Volume 2007/1
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"He
will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner”
(Mat.3:
12)
We
all know that the Lord is coming soon. A
prophecy that was given centuries ago declared that the Lord will not come
until the church is ready. When we say
“the church is to be ready”, what is the Lord waiting for in his church? What is the Lord waiting for?
In Jn.1:12, “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.”
So, in a nutshell, God is reproducing himself. The bible said “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness”. When God created
Adam, God made man in his own image.
Think of it this way for you that have children: your child is your biological image. When you begin to raise this child to become
a full person having your likeness, when he or she behaves the way you want
him/her to behave, then you are making the child in your own image, with your
temperament. That is, the biological
image is one half of it, parenting a child to have the parent’s likeness is the
second half of the image.
The physical structure of man is in the image of God
alright. But beyond that, God wants us
to have his full image in his likes and dislikes. God is reproducing himself. Remember the Lord Jesus addressed the
unbelieving Jews that “If you were Abraham’s children ye will do
the works of Abraham”. (Jn.8:39).
They said “we be not born of fornication, we have one father even God”. But the Lord Jesus told them “ye are of your
father the Devil, and the works of your father ye will do”.
They were biological seed of Abraham, but Christ
called them children of their father the Devil.
You should now understand that when God said he created man in His
image, we have half of the image by being a human being. The second half of the image is to be
conformed to the image of the Son of God, that is, the behavioral aspect of a
man. This is what God has been working
on in you and in me. This is what
apostle Paul was talking about in the book of Hebrews that the Lord Jesus
Christ will bring many more sons to glory.
(Heb 2:10).
So that it will not just be only one begotten son,
Christ is to bring many more sons unto glory. And those that will arrive at the stature of
Christ first are called the first fruits unto God. And God has a number, He
must get this number. In Rev.14:1 it
said 144000 are the first fruits. That
means they arrive at the stature of Christ first.
Now what do we
mean by the stature of Christ? What is
this characteristic of God that will make us to be in the full image of
God? This is what my sermon is about
today. When you are born again, and you
have accepted Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, you have been given power to
become the son of God. You have not
become a son of God yet just because you have been born again. But you have been given power to become
one. “As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God”.
(Jn.1:12). Now that you have
received this power, use this power so that you can become a son of God. A son of God is to have all the attributes
of God – that is the whole gospel—what God intends to get. He is going to harvest this world. He will get the first fruits, and then comes
the general harvest. That is our goal as
believers in Christ, to become the sons of God.
In Ephesians 4:11, apostle Paul said this is the reason why God has put
ministries in the church: “And
he gave some apostles …..for the perfecting of the saints …. Till we all come …
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In other words, God put the ministry gifts in
the church to build the body of believers, to build you and I spiritually so
that we grow to have the knowledge of the son of God; that is, what is a son of God ought to
be? Jesus Christ demonstrated what a son
of God ought to be in power, in character, in word and in deed.
When we say
“son of God”, the bible said “God is Love”.
(1Jn.4:16).
Every time we
mention the stature of Christ, everyone always think of the supernatural power
which the Lord Jesus manifested. “Oh,
whao! Jesus Christ walked upon water!
Oh, whao, Jesus Christ turned water to wine! I want that power also! Oh, whao, Jesus
Christ made the blind to see! I want that power also. Oh, whao, Jesus Christ raised the dead! I want that …! Everybody wants the power, but nobody knows
how to get the power. But this is how to
get the power, it is to become a son of God!
How do you become a son of God?
After you are born again, after you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your
Lord and savior, you have received the power.
Now you are to use the power to grow until you become a son of God.
If you that
read this have not been born again, you must accept Jesus as your Lord and
Savior and receive the Holy Spirit which is the power to help you grow until
you become a son of God.
In 1
Jn.4:16: “We have known and believed the
love that God has to us; God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in
God and God in him”.
This is the image God is talking about, the image of a
love-child: “son of God”, “son of Love”. Someone that is so much loving! The bible said “For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life”. (Jn.
