If anyone seeks to save his life he will lose it

If any man lose his life for my namesake he will find it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, loved ones. Welcome to another episode of All Things God. I'd like to continue our conversation from yesterday. Yesterday we were talking about religion and the tree of knowledge and the forgiveness of our sins. The forgiveness of our sins is simple. Ask God to forgive us our sins, believing He's going to forgive us. It's just that simple. That is according to James 1 6 or 6 1. Asking and believing. And Romans 10 10. Romans 10 10, if any man or it's with the heart a man believes unto righteousness, it's with the mouth he confesses unto salvation. So the thief on the cross hanging next to Jesus admitted his guilt and wrongdoing, hanging on the cross. He said, I deserve to die for what I've done. He admitted his sin right there. He joined Jesus. There's no debate as to whether or not that man made into heaven that day. He also confessed Christ as his Savior, or he confessed Christ as King, saying, When Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. So he did both. He confessed his sin and he confessed Christ as King. And he confessed before men because he was hanging on a cross. They were surrounded by people who were spectators. The first thief who responded to Jesus' quoting of Psalms 22, which I had told you about, said, If this really you, then get yourself out of this mess and get us out of this mess too. He didn't confess his sin. What he did is he tried to save his own life. The word says, if any man tries to save his life, he will lose it. Anyone who loses his life for my name's sake, he will find it. That's not talking about being a martyr. That's talking about I let go, I lose my life, I follow you. It's talking about surrender. So surrendering to the plan of God. Okay, so we've cleared so when they when let's add religion to this. When you say that at church, you know what they're going to tell you? You've got to be baptized, you gotta repent, you've got to do this, you've got to jump through this hoop, you gotta jump through that hoop, you gotta jump through this hoop, you gotta jump through that hoop, you've got to walk this way, you gotta walk that way, you've got to do this. No. No, you don't. That's religion. That's the tree of knowledge. The tree of knowledge of good and evil will lead you to death. And they want to lead you to death because they don't know God. So get out of the church as quick as you can. They don't know God. Okay, let's go, let's go on to the next point, which was religion leads to death. Religion is the tree of knowledge. When I say tree of knowledge, I'm I'm referring to in the garden were two trees. One was the tree of life, which is, of course, Jesus Christ, who was the firstborn of all creation according to Colossians. That means he's always existed. He's existed since creation. When he answered the Pharisees in John chapter 8, remember I told you when he talked to the Pharisees in 858? When he talked to them, he said, before Abraham was, I am. That means even before Abraham, Jesus was. And so Jesus is the tree of life in the garden. Two trees in the garden. Jesus is the tree of life. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is religion. We make that choice. Both trees were planted squarely in the middle of the garden, right in the middle of the garden, to give us the choice. Because I have told you all along, this entire thing is an equation, a calculation by God. When the enemy rebelled and God kicked a third of the angels out of heaven with him, it created some sort of a ripped. I don't know what. The Lord has not revealed it to me yet. But the same way that when Adam sinned in the garden and it created a ripped in the earth, all of creation came under the curse. Sin and death did not exist until Adam sinned. Where were they? And in order for him to defeat this thing once and for all, he's formed a calculation. And that calculation is creation. And our ability to choose light over darkness is part of that calculation. So there are two trees in the garden. What tree are you going to eat from? Are you going to eat from the tree of life, or are you going to tree eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? I can tell you if you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it's going to have the same result as it did on Adam and Eve. They became ashamed, they were under condemnation, and they died. Because God told the day you eat that tree, son, you're going to die. He ate it anyway. I'm telling you right now that religion is the tree of knowledge. And then as we get further into the word, you get to the book of Revelation. Okay, the book of Revelation is about who? It's about Jesus Christ. It's it's the revelation of Jesus Christ is the name of the book. So what do we see in the revelation of Jesus Christ? We see the exact same two trees. What we see the exact same two trees. I've already told