Salvation in the Healing of the Mind (Sermon Transcript)
Heavenly Father, we thank you for just the blessing of the Sabbath day, a day of rest and relaxation in your Holy Spirit. I know that if we didn't have a Sabbath we'd be working, probably. So I thank you or that you have blessed us with this time and your presence to rejuvenate in your love. Heavenly father, as we pray, of course we're desperate for you and we know you love us and we know you're with us. So we just ask that you would strengthen us in a triple quadruple portion of your spirit; that you would speak through us as we hide behind you and that you would show us what salvation truly is, in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, it's good to see y'all. Good to see you Paul.
Paul I believe is in England and he was just at that Balloon Jam of Blackpool which looked pretty cool. Yeah, so we got a Bible study today. May I ask my wife for a Bible?
Remember that song? Give me the Bible. Yes, thank you very much, I appreciate it. Alright, so today we're going to talk about salvation and salvation in the healing of the mind. Not necessarily salvation: the forgiveness of sins. Though forgiveness and the healing of the mind together make salvation. But forgiveness alone is not salvation.
We got 1 John 4:8, which is where we always start. 1 John 4:8 says “he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” He that agapeth not, knoweth not God, for God is agape. That's a very specific set of love. Psalm 18:30 says that God is perfect and Malachi 3:6 says that God is unchangeable. So this agape love of God is perfect, it's unchangeable.
If you study with us for any reasonable amount of time, you know what agape is, you know what it looks like, and you can see why it is perfect, why it's unchangeable and why it's the principle that makes life possible.
We have three core Bible Study principles that we always go through because these three principles are our filter, as we read scripture, to get to know and understand the truth about who the Father really is.
- Bible study principle number one: God is love; God i agape: perfect self-control, perfectly considering others more important than He considers Himself; perfect in His character that He does not get personally offended by our sins. That's God's love juiced down.
- The second principle we use is that the Life of Christ is the ultimate revelation of the Father. Jesus says in John 14:9 – “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Every method, every character trait, every principle that Jesus lived by is exactly what the Father would have done if the Father was in Christ’s shoes.
- Third principle, Isaiah 28:10 – for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line. A precept is a Biblical principle, and Biblical principle must explain scripture and scripture must explain Biblical principle. If that precept is agape, if that precept is design law, if that precept is the difference between the two trees in the Garden of Eden…Scripture will always explain biblical principle and biblical principle will always explain scripture.
So today we're going to look at the Plan of Salvation. As we do that, we do want to acknowledge and understand that there are variations in the Christian world that explain the Plan of Salvation differently, and we desire to make a separation and we want to focus strictly on the Plan of Salvation revealed in God's love, the life of Christ, and letting scripture explain scripture, right? We have these two principles that hang over scripture as a total: the Tree of Life. The tree of life gives us an specific understanding of scripture, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil gives us another understanding of scripture, right? So we're going to look at Satan's version of Salvation and then we're going to look Christ’s version of Salvation. And what I'm about to say, this is the Satanic version of Salvation.
In Satan's version, salvation is based on the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, a system of reward and punishment: be good to those who are good with blessings; be evil to those who are evil with punishment. In this satanic system, salvation is based on lies and death. That is very important. God is the almighty Creator, who has the authority to proclaim a law and all creation must obey this law. In Satan’s system of salvation, violators of God's law must be punished. The punishment for breaking God's law is death. God is both judge and executor of the death penalty, and to avoid punishment the guilty sinner must receive pardon. All humans are sinners, guilty and condemned to death, and the innocent Son of God came to pay the penalty for the guilty. If a person accepts Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, he will not be punished and he'll be given eternal life. This is a mingling of truth and error. This is Satan's system.
Now, I know the majority of the Christian world is going to say “Brad, you just explained the Plan of Salvation”. I did so according to the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. The Plan of Salvation according to the tree of life or the revelation of Jesus Christ is a completely different Plan of Salvation. When we look at what the Bible says about the Plan of Salvation according to Jesus Christ, we see something completely different. We see that God is sovereign, creator of the entire universe, He is rightful authority over all, but that's not because of his position as God – it's because of his character of Agape. So, God is rightful authority over all because his character of love. Violators of God's law suffer natural consequences, the death, because they violate what makes life possible. And when you understand design law, you see that sin is a violation of design law, and you see that God doesn't punish the sin, punishment comes when you step outside of what makes life possible. That’s very important. So God doesn't have to punish anybody; sin punishes itself when you live a life outside of how God designed things to operate.
