Being One With God

Roger Tointon—November 18, 2023

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Being One with God should be no surprise. That's what God has called us to be. Not only us, but every other human being who has ever been born. But as we know so well, each in their own order!

1-Corinthians 1—I'm going to spend a little time there. This is nothing new to us. But in the things that I want to go through, I think maybe you'll find it interesting.

When we think of 1-Cor. 1, we say, 'Oh yes, I need to be reminded that I'm nobody,' Isn't that the first thing that comes to mind? Well, that's right, we're going to find we are nobody! But we're also going to go over why God brings it up, and what He's going to do with us as a result of who we are, especially who we were before God called us.

Paul asks the question: 1-Corinthians 1:20: "Where are the wise?.…" We're going to find out we're not very wise!

• Where are the wise?
• What do we understand now?
• What are we seeing in such a vivid way in the world?

All of those men out there, the elite of this world; those who virtually control all the money, they virtually have all of the power:

• because of money
• because of who they are
• because of how long their families, a few families, have planned what they are going to do in the near future

So, they think they are the wise! But as it will turn out, it's very, very different.

"…Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world?" (v 20).

He certainly has, and He's going to drive that point home in a very, very powerful way. We can't even imagine entirely how that is going to be.

Verse 24: "But to those who are called…"

All right, Paul brings this up because he's speaking to us. He's speaking to everybody who were called by God the Father from the time of Christ going back to the Father after he paid the supreme price for sin with His own blood. After that, we were called.

We're in that group that started then in the first century after Christ's death, but we are now down near the other end of that period of time.

So, we were called by God! What does that mean?

Paul is speaking to us. We realize that we have been called. We can remember that so succinctly. I hope we all can. I know I can remember vividly. I don't remember the exact date, but it was in July 1965. When God opened my mind and my ears that night, I knew something had happened. Then within two weeks, I really got a dose of hearing with the ears things that I had never had a clue of.

I hope that some of the rest of you had that experience, because it was so emphatic. When something like that happens and God is involved, you're going to remember it.

• What does that facilitate?
• Aren't we to be overcoming until the end?
• Aren't we to be so committed that we will never consider turning back from what God personally is offering us?

As we're going to see right here, He also is going to use us!

This isn't just about giving us a cushy place to live forever. A lot of us were raised as Protestants. We talk about the Protestants, and sometimes we probably browbeat them in a way we shouldn't, because we were one of them; we were as blind as they are.

Maybe some of us thought about things and said, 'That doesn't make sense.' Well, it didn't make sense, the things that we were being taught. Were we able to go to God, to go to Christ and worship Him in Truth? No!

As Christ says, it always starts the process with us. It starts the process with every other human being called in this age. Because Christ said:

John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father, Who sent Me, draws him…"

That means to draw us by the power of His Holy Spirit! We do not yet have it. But He draws us and opens our ears and we begin to hear and then we begin to see with our eyes.

That's the way it works. That's the way for it to continue like good seed planted on good ground. What does it do? You add a little water and it's going to grow! It's amazing!

Now we're just coming into the rainy season, hopefully. I say that hopefully because I live in California and we know what drought is. But thankfully last winter we got some rain.

So. we know we're called; it's not just the Israelites who are called, it's everybody in the selection!

• When God calls, what is He doing? He is selecting!
• Did somebody just put a bunch of names in a hat, and when God decided He needed to call somebody else and put them into judgment, which we are in, then He's going to pull a name out?
• What would that be? That would be at random!

God didn't do that; this is a personal thing with God. He knew us!

1-Corinthians 1:26: "For you see your calling… [we do when we think back] …brethren, that there are not many who are wise according to the flesh…"

We have a lot of people out there. I've brought them up. I'll be bringing them up:

• they think they're wise
• they think they are all powerful

For a very brief time, they do have great power and they are going to carry out their plan!

They want to take over the world, we know, and they are going to literally do it. That's mind boggling to a little country boy growing up in Kansas on the flatlands, around farms and animals and common ordinary people.