you that the Antichrist is our flesh, and I've told you that Mystery of Babylon is the tree of knowledge. It's religion, I'm sorry, it's religion, which is the tree of knowledge. So when you're reading the book of Revelation, if you understand that it's about the same choice in Genesis, it's about the exact same choice. Are you going to choose light or darkness? That's what the book of Revelation is about. Because the beast is imagery, but it's the beast is oppression. And Mystery Babylon, which is in Revelation 16 and 17, Mystery Babylon is religion. So what is religion? It's the tree of knowledge. So we get all the way into chapter 18. Come out of her my people. Revelation 18, 4. Come out of her my people. Come out of who? Religion. They've been attending church, and they're going to stand before God and they're going to say to him, just like they did in Matthew 7, they said, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do all these great many works in your name? Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Why, I never knew you. You're eating from the wrong tree is what he's saying. You've been eating from the wrong tree, you've been eating from the tree of knowledge, and I never knew you. You could have eaten from the tree of life, but you ate from the tree of knowledge. And listen, since the first century, when Jesus was around, and Paul and Peter and those guys, since those, all of the apostles died horrendous deaths. How did they do that? They didn't do that by eating from the tree of religion, the tree of knowledge. I would, one of the apostles, I think it's Andrew, they actually peeled his flesh from his body. I don't know if you've ever done that. Anything like get a little paper cut in your whining, right? You ever get a paper cut and you're already crying to blues? Okay, so Andrew, they actually peeled his flesh from his body. You can't do that. You can't endure that if you've been eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You can't endure. Yeah, oh, of course, I'm not going to follow Christ. Yeah, stop, stop giving me paper cuts over there. Especially back in those days. Can you imagine how dull the knife was? He probably, even if he didn't die from having all of his organs exposed, he probably would have died from typoid or something, you know, or tetanus. You see what I'm saying? But we can't endure persecution if we're eating from the tree of knowledge. Why? Because we'll just drop our membership card on the way out the door and right in the in the receptacle. Why? Because all I had to do was raise my hand to get it anyway. But if you're eating from the tree of life, if you're eating from that tree, then you are under the discipline of God. That means he's treating you like one of his children. And he disciplines his children. The word says every Sunday he draws close to himself, he disciplines even scourges. Peter's books are about discipline. So if you're eating from the tree of life, you're going to find that you're being disciplined by God. If you're eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you're going to find that you're dressing your flesh up to look like it's righteous, but it's not. You're putting lipstick on a pig. You've heard me say that. So please don't eat from the tree of knowledge. Please stop going to church. Fall on your face at home and ask God to show you Himself. He will. I guarantee you He will. Tell him, I want to eat from the tree of life. I know I've been eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Put that behind me. Forgive me. Forgive me, Lord. No, I want to know you and see what happens. If nothing happens and you decide you're going to go back to the tree of knowledge, then that's between you and God. There's something perishable about either the revelation or the understanding of God. It has to be renewed. Let me give you an example. I've been asking God about this one. He God breadcrumbs me a little bit, not in a bad way. You know, I know all the millennials got their own language and everything, you know, and they got ghosting and and whatever they, you know, I don't even know all of them. There's hundreds and hundreds of these little words that mean something to them. I I don't know any of them. Ghosting's the only way I know because my ex used to do it to me. I mean, listen, I'm an adult. Let's have a conversation. What are you freaking doing? What are you doing? You know, you're acting like you're two years old. Anyway, so um I was telling you about Revelation. So the way the that revelation works for me, when God begins to reveal things to me, is he breadcrumbs me a little bit. And what I mean by that is I'll see a billboard and it'll have like a hell, buy one, get one for you, or best appliances or whatever, you know, Joe's crab shack or whatever. And then that billboard that I just looked at starts ruminating inside of my mind. And I and I start pushing it around a little bit back and forth just to see what is what's behind