God is a physician, He's a restorer. He's a Healer and He alone can heal us from our sin. Forgiveness is only part of the Plan of Salvation, healing from sin is what makes the Plan of Salvation complete. All humans are infected with the sickness of sin in the mind and are subject to death, because sin makes life impossible. And God sent His Son that by His Life and by His death we might learn to trust God and be healed from the sickness of sin. If a person goes to God, who is the great physician, and follows his instructions, He will be healed and never die.
So what we did is we looked at two different plans of Salvation that had two different sources which come from two different trees. The legal view of the Plan of Salvation comes from Satan and the healing view, which comes from the Tree of Life, comes from Jesus. And we want to really make this point clear: that God's ways are not our ways. We need to let God explain scripture - Isaiah 55:8
Isaiah 55:8 says this: “for my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
So as we study salvation, we should keep in mind that God does not think or act the way that mankind does. Man is tainted with a knowledge of sin and that causes the mind to think in specific ways that are motivated by iniquity. God is not tainted that way. So as God reveals the Plan of Salvation to us, He's going to do that through Agape, through Jesus, and through scripture explaining scripture. And as we start to study, we really want to ask this question: What was the problem that caused the Plan of Salvation to be needed? Right? Because how you view the problem is how you view the solution. That’s very important.
How you view the problem will directly influence how you directly view the solution. So what is man's problem? It's obvious. Man's problem is sin. So what is man's solution? It's salvation. So we know the problem is sin and we know the solution is salvation, but we want to really determine how do you view sin, because how you view sin is going to determine how you view the Plan of Salvation.
1 John 3:4 - how we view sin will be how we view salvation.
1 John 3:4 – “whosoever committeth sin violates also the law, for sin is violation of the law.” We know, that's the Ten Commandments, right? So sin is breaking the Ten Commandments. And Romans 6:23 says, “for the wages of sin is death.”
So we know that the wages that sin pays us is death.
Isaiah 59:2 says this: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear you.”
So sin and iniquity separates us from God. And in Jeremiah 2:13, we see what we are separated from.
Jeremiah 2:13 – “for my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the Fountain of Living Water, and have hewed out them cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
So sin, iniquity, separates us from the source of life. This is very important. And we want to remember: how we view sin is how we're going to understand the Plan of Salvation. Is sin limited to breaking the Ten Commandments? The Bible says no. The Bible says that sin is even more than breaking the Ten Commandments.
Romans 14:23 says this: “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he did not eat of faith: For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” So if it's a lack of faith, that is sin. Hebrews 3:12 says, it's the evil heart of unbelief and Jeremiah 17:5 says, cursed is the man that doesn't trust in God; that curse comes from sin. And when we don't believe, when we don't trust and when we don't have faith in God, all of these are also included in the definition of sin. So the problem of sin at its core is a mind that doesn't believe God; it doesn't trust God, it doesn't have faith in God, and the consequences of that mindframe is a lifestyle that acts out in ways that breaks God's laws. That's very important. That's sin in its total is a mind that doesn't believe, doesn't trust, doesn't have faith, which then acts out in ways that breaks God's laws.
How do we view God's law? Because how you view God's law is how you are going to view sin? Do we view God's law as a list of do's and don'ts that if you break them, you're legally guilty to a higher authority? That's what Satan says. Is God's law a list of do's and don'ts, or is God's law a revelation of His character? Principles of agape? Laws designed into the fabric of creation? Laws designed to make life possible?
This is what Jesus says about the law of God. Matthew 22:37. “Jesus said unto them…” I'm gonna go back one. Matthew 22:36. “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
So God's laws are laws of Agape. These things make life possible. And if you have Agape, then you have self-control, and you consider the needs of others more important than you consider your own. And when you apply that to the Ten Commandments, you don't see a list of do's and don'ts. What you see is a revelation of how life is supposed to operate. If you have self control and you consider God more important than you consider yourself, you won’t have other gods. You won't make graven images. You won't take his name in vain. You'll remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.
