Grace Upon Grace—2019

God's calling to perfecting your mind 

Fred Coulter—February 16, 2019

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Greetings, everyone, welcome to Sabbath services! I'm down in the old stomping grounds of Pasadena. I'm very happy to be here and glad to see every one of you.

Let me tell you a true account. It involves me, Michael Heiss and Carl Franklin. By the way, Carl did a paper for us, which we'll pass out. When things were all in an uproar in Pasadena and Dr. Dorothy… He was one of the nicest men that you'd ever want to meet; if there's ever a man you could say who was 'sweet,' he was. He was also very brilliant. He knew at least four languages quite fluently, and was the teacher of Greek at Ambassador College. Because of the political back and forth, two things happened to him:

• they took the Greek class from him and gave it to the infiltrator Lester Grabbe
• they closed down the true theological research project (TRP) and Carl and Michael worked on it

What they were doing was gathering research information on who said what, who wrote what, and what Scriptures did they use. So, this was quite a research project that they were doing. Well, the other infiltrator, Robert Kuhn got that project squashed, because he wanted to introduce the heresy of the 15th Passover and make the true Passover called 'the Lord's Supper,' which he was able to do with GTA, and some Churches of God still do it today.

I was persona-non-grata from 1979 onward, and I had the distinct pleasure of being disfellowshiped three times! But let me tell you what happened when they were closing down the TRP. Michael lost his job, Dr. Dorothy lost his job, and so did Carl Franklin.

So, here they are with all their research that they did very well organized and in notebooks. Carl gave those main notebooks to me. I think Mike was there with us and I told him that none of this research and material that they have done will be in vain. I will make sure that it gets out.

Through the years with Carl and Michael, everything that Christian Biblical Church of God has today, we all had our hands in it. We would not have the Bible, the whole Bible without Michael Heiss. He did a fantastic job in making sure that everything in English was in accord with the Hebrew. I think it was two and a half years he did that.

The one thing when I got those notebooks and was going through them, do you know what was missing? Grace! Grace was rarely mentioned, and in the booklet that it was mentioned in, it had the threat of being thrown into the Lake of Fire. I looked at that and said that's what's wrong with the Church!

As a result of the lack of the lack of grace, the lack of understanding what it was, the Church became very militant. Unless you understand grace and understand what God wants to do with us and for us, you must understand grace!

John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh..."

I'm not going to go through everything about The Lord God and The Most High and God the Father and Jesus Christ. {note sermon series: The Lord God and The Most High}

"...and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father)..." (v 14).

No other human being was created in the same way that Jesus was. We're all begotten with the Spirit of God, but that's not the same as it was with Jesus.

"...full of grace and truth" (v 14). We know that grace is not just the forgiveness of sin. Grace is something entirely different. Grace is our direct relationship with God the Father, through prayer, and having His Spirit. That's the true grace! We'll see how this comes about here. Then he says:

Verse 16: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." Grace is so important that it was doubled. This is the relationship that we have with God.

• What is the difference between 'religion' and being a son or daughter of God in the making?
• What does 'religion' attempt to do? Religion attempts to make people behave in a good way in the society!
• What is it that God wants to do with us? That's the most important thing!

None of the 'religions,' though they mouth a lot of Biblical words, understand the Truth about grace! They may understand somewhat about it, but the Truth… Let's see the beginning of it.

John 14—Jesus was explaining that He was going to go away and come back again, and that He was going to manifest Himself to them. Then he also said, 'I'm going back to My Father, and I will manifest Myself to you.'

• How is that?
• How is that done?
• What does God want to do?

If you read very carefully Matt. 5-7, you will see the very last verse of Matt. 5 sums up what grace is to do!

Matthew 5:48: "Therefore, you shall be perfect… [How?] ...even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect." That's the end result of grace! No religion can accomplish that, only God!

How do you become perfect as God the Father in heaven is perfect when, with our carnal mind, we're 'deceitful above all things and desperately wicked'? And there are degrees of that as well!

All you have to do is look at the television and see all of the stupid programs. All of the lying, all of the satanism, and people are being programmed in deception to worship Satan as 'God' beginning when the beast comes on the scene.

What is God doing with us compared to that? That's why He calls us to repentance and baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit. The receiving of the Holy Spirit is that power that is going to lead us to that perfection, which will be completed at the resurrection. But notice the grace/grace: grace upon grace.

The First Grace:

John 14:20: "In that day..."—the day that He would show Himself to them, and the day that they would see Him ascend for the final time to God the Father.

"...you shall know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you" (v 20).

Everything that we do has to be motivated with God's Spirit and grace. Can people keep some of the commandments of God in the letter of the Law? Yes! Even President Trump said in his State of the Union speech, concerning this outrageous abortion that they're having in New York City, 'All human beings, regardless of age, are made in the Holy image of God.'