I mean, if somebody would have brought that up to me back when I was in high school or even college that they're going to take over the world. I would have thought, 'What are you talking about? You're crazy.'

Well, it's right here in the Word of God; but I was still blind, I couldn't see, I couldn't understand, and that was the case with every one of us!

"…there are not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are powerful…." (v 26).

Who is it that thinks they are so powerful? It's the cabal. It's those that have the plan and are implementing the plan to take over the world. They think they're that powerful.

"…not many who are highborn among you" (v 26)—who are called!

Have you checked your pedigree lately? Oh yeah, the Tointon pedigree. I'm sure that that goes back to somebody very powerful, it must! But I'll guarantee you one thing, you've never heard the name Tointon before you met me or heard of me. You never heard the name. That's how mighty and how powerful my pedigree is!

Verse 28: "And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen—even the things that are counted as nothing…"

Who's God calling? These are the kinds of people He is calling!

Verse 27: "Rather, God has chosen…" He not only calls us, but He has chosen us for a very important job!

He didn't call us just to make us happy. Yes, He promised to make us happy. But that's not why He called us. There's something else, and we're going to see the first part of it. The first part of it here in a moment.

He has chosen the foolish of the world so that He might put to shame those who are wise and powerful and all of that that they think they are.

He has "…chosen the foolish things of the world, so that He might put to shame those who are wise… [all that they think they are] …and God has chosen… [He's the One Who is going to do it] …the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things" (v 27).

No doubt about that! He's going to bring them down and rub their nose right in the dirt and the dung. He's going to make sure that they get a message! God has chosen the weak things; we are weak in many, many ways!

What is our biggest frustration now that we have been called and in the Church of God for several decades? That we cannot walk more perfectly with God!Isn't that a frustration to you?

I know that a lot of you out there go through a lot of things, and you've been drugged this way and you've been drugged that way. When you realize what you have done, it can be very discouraging.

But then at that point, we have to get closer to God so that we can proceed to come into absolute synchronization and being one with God! That's what God wants, and we're going to see that in a very personal way as we proceed. So, here we are, He's chosen us:

"…the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things. And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen—even the things that are counted as nothing…" (vs 27-28).

We know for sure one thing, no matter how well we have done with being 'so doing' in life, after being called, that's what Christ wants.

He says, I will look to that person who is so doing! Well, that so doing is a lot of things, but one of them is being one with God! Another thing is that we have to know God and love God in our heart, absolutely like He says in the first commandment!

What does He say? We have to love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and Luke says even all of our physical strength; living life with that strength, having to be dedicated to being one with God! That's the point of being one with God.

Verse 28: "And the lowborn of the world, and the despised has God chosen—even the things that are counted as nothing in order that He might bring to nothing the things that are; so that no flesh might glory in His presence" (vs 28-29),

He is going to eliminate all nations because Christ is going to establish the Kingdom of God. Christ is going to establish that!

• What does Scripture show us?
• What is the reward of the faithful?

It's to be there with God and with Christ! We have that, and we can hold on to that when we get discouraged.

Here is the main overall reason why He is calling us, and why He is going to use us to bring those high and mighty down low and put them to shame, so that in the overall working of God's Plan for mankind, no flesh can stand up and say, 'God, thank You that I'm here and thank You for considering me because I have earned it.'

• Can mankind really say that?
• All things come from God, don't they? All things!

No man should glory before God in the wrong way. Mainly, we can only look at God and be thankful. That's what we have to do.

I want to go to Ephesians briefly because it's a starting point. It's connected to John 6 and Paul brings out some points.

Ephesians 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing..." What has He done? He's:

• opened our eyes
• opened our ears
• shown us His Word

What does Christ say that His Word is? It is spirit, literally spirit!

That's why we are able to communicate with God through His Word, because He is talking back to us and showing us Who He is and what He wants. But it is also life! What is that?

It's because IF we enter the Word of God in communication with God the Father and with Christ, it will lead us to eternal life! That's the point.

Verse 4: "According as He has personally chosen us for Himself…"

He chose us for His own purposes! Not because we were so great or so good looking or so robust.

