The Greatest Story in the World

Once upon a time, there were two beings all alone by themselves, all the way into past eternity. And that's a long time. And in their great wisdom, power, and glory, they devised the most daring, challenging, and creative plan ever that could have been devised. Nothing could ever come closer to its awesomeness, to its enormity, to its attention, to detail, and perfect in execution, showing his wisdom and power. Today, brethren, I want to highlight the importance of the first fruits of God's Holy Spirit in this greatest story, this great mystery of what he wills to do and will do. In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10, we read that by mutual agreement, they decided to bring many sons to glory. And yes, many sons into his family. But have you noticed that the focus is in glory, many sons and daughters to glory. It is more than just a family. It is a glorious family with glorious children. And as we heard in the sermon, just like the Father, that the Father can see himself reflected in them through Christ. And so they devised this plan, which would require a number of stages or steps. The first stage was a physical stage. The creation, as we read in Genesis 1, verse 26 and 27, of man and woman in his image, in their image and in their likeness. But the ultimate goal is the spiritual image and likeness in glory. And for that plan to be successful, it was absolutely required to have those future sons of God and daughters of God. It was absolutely required to have free moral agency. Because otherwise they'll just be robots, and God is not a robot. It required that we would have the ability to choose and to learn from those decisions. And so we read in Genesis 2, verse 9, that Adam and Eve had an opportunity to choose. And we all have opportunities to choose, as we read in Deuteronomy 30, are set before you, life and death, choose life. And so they had an opportunity to choose between the tree of life, symbolizing the free gift of God's Holy Spirit, which revealed spiritual knowledge of what is good and what's evil. And it required Adam and Eve to trust in God that God knows better what is right and what is wrong for our own good. So choose life. But they also had the opportunity to choose for themselves to search for knowledge and make their own decisions of what is right and what is wrong. Symbolizing, therefore, man's self-developed knowledge of good and evil based on human reasoning, based on human reasoning apart from God. There's nothing wrong with human reasoning, but there's a lot wrong with human reasoning when he's apart from God. And so that intellectual search for knowledge, for Gnosticism in a sense, for what appears right to man, and for man to decide or woman to decide what is right and wrong apart from God's Holy Spirit, it yielded what could be called the tree of death. Yes, it's the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but it's the self-proclaimed knowledge apart from God. And the outcome of that is suffering, great suffering, suffering for the whole of mankind and ultimately death.

You see, Free Moral Agency meant that man and woman have to learn to choose the right from the wrong. And man and woman will have the power to do the right.

And that's what we always called godly righteous character. But, put it another way, we have the power to grow with the help of the Helper, with the help of God's Holy Spirit, we have the power to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, which is nothing else than saying we have the power to grow in godly character. Which you always said that. But that ability to have free moral agency would certainly be a day that man and woman would choose something wrong, which is sin. You know it. You can teach your children everything the right way, but you know that one day or another, you know and you know and you know that you know that one day they'll do something wrong. And you just hope and pray there will not be something so badly wrong that will damage them for the whole life. Because sometimes you can do things wrong just once and destroys your whole life into the future. So young people, be careful. Don't make one silly bad, real bad mistake because it could damage you for the whole life.

So God knew that man and woman would sooner or later do something wrong and put it in another word, words. God knew that man and woman would sooner or later sin. And the wages of sin is death. Romans 6 verse 23. Indeed, death is the final end result of sin. There is a process that goes through that of suffering before death. You see, so the wages of sin is suffering and the ultimate end result is death. And that's what God told Adam and Eve. You see, the story doesn't change. That's what God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 verse 17. If you eat of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.

But before that, you know, they would be suffering. They were suffering and then ended up in death. And every human being has died so far because we all have sinned except for Christ, but he was killed. He was murdered. And add to it, you get an additional catalyst into this pot, which is Satan. And he accelerates the process. It's like when you have two chemicals and you put one chemical, you join another one, and it's a catalyst, and suddenly you get a chemical reaction.

It's just accelerated. And so God's plan, these two beings, they have this plan which in our little human wisdom, it would appear that it was the end of the plan because he wants to create children in his image and in his likeness, in their image and their likeness, more accurately stated. But they would sin, and therefore they would die. But they knew that would happen. And therefore they devised in that plan the need of a Savior. So one of the two eternal beings, one of the two eternal God beings, because they were of the God kind or the form of God, would have to die.

And we read that in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 through 8. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 through 8. Let's turn there. Philippians chapter 2, and it says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God. Christ was of the God kind, was in the form of God. Do not consider it robbery to be equal with God. It was not an insult or identity theft to say that he was equal with God. He was in the form of God. He was a God being. But it made himself, when these two eternal beings talked about Christ, volunteered, and he said, I will do it.

