of your relationship with Him. I am too – we all are. But thank God for His grace, Who is willing to continue to deal with us, and bring us from Covenant to Covenant.

Hebrews 8:7-10,13 – For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers…For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

Glory Defined

Now this is not a sermon, but an understanding to which we must come. But let’s look back now in Exodus 24, and we’re going to look at Glory as it is defined in the Old Covenant, and I want you to see how important Glory was to the Old Covenant. Glory is the certification that something was given of God. If something is of God it has a glory connected to it. If there is no glory connected to it, then it isn’t of the Lord. Why? Because God’s concept of Salvation has never been, and never will be anything other than bringing a people into a Divine relationship with Himself. In the Old Covenant He did that to the extent that that Covenant would allow, but in the New Covenant He has done that in the Person of His Own Son who says, "At that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in Me, and I am in you." (John 14:20) Now that’s RELATIONSHIP! That is New Covenant relationship. But there’s a word there – you shall KNOW. That "knowing" is only by the Holy Spirit; that knowing comes in the revealing of a Person, because He and He only mediates that Oneness, that union, that relationship. " I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) So the Covenant comes in the revealing of The Son. The understanding comes in the revealing of The Son – not in the revealing of "things" – things we do. No, in the revealing of The Son.

The First Mount

Exodus 24: 15 - 18, " And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." It was an awesome looking thing! Fire, cloud, smoke and darkness – awesome! And it was all in type of the glory of God – a relationship into which Moses was called, but all of Israel couldn’t follow – could they? Why? Because Moses was NOT the way, the truth and the life of God’s actual, Eternal Glory. The whole thing is in type and shadow here. The whole thing is pointing to a House to come, a Nation to come, a Seed to come, a Prophet to come, a Mountain to come, and a Glory to come. We read that in Hebrews 12:18-21. "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more; (For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.)" But YOU are NOT come to this mountain that burns, that shakes, that quakes; this mount of trumpets and voices. YOU are not come there. The children of Israel did: they were come there. That was the mountain of the Old Covenant, that was the mountain of comprehension of relationship. And they comprehended that their relationship with God was through Moses, and through a letter, and through a distance, and seeing these things at a distance: NOT being able to approach, not being able to touch – NOT – N-O-T – a big NOT! You can NOT come here! That’s the Old Covenant.

The Death Necessary For Glory

95% of Christians today are hearing that in what we call "Church services"! You can NOT come here, but…. One day, when you die. Well, what is THE CROSS all about? It died there. It’s the ONLY death that brings you to Glory; it’s the only death that brings you to resurrection. If it’s all just bound up in a physical death, we might as well go out and shoot everybody – and "go to glory!" You say don’t be silly. Well – don’t be ignorant! If it’s bound up with physical death, where does that leave The Cross? It’s HIS death, HIS burial. We looked at this – how did we get into Christ? You are baptized into HIS death: you don’t get there by having your head cut off! No, it’s by HIS death – baptized into His death. That’s the death necessary for Glory, because you are raised up in the power of HIS resurrection. You are raised up in union with HIM. He’s your Life. That’s GLORY, that’s relationship! That’s what the Old Covenant teaches. I’m just showing you one side of the coin and the other.

Romans 6:3-5 – Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

Ye Are Not Come

So in Hebrews the writer says ye are not come to that mount. That’s where Moses brought Israel; but a greater than Moses has come. Hebrews 3:5,6, "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after: But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. You have come from the relationship that the servant declared, to the relationship that THE SON has brought. No - not by might, not by my effort or your effort. No – by My Spirit saith the Lord. By The Son: this is what The Son has done, but let’s not adopt a view of Salvation that denies what The Son has done, and become enemies of The Cross. Let’s not do that. Let’s not say we can’t approach it. That’s blasphemy! That’s denying Salvation! Look at Verse 22 of Hebrews 12: "But ye are come to Mount Zion."

Philippians 3:18,19 – (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Ephesians 2:13,18 – But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Ye ARE Come

You are not "on your way…" but ye ARE COME to Mount Zion. Zion in the Old Covenant is always a type and shadow of that ultimate relationship that God intends to have with His people. "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation." (Psalm 132:13) You are come to Mount Zion. How? IN CHRIST! Hebrews 12:22-24, "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." And as you read this chapter it brings you to an unshakeable, unmovable kingdom. Verse 28, " Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." This is what we have come to. Now whether we are walking in the comprehension of that, or whether we’re here dwelling in Zion and still ‘waiting to go there’ in our heart is because of our understanding. Whether we’re there in comprehension may be in question, but the REALITY of it can not be in question. The scripture is too clear on that. The Spirit of God moves only toward THAT reality.

Denying God’s People

And I’m just telling you that there are too many Christians today who are living in a comprehension of Salvation that is based upon one of the five offerings. (See Leviticus 1-4) Now while Christ certainly fulfils that as an offering for sin, but all the rest is embraced as well. In the Old Covenant you couldn’t pick out which offering you wanted. No, there’s a Divine order: you had to offer everyone of them. You can’t just pick out one of them and apply it to the Salvation that we have. It doesn’t work like that. That’s the reason Christians are frustrated, confused, prideful, bigoted, self centered, fearful – and worse of all, their whole view of Salvation is a fantasy! Books are written on the fantasy – pulpits preach it – fantasy land! Denying God’s people substance, denying God’s people the Glory. That’s what the Old Covenant did: ‘Go down there and build a wall around the bottom of this mountain so they can’t come up here; because if they touch it they are going to die. If an animal touches it, they are going to die.’ Why? Because this dispensation can’t bring you here! There’s only ONE death, burial and resurrection that is going to bring you here.