"…He has personally chosen us for Himself before the foundation of the world..." (v 4).

That is in the plan that He and Christ developed and agreed upon. They agreed upon all parts of it.

One part of that was that He was going to call some first before all of the other people that have ever been born, lived, and died. That's billions of people; we do not know the number. But He called us first for some things He wants us to do.

"…in order that we might be Holy and blameless before Him in love" (v 4). That's what we have to do now!

As I said before, we are in a time of judgment. What is judgment for? It's to get us ready to be able to be with Christ and work with all of the rest of people toward salvation.

Verse 5: "Having predestinated us for sonship to Himself through Jesus Christ…"

That is His will; He's working that out. He's working that out in us right now in this time of judgment.

We've been talking about how God is going to use us; how personally He is in our lives. He entered our lives for His own purpose, but He did it personally.

If we're going to become one with God, don't you think we need to know God personally in the same way?

John 1—maybe this will help us understand how we should be one with God! This is going to say an awful lot about how Christ and God are one together.

They are literally in sync and in agreement! Christ isn't a robot. He did everything the Father told Him to do when He came here below. But He's not a robot.

There two words you could write down—was and with—because those two words, they're the little helper words to communicate with the other words. They're very succinct in the Greek. Fred has told us for a long time that the Greek is a very specific language.

John 1:1: In the beginning…"

Of course, there was no beginning for Christ and God, no beginning, no end. So, we're talking about the beginning of the implementation of the Plan of God. That's what we're talking about.

"…was the Word and the Word was with God..." (v 1).

Now that term was there means a literal state of being; it simply was; He existed! He's reality! That's what I like to call it. I think maybe the one who put together some of this—John—was thinking that the Word was reality!

"…and the Word was with God…" (v 1).

Now, that word with is very significant in understanding the nature of God, Who God is, Who Christ is.

How many in the world know the answer to that? I would say it is a very, very small number! I have no idea how many do, but it's a small number.

If we take and break down this word with in the Greek, there are three things I'm going to point out. It means:

• with, but as distinct from

The Word was with God, but He was over here; succinct from, distinctly different from.

• in direction, it means toward or face-to-face

You have God here, you have God there, and They're facing each other in communication. What do you come up with One God? Yet, so many people have in the past!

Ken Westby used to have his one God seminar every spring, and there'd be all kinds of 'want-to-bes' go and join him in that conference. They would debate, discuss, and so forth and try to be intellectual. All they were doing was making a fool of themselves.

• it's implying intimate and close intercommunication

• Do you suppose that you have God and you have Christ and they're both God and they have existed for eternity?
• What kind of communication do you think they have had?

I mean, it blows the mind! We can't begin to go there, but that is how personally God looks at Christ and Christ looks to God—very, very personally!

If we're going to know Them and be one with Them, we have to know Them in the same way. That's why I bring it up.

John 17—we go over this every Passover time, because we in the Church of God like to go through the teaching of Christ that He had with the apostles toward the end of His time on earth as a physical human being.

He knew He had all these things He wanted to instruct them on so that after He was gone and the Holy Spirit came, they would be prepared to begin the literal Church of God, the New Testament Church, the spiritual Church. It wasn't just a physical people like under the Old Covenant.

John 17:2: "Since You [the Father]…" This is Christ's prayer to the Father! This was the day He was going to die. It was a nighttime portion, and It was Christ's darkest hour.

You can read Matthew, Mark or Luke's account of how Christ felt that night after the Passover, after keeping the Old Covenant Passover as instructed. He had to do that before He introduced the New Covenant. He was under the Old Covenant here below, as He was a human on this earth. He was under that Old Covenant and He kept it. He kept that Passover every year.

Now He was going to pay the supreme price and go back to the Father! So he says:

"…glorify Your own Son, so that Your Son may also glorify You" (v 2). He knew that!

He gave this prayer what did He do? (I use Mark's account) He went out there and He got on His knees by Himself and He beseeched God the Father, His heavenly Father—Who is also our heavenly Father—but He was Christ's heavenly Father then.