3:16).
Someone may say, “how can you say God is love, yet God
destroyed
We are going
to look at the characteristics of this word “love”, as God sees it, and not as
human beings see it. Because, Many
times, in God’s love and mercy he will allow some things to happen which to us
is evil, yet it will still be in his loving-kindness extended to mankind. The bottom-line of God’s out-stretched arm, or
chastisement is because of his love to mankind.
This is what we are going to analyze.
He wants you and me to become sons of love. Do you want to become a son of God? Do you want to become a son of Love? You may say “what does it mean to be a son of
love? We will go and look at the characters
of Love. God is revealing that this is
what he meant when He said we are to come to the fullness of the stature of
Christ.
As I said above, everybody wants the
supernatural power that Jesus manifested, to raise the dead, to make the blind
to see, to make the lame to walk. But analyze
further, what is the motive behind the raising the dead, opening the blind
eyes? The driving force is Love for
mankind when the Lord Jesus performed these miracles. He had compassion for the sick and afflicted,
and he healed them. Now, what is your own motive for wanting to
have this supernatural power? Check
yourself my brother, my sister that is hearing this! What is your hidden motive for wanting to
have this supernatural power? Could it be somewhat related to the motive of
Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8:18? Most
likely it’s not love for the sick, but perhaps Pride; to show that you have
this power, for filthy gain, or to have your name known that you are the
supernatural miracle worker; God looks at motives, rather than actions. But what God is calling you and me unto is
to come and become a son of God. That
is the only way you can get the power from God. You may say, “I see some people that still
demonstrate some power and they are not in this ‘love’ you are describing?” God will allow some things to happen to
invite people to himself. However, Christ
wants to give his fullness to us. He
wants to do the greater works through us, but he wants us to become like him in
all the attributes of God. And what are
these attributes of God? God is
love! Let’s see what love really is.
This is part one of this sermon series. I
will bring the sermons from different angles to show how God demonstrated his
love for mankind in the old and the new testament. In every action, even in judgment, it’s still
the love of God, loving-kindness he calls it, to make you repent, so that you
do not go into doom or destruction in the end.
Apostle Paul wrote it by the Holy Ghost in 1 Cor. 13,
and said: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
Here, Apostle
Paul says, concerning supernatural power that we all want, though we have it,
without love we are tinkling cymbals.
Why do you want the supernatural power?
You want to be able to raise the dead?
Why? You want to be able to make
the lame to walk! Why? You want to be able to make the blind to
see! Why? Ask yourself that question. Why?
You are a Christian, a believer, born-again, I am talking to you. Sincerely ask yourself this question. What is your motive for wanting that supernatural
power? If your motive can be traced back
to “self”, “self”, “self”, you want some glory out of it, then you know this is
not “love”. But God is Love. No wonder the whole Christian-church has not
demonstrated the power of God any much!
Not even one-quarter of the power Jesus demonstrated since he left. I want
you to know that God wants us to have this power and demonstrate his power and
manifest his glory. But he wants us to
become like him first, to be his sons manifested. This is the generation when he wants the sons
manifested. He must get the first fruits
that will arrive. We have the holiness,
we have all the faith, but we are still lacking in the arena of “love”, loving
one another, and loving God fervently as apostle Peter wrote. (1Pet.1:22).
Why do we not love one another fervently? The reasons can be traced back to one or the
other of these anti-characters of love that we are reading in the first
Corinthians thirteen. You want to be
able to speak in tongues and prophesy perhaps for your own gain. These gifts can begin to boost your ego, your
pride; but Love is not proud. God is
making us to see that this is the stature of the son of God that he is looking
for. And the church must arrive at that
stature before Christ can come. He must
harvest the world.
Think of a farmer who has been watering his field for
crops, now the fruits are green but not ripen.
You will not harvest them yet until they are ripen. The church is at this stage. A lot of fruits all green, not ripen. God will have to send sunshine and rain to
ripen the fruits. A lot of heat from the
sun will make the fruits ripen.