I will give up eternal life. I will empty myself and I'll become a human being. It's like you saying, I'm going to stop being a human being and I'm going to be a tiny little ant. He did it voluntarily. What a mind that is. What a mind that is. And so he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a born servant.

You and I are servants, are human beings, and coming in the likeness of man. He was in the form of God and now came in the likeness of man. And then furthermore, you read in verse 8, he humbled himself to the very point of dying, of being murdered. Let me ask you a question. If you were in crushed shoes, would you think that's fair? Okay. What did he do wrong? For eternity and as a human being, what did he do wrong? But he humbled himself for us. He suffered and died for you and I. You see, this was all prepared and pre-planned, and they knew that this would have to happen.

You read in Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 when Christ is giving a parable there in Matthew 25 verse 34. Matthew 25 at the end of this parable, Matthew 25 verse 34, where he talks about Christ is going to come and judge the nations. And then he says to the ones in his right hand, come blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This was pre-planned. And then if we read in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9, he talks about our calling.

And he says, as saved as and called us with a holy calling. Your calling to be in the church now today is a holy calling, not according to what you and I have done. Many times you wonder, what am I? Am I special than the others? No, I'm not. Nor are we. None of us is special. But he says, but according to God's purpose and grace, grace which was given to us in Christ, before time began he planned there would be some called first.

First fruits. Some would be called first. It's a holy calling to be the first. In Revelation 13 verse 8, it also talking about Christ the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, when they decided to execute this plan, they knew that Christ was condemned to have to come to earth and to die for us for the success of this plan to be realized. You see, so God in his great master plan, he devised the plan of creation for seven days. Yes, physically for seven days.

And the seventh day is the Sabbath. But spiritually for seven millennial days. And the first six thousand years, the first six millennial days, it was given to man to labor, to work hard, to learn by experience. So that at the end of these six thousand years, man could never say, I could have resolved the problems if you'd given me enough time. Well, you've had plenty time. And you will do every little thing that's wrong, that's possible in a book to the point that man has to be rescued because we will mess it up so much.

And we'll keep as human beings have to knock our head against the wall so many times that one day you say, man, it actually hurts the head heating against the wall. It's about time I stopped heating against the wall.

You see, we've got to learn a spiritual lesson, an eternal lesson. And indeed, now, in these last days, we are in an accelerated path to ultimate destruction. There's no questions about it. But the seventh day is around the corner. Really, it's in the next quote-unquote, the next couple of seconds, you know, it's just around the corner. And so the Sabbath rest to come, because there remains a Sabbath rest to the people of God. That Sabbath rest is still to come.

That's why the four last holy days, trumpets, atonement, first day of the feast, and eighth day, are the only four in Leviticus 23 that are identified as Sabbath rests. You probably never read that, but it's there. So not that the others are not Sabbaths, but those point to the Sabbath rest to come, to the Millennial rest to come. You see, God is in control of this, absolutely in control. He can accelerate it, and he can slow it down. He can accelerate any dirt by allowing Satan to tempt Adam and Eve, so get to scandalous and get things going.

But he can also slow it down by bringing a flood, and then, as we read in Genesis 7, and then confuse the languages in Bible, as we read in Genesis 11, he can slow it down. He's in control. He's in absolute control to achieve his plan within his time. He can also restrain, or stop restraining, the mystery of lawlessness, as we read in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7 and 8. And that mystery of lawlessness will be destroyed at Christ's Second Coming. And so he's got the control, as we read in Acts 1, verse 7, Acts 1, verse 7, when Christ told the disciples, at the end of his 40 days of being with them, as was coming into towards Pentecost, he said, we read that in Acts 1, verse 4, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.

And then a little bit later, in verse 7, he says, because they asked him, oh, is that when you're going to come and restore the kingdom? He says, it is not for you to know, in verse 7. Times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. God is in control of this time. And at his time, when it's the right time, he will act. But you and I know that the time is ripe. For that first harvest, the time is ripe.

You see, this plan of God is a mysterious plan for mankind. Why? Because mankind does not keep God's holy days. Mankind puts away God's holy days and brings in some other pagan holy days that confuse mankind. And so this plan is a mystery to man. God's holy days' plan is in its seasons. God's holy days always fall in their seasons.

It's seasons because of the spiritual intent and meaning of his holy days. And so this plan required first Christ's suffering and death. The Passover. Because we all sinned and we all have made wrong decisions. Then, as we read in Leviticus 23 verse 11, Leviticus 23 verse 11, it required Jesus Christ to be accepted on our behalf. Leviticus 23 verse 11.