Verse 21: "The one who has My commandments and is keeping them... [that's a participle, meaning you do it continuously] ...that is the one who loves Me..."

So, this is love in action! You're keeping the Sabbath today. Is love toward God the Father and Christ an action? That's based upon the grace that we'll see here in just a minute.

"...and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father..." (v 21). Remember that the Father is the great Sovereign of the universe. So, don't think you're counted as nothing. Well, maybe to the world you're counted as nothing, or less than nothing; but not to God!

"...and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him" (v 21). How does God manifest Himself to you? Through His Word and Spirit! The action of God in our lives to accomplish this manifestation is great!

John 6:44: "No one..." What does that mean? It means no one! The lesson is in Job. Look at how great he was, look at how he kept the commandments of God in the letter. Job thought and even said that his righteous was 'greater than God's'! Well look what it got him. A test and trial that no one would wish for!

But God saw him through it all. After God showed him everything he needed to know and the power of God, and that he [Job] doesn't have the power of God, what did Job say? I repent, in sackcloth and dust and ashes. And I now know that no thought can be withheld from You! That's an amazing statement! God wants us to repent. But look at what it says here.

Verse 44: "No one can come to Me unless... [that is except]: …the Father... [The Most High] ...who sent Me draws him..." What happened in your life that you

• wanted to find God?
• needed God?
• prayed to God really sincerely?

I remember the first time I did. It was but a week later I heard the World Tomorrow program. That turned out to be quite an event, because I had a little old Nash Rambler. Since I like classical music, except Bach, I had it on a classical music station, never changed it in two and a half years! So, one night, I'm out driving and I was visited by Bach with the radio on. It was so bad I turn the dial. First time in two and a half years I turn the dial. Guess who was there? HWA! I knew immediately, that was an answer to that prayer. So, I wrote in.

"...draws him..." (v 44). What happened in your life that drew you? Could have been a relative, could have been your husband, could have been your father, could be circumstances! It could be that you're so sick and tired of being carnal, and mean and nasty. It could be that you're sick and tired of all the trouble and difficulty you're going through. Whatever!

Here's the first grace: God the Father Himself draws you! Think about that! Then notice the end result of it, IF you follow through and do everything that God wants:

"...and I will raise him up at the last day" (v 44). That's quite a thing!

We're all here in the hope of eternal life! Yes, indeed! We've seen God harvest a number of people. So, whenever someone comes to the time that they die, and they're in the Truth, that's a harvest!

Look at all of us here. It's kind of like this woman that I when I go back to New Hampshire, when we had our meeting I would be on the side, like it was over here and sing hymns with this lovely lady, and she lived to be 103. The last time that I sang hymns with her, she said, 'You know, everybody I know has died.' That happens, the older you are the fewer people that are contemporary with you. God designed it that way! He said, 'There is a time to be born, that happened to all of us, and there's a time to die.' That will happen to all of us; some sooner, some later! God is the One Who makes the choice and decision.

So, the first grace is that God involved Himself in your life, and this is the calling that God has given you! IFyou respond…it's broken down this way: Many are called, but few are chosen! Those who are with Christ are the called, the chosen and the faithful! So, we have to be faithful to the end.

John 14:22: "Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, 'Lord, what has happened that You are about to manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?'…. [How are you going to do that? You insert John 6:44 right there.] …Jesus answered and said to him, 'If... [there are 1700 'ifs' in the Bible, and they all pertain to us] ...anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…'" (vs 22-23).

In the singular that means all of His Word. What is the main one? This is why Protestantism can look good and can sound good and can help people in their everyday living, but they're only teaching them to be better people in the world. Conversion is a calling of God!

"...he will keep My Word..." (v 23). What was one of the first things that Jesus said? He didn't want anyone to be mistaken (John 5)! But I have yet to hear, and I've watched a lot on TBN to catch all the 'wolves in sheep's clothing,' I have them yet to really read Matt. 5:17. And you know what that says.

Mathew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not... ['ook'—you have two 'don't thinks' and not] ...come to abolish, but to fulfill"—or complete the Law of God and fulfill the prophecies!

That's why we could look at things today and go back in the Old Testament and see those prophecies of thousands of years ago. It's like reading your newspaper or listening to the news, because it's the Truth from the Word of God! He said it will happen.

John 14:23: "...he will keep My Word... Now let's understand that all the words in the Bible—Old Testament and New Testament—are God breathed. Someone wrote me and asked, 'How does God breathe?' It's a little different than just breath, it is God spirited, meaning God sent His Spirit to inspire what was written! It is exactly the same as if God were talking to us directly. That's why he has it written down!

Remember the three words obey My voice? How are you going to do that if it's not written down? That's why it's written down! So you can! It gets even better:

Verse 23: "...and My Father will love him, and We..." As I've said before, and I've mentioned this many times, but it's too easy to forget. Jesus did not say 'I'. He said, 'We.'