So he says, 'Father, if possible, if possible, that this cup be taken from Me, please.' But right away He said, 'Your will, not My will!' That's how personal it was. But it shows it was His darkest hour. We're going to see He put that all of that behind Him and was focused forward.

He begins to give a bit of a report to the Father; He says:

Verse 4: "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work that You gave Me to do."

What was that? That was the work that He had to do and was given to do when He came here below as a human being to pay the supreme price for sin. He finished that.

Now He has a lot more work. Look at the Millennium when He establishes the Kingdom of God here below. He's got a lot more work! But up to this time, he says, 'I have done it, Father. I've done what you told me. Now we can go forward.'

He says, v 5: "And now, Father, glorify Me with Your own self, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed."

All right, you 'one Godders,' how about that? Put that together with John 1:1? He existed with God from eternity; we know that. But I'm stressing that we need to understand personally the relationship of the Father and the Son.

Verse 6: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me..."

He's speaking of the apostles and He had been intimate with them for three years and He had taught them what they needed to know. But He's focused on them.

Verse 20: "I do not pray for these only… [the apostles] …but also for those who shall believe… [and all that that word means] …in Me through their word. that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, in order that the world may believe that You did send Me" (vs 20-21).

He says, I have manifested Your name to these men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, Father.

Verse 6: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your Word"—speaking of the apostles and brethren, showing how this applies to us as well!

We have to also say what He said of the apostles. We have to keep God's Word. We can do that IF we seek deep conviction, seek to be one with God!

Verse 10: "All Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world…" (vs 10-11).

He was, but He had put behind what He was asking a few moments before. He says, 'Father, let's see this thing through.'

"…but these are in the world…" (v 11). He was focused in upon the apostles!

"…and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one, even as We are one" (v 11).

You see why I wanted to cover that. That's what He wants of us here at the end of the age. He wants us to be at-one with Him! He says in one place, 'My Word has not gone out of my mouth in vain.' That's His mindset!

IF that does not come, IF we do not come to fruition and prove to be worthy to be chosen by Christ, whose fault is it? It's not Christ's! It's not the Father's! IF we don't make it, there's only one person to blame: that is us! Yes, you can say Satan!

• What does God say? We have to overcome him!
• What did Christ have to overcome? He had to overcome Satan before He could begin His ministry, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights. He did! AND we must also!

IF we're going to be one with Christ and with God, Blessed be Paul; I know He'll have a great place in the Kingdom, but look how much he has taught us!

Ephesians 3:13: "So then, I beseech you not to faint at my tribulations for you…"

Paul says to forget about that. 'I did that willingly; I did it for you.'

Verse 16: "That He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man"—that God gave us when He called us and we responded!

He gave us an earnest of His Spirit! We don't know how much or how little—I suppose either way—except we know He did give it to us. He was not going to leave us unable to go forward and do all of the things throughout the Word of God that He says we should be doing.

He gave us the Spirit because it had to be that way. Yes, it's by faith, but it's by the Power of God, it doesn't work any other way.

Verse 17: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith"—it must be that way!

Verse 18: "And that being rooted and grounded in love… [of God] the love of God that is personified in Matt. 22:37-38; that we have the great commandment!

Why is he called the great commandment? Because it's essential if we're going to literally become a son of God, we have to be faithful in our part so that we can receive God's love!

Verse 18: "And that being rooted and grounded in love, you may be fully able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height"—of everything God has taught us!

Everything He wants to see in us that we truly can become one with God on that great and glorious day of the first resurrection that we can then see Him and Christ face-to-face.

That is our assignment! God wants that for us, so should we be willing to fight for it!

Scriptural References:

• 1 Corinthians 1:20, 24
• John 6:44
• 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
• Ephesians 1:3-5
• John 1:1
• John 17:2, 4-6, 10-11
• Ephesians 3:13, 16-18

Scripture referenced, not quoted: Matthew 22:37-38

RT:bo/po
Transcribed: 11/22/23

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