The New Name Written On My Forehead

The New Name Written On My Forehead

by Tommy Tyson

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

The table is before us, and I want to talk something about what I believe is foundation for the Lord’s Supper. This Word of God that was proclaimed tonight says that God became man. It didn’t say God appeared as man, or merely God came to man. But said God became man, and made perfect identification with us. And He did this while we were yet sinners.

That Jesus Christ, as the Word made flesh, became sin. God made perfect identification with us, as us, through Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you, when you see Jesus, it makes religion as such, or any other philosophical teaching as such, it makes it old hat, cheap and shoddy sounding. Philosophy, metaphysics, other teachings, sound rather ethereal, until you show it up in the light of the incarnation. And it then appears what is a cheap imitation. Jesus is the unique factor of the universe. It is only in Jesus that God has become man. No other teaching will say that. You can find teaching that says, God appeared as man. You can find teaching that says, God raised up prophets. But you do not find any other proclamation that says, God became man.

For only in Jesus has this taken place. God became what you were. That’s identification. Doesn’t wait for us to go to Him. Doesn’t wait for us to try to act like Him. Doesn’t wait for us to become like Him. Doesn’t wait for us even to find the spark of His life that’s within us. That while we were yet enemies of God, God came to us. God became one with us. God became what we were. That’s an amazing statement. And yet it’s true. And even when God became what we were, He had to die. Precious people, we don’t see the seriousness of sin today. Because we have it camouflaged with a pseudo-psychological acceptance. We do not realize what the Apostle was talking about writing to the Hebrew church when he said that if God spared not His own Son, how do we think we can escape if we neglect so great salvation? You see, this is what Peter failed to realize. Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ. He knew that He was the Anointed One. He knew that He had come from God. But when Jesus began to talk about going to Calvary, Peter sounded like a Muslim. Do you know the Muslims believe that Jesus is the Messiah? They don’t believe that He’s the greatest prophet who ever lived.

Allah is God’s chief prophet. But the Muslim world will tell you that Jesus is the Messiah. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They believe that Jesus went back to heaven. They do not believe He died. Since He was the Messiah, since He did come from God, He couldn’t taste death. Because after all, how could life die?

And so they accept the story that was put out, that simply the Christians said that He died. But really, they say, He never died. Now, Peter was in that line of thought. “You’re the Christ. Consequently, You can’t afford to die.” And Jesus made one of the most harsh statements that you could ever make to a human being. He called Peter Satan.

That’s how serious it is to play around with the cross. That’s how serious it is to think that you can be saved without the blood of Jesus. That’s how serious it is to think that there’s some other way of atonement other than the shedding of His blood.

Peter said, “You’re the Christ. That can’t be.” And Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for you do not understand the ways of God.” Jesus became sin. He became what we were. And the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth shall surely die. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one has turned to his own way. I want to tell my brothers and sisters here tonight that every one of us are guilty of sin and under the penalty of death in our own rights. And our inheritance in the natural order is an inheritance of death. Regardless, if your folks came over on the Mayflower, I mean, we could have the prestige and trace our family back to the Heidelberg line and be so proud. I’ll have to tell you this story. I was in the Ardmore CFO and the precious lady told me I could tell the story. One night after the CFO, she came to me and said, “Tommy, would you pray for me?” I said, “What is your problem, Louise?” She said, “It’s an arthritic condition.” She told me the special kind that she had and said, “Will you pray?” And I started to pray, or at least I began to pray, by putting my mind on Jesus and waiting to be directed.

And as I put my mind on the Lord Jesus, I heard the words, “cried of the flesh.” Well, you know, I didn’t think the Lord talked like that. So I, you know, I wondered why the enemy was trying to get in on the prayer. So I waited a little while longer. What I heard was “pride of the flesh.” So I said, “Louise, I’ll have to tell you what I’m hearing, darling, that your problem is pride of the flesh.” She said, “I didn’t come here to be insulted. Good night.”