And he says, he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. The day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And B, and B underline that. Note 12. It is not symbolic of Christ's resurrection. The wave sheaf is not symbolic of Christ's resurrection. Full stop! Because Christ resurrected on the Sabbath, and this is the day after the Sabbath. Christ did not resurrect on Sunday. This was the day that he was accepted on our behalf as our high priest. And that is tied, yes, it is tied, to be after the resurrection.

And it's tied to be after the Passover, because his resurrection was three days and three nights. And then he was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath. And that was at the very next morning, the very first daily offering, probably around about nine o'clock in the morning, when that wave sheaf was waved. And in John 14 verse 6, it says very clearly, John 14 verse 6, it says, I am the way. Let's look at that, John 14 verse 6.

He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, the eternal life. Christ is the way to eternal life. His words are truth. And no one gets to the Father except through Christ. And that's why we read a little later in verse 15, also of John 14, if you love me, keep my commandments. We have to make a commitment immediately after that, after the Passover, after we understand what Christ has done for us to obey His commandments. And that is the symbolism of the Days of Unleavened Bread for seven days, completely obey Him. Mankind, as a whole, as to one day in the future, as to ultimately repent and completely obey God.

And then in verse 16 and 17, still of John 14, he says, And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, as God's Holy Spirit, that God's Holy Spirit may guide you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it not as He is in nor knows in, but you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you.

The Helper from the Father was that promise that we read in Acts 1, the promise from the Father that they had to wait in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, to receive God's Holy Spirit.

Just like the Passover, suffering and death of Christ was completely fulfilled when Christ died, suffered and died. He's not going to do it a second time. It's completely fulfilled. Likewise, the acceptance of Christ in our behalf, represented by the wave sheaf, as our high priest, was completely fulfilled. It was tied by a specific period of time to the very next daily offering, following His resurrection the previous day. Likewise, the giving of the promise of the Father, the pouring of God's Holy Spirit on the apostles, which is the ultimate meaning of Pentecost, the giving of God's Holy Spirit, was completely fulfilled by being tied to the wave shift by account of exactly 50 days. In Leviticus 23 verse 15 through 17, Leviticus 23 verse 15 through 17, it says, "...you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the way of offering. Seven Sabbaths shall be completed." Seven full weeks. Seven Sabbaths. You start on a Sunday, the first day of the week. You go all the way to the Sabbath, one week. Seven Sabbaths, seven full weeks, shall be completed. And you count 50 to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Every time I read this is so plain. I can't understand how we got it wrong sometime in the past. It is so clear. Then you shall offer a new grand offering. And so it is that we are to count. And then we say, "...and you shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tents of Ephah, and they shall be fine flower, and they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord." The two loaves are baked with leaven. What is leaven? Symbolically. It's sin. Baked with leaven. You and I still sin. If you say you have no sin, you're a liar. That's what we read in John. We are baked with leaven.

So it is not symbolic of the resurrection. Just like the wave sheaf is not symbolic of Christ's resurrection, it is symbolic that we, in our prayers, still baked with sin, can have access to God's throne because we've received God's Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father.

Paul in Romans chapter 7 explains it, maybe in a slightly different way. Romans chapter 7.

Verse 15, for what I'm doing, I do not understand. For what I will do, that I do not practice. But I hate that I do it. It's not his practice, but he slips up occasionally. Sometimes he's got the wrong thought, or he says the wrong thing, and he's got to repent. Because he says, a little later, he says, I delight in the law of God. But in verse 23, he says very clearly, I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Paul was saying he's baked with leaven in this physical life. You and I are baked with leaven. You take a loaf of bread, you can't take a little grain of leaven out of that loaf of bread. You cannot take it. It's baked together.

O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, Christ will deliver us at the resurrection, because this corruption will inherit incorruptibility at the resurrection. You see, in the meantime, you and I, as the two loves, whatever the two loves mean, whether it's Old Testament, New Testament, whatever it is, whether it means kings and priests, whatever it may mean, the two loves, we have access to God's throne. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read from verse 19.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, brethren, you and I have boldness to enter today into the holiest. That is, to God's very throne in heaven. You and I are being waved, baked with leaven, to God's throne. You and I can enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, the new and living way, which was consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.

The old way, only the high priest could go in to the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement, once a year after he cleansed himself, to fulfill that role.

So let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And the water is God's Holy Spirit. You read in John 7, 37-39, the living water which represents God's Holy Spirit. And so that's what happened on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, the Greek word is sumplero, which means was completely fulfilled. The day of Pentecost was completely fulfilled. There is no further fulfillment of the meaning of Pentecost. The meaning is full. You see, it is the feast of the harvest, as we read in Exodus 23, 16. But if you read carefully, it's carefully worded. It's the harvest that is sown in the field. And then there's the feast of ingathering, when you will ingather later the harvest that has been sown. You see, the spiritual meaning is that some are called first. Some are called first. First.