I know that's different, but this is true. The laws of God are a revelation of agape. And when you have agape, when you have self-control and you consider others more important than you consider yourself, you won't dishonor your parents, you won't kill people, you won't lie to anyone, you won't steal from anyone, you won't commit adultery with anyone and you won't covet or desire what your neighbor has. When you have agape, you'll be happy for what your neighbor has. This is important.
So sin, what is sin? When we look at what sin really is, it's a breaking of design law, right? Those things which make life possible. Sin is a mind that doesn't believe God. It doesn't trust God. It doesn't have faith in God. So if sin is breaking design law, and if sin is a mind that doesn't trust, doesn't believe, doesn't have faith in God… then what does the Plan of Salvation have to be? The Plan of Salvation has to be a restoration back into harmony with how God designed existence to operate. And it has to be a restoration back in the mind where we believe God, we trust God, and we have faith in God. If we view God's law as a list of do's and don'ts, we will view sin as a legal problem in need of a legal solution, and what ends up happening when we view the law as a list of do's and don'ts, sin as a legal problem and we need a lead it a legal solution – Jesus ends up saving us from the wrath of His father. Now that's just the ultimate conclusion of that thought process and we really want to think about that for a second.
Does Jesus save us from His Father? No, Jesus leads us to the Father. Who does Jesus save us from? Jesus saves us from the devil. Jesus saves us from the lies of the devil. Does Jesus make us legally able to stand before an Angry God so He doesn't kill us? Or does Jesus save us from the lies of Satan?
This is critical because we have two trees to view this from. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil says that God loved you before sin. He walked with you in the Garden of Eden and he was good to you. But after sin He wants to kill you, and He's evil enough to kill His own innocent son to pardon the guilty. That's lies of Satan. If we believe salvation through the Tree of Life, will see a God who desires to heal His lost children because they're no longer in harmony with how existence is designed to operate. Very important. And as we look at sin, we want to ask the question: Did sin change God?
Well, Malachi 3:6 says this: “I change not that ye sons of Jacob might not be consumed.” So sin did not change God. Right? Did send change God's law?
Psalm 119:142 says this: “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is the truth.”
So, the law of God is simply a revelation of his righteousness. And that righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, which makes God's law an everlasting law. So, God's law was not changed. Sin did not change God; sin did not change God's law… sin changed the created beings that God made. Very important.
Isaiah 14:12 says this: “How art thou fallen from Heaven o, Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart…” - that's the secret place of the mind – “for thou hast said, in thine heart, I will aascend to Heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit upon the Mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.”
So when Lucifer said in his heart, the secret place of the mind, I will exalt my throne, my government, my law. Now, this is very important because what Satan created was a law of iniquity.
Psalm 94:20 says this about Satan’s law: “Shall the throne of iniquity...” That's Satan's throne, his law, his government. “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frames mischief…” – hurt, evil – “…by the law”.
So, we really want to understand that laws are principles which make reality operate. Very important. God's laws are principles of agape which makes life possible. Satan's laws are principles of iniquity that make life impossible. So when Satan created his law, his iniquity, his throne, he created an alternate set of principles in the mind which would cause a reality to be played out in the actions.
Ezekiel 28:15 – “Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in you.” A new way to perceive life was found in the mind of Lucifer. “Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee, by the multitude of thy merchandise thou has filled the midst of thee with violence and thou Hast sinned. Therefore, I will cast the out of the Mountain of God and I will destroy thee, o covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”
So, Lucifer was perfect in agape. He was perfect in God's principles, his methods and his government, until iniquity was found in him. That's a new principle which causes the life to operate in a specific reality, right? This was found in him and it was a reality of the mind that caused violence. That's very important. That the principles of iniquity caused violence in Lucifer… And the principles of iniquity will cause violence in us as well if we embrace them.
And we want to ask this question which is important: Is forgiveness salvation? No, forgiveness is not salvation. It's a part of it, but it's not the completeness of it. We want to ask this question as well: Will forgiveness make a violent person safe to be around? And the answer to that is no, because forgiveness does not change the sinful iniquitous character which causes violence.