In all
Christ’s sermons, in all his miracles, in all his parables, and in all his patience
at the cross, He demonstrated the Love of the Father to mankind and showed his
love for the father. In John 14:31 the
Lord Jesus said “But that the world may
know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I
do.” Christ laid down his life for
the world in love of the Father. This is
the stature of the Son of God which he calls us to get to: Motivated by “love” in all we do. When the body of Christ manifests this kind
of Love, then the fruits are ripen for harvest.
“And though
I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mystery, and all knowledge; and
though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I
am nothing.”
You should wonder why Apostle Paul put this chapter
here. If you read the earlier chapter 12,
and what apostle Paul had been dealing with the Corinthians about, they were
full of competition: One says I have the gift of prophecy, another may say I am
an apostle-prophet; another may say I am a bigger prophet-pastor! Everybody wanted to be the biggest: My ministry is greater than your ministry! Oh, no, I am an apostle, No, you are a
prophet; No I am a prophet-apostle!
They were competing with one another.
Apostle Paul could read between the lines and saw that the gifts was
beginning to blind-sight the brethren. They
are forgetting something: Love is missing among the brethren. Therefore in the last verse of chapter 12, he
wrote “But covet earnestly the best
gifts, and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” The competition among brethren about
supernatural gifts and talents can easily alienate brethren. Apostle Paul said “let me show you a more
excellent way” – which is “love”.
Even if you have faith to move mountains, if you don’t
have love, you are nothing.
“And though I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor”; this is what many people think is
love! Giving money to charity! He said, you can even do those for show
without the real love. “And though I
give my body to be burned, and have not love”:
Perhaps one may say “I can lay down my life for this fellow”. But do you really love this fellow? Or you just want people to see that you can
do this. He is saying love is deeper
than laying down your life for the other person. Like Apostle Paul wrote, hardly can we find
one who will lay down his life for the other person how much more if that other
person is an enemy. Some people may even
dare to die for a righteous man. But God
commended the love of Christ towards us in that “while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us”. And it was not a
show-off! It is a love coming from the
heart of Christ for the Father. It is
his nature. We have to become that kind
of nature, not a make-believe kind of love, not for show. While we were yet sinners: those men that were nailing Jesus Christ to
the cross, he was dying for them. He was
also feeling the pain they were afflicting upon him. How many of us: if someone slaps your face,
your eyes turn red; can we die for the one that just slaps our face? It’s a nature that Christ has. God is trying to change our nature so that we
may have the nature of love, the nature of Christ. This is what God is looking for! Can you and I be like that? I pray that you that read this will want to
be like Christ so that you can submit to this nature of the Son of God so that
the Holy Ghost can work it out in you, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen!
(…to be continued..)
Bro.
Julius Adewumi
Q &
A
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B Wrote: Bro Julius, God bless u, how is ministry? pls I need answers to the following questions 1.Will the translation of the Saints be bodily and not Spiritual change? 2.What does being caught up to meet the Lord in the cloud and Air mean? Thanks. Dear B, Answers to your questions:1.Will the translation of the Saints be bodily and not Spiritual change? Answer is in 1Cor.15:51: "Behold I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep (i.e. dead), but we shall all be changed".It means we shall not all die bodily, therefore we shall have to be changed bodily.2.What does being caught up to meet the Lord in the cloud and Air mean? Answer is in Acts.1:9: "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." Again "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven". Therefore, if you understand Jesus went up into the sky bodily (a body that gravity had no effect upon, both on water and in the air), we shall be like him as the Lord shall lift us up to meet him in the sky (cloud, air). Note, the physical body of the Lord is not floating around in the sky, neither shall we. He went into another world (spiritual world or heaven), with his body that is now "glorified", and so shall we also be glorified. Amen."And every man that has this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1Jn.3:3) God bless you. Bro. Julius---------------
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heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
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