And she went to her room. And I went off feeling like I was a little real foolish, but somehow I felt that I’ve been obedient. Being obedient to Jesus sometimes will make you feel foolish. I’ll tell you that. So, I didn’t understand what was happening. The next morning, she came to me before I spoke. And she was radiant. And she said, “Could I give a word of testimony?” And I said, “What kind of testimony do you want to give?”

She said, “As you know, I went to my room last night. I was mad as mad can be. And I was ready to leave this place.” But she said, “After I quietened down a bit, I said to the Lord, ‘Lord, if there is a slight possibility that You really spoke through Tommy Tyson, show me what he was talking about.’ And I got quiet in my heart,” and she said, “I don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before.” She said, “On my father’s side, I come from the Heidelberg line, and I trace my family right back to the heart of Germany.” And she said, “I have the coat of arms in my living room, and it cost me a lot of money to get it.” And she said, “I’m so proud of my German ancestry.” But she said, “On my mother’s side, I’m Cherokee.”

And she said, “In Oklahoma, that means half-breed.” And she said, “I never told a soul that my mother was half-breed. And I realized last night that I had the pride of the flesh. That I thought somehow that the German ancestry was better than the mixed blood or the Indian blood, and I was ashamed of it.” I want to tell you, you can accept mixed blood, quarter-breed, half-breed, or pure-breed. You will go to hell by being a German just like you will by being an Indian.

I just want you to know that. Now, sometimes we build up a sense of prestige about families and I’ve lived long enough to tell you, none of them impress me anymore. I almost wish we did come from the apes. I don’t think the apes would claim us.

I don’t see the apes dropping hydrogen bombs on one another. It’s amazing, isn’t it? So, I accept, I’m glad for our background. Whatever background we have. But through the first man, Adam, sin came into the world through sin and death. I love my daddy and mama. I would choose them a hundred times over. I don’t want another daddy. I don’t want another mama. I would choose the same one that I think my daddy was the greatest man I’ve ever known. My mama was the greatest saint I’ve ever known. But I want you to know that the birth they gave me left me in need of a new birth.

I had to be born again in order to get into heaven. They didn’t birth me into the heavenly realm. It’s amazing, isn’t it? So, when Jesus identified with us by becoming sin, there was no way He could fulfill the law of sin except by reaping the fruit thereof. And that was the agony of Gethsemane. That here was our blessed Lord who had never known a conscious moment of separation from God, conceived of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, lived in the consciousness of union with His Father and would not let anything or anyone break that consciousness. Tempted to have it broken. Tempted at every point as we are tempted. And yet remain in perfect union with His Father. And when He came to Gethsemane and saw experientially that to be identified with sin was to be separated from God and take on the role of the enemy of God, it was more than He could stand. And He prayed that cup be removed. But God would not remove the cup even for His Son. For there was no way to fulfill the law of sin and death save for reaping its wages, and that’s death. And Jesus being reaffirmed in the very structure of the universe prayed nonetheless, “Not my will but Thine be done,” and took the cup from His Father.

Don’t think for a minute that the devil laid the sins of you on Jesus. Don’t think for a minute that the devil slipped up on the blind side of Jesus and crucified Him. You needn’t blame the Jews anymore. You needn’t blame anybody else anymore. It wasn’t the devil that killed Jesus and it wasn’t the Jews that killed Jesus. Do you know who it was? It was our Father who was willing to pay the price in letting His own Son die because He loved us so much, and in Jesus God did the suffering. In Jesus God died. That’s why people who don’t see that Jesus is God, it’s difficult for them to accept the cross. If Jesus is not God, God treated Jesus unfairly because God let one man take the sins of other people and that’s not right.