this sign, what's going on, what's really, what is the true meaning of this thing. And in the process of doing that, then God will lead me down a rabbit hole. Usually in the scripture, oh, go over here and look in this chapter over here. Oh, wow. That seems to make a connection there. Thanks, Lord. And then in the midst of me talking to him about that, he'll give me a revelation. He'll open it up all the way. Remember, Paul said this, we see dimly to the veil. What is the veil? The veil is our flesh. And so even God is difficult to see. And I use a scripture in my book. It's 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4. And it goes like this and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So, and you can see that even embedded in there, who is the image of God, he adds that part at the end. This is Paul writing to the Corinthians. So when we've been told, we read the Bible, when we've been told in Genesis, you are made in the image of God. What image then are we made of? We're made in the image of Christ. He's the image of God. That's why one of the commandments is don't make any grave images. God is saying, I've already got an image. His name is Jesus. And you're going to meet him one day. See what I mean? So it's revelation's like this. It's just like a drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, breadcrumb, breadcrumb, breadcrumb, breadcrumb. And then eventually you see where the loaf of bread's at. Anyway, so the forgiveness of sin works this way. I ask God to forgive me of my sin. I believe he's going to forgive me. And he does. He erases the sin. Now, does that mean that now I can just go do whatever I want? No. It means that I should have learned a valuable lesson in that. It cost him something to do that. It didn't cost me anything. It cost him something. He had to hang on the cross in order to forgive me for that sin. That's why salvation belongs to the Lord. I didn't hang on the cross. He did. So do I want him to hang on that cross tomorrow so I can keep watching my pornography? Do I want Jesus to hang on the cross tomorrow again so that I can keep doing blow or whatever? No, I don't. Why? Because I'm getting to know him. And once I get to know him, the less I want to hurt his feelings. I don't want to hurt his feelings. I'm in love with him. Then I won't say like they did in Matthew, Lord, Lord, I'm going to say, listen, Lord, I thought I thought we were in love. What are you doing? And he's not going to say, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you if you actually know him. He's only saying that to the people that are practicing religion. Thinking that I made sacrifices to you, how dare you reject me? No, that's not how the kingdom works. I surrender. I surrender and he loves me, teaches me about himself. But I don't got, you know, I don't have to jump through any hoops. And I know that people get offended by me in church a lot because I just talked to my cousin about this yesterday. I said, you know, they just kicked me out of the church, you know. They'd rather not have me say anything about God in front of them. Why? Because I know him. And so it it irritates them. They'd rather punch me in the face than listen to me. And so this is kind of leaning towards the idea of the two witnesses. Do you remember yesterday or the day before I told you about the two witnesses in the last days? The two witnesses are are are left on the face of the earth so that they can proclaim the gospel. And then the beast comes out of the sea and makes war with them and kills them. Then everybody starts sending gifts to each other. Why? Because those guys aren't irritating us anymore with the truth about God. Why? Because it convicts them. It convicts people. And that's if you're being disciplined by God, he is convicting you. Why? Because he wants you to put away that lifestyle. He wants you to follow him. Leave go of everything else, is what he says. Just let go of everything else. Follow me. And we'll we'll get through this thing together. He's like Chuck Norris, right? And so just leave go of all that other stuff and follow me. We're going to get through this thing. I'm in love with you. This is Jesus saying this to us. I'm in love with you. I died for you. But religion has overtaken the church. I would venture to say that every church is filled with a religious pastor. And you might say, well, that's good. No, it's actually not good. Why? Because I just told you that religion is the tree of knowledge. And if you're eating from the tree of knowledge, you're going to die. Now listen, your flesh is going to die anyway, but I'm talking about your spirit, your soul is going to die. And it doesn't have to. God can save your soul. Get out of the church. Is that clear enough? God can save your soul. Get out of the church. You're eating from the wrong tree. Go home and fall on your face before God, and He will rescue you. He's in love with you. He died for you. Okay, that's it for the day. Bye.