Receiving God's Holy Spirit first, but only resurrected to spirit beings at Christ's coming. And that is the first resurrection at the time of the end. The remaining of mankind will be called later, and will receive God's Holy Spirit at the second resurrection. That's why it reads in James chapter 1 verse 40. James chapter 1 verse 18. James chapter 1 verse 18. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. We brought forth, in the King James version, says we are begotten. Begotten. And we now are a kind of firstfruits. The kind is that we are the firstfruits of the spirit, because we call now. We'll be resurrected later. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, it talks about the role of God's Holy Spirit. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. 2 He elects according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit. The role of God's Holy Spirit is to sanctify us for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

And then he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again a second time to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inerrantess incorruptible. We'll be changed to incorruptibility. And he says, Reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation to be received, salvation ready to be revealed in the lost time. Revealed in the lost time. In 1 John chapter 1, 1 John chapter 3, verse 1, it says, Beloved, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know them. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We now are a kind of first fruits, has not been revealed yet what we shall be. But we will know when He is revealed, when Christ comes, we shall be like Him and glory like Him. In Ephesians chapter 1, starting to read in verse 3, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. You and I will be blessed with every spiritual blessing. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, God's plan chose to have first fruits, some that will be called first. And then He continues, He chose us before the foundation of the world, and so therefore we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons. He is predestined us to adoption, heorthesia, which also could be translated sonship with our understanding. I believe it would be a better translation. As sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, according to the pleasure of the Father's will that we are going to be like His Son. To the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted by the beloved. We are accepted by the beloved. We are accepted by Jesus Christ.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the reaches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will. Mankind does not understand this mystery. According to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and both which are on earth. In the dispensation of time, at the right time, at the time of the end, when Christ comes back, in Him we shall obtain an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. This is God's will. It's pre-planned. It's His promise that we who first trusted, verse 12, in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is a guarantee of our inheritance and to the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Brethren, God's got a great plan for us. We are being strengthened by His Spirit. Look at it in chapter 3, verse 14. It says, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ, mad well in your hearts through your faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to exceedingly abundantly above all, that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the Church of Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever. Amen. So be it. Brethren, this is an amazing plan and what God is doing through His Spirit and He's going to make us His children. And that's why in chapter 4 verse 1 says, I therefore, the prison of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling which you were called. Brethren, God is not abandoning you. I know some of you have terrible trials. God is not abandoning you. God will make sure you'll make it through.

God promises He will heal you. He will. We have no doubt. We have absolute faith. Yes, we're going to walk through the shadow of death, but God will heal us. He works with us and will bring us through. That is the calling in which you're called. And therefore, it says, therefore endeavoring, it says in verse 3, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And then later on He says, that's why we got ministers. And so that we may all come to the unity, you read that in verse 13, of the faith. Till we all come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In other words, we ought to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that we become a perfect measure to the measure of the statute of the fullness of Christ. God's got a great plan for you and I, and this is because of the Father's will. We will have the attributes of mind and heart, and God will see us in Him through the power of His Spirit. He is, through His Spirit, sanctifying us, changing us, making us like Him. Mankind does not understand this plan.

It's a mystery, but God, through His Spirit, is revealing it to us. And the Spirit of God teaches us wonderful things to become more like Him. It fills us with the fruit of His Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. He fills us up. What a blessing we have! As we obey God, God gives us more of His Spirit. Acts 5 verse 32, God gives His Spirit to those that obey Him. So this power of God is with us. And that is the meaning of Pentecost. The day in God's plan of salvation that commemorates the giving of His power so that we have the helper to help us overcome. As it was read in the sermonette in Romans 8, let's look at Romans 8 verse 19. Romans 8 verse 19.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. The whole of mankind eagerly waits till you and I will be revealed as children of God. Of course we are children of God now, but not what we shall be like at resurrection. And then we read a bit further in verse 23. Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit. We have the first fruits of the Spirit. That's the meaning of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given. And we have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves ground within ourselves eagerly waiting for the sonship, the eothesean, the redemption of the body, when we will not be biked with leaven anymore. We were saved in the sub, and God's Spirit helps us. As we read in verse 26, it helps us in our weakness. It helps us even to pray when you and I don't know what to pray. And then it says in verse 29 and 30, of whom he foreknew, he also predestined, and that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. And whoever we predestined, he also called. Whom he called, he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. It's a done deal. It's a done deal. You will be glorified as children of God. It is better story than the Garden of Eden, because it'll be the very kingdom of God, the sons of God, glorified. We understand this because we have and we keep God's laws and his festivals. And brethren, this is the greatest story in the whole world. But it's not a fairy story. It's true, and it's guaranteed. You and I will be glorified, provided you and I don't walk away from it. May God bless you, mightily, with his Spirit of joy and peace and love.