2 Timothy 3:5 – Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

John 1:29 – The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Don’t touch this mountain! God has to be true to Himself. He has to be true to His own types and shadows. He has to be true to His own Covenant, and He could not let them approach in any other way than in the Old Covenant. Why? Because the mediator of the New is not yet come. God has to be faithful in that way. He has to be faithful to His own Covenant. In this dispensation they can not come up here. Under this Covenant they cannot come here. Moses could not stay there – could he? Nor could He see the fulness while he was there because it wasn’t the Mount of the fulness! It was the mountain of reflection. Think of the moon: it is a reflection of the sun. It proves that the sun is there, but it is not the sun. It is a reflection of the sun, and it is a fading reflection at that!

Hebrews 8:1,8 – Now of the things we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Exodus 33:20,22,23 – And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Two Covenants

So in the scripture, Old Covenant Israel is typed as the moon. So the woman in Revelation is the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. It is the New Covenant because Paul says it is in the book of Galatians. He deals with two sons and two Covenants and he says that Hagar and Ishmael is one Covenant, and he says that Sarah and Isaac spoke of another Covenant. He said that Hagar and Ishmael spoke of the Israel that now is – Old Covenant Jerusalem; but that Sarah and Isaac pointed to the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all. Two Covenants. And so in the book of the Revelation you see the symbolism in this picture. You see the one Covenant, the shining glory and clothed upon, is the Son Himself. Christ Himself is the center and glory of this understanding, of this Covenant. And this Covenant stands upon the moon because that is the lesser glory; that’s the lesser Covenant, and there is a greater glory. We are born in this New Covenant. This Old Covenant is a reflective glory. The New Covenant is not a reflective glory; it is a manifest glory - Christ’s union with you: that glory, that relationship is evidently expressed – manifested – out from. It is a Divine nature. There was no Divine nature in the Old Covenant. They just killed animals – that’s no Divine nature! Divine nature is of the New. The Divine character is the substance of the New. It is the Spirit; and The Spirit is the substance, the nature, the character of The New.

Revelation 12:1,2 – And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Galatians 4:22,24-26 – For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free-woman.

A Manifest Glory

Paul says, "Who hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3:6) It is a manifest glory, it is a manifest relationship: it comes out from you. It was not so with Moses, not with Israel either – that was a reflection. What burdens my heart so much is that most Christians today still have a reflective glory – it comes and it goes. We reflect it when we are sitting in a building that we call "church". What happens to it when you are "down in the trenches"; in your every day life? There isn’t anything to reflect there! You either manifest it, or it doesn’t exist! ‘Well, I just can’t be around those people. I just can’t work with people like that.’ What does that have to do with anything? If that doesn’t reflect God’s glory why don’t you just MANIFEST God’s glory there – it’s in you!

See, our whole mind is on a Salvation that gets us out – getting out. But our Salvation is not fulfilled in getting out, but "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." (Exodus 15:17) Jesus said, "…I will receive you unto myself…" and "… you will know I am in my Father, you are in Me, and I am in you…" and "…we make our abode in them." (John 14:6,20,23) That’s what the scripture says, but only the Spirit of God can show us that.

Holy Garments

So in coming from the glory of Moses to the glory of Christ, we must see that one is a VEILED GLORY and the other has no veil. The face of Moses was veiled: it is not so with Christ. Now, Exodus 28:2. This is speaking of the glory of the Priesthood; Aaron, his son. "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty." Hold that and look at Galatians 3:27. We’re talking about Holy garments, acceptable unto the Lord, garments for glory and for beauty. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now go to Colossians 3:9 and 10. This is another epistle that just opens this up a little, but Paul is saying the same thing in every epistle. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Do you see the progression here? Neither Jew nor Greek; baptized into Christ, which is baptized into His death; raised up in the fulness of His Life – that’s your clothing! It’s for glory and for beauty: In Christ where all are one. Now Paul goes on, and in this epistle he describes the one: "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." We are talking about clothing here. Do you understand that the Priests in type were clothed upon with Jesus Christ, and it was for their glory and their beauty? Because Who is the glory and the beauty? JESUS CHRIST! Who is the glory of God, Who is the beauty of God? It is CHRIST! Who is our glory, our beauty? CHRIST!

Without being clothed upon with Him you are naked! You have no covering, you have no glory and you have no beauty. I know we think we are beautiful – but no – no glory, no beauty. We sing songs about the "white robes" that we are going to wear. Don’t we understand that the white robe is CHRIST? It’s His righteousness! It’s not a choir robe that God has hanging up in a closet beyond the Milky Way. It is the righteousness of Christ – "to be clothed upon with HIM." The Old Covenant could only speak of it. But In Christ you are come face to face with it!

Clothing is Christ

2 Corinthians 5:1. Here we’re still talking about the same thing. It’s a different epistle, but still the same Truth. The clothing in type of the High Priest was Christ. We’re talking now about the Priesthood and the believer: clothed upon with the glory and the beauty of Christ. But now switch it over and it’s the same story with the Tabernacle. The clothing of the Tabernacle was Christ. The Glory of God that filled the Tabernacle was Christ. Paul is using the same analogy here. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Notice "we have"; not ‘we’re going to get’. Now we have to understand that what Paul is referring to here is what he’s been referring to since this letter began. The house, the earthly house of this Tabernacle is referring directly to the house of Old Covenant Israel with which there was a great battle going on for a period of the Apostles, a period of 40 years. That Tabernacle was still claiming to be the House of God when in fact, God was raising up His House. But the first house was killing the other House, was persecuting this other House, and the children of God which were His Tabernacle were being persecuted by those who said they were The Tabernacle of God every single day. Paul himself did that – every single day.