Let's go back to Isaiah 14 and go back a couple verses, and we're going to see God beginning to talk to Satan as the king of Babylon.
Isaiah 14:4 says this: “that thou take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say ‘how has the oppressor ceased! the Golden City ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted, and none hinders. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet: They break forth into singing. Yes, the fir tree rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirred up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought to the grave and the noise of the viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from Heaven, o Lucifer?”
God does this. God will speak to a specific King and He'll begin to actually talk to Lucifer. So in Isaiah 14, God is speaking to Lucifer and He calls him the king of Babylon. The same way in Ezekiel 28, God was speaking to the king of Tyre and then He began to talk to the fallen angel. Same thing happened in Ezekiel 31 when God was talking to Pharaoh, He was really talking to Satan the power behind Pharoah; and He referred to him as the tree which was wicked in the Garden of Eden. This is how God explains things to us. And so Satan, in Isaiah 14, is the king of Babylon. And as we look at Jeremiah 51:9, we're going to see God tried to heal Babylon, but Babylon is not healed.
Jeremiah 51:9 says this – “We would have healed Babylon…” – we would have healed Satan – “…but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country. For her judgment reached unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” God tried to heal Babylon. God tried to healed Satan, but he is not healed because Satan rejected the healing. This is important. Salvation has to be greater than forgiveness.
Because salvation has to change a person on the inside from being violent to nonviolent. From operating on the principles of iniquity and changing them to the principles of righteousness. And as we look at what Jesus begins to say about eternal life and salvation, you're going to notice that he's talking about being born again. He's not referring to healing. John 3:1. Let's read this.
John 3:1. “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, thou Art the teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said, unto him, ‘truly, truly, I say unto you except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
This is important. Jesus did not say you must be forgiven. There's a reason why he didn't say that. Because Jesus already knew that God had already forgiven us. Jesus said, “you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.” What Jesus is doing is he's describing a design law principle, and he wants us to look at the physical reality so that we can know the spiritual truth. The design law of birth tells us that a baby, when brought into existence, receives life from someone else, right? The mother gives life to the baby. This physical reality that Jesus is referring to tells us of a spiritual truth. To have eternal life we must be born again. Or we must be given a new life from somebody else that has eternal life in them. That's why Jesus used the term born again. He's drawing our minds to the things that we can see in Earth so that we can get a greater understanding. We need to be born again. We need to receive a new life. That's not a life of iniquity.
Romans 5:12 says this: “Therefore as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned.”
The life that we received from our parents is a life of iniquity. It's a life that doesn't trust God, it's a life that doesn't believe God, it's life that doesn't have faith in God. For as much as we love our parents and they did the best they could, the life that we received from our parents has the death principal in it, which means we all live lives of iniquity and we all die.
Romans 5:17 – “For by one man's offense, death reigned by one. But much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus. Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto the justification of life.”
The life we receive from Jesus is the life of Agape, its righteousness. We need to be reborn into this life, this life believes God, this life trusts God, this life has faith in God. And this life, which we receive from Jesus, is the life-giving principle of Agape. This makes us born again. This gives us eternal life, because it's the Agape life principle which makes life possible.
Ezekiel 36:25 – “then I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and ye shall do them."
Verse 25 talks about cleaning us from our filthiness. That's iniquity. And it says that we're also clean from our idolatry. So we're clean from our iniquity. That's Satan system. That's what has the death principal in it. This causes us to kill each other with violence, and it says that we’re cleansed from our idolatry. Idolatry simply means our wrong views of God. God does this when He gives us a new heart, a new mind. The mind that God gives us is the spirit of agape. The spirit that God puts inside of us, which renews our hearts and minds, is the spirit of Agape. This makes us born again. This gives us a new life received from somebody else who is righteous, the same way we received a life of iniquity from our parents. When we are born again, when we're healed in our mind, we receive the Life of Christ, which is righteousness, and we're cleansed from our filthiness, we’re cleansed from our idolatry.
Jeremiah 31:33 says this: “but this shall be the Covenant that I make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law on their inward parts and write in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.”
So when God writes his law in our hearts, He's writing His Agape on our minds, bringing us back into harmony with how existence is originally designed to operate. And it says in verse 34, “we shall all know God.” That's so important because when you know God, you have eternal life - John 17:3.