"...My Father will love him, and We... [Jesus Christ and the Father] ...will come to him and make Our abode with him" (v 23).

God's dwelling place is us (1-Cor. 3)! The process of conversion is to change the mind, not just obey the letter of the Law, but that you love God, and have His Spirit, which is going to lead you to keep the laws and commandments of God because you love Him. What He's going to do is give you what we find in Philip. 2. Notice the contrast:

Verse 24. "The one who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the Word..." There it is, again! Words means what He spoke, words means what he's already spoken in the past: the whole message!

"...and the Word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sent Me" (v 24).

So, everything Old Testament comes from The Most High down through the Lord. Everything in the New Testament comes from The Highest, because The Most high becomes the Father in both cases.

Sidebar: Why do you think the first chapter starts out with God [Elohim] plural? Because there's the Lord and the Most High! Why do you think that John starts out, 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God?' Two! Two! The Most High and the Lord in the Old Testament, become the Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in the New Testament.

Everything comes from the Father. Jesus said that He didn't do anything that He didn't see the Father do. That's why it's not possible to go through and say you agree with this verse, but don't agree with that one; but agree with this verse.

Let's see what God is doing to come to that perfection. This is quite a thing. If you ever get discouraged, if you ever wonder what's going to happen and how is it going to be?

Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

At "…the day of Jesus Christ," it will be completed because the resurrection will take place. That's how perfection comes. So, between the point of being called and the point of resurrection, here's what God is doing:

Philippians 2:1: "Now then, if there be any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any deep inner affections and compassions, fulfill my joy that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being joined together in soul, minding the one thing" (vs 1-2).

What is the one thing? The perfection to enter into the Kingdom of God! That's the one thing! Everything else is secondary, and tertiary. That's the most important thing. The older we get, the more we see that. The older we get, the weaker we become. That's all part of getting close to the time when we will go to our place of safety. Most all of us here we'll go to our place of safety, being the grave.

Verse 3: "Let nothing be done through contention or vainglory... [Have you ever been to services where that went on? That's the opposite of what God wants!] ...but in humility, each esteeming the others above himself."

When you get a hierarchy, you have to have orders and ranks. God doesn't want that! He wants all of those who are elders, to be teaching the brethren the Word of God. To inspire you to study so that you can further grow in grace and knowledge.

It's not like Sunday-keeping. You get dressed up in your best, and you go on down to the church and say hello to everybody, and you're all 'goody two-shoes.' God wants us to love one another and genuinely appreciate one another and pray for one another. But that comes from the conversion of the heart!

But with the hierarchy that's hard to do. With a hierarchy there's always a man you've got to please. God wants you to have direct connection to Him through prayer and study. Today, with all of us having the Word of God, that's a fantastic thing. Think of that!

When John first wrote the book of Revelation, it was rejected by half of the churches, because they looked at that and said, 'This is not like John's writing. We've got the Gospel and we have his epistles.'

• Who actually commanded the book of Revelation to be written? Jesus Christ!
• What did he tell John? Write!
• Write what? What I tell you!

Here we have the day, and you're doing this study on that. That's a fantastic thing. Think about how disappointed—of course as we went through the apostasy series: How Apostasy Starts—when the Apostle John died, the wolves came in like packs.

• See, Christ isn't coming.
• We've been telling you all the time there's no resurrection.
• We've been telling you all the time your soul goes to heaven.
• We've been telling you all the time you've got to keep Sunday because you don't want to be like the Jews.

With all the persecution going on, that was a pretty good sales pitch, and most people fell for it!

But there were those up in the Alps, and they had the Word of God, and they had the book of Revelation, and they understood what the great whore was. They were afflicted killed and tortured by him for 500 years or more. They could also see during their time, during the time of the crusades, what do you have? You have the kings of the north sending troops to the south! You have the King of the South—the Muslims, fighting against them, fighting back and forth over Jerusalem. They thought that Christ better return pretty quick. But no! All the rest of the things have to fill in place. Let's see what God wants to do, and we have that opportunity more than any others.

Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, although He existed in the form of God... [which He did (John 1:1)] ...did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself..." (vs 5-6).

How did Christ do that? Under the Father's direction, to become a pinpoint of life and be begotten in the womb of the virgin Mary! That's why He's the only begotten.

"...and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant…. ['doulous': slave] …and being found in the manner of man..." (vs 7-8).

Remember that Jesus was tired and went to sleep on the on the little ship as they were crossing the ocean, and it was snoring away during the storm. But all the disciples got all excited and said, 'Lord, wake up! The waves are coming down, and we're all gonna die!' What did Jesus say? Oh, you of little faith!

So, He stood up and said, 'Be still!' POOF! The lake became flat like glass, and the wind stopped. And they all said, 'Who is this?' And they bowed down and worshiped.