Acts 22:4 – And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

Acts 26:10,11 – Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

A New Tabernacle

And yet Paul understood that the thing was passing away. It was vanishing away: it was being folded up and being put away. Accordingly as it was destroyed at The Cross, it was on its way vanishing, and by the Resurrection in Christ the new was coming forth. So he speaks to the believers, many of which came out of Old Covenant Jewry – they were Jews. These are the ones to whom he said: ‘No, you no longer are a Jew, no longer a Gentile; but One New Man, One Tabernacle of God. Do you not understand that you are the Temple of the Living God? You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.’ This is what Paul is preaching to them. In the light of that he says, ‘I’m telling you that " If this earthly house…(the one that Jesus said tear it down, and I will raise it up in three days) if this earthly house were dissolved, we have a house of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Where was that said under the Old Covenant? As far back as Exodus 15:17, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established."

Hebrews 1:11,12 – They shall perish; but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

Hebrews 8:13 – In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

John 2:19 – Jesus answered, and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

1 Corinthians 6:19 – What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2 Corinthians 6:16 – And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

To Be Clothed Upon

And Paul is telling them if this whole system falls down, disappears and goes away – we are NOT left without a house! We are not left "bodiless". He goes on to explain this. Verse 2, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." There is only one thing in the whole New Testament and Old Testament too, with which we are clothed – and that’s CHRIST HIMSELF IN GLORY AND IN BEAUTY. It’s Christ Himself! We are desiring to be clothed upon with a House which is from heaven. That is, not the earthly, but the heavenly; not the temporal, but the eternal. And why? Verse 3, "If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." So Paul in relation to this says, "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." (Philippians 3:9,10) It’s the same thing that he is saying here – to be clothed upon; not to be found naked.

Found Naked

See, the stripping away of The Cross left those who were not in Christ without a House, without a Tabernacle. Why? Because The Cross did away with it! Oh, they stumbled along and kept it going for 40 years after that, but it was an exercise in futility, because it was gone. Jesus said destroy it, and I will raise up another! HE DID THAT AT THE CROSS! That happened, and those who were not in Him, who were not being clothed upon, would be found naked. They would be found embarrassed; they would be found in the flesh, without a house, without a covering. That's what he’s talking about.

We Must Walk in Covenant

We have come from glory to glory. We have come from the glory of the type and the shadow to the glory of the reality – IF we would walk in Covenant; if we would but let the Holy Spirit reveal not the wordS (plural) of the Covenant; but the Person of the Covenant. Because this New Covenant is NOT in words: you are NOT coming to a mount of words. This Covenant is in Person – God revealing His Son in you. We sing that chorus, "Reveal Thy Son in me, Reveal Thy Son in me…" Why? Because everything is bound up with God revealing His Son, opening the eyes of your understanding. We preach out from that understanding, from that revealing, and declare those things are true, hoping that someone may turn to see The Truth as it is in Christ. I’m talking to those of the Household of God, that those who are in Christ may LIVE BY COVENANT, not by an understanding that is alien from the reality of Christ. Too many are living in the imaginations of their own heart. Given the fact that the Old Covenant is done away by The Cross, you can not purely live today by the Old Covenant. Jesus said if you lived purely by Moses you would come to me. But with The Cross, that Old Covenant, that understanding is totally done away. There’s only ONE understanding of God left! That is IN CHRIST JESUS. But actually you are not living by the Old Covenant. If you are not living by the New, neither are you living by the Old. What you are doing is living by imagination – vain imagination only in your heart. Somebody writes a song about it, and you fantasize it, and think it is of God, but it is not so. THE REALITY IS IN CHRIST.

Ephesians 1:17-18 – That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

John 5:46-47 – For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Live By The Spirit

I trust that every heart that reads these words – who is in Christ, will turn their hearts to see Him, and walk in The Covenant, and manifest the understanding – in any situation and everywhere you are. Otherwise reality is not going to be seen. And you can not manifest what God has not revealed in you. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."(Zechariah 4:6) Now if you have been brought there by The Spirit, you must live there by The Spirit. Amen.

Pt. 3 – UNDERSTANDING GLORY

What is The Church?

We are discussing the reality of our being in Christ. You know, I don’t really know how we came up with our present definition of "Church". I think it came probably around the third century: The Catholic Church, The Dark Ages, and then we had the Reformation, but that just brought over a lot of what had been under the Catholics. But along in all of that the idea of searching the scriptures in depth, sharing together, learning Christ, and then becoming a living Witness, an open manifestation of that in the earth was lost. And it was reduced to coming to a building and listening to sermons, and then…. going about your business. And the reality of Christ was replaced with doctrines and dogmas, and dispensational events. And clergy came to be separated from the rest of the Lord’s Body, and we developed a form that is very much reduced to the image of the Beast. The music starts, and we fall down and worship the image!

Daniel 3:5,6 – That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Religion – Not Reality

The Church has taken on an image of its own rather than becoming an expression of Christ in the earth. It has taken to itself a religious image. Most Christians today – whether you like it or not – worship RELIGION: they do not worship CHRIST. They worship the idea of Christ. They worship religion: their whole belief system is bound up in religion rather than reality. But thank God there is an awakening in the hearts of God’s people; and most particularly in the hearts of younger people. Young people have a way of seeing through facades. They have a way of calling "junk" – just that. They have a way of calling black – black; and white – white. They are not just interested to go out and preach religion: they want to go out ministering CHRIST. And it is just a joy to see this awakening, because it didn’t happen in the Reformation. It turned out to be just a series of man-made movements. Now I know those men’s hearts before God: I have a great respect for men like Martin Luther. I have read much of his work, and I know that man had a God-given view of The Cross that went deep into his soul, and caused him to suffer many persecutions on behalf of Christ and Him crucified. I know that, and I know that the movement that he set up was not birthed in the revelation of Christ, so it has become what it is today. It is just another ‘high order’ religion – called Lutherans. It is named for him: those who have worldwide seminars to discuss whether they can have a homosexual priest. That’s the big issue with the religions of the world today!