John 17:3 – “And this is eternal life that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.”
For us to know and understand who God is, we need to know that God is agape, so that we can receive the spirit of Agape. Without receiving the spirit of Agape into the mind, we can't comprehend what God is really like. This is why he says, “let me clean you, let me remove your misunderstanding of who I Am from your mind, and I'll give you a new heart. I'll write my law in your mind.”
God is describing the salvation process, and He's saying that once I write my Agape law in your mind, you'll be able to comprehend me. If we don't receive this, then we'll never be able to know God. We’ll never be able to comprehend God. And we’ll never be able to have eternal life. This sounds crazy, but this writing of Agape across the forehead is so important for us to know, understand and comprehend God. This is where life eternal is.
God forgives every sinner. The issue isn't forgiveness of sins. The issue is restoring us back into harmony with how God designed existence to operate.
2 Corinthians 5:19 says this – “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
God does not hold our sins against us. But that forgiveness alone does not change my sinful character. Forgiveness alone will not make a violent person safe to be around. No, forgiveness doesn't alone purge iniquity. Iniquity makes people violent. Iniquity makes people not safe to be around. So forgiveness on its own does not Purge iniquity. This is what purges iniquity: Proverbs 16:6.
Proverbs 16:6 says this – “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. And by the fear of the Lord men depart from Evil.”
That’s so important. “By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.” And I can guarantee you this, that God gave Lucifer mercy and Truth, which would have healed him from his iniquity when it was first found in him. But the king of Babylon is not healed because he rejected the mercy and truth of God which would have healed him. That's a biblical fact. And Satan infects the minds of Adam and his wife with lies about God causing them not to trust God, not to believe God, not to have faith in God. And once the ideas of Satan are embraced in the brain, the mind instantly becomes sick with sin. This is important, because now it's working in a way in which it was not designed to operate.
In the beginning when Adam was created, his mind was designed in righteousness. His mind was wired to express agape: a life-giving principle. Once Satan's lies are embraced and believed our minds become rewired and reshaped and iniquity – a life-taking principle – and the mind becomes sin sick, it becomes selfish, having the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And this iniquity separates us from the spirit of God, which makes life possible. When iniquity is chosen, agape no longer becomes desirable. But in the beginning, when God created man, his mind was wired for agape.
Every sin can always be traced back to a decision to embrace iniquity in the mind, either in Satan's mind or Adam’s and Eve’s mind. And once it hit Adam and his wife's mind, it infected all of humanity. And once iniquity takes the place of agape in the mind, the mind is now wired for selfishness, greed, hatred, jealousy, lying, stealing, adultery, violence, and murder. Iniquity makes these things possible. But when the mind is wired for agape, we have love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, self-control, a teachable spirit – a mind that's wired for agape.
Greed. Hatred. Jealousy. Stealing. Adultery. Violence. Murder. In the mind of agape, these things are impossible. When your mind is wired for agape, it's impossible to have greed, hatred, jealousy, lying, stealing, adultery, violence, and murder. It's impossible. So, salvation is more than just the forgiveness of sins. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that forgiveness of sins isn't part of the Plan of Salvation. But what we need to be saved from is not the vengeance of an angry God who wants to kill me. We need to be saved from Satan's lies which pervert and rewire the mind in iniquity, making life impossible.
So important: What we need to be saved from is Satan's lies which rewire the mind in iniquity making life impossible.
So salvation is healing; it's restoring the mind back into how God originally created the mind to operate. That original design is a mind of Agape.
Isaiah 1:5-6 says this: “Why should you be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores: They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”
So, the head is sick with sin and it infects the entire body. Very important.
Isaiah 53:5 says this, “but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
A common verse, everybody knows it. With his stripes we are healed. It does not say by his stripes we are forgiven. We were forgiven by the father long before Jesus died on the cross. That's a biblical fact. You look at typology. Jesus says, I forgive everybody who's associated with Satan’s system, both the good and the evil. Frankly, I forgave them all long before Jesus died on the cross. But with his stripes we are healed in the mind.
Jeremiah 17:14 – “Heal Me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.”
You and I will be healed. Save me and I will be saved. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. God's ways are not our ways. To God healing and salvation are the exact same thing.