"…being found in the manner of man He humbled Himself…" (v 8).

Now, if you don't have A Harmony of the Gospels, you better write for one on Monday, so you could have it by next Sabbath, or the Sabbath after. Next Sabbath I'm going to start the last 10 days of Jesus life. That's the last six days plus the final four. Okay, we're going to use the Harmony so that you can have the Scriptures side-by-side because we're going to go real quickly. So, you need A Harmony. I'm going to take one for my sermon notes. I'm going to take it down to the Ben Caputo Printing where we get our envelopes, and I'm going to have them cut off the spine so I can have it easy for covering.

Verse 9: "Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... [tie in with Isa. 45] ...took the form of a servant, of beings in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (vs 9-11).

In the light of all of this, Paul tells us what we are to do to get back to the point of becoming perfect like the Father is.

Verse 12: "So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

That's through prayer and study, and God will help you. If you have trials, they're all to help you develop faith and trust in God. That's what they're there for. But remember, Jesus came and laid down His life. What did He say? No one takes it from Me. I lay it down!

Here is the second key of the grace. Remember the first part is that He called you.

The Second Grace:

He leads you to repentance and baptism; the third part will be the resurrection, but in the meantime:

Verse 13: "For it is God Who works in you... [the inner-working of God] ...both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Do all things without complaints and disputes; so that you may be blameless and without offense, innocent children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (vs 13-15).

How do you do that? We have the opportunity as never before with the Word of God! I don't think that there would have been many congregational meetings in the time of Paul that they would gather together like we do, and have the Word of God right at hand. But here it is, we have it! So, it can be 'programmed' into our mind. Here's how we do it:
Verse 16: "Holding forth the Word of Life… [the whole Bible, that's also referring to God as well] ...that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, nor labored in vain."

That's the substance of the grace!

Then Dr. Dorothy moved up to Seattle, and was there, and I was in communication with him. The way the New Testament came about was that I studied Greek with Dr. Dorothy and continued studying it and be in touch with him. He kept urging me to translate the New Testament.

Well, what we did at that time, we had a mammoth congregation of eight! We just finished the whole Gospel of John word for word all the way through. Since we did that we've learned a lot more. But anyway, we got done with it, and I asked them, 'What do you want me to cover now?' They said, 'We want to do the same kind of study that you did with the Gospel of John.

So, since Dr. Dorothy was encouraging me to translate. I said, how about if we do the General Epistles, and I do the translation and put it in a study form with nice wide margins. That way you can put the notes in. So, we did. We went through James, 1st & 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd & 3rd John and Jude. Got done with that, and we had the book, The Seven General Epistles.

Then here came all of those with the 15th Passover! So, the next project was The Christian Passover book. The first edition was only 300 pages. At that time, I was loan brokering, still taking care of the Church and so forth. Delores was working and the Church didn't have very much money at that time. But here I am writing to do the Passover book. Which turns out to be one of the most important readings necessary to understand the Passover.

I set out to do it because there were so many attacks against the Passover. Dolores kept asking me where I was going to get the money to do it. I said, 'God will provide when it's ready.' It turned out to be over 300 pages, and to do 3,000 copies costs $12,000, including the shipping.

Guess what? A real estate deal that had gone sour, came back to life! A loan that didn't get through came back to life! My commission was $4,500 each, so that's $9,000, Robert Davis said, 'I'll give you $1500.' Then I had another good commission, So, I took care of the other $1,500, And VOILA! according to God's promise, He provided! So, we got the Passover book.

We did the New Testament and I bringing this out because Carl and Jeannie were engaged in editing the Passover book. The three of us, me, Carl and Mike carried on exactly what Dr. Dorothy wanted to do in the TRP, and all of that has to come from God. That's how we got what we have today, It's going to serve many, many, many brethren, or whoever wants them. That's what it is, grace upon grace!

• the first grace is your calling
• the second grace is the Father and Christ dwelling in you to perfect your mind

Now, how that works is this way: You go along and if you sin, God's Spirit convicts you of it. He does that so that you can repent. That's part of the grace of God: direct connection with the Father and Christ. Permission from Christ! A command: He said you pray to the Father directly, because the Father Himself loves you! We'll cover some more of that as we get toward the Passover.

Scriptural References:

• John 1:14, 16
• Matthew 5:48
• John 14:20-21
• John 6:44
• John 14:22-23
• Matthew 5:17-24
• John 14:23-24
• Philippians 1:6
• Philippians 2:1-16

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 5-7
• John 5
• 1 Corinthians 3
• John 1:1
• Isaiah 45

Also referenced:

Sermon Series:

• The Lord God and The Most High
• How Apostasy Starts

Books:

• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
• The Seven General Epistles by Fred R. Coulter
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:po/bo
Transcribed: 3/1/19

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