Revelation 3:1-3 – And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Scriptural Definition of The Church

And we want to fall down, bow down and worship that, or some other form that is just like it, rather than live in the reality of Christ and become in the earth an expression of that reality. That’s how the Church is defined in the scripture. Here is the scriptural definition of the Church. It’s in Ephesians 1:22-23, " … 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." The Church is first of all defined in The Person of Christ. The Church has no definition except in relationship to its Head. If we would just be honest at all, you would have to say that the religious order of this day is not defined in any way by Christ. It isn’t defined by a relationship with Him. Oh, it may have a BELIEF in Him; but that belief is so fragmented that the ‘high order’ churches are yet arguing in their seminars whether there was or was not a virgin birth! My God! They can’t even get past His earthly birth! What do you think they know about His ‘firstborn from among the dead’ reality; His resurrection? Well, we say we’re Pentecostals! Yes, but you come along and worship the same form! Our terminology betrays our understanding in Christ. Oh, but that you and I would come to know Him, and press in beyond our biases, our bigotry, our doctrinal boundaries. Let those things be rearranged and settled in our hearts through a knowledge of Christ! Set them aside awhile… let them come back again and be grounded in the knowledge of the Lord, and we become a true manifestation of HIM in the earth. That’s The Church!

Matthew 1:21-23 – And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Philippians 3:10 – That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Church Exists By Christ

"… and gave HIM to be head over all things to the church…" Now I pray you can see that the Church is only and ever mentioned in scripture in relation to Christ, because aside from Him, it does NOT exist. It doesn’t exist by revolution, it doesn’t exist by the will of man, by restructuring or organizational structuring, it doesn’t exist by reformation. It exists BY HIM. The Church exists because Christ is the substance. The Head is the substance. "…gave him to be head over all things to the church…" Now here’s the definition. "… the church, which is HIS BODY…" Not the church which is on the corner: The Church which is HIS BODY. How that stood out to me! And everybody is saying, Well, I’ve got "MY" church. Well, if you’ve got it: it isn’t worth having! ‘Well, that’s a private thing between me and Jesus.’ Well in the first place it’s not a private thing, and in the second place it’s not between you and Jesus. And in the third place, it’s not ‘yours’!

Colossians 1:17,18 - And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Colossians 2:16,17 – Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

He is The Fulness of His Body

" … the church which is HIS body, the fulness of him…" We’re reading here a definition. Whether we understand that or not, we are reading a definition. The Church is HIS Body, the fulness of HIM. Him – who? Him who fills all in all! What does that mean? In its original setting it means: "The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him, Who is the fulness of His Body" – who fills all in all: the fulness of the corporate whole. Paul said in Colossians 3:11, "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." It’s the same thing. I love the Church, I love The Lord’s Body, I am a servant of The Lord’s Body in that I am a servant of Jesus Christ. You cannot serve Him except you serve His Body. That’s how you serve Him, but I don’t call everything that sets on a corner the Church. I call that which is built upon HIM, as its only foundation – The Church. I have learned not to call a pile of bricks a building. It’s not a building until it comes upon a foundation. I’m not going to argue whether they are bricks or not; there are too many piles of bricks around with some kind of name on top of it called a "church" and they set upon no foundation whatsoever except a man!

Philippians 1:1 – Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.

James 1:1 – James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2 Peter 1:1 – Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11 – For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The Foundation

And I say this because the Lord is seeking to do something in His Body. The Lord is seeking to bring His people together upon One Foundation – not upon organizations, but a foundation. And that foundation has nothing to do with a temporal building. The foundation is CHRIST HIMSELF. He is seeking to draw all in whom He lives together – upon and in Him: that He may have expression in the earth. The Lord is seeking to do that by His Spirit throughout His Body. That’s the only worthwhile thing that is going on on the face of the earth! All these other mundane things that we get involved in to keep shoes on our feet and a shirt on our backs – that’s all well and good; but the gathering together of lively stones upon One Foundation for the expression of The Son of God is the only worthwhile thing that is taking place on the face of the whole earth. You have an opportunity to be part or that, or you have an opportunity to be part of religion. I just pray that the Lord has brought you beyond religion: that you comprehend in your hearts by the Spirit of The Lord the difference. And that you are able to set aside in your heart traditions and doctrines – just set them aside for awhile and let the Lord come to center stage, the forefront. And let relationship be built upon HIM. And these truths will either find their place there or they won’t. They will either find their place there in a greater comprehension of Christ, or they will cease to have any place in you. So let us just set them aside and focus on KNOWING HIM and allowing Him to gather together – in Himself – that which is His, for His expression, for His good pleasure, and for His purpose.

1 Peter 2:5 – Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:20-22 – And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Colossians 2:8 – Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 1:5,11 – Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Reality of Being in Christ

Now I’m talking to you about the Reality of Being in Christ: not the theology of it, but the REALITY of it – living in Christ, and having life no where else. This is so that everything we do becomes an expression of that living, of that Life; and hence, becomes a function of His Body, The Church. This idea that the Church only functions for a few hours on Sunday morning has no validity or basis at all in the scripture – none whatsoever. That came along with all the other traditions and man made doctrines that were hatched up in the Catholic Church during the Dark Ages! All it takes is a little study in history and you will see what I am talking about. It doesn’t take any Divine revelation to find this out: you can go back and see where the condition started. It hasn’t progressed a whole lot since then; in fact, that same Dark Ages religion is still alive and well today. But how many of you know that right in the midst of that – CHRIST HAS HIS CHURCH! Right in the midst of all of it – Christ has HIS Church. He has those who have known, and are coming to know Him.