Mark 2:17 – “When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, ‘They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Notice how Jesus compares righteousness to somebody who's not sick. And how He compares a sinner to somebody who needs a doctor. That’s very important. Sinners are people who need a doctor for healing. Sinners are not people who need a judge for punishment. That's so important. Jesus says, sinners need a d octor. Jesus did not say sinners need a judge for punishment.
Matthew 13:15 – “For this people's heart is become dull and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their mind, and should be converted that I should heal them.”
The mind that rejects Jesus’ teaching prevents conversion. It prevents healing. And you'll notice that Jesus says healing, not forgiveness. This is important because Jesus knows that the Father hath already forgiven all of mankind. Jesus knows that we don't need forgiveness. We already have it. Jesus knows mankind needs healing. And I'm not saying that I don't need my sins forgiven. I'm saying the Father hath already forgiven them before I was even born because He loves me. But just because I'm forgiven, I still have a character that needs to be transformed to become in harmony with how God designed existence to operate. In the physical reality always is a revelation of the spiritual truth. That's how God designed this Earth to operate.
Matthew 4:23 – “And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went out through all Syria, and they brought unto him all the sick people that were taken with various diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those who were lunatic and those that had the palsy; and he healed them all.”
This is important. Every healing that Jesus did was a physical reality of a spiritual truth. Jesus was healing. He was saving; He was restoring. To take us out of Satan’s system and restore us back into God's system of agape. When Jesus healed the leper, that was a symbol of Jesus cleansing us of our sin. When Jesus heals the paralyzed, that was a symbol of Jesus strengthening those who are paralyzed in Satan’s system. When Jesus healed the blind, that was a symbol for Jesus healing those blinded by Satan. When Jesus healed the woman who was bowed down, that was a symbol of Jesus healing those in bondage to Satan. When Jesus cast out devils, that was a symbol of Jesus casting out the devils of iniquity to clear the mind to make room for the spirit of agape. A revelation, a fact, the examples are not just referring to physical healing of the body, but rather a spiritual healing and restoration of God taking us out of the bondage of Satan and sin and restoring us back into harmony with how God designed existence to operate.
John 3:12 – “If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?”
Jesus is the Creator. He designed Earth in a specific way. If we don't believe the Creator of how the things of Earth operate, how in the world are we going to believe the spiritual truths that those things are designed to reveal? Jesus into the fabric of creation wove agape into everything. And these things in creation are designed to teach us spiritual truths in such a way that if we believe them, we will understand the mind, principle, and character of the Father in a greater way. And Jesus begins to give us an understanding, and He begins to talk about food – and there's a design law in food. Let's look at it.
John 6:53 says this: “Then said He unto them, ‘truly, truly I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up the last day.’”
Jesus is referring to a design law here. In earthly reality that tells of a heavenly truth: the design law of food. The food we eat becomes the building blocks on a cellular level to keep the human body alive. Jesus is the word of God made flesh. When we consume the words of Jesus, you partake in the truths of God. When you drink the blood of Jesus, you take the life of Jesus into your mind; and the truth of God in the life of Christ becomes the building blocks to the renewed mind and the reshaping of agape. Vastly important.
As our minds are being renewed and restored in the truth of God's agape love, the lies of Satan, which wired our brains in iniquity is destroyed. And as we participate of the truth of God in the life of Christ and believe it, trust it, and have faith in it, we are being reshaped in the mind, rewired in agape. Very, very, very important.
And Jesus points us to the design law of food. And He said, you must eat my flesh, which is a symbol for his words, and you must drink my blood, it's a symbol for His life. When these things permeate our brain, it rewires our brain into agape because they're the building blocks for the mind of agape.
Once we stop believing Satan's lies and start trusting God, believing God. having faith in God, by believing the revelation of Jesus Christ and what He taught us about God, Christ brings the healing of salvation to our mind, giving us the unrestricted Spirit of Agape. There is no limit to the spirit that you can receive except for the capacity that you believe. If you believe that in the Bible there was extra measure of the spirit given to people, and you see that in the life of Elijah and Elisha, you can see God gives extra portion of the spirit. And when you saw that one king slap the ground with the arrows three times, and the prophet says you should have did it seven times… You see God calling us to have a desire for greater and greater capacity. And to the capacity you believe is the capacity that you receive. So we have an unrestricted access to the mind and character of Agape, so that God can bring fallen man back into harmony with how He created us to exist. He designed us to be in a very specific way, so that our brains are wired for agape for eternity.