Philippians 2:15,16 – That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Live Thou In Me

I heard recently from a brother who is in a Christ centered fellowship, and he sent me an Old Gaelic prayer. They were an ancient group of people whose ancestors are the Kelts, Irish Highlanders. The prayer goes along this line:

Oh Jesus Christ, thou Son of God,

My Eternal Self.

Live Thou in me Thy Own Life.

Live Thou in me Thy Own Life,

Oh Jesus Christ, thou Son of God.

And the thing that caught me was "my Eternal Self". This is what Paul said – "Not I, but Christ who liveth in me." (Galatians 2:20) Paul came from the self of Saul to the self of Christ. He came from the self of the human soul, to the self of the Eternal Spirit, and he understood that the center of his being was CHRIST. And without Christ he had no Eternal Being. That was what this prayer says. This was back in the Dark Ages, and I began to rejoice because I have known that in every generation God had somewhere on the face of the earth a people in whom the Truth of Christ was burning. But then to see it in print and to realize that hundreds of years ago there was not only one, but a community of people who had this comprehension of Christ in them was really wonderful!

1 Kings 19:18 – Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Gathered on One Foundation

James 1:1 – James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2 Peter 1:1 – Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

So I encourage you, but please understand one thing: we don’t assemble to "have church"; but rather as His Church, being gathered upon the one foundation, that foundation is to be revealed in you. "I will lay my foundation in Zion." It is the revealing of Christ in you, and you and I begin to be a function of Him. So I am filled up with the reality – the reality of BEING IN CHRIST.

Isaiah 28:16 – Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

1 Peter 2:6 – Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

Glory in the Old Covenant

So we’ll continue. Salvation as it is in Christ is SALVATION UNTO GLORY. Biblical Salvation as it is typed in the Old Covenant is connected with a glory, but here the glory was veiled; it was a passing glory. But both Covenants of God – the Old one and the New one were certified by GLORY. A Covenant that is not bound with glory is not a Covenant given of God. Even the Old Covenant had its glory. We can read that in Exodus 24, 28, 29 and 40. We are talking about Glory as it was displayed in the Old Covenant. God here is still giving Moses instructions concerning the Tabernacle: concerning all of the functions of ministry and the Tabernacle. Do you realize that under the Old Covenant, things functioned around the Tabernacle? The Tabernacle was the center of it. And the Tabernacle was ‘three-fold’ in its appearing – the Outer Court, the Inner Court and the Holy of Holies

Entering Into Glory

And there was a veil in there that separated Israel and the Priesthood from the Glory of that Covenant. That Glory came and went in the Holy of Holies, between the wings of the Cherubim upon the piece of furniture called the Ark of the Covenant. But one time a year the High Priest did go in. So it shows that God’s Covenant, even the Old Covenant brought them into the Glory one time a year. This was signifying and certifying that His Glory was bound up with it – their Salvation. It shows that even Salvation in type and shadow in the Old Covenant had bound up with it a glory. And that Israel, in the Person of their High Priest was able to enter into that Glory, and that signified the end of their year, the end of the spiritual cycle. And then the cycle started all over again. There wasn’t another spiritual cycle; but the same one all over again. So God was showing again and again - the same spiritual cycle, the same Salvation, the same type and shadow that was to be fulfilled in time to come. You and I know that was to be fulfilled with the coming of Christ.

Exodus 25:22 – And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

Leviticus 16:2,12-13,17 – And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark: that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

Salvation is a Daily Life

But do you realize that Salvation as taught in the Old Covenant was a daily life? Their lives functioned around that Tabernacle. The Tabernacle determined where all of them set their tents, where they set their communities; it determined which direction they faced. When they journeyed in the wilderness, the Tabernacle was in the midst of them. It is significant that when they crossed Jordan, the Tabernacle was NOT in the midst, but 2,000 feet in front of them, because God said you haven’t been this way before. The Tabernacle determined the order of their march. This is Old Covenant Israel, but I’m showing you that to them Salvation was not ‘going to Tabernacle on the Sabbath’. Salvation was involved in their daily life – everything they did, they did in and around, and directed by the Tabernacle – everything! Salvation was a DAILY life. That was Old Covenant Salvation. They marched as an expression of Christ, they camped as an expression of Christ, they planted and they harvested as an expression of Christ. Everything was determined by that.

Numbers 2:2,3,17 –Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch. And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nashon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.

Joshua 3:3,4 – And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.

One Life

My God, in the modern version of Christianity today, we don’t even come up to Old Covenant Salvation! We really don’t. We "go to Church", we "have a Church". We’ve got a Church life, and then we’ve got a job life, and we’ve got a man’s life… we’ve got so many lives we can’t keep up with them! Old Covenant Israel just had ONE LIFE: they were Israelites. They were Israelites by Covenant. It meant something to them to be an Israelite. They had an understanding of what an Israelite was; and when they violated that understanding they were excommunicated. We have a whole Church full of Christians who have not the slightest idea what a Christian is! They don’t know what it is to be "born again". They don’t know what it is to be in Christ. They have no concept of what The Church is: Who the Church is. It’s just a place they go – and argue about, and fuss and fight. And unfortunately you know what I am saying is true! We say we need revival, we need to get up in there and liven up the whole thing. No you don’t! You need to trash the whole thing and start over again! What you need to do is get your mind completely out of that whole thing, because it isn’t going to get any better!

Philippians 1:21 – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Matthew 24:1,2 – And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily, I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

Hebrews 10:9 – Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

Not Reform – Renew

That’s what the Reformation was – it didn’t get rid of it. It just tried to make it better. Well, it didn’t make it any better! Christ is still NOT the center of it; it’s still NOT an expression of Him. We traded the Pope for other "high" officials. The Anglican Church instead of the Pope has the Archbishop of Canterbury – you tell me what the difference is! We say we need to get it all ‘stirred up for God’. No, we need to just junk it! We need to say, ‘God, take this whole image out of my heart, and teach me what it means to be in Christ. I know that I love God, but I confess that I am as ignorant as a fence post! The only thing that I do know is that I love God. I don’t know what it means to be "in Christ." I don’t know how to function as the Church. I stumble around most of the time not knowing what I am doing, where I am, or why I’m there. We just need to be honest, folks. Quit trying to put on the façade and keep up the form, and say I don’t know anything! I am as dumb as Isaiah when he saw You; I’m as dumbfounded as Jeremiah was when he saw You. Oh God, let me come to the same devastation that Paul did when he saw You, and declared all of his education, all of his knowledge in Judaism was not simply a filthy rag – but dung!

Isaiah 6:5 – Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

Jeremiah 1:6 – Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

Philippians 3:7,8 – But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

Paul’s cry was that I may come to know the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. You and I need to come to that. We need to have the Covenant revealed in us – so we can live as Israelites; so we will live as the Body of Christ; so that our very job will become a function of that union. We need the revelation of Jesus Christ. We need to come upon one Foundation, the Foundation that is revealed in you, the Foundation that is laid in you, the Foundation that is Christ Himself.

1 Corinthians 3:11 – For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

We Need To Know Him

W need to be honest in our hearts and confess our ignorance and our need to know Him. Until we get there we can stumble about and talk about Kingdom and Being in Christ, but in our mind we just make it another form: in our mind we just make it another doctrine. We need to say, ‘God, give me the REALITY.’ I say that all the time when I pray. I tell God I don’t even know what a fellowship of believers, or a fellowship of Christ is. I’m as ignorant as a stump, and except you reveal Your Son in me, I have no concept of what to do, or how to do it. Because everything that is true in Christ is built upon a relationship. You can’t legislate relationship. You can’t sit down and work out ten steps in an administrational chart to make it work. A relationship with brothers and sisters has to be based upon a relationship with Christ being the very thing that binds us together, and then we share one to another. And I’m just saying that except God reveals His Son, I don’t know anything about that.

Relationship

This has to be true in our organizations. We don’t bring the Church together – we just serve it. I serve it in relationship. How do you serve it? I serve the men and women that are bound up together in it. I serve the Lord’s Body. My desire for it is that it becomes an expression of Christ, a manifestation of Him, and from it that the Truth – the Truth that is in Christ may flow. But there’s no way you can promote that: there’s no way you can plan that because it flows out of relationship. That’s like planning to love somebody: how do you plan to love somebody? If it doesn’t flow out of relationship it doesn’t work! But when it flows out from relationship all kinds of things happen. And if you had a plan to do it, it would have just been mechanical. We are talking about the reality – Of Being in Christ

Salvation Unto Glory

Exodus 29:43, "And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory." The very one thing that set the Tabernacle aside was the presence of God – The Glory. It wasn’t set aside because it looked different; it wasn’t set aside because it was made better. What sanctified it, what set it aside, what made it other than a common tent was the Glory of God. What certified it as The House of God was the Glory of God. What I’m showing you is that Salvation as God defined it in the Old Covenant was not complete without glory. How have we in our modern day thinking come up with a Salvation without glory? How did we make glory a location or something other than relationship? How did we ever separate Glory from our Salvation? If you did that in the Old Covenant, the judgment of God came upon you immediately. How did we do that and get away with it? Well, we didn’t get away with it! We incurred the wrath and judgment of God and the whole form that is called "Church" is as dead as a doornail! It’s full of sin, it’s full of despicable stuff. Why? Because it separated itself from glory: it made glory a land where we are going someday. It separated itself from glory: it separated itself from the Person: it separated itself from the reality. They claim to "teach" a reality. We’re not supposed to "teach" a reality; we’re supposed to exhibit a reality, we’re supposed to manifest a reality. We’re supposed to express a reality, not just teach that there is one.

Revelation 22:19 – And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Colossians 3:17 – Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14 – Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

3 John 3,4 – For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

The One to Come…. Has Come!

The Old Covenant taught there was One to come. That’s what the Old Covenant did: it said there’s One to come…. there’s One to come. But if we claim to be in the New Covenant then we have to say that IT HAS COME, because if it hasn’t come, then the New Covenant hasn’t come. You can’t say I’m a New Covenant Christian and deny everything that is bound up in the New Covenant – and yet we do. ‘I’m a New Covenant Christian, I believe in this and that… and one day it’s going to come.’ But the new Covenant says IT HAS COME. That’s what NEW Covenant means. The Old Covenant says it was coming "one day". The difference between the Old and the New is the New says "it has come – it has come IN CHRIST!" It has come in the reality of Christ. It is part of your Salvation! We fail to comprehend that your Bible is in fact divided by Two Covenants, and everything in your Bible is defined by His relationship to one or the other of those Covenants.

Ephesians 1:3 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

2 Peter 1:3 – According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

Hebrews 8:7,13 – For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

Hebrews 10:9 – Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

Defined in Christ

We try to define ourselves by humanity. No, you have to find yourself defined in relation to Christ because that’s the only TRUE definition. Your true definition doesn’t go back to the roots of your forefathers. No – our true definition is determined by our relationship to Christ. New Covenant – New comprehension. I stay awake at night because of this – I cry, I am burdened. Now I’m not sad, but I’m burdened for God’s people – that they would walk in the reality of Christ. It is the reality of the place where I live, and to me joy is not defined by circumstances on earth, but by the reality of relationship with Christ. And there is NO circumstance that can or has or ever will separate me from that relationship. Nothing can touch that relationship. People can live or people can die, but that relationship is Eternal. And circumstances can come and go, but that relationship remains the same, and you deal with those things out from that relationship. You may be cast down… but you are not in that relationship forsaken. You may be persecuted, but you are not in that relationship distressed.