Titus 3:4 – “But after the kindness and love of God…” – that's the mercy and truth which purges iniquity – “But after the kindness and love of God, our savior toward mankind appeared, not by the works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
That's salvation right there. That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. It's God's goodness and God's love which is our salvation. Remember mercy and truth purge iniquity. And in verse 5, it said by His mercy and the truth in Christ Jesus. That's what purges our iniquity. And we’re washed and cleaned and restored by His Spirit of Agape. This is salvation and God gives this to us abundantly. It says in Titus 3:6 that God gives gives us this “abundantly”. To the measure that you believe is the measure that you receive.
2 Timothy 1:10 – “But now is made known by the appearing of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
When Jesus abolished death, He abolished the lies of Satan and the death principal. That's the mind of iniquity. And it says that “he hath brought to life immortality and light through the gospel.” That's the principle of agape which makes life possible. And Jesus brought that to us through the good news about who the Father truly is. This is how Jesus saves mankind, by destroying the death principle and restoring the life-principle back into humanity. He does this by telling us the truth about God.
Sin didn't change God so that God wanted to kill me. Sin changed us. It violated the design law of what made life possible in my mind. Sin changes God's children making them sick unto death. God heals and restores the sinner. He doesn't kill him. He brings them back into harmony with how God designed existence to operate.
Salvation is in Christ alone because He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the way to the Father; He's the truth of the Father; and He is what the Father designed life off of. This is important. But Jesus is also the way because He's the pattern from which existance is designed from. He's the truth of how agape operates and He's the life that all of us should ask to receive because this is the life of agape.
Jesus is salvation. Only He can heal us; only He can restore us; only He can tell us what God is really like. And if you believe the words of Jesus, if you trust it, if you have faith in it – then you're born again by faith, because the incorruptible seed, which is in you, it will reproduce the fruit of the spirit after its own kind by renewing the mind of agape, through the spirit, and destroying the mind of iniquity. Very important.
The Bible says in 1 John 1:9, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us.”
That's very important. Forgiveness and cleansing is the set Plan of Salvation. We've already been forgiven. Now we need the cleansing, and we cannot have the cleansing unless we confess that there is a problem.
Psalm 51:10 says, “create in me a clean heart.” We need to go to the physician and we need to ask for the cleansing and He will do it, because Jesus says, if you come unto me, there is no way I will turn you away. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. There's rest which is beyond what the carnal mind can imagine in the agape system of God. When we eat the flesh and drink the blood, we're participating in the truths of God, and those truths become the building blocks to the renewed mind of agape. Very important.
Philippians 2:13 says, “it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” But you got to work with God to do that. You got to confess there's a problem. You got to go to him for healing. And then you got to make the decision that this is the life that I want.
Ephesians. 2:8 says, “for by grace you are saved through faith.” By faith. We have to believe that God is doing this in our lives. We have to agree to work with Him. We're not robots. But God is willing to reshape the mind of iniquity back to its original design of agape. If we trust God, if we believe God and we have faith in Him, He will restore us back into how He originally created us to exist. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the beautiful plan of salvation, which is simply restoring and healing us back into your original design. Heavenly Father, we confess we've all sinned and fallen short of your glory. Heal us and create within us a new heart, O God. Heavenly Father, we trust you. We ask that the spirit would come upon us in such a great capacity that we would be shaped in agape and the world would see who You truly are, as we have self-control, as we consider others more important than we consider ourselves, and as we don't get personally offended when people sin against us… we thank you, Lord, for the true that you bless us with on the Sabbath in double, triple, quadruple portion. And as we journey through the rest of the Sabbath, help us to enjoy rest in You, help us to keep our eyes on You, and help us not to let go of Your hand. We thank You, we praise You for Jesus, for Your spirit and Your beautiful truths reshaping our mind. In Jesus name, Amen. I love y'all. God bless you.
- Bradley Mock