Romans 8:38,39 – For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:8,9 – We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

Definition in the New Covenant

Hallelujah! I’m talking about the reality of Being in Christ. I’m talking about finding your definition in the New Covenant; because you are defined in one of them. You are defined because God has defined you in one or the other Covenant. You are either in the Old comprehension of God, or in the New comprehension of God – one of the two. You are there in one of them! You are living there, and it is determining everything. It is determining how you think, what you do, your values – it determines everything. People are looking for a land of endless joy… well, those who are finding the REALITY of the New Covenant have already found it – and are living in it!

I spoke to a brother who was in one of my sessions, and he asked a question. We had been talking about Salvation Unto Glory, and he was asking about some scripture verses. And I said, ‘Well, you have to understanding those verses in the light of the New Covenant.’ And he said, ‘Well, I believe everything you said. I always knew it had to be relationship, but somehow in me there is still something that is looking for something "to come". And I told him I have found that country that you are looking for, and I am living in it right now! And he looked at me and he sensed the reality that I was speaking of. Now my point is Our Salvation has to have a REALITY to it. We’ve talked about what’s going to be, rather than expressing the reality that already is in Christ.

Ephesians 5:8 – For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 – Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Promises Fulfilled in Christ

If my Church is setting in the earth doing no more than the Tabernacle did – what’s it all about? If we are just set here to LOOK for glory rather than EXHIBIT that relationship of glory – then what is it all about? What kind of Salvation is that? If you are really hungry for the Lord, and really honest with the Lord you are going to have to face these questions. And you are going to have to come to some conclusions in your heart. Now if you’re not hungry for Him you won’t. You’ll just sit back and wait for that to come ‘some day’. But if you’re honest with the Lord, you can’t. That’s why Paul couldn’t remain under the Old Covenant – he was honest with God. He knew the Old Covenant, and he had gone to the lengths of the Old Covenant. He realized that the Old Covenant had promised something that he had come to see. He knew the Old Covenant had made great promises, but there was NO fulfillment there. It brought him to the reality of Christ; it crowded him to the reality of Christ, and he found in Christ EVERYTHING that the Old Covenant promised. And that Holy of Holies promised a lot of things! That sanctuary of the Living God promised a lot of things. Paul found everything the Old Covenant promised to be true in Christ Jesus. When God revealed His Son in Paul He wrote the Covenant in his heart.

Philippians 3:7,8 – But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

2 Corinthians 1:20 – For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Hebrews 8:10,11 – For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Living in New Covenant

Paul began to live in another comprehension, in another understanding. He began to live as a brother who understood that everything God ever said was fulfilled in His Son, and was anxious to declare that with everyone! He wanted every Israelite to see that. Unfortunately all would not see that, and not only would they not see that; they wanted to kill Paul for trying to tell them about that. They got a little hostile with him! Because he got a little bold in his declaration! Paul said ‘I don’t know why you people are still dragging up your sacrifices to this rebuilt structure over here. God has given ONE sacrifice, and YOU are His Temple.’ Paul got bold with them. Paul made their sacrifices null and void, and made their Temple a house of ill repute because they were now – after Christ had come and died and rose again – they were committing whoredoms by going there. That’s the reason he told the Church I want to present you as a chaste VIRGIN to Christ. These people are great whores and harlots riding upon the back of a beast! That’s the way John saw Old Covenant Israel that was trying to exist long after The Cross, and persecuting the Church.

Romans 10:1-4 – Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

Acts 13:45,50 – But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Acts 14:19 – And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposed he had been dead.

Acts 13:46 – Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 – And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Salvation Bound Up With Glory

The Reality of Being in Christ. What I’m saying is that even in the Old Covenant everything was validated, certified by glory. Look at Exodus 40:34, " Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able…" Moses was NOT able… but Christ; "Who hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3:6) Not of the old… but of the New. Moses was not able – the whole thing was restricted. "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." This was the history of Israel with the cloud: The Voice of The Lord speaking out of the cloud; the Glory of the Lord being associated with the cloud – all of that was in types and shadow. That’s what Israel knew. Do you know then why when Jesus in the gospels, when He dealt with His coming, His coming in the Resurrection, His coming out from among the dead, His coming through the Cross – His death, burial and resurrection; why He associated Himself with the cloud, and with glory and with power? He was telling them I AM the Glory of your cloud! I AM the Voice coming out of that glory. It is ME, The Son of Man. When I come forth – and He did that in the Resurrection, in the power of His resurrection. Paul said he lived in the power of the resurrection. But that whole understanding has been lost to the Church, so the Church is looking for ANOTHER cloud, and ANOTHER glory.

Philippians 3:10 – That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Matthew 24:30 – And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 26:64 – Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Mark 14:62 – And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Revelation 1:7 – Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Not More Words – Living Word

Please – just read your Bible, just stay in the scripture. Just understand that the New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old one, and that the substance of the New Covenant is not more words, but CHRIST HIMSELF. He is talking to Israel. In the Gospels, He’s been talking for 3 ½ years to nobody but Israel because Daniel had said he will confirm the Covenant with His own people: with Israel for 3 ½ years. And He did that! " He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:11,12) And that is right to this day: that is true. But He was talking to Israel; so how would He talk other than in clouds, and glory and fire and smoke? That was how their Tabernacle and their Covenant was certified to be of God. Well, He’s saying ‘I AM the True Tabernacle, and I come in clouds. I come in Glory. I come in Power!’ We must understand that. He was simply showing Himself to be what their types and shadows pointed to.

Colossians 2:16,17 – Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Daniel 9:27 – And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

He Came

But well meaning Christians today, without any real comprehension of the New Covenant read that and misunderstand the whole concept, and they start looking for a cloud – that is yet to come! You’ll have to look a long time … because it’s already come! Our Life is NOW IN CHRIST JESUS! He came in the cloud, He came in the Glory, He came in the power of His Resurrection! It was just typology and symbolism that He dealt with, showing Israel that it is ME! I AM The Son of Man! Ezekiel had already seen that. Ezekiel’s book is full of the Son of Man coming in glory, the Son of Man coming in power, The Son of Man coming into His Tabernacle. Ezekiel is full of that. That’s what it is all about. If we could just receive that and say in His coming in His death, burial and resurrection He fulfilled this Glory that filled The Tabernacle and this cloud. He came in that, and He gathered His own unto Himself from the very ends of the heavens. And He did – He gathered to Himself those who would receive Him. And He is still gathering them unto Himself!

Ezekiel 6:2 – Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.

Ezekiel 8:6 – He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

Ezekiel 43:1-5 – Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar: and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.

Matthew 24:27,28,31 – For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Salvation is Relationship with Christ

Our Salvation is unto Glory because it is unto Jesus Christ. Our Salvation is not unto a place: it is unto a Person. Our Salvation is a relationship with Christ. If you don’t believe anything else I’ve said, please believe this: your Salvation is with a Person. Your Salvation is a relationship with Him. It is not bound up with things, places – it’s with Him. That’s what we must come to understand or we’ve just got "religion". You can visualize Moses ------ and ------ Christ. Moses had a body – Old Covenant Israel. Christ has a Body – New Covenant Israel. Old Covenant Israel could not come to Glory because of the veil over its head. But the scripture says specifically the veil is done away IN CHRIST. You and I come to Glory. What does that mean? We come to relationship with Him. The relationship is being One with Him; the relationship of union with Him. The veil of the Old Covenant separated the people of God from the presence of God. Now in Christ there is no veil, there is no separation except what remains in the individual heart that will not turn to see the Lord. I pray we will turn to see Him so the veil shall be TAKEN AWAY. Why? Because in Christ it is DONE AWAY, and you can see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:13-16 – And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

Hebrews 4:14-16 – Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10:19,20 – Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.

2 Corinthians 4:6 – For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

No Veiled Glory Now

Now it is the Covenant of Divine Relationship. You can see the relationship with Him that the Israelites could never see in Moses, because Moses veiled the Glory. The Tabernacle veiled the Glory. But there is no veil on the face of Jesus, and there is no veil in the Tabernacle of His Body. It is done away! Don’t dispensationalize the Glory away from yourself. You do that to your own hurt: you’ll make your Salvation without Glory, and Salvation without relationship of Glory is not Salvation at all! It has nothing to offer. It’s just more promises. But the promises were made in the Old Covenant: they are fulfilled in Christ.

Exodus 34:29,30,33 – And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

2 Corinthians 1:20 – For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

2 Peter 1:19 – We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

Christ Revealed in You

There’s so much more to say. I want to share the Truth with you because the Truth is Life. And you and I are to be a manifestation of that Truth. So I pray that what the Lord desires to do will be done in your hearts, because it first must come into your heart, and then it will be done corporately. The foundation must be laid in your heart. Christ has to be revealed in each of your hearts. And God will reveal His Son in all who turn to see Him, and the veil will be taken away. Believing there is a Jesus is not the same thing as having Him revealed in you. Paul said God separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace for this reason: to reveal His Son in me. There is the revealing of the Son.

John 14:6 – Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Galatians 1:15,16 – But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.

We spoke about Baptism, New Birth and Adoption. The Adoption is the revealing of The Son. In that Covenant, in that revealing of Him we find Life. And we become an expression of that realization. I desire that for the Lord’s Body everywhere; that we function in purpose, that we function in glory. There are so many scriptures regarding this GLORY.

Glory

Luke 2:32 – "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." That’s what Glory is – the glory of thy people Israel. Israel had a glory, and when Simeon was praying here concerning the birth of Christ, he prayed according to the line of the prayer of Zacharias in Luke 1. And the glory of thy people Israel. The glory had come! The glory that was in type and shadow had come. Zacharias had understood that by the spirit of prophecy that came upon him in regard to the birth of his son, John.

Luke 1:13,16,17 – But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

Revelation 19:10 – And I fell at this feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Luke 9:26 – "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels." That’s in His Resurrection. That’s when He came forth in power and in glory. That’s when He fulfilled this glory filling the Temple. That’s when He did it! If He has YET to do that, we have no glory, and we have no Salvation, and we have no Covenant. So we are a people without a Covenant, without Salvation, without a glory – we are worse off than the Old Covenant Jews! But the reality of it is – IT IS COME! Dwelling – Him dwelling in you, and you dwelling in Him. He is The Glory, and the Father waits to reveal The Son of Glory to all who seek Him; that His Body would live and function in the reality of that Glory. The Hebrews writer looked at these words of Jesus coming in His own glory, and in His Father’s and of the holy angels, and said " Ye are come unto Mount Zion." (Hebrews 12:22) He saw the REALITY of being in Christ. And he said, But ye ARE COME to Mount Zion – the place of God’s Glory. The place where God lives in a people and brings a people into relationship with Himself. That’s GLORY.

John 17:22 – "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." The glory you gave Me I HAVE given them. John 17 is full of GLORY!

In every case, "GLORY", whether in the Old Covenant or in the New Covenant speaks of RELATIONSHIP. It is a relationship that Moses could NOT fully enter into, nor could he full represent it. He could only reflect it. But it is a relationship that Christ gives us complete access to so that we don’t reflect the glory: we become expressions of THAT GLORY. And there’s a great deal of difference in that.

Ephesians 2:18 – For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

1 Peter 2:9 – But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Philippians 2:15 – That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

May the Lord bring you upon that One Foundation. Let The Lord do the Work: that it not be disturbed or torn down, but that it be built strong upon that Foundation, and that we become throughout the world a manifestation of Him. Don’t waste your time doing anything else! Amen.