But if Jesus is God and He took our sins, hallelujah, what a Father. And isn’t that what the word says, that God so loved the world that He gave His Son? Isn’t that what Isaiah saw and said, that God has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all? Isn’t that the teaching of the word? That God was in Christ and identifying with human beings in Jesus. And it’s God dying in our stead. That’s miracle and it’s mystery. But it’s true. Hallelujah. God became man in Jesus without losing any of His deity. When that baby was born in Bethlehem’s cradle, and when that Galilean walked up and down the shores, and when that humble one from Nazareth hung on Calvary, God lost nothing of His deity. He was simply revealing who He was all about. And I want to tell you, the cross didn’t change God’s nature. I’ve heard it suggested by some that God was angry with man. And so angry, He was about to let us have it. And as He released His bolt of lightning, Jesus ran between us and God like a lightning rod and said, in effect, “You’ll have to get to me first.” And Jesus caught God’s wrath and grounded it out and saved us from getting the fire.

But if God didn’t get you then, watch out. He’ll get you in the sucker coming. You ever see people that use the sucker coming like a club to beat people over the head with? I want to tell you, God is not in the head beating business. If you’re whipped, it’s because of your own sins. It’s not because of God. If you’re judged and under bondage, it’s not because God put you under bondage. It’s not the Father’s will that any should perish. For God has tasted death for every man. But He loves us so much that He doesn’t force us to respond. I came through a time in my life when I was what some people would call a universalist. I believed that every person was going to be saved. Because I said, God is love. God is infinite love. God has shed His blood for every man. And I will quote scripture. As by one man, sin came into the world. Through sin and death. By one man, righteousness came into the world. By righteousness is life. As in one man, we all die. As in second man, we all are made alive. And boy, I really believed that eventually, everyone would be saved. Because I said, God is love. I want to tell you.

I now believe that it’s possible for a person to be lost and go to hell. And you know why I believe that? Because God is love. And you know what has changed? My understanding of love. That love, God’s love, is of such a nature that He gives you the freedom to reject Him. God will never force you to accept Him. God’s love. God’s love gives you the freedom to say no.

God will never force you to accept Him. And you can say no eternally, if you will. God will never force you to accept Him. We’re talking about the blood of Jesus, which is the atonement for sin, the suffering for sin. It’s sin that caused our Savior to die. Whose sin? All of us, good German folk. Our sin. Whose sin? All you precious Scottish folk. Read Scottish. All these noble Scotchmen. Their sins. Whose sin? All of us, you know, browbeaten English folks. Whose sin? Of course, the Irish. Whose sin? The sin of every man, isn’t it? Every man’s sin. That’s who Jesus became. Now, would you see, precious friend, that when He became sin, He became your sin to the uttermost? Have you learned to accept cleansing from sin? Have you? Don’t you know that your sin is cleansed, not in part, but in whole? I don’t know where in the world we get the idea that a little bit of sin is essential to salvation.

We don’t say just those words. We just put it this way. You didn’t tell me you can live without sin. Just because we have it doesn’t mean we can’t. I heard one Nazarene preacher preaching away at this point, and he talked about going fishing. Said he went out behind the barn, no mud, dug up a grub worm, flipped the mud off of it, and there it was, a little white grubbing worm. Went on down to the sound. Put his grubbing worm on the hook. Threw it out there in the salt water. And boy, a trout bit it like that. Caught him a trout. Came home, cleaned his trout. Gave it to his wife to cook. She salted it down. Cooked him a good supper. Now he said, if the Lord can let a worm be birthed and grow up in mud and yet remain white, no mud in that worm. And I can take that worm, go down and catch me a fish that grew up in salt water. And yet the fish had to be salted for me to eat him because though he grew in salt water, there was no salt in it. If the Lord can keep the mud out of a grubbing worm and keep the salt out of a trout, He’d keep sin out of me.

I tell you, that’s what I did when I heard him say it. I just applauded. For somehow we seem to think that because we do sin, we all are supposed to sin. And you’ve got your hang-ups, I’ve got mine. You do your thing, I do mine. And God is loving and God is kind. I’ll see you in the land. Bye-bye.

It’s more serious than that. One of the great students that has helped me so much has been a theologian named Oscar Cullmann. C-U-L-L-M-A-N. Great German theologian. He wrote a little book just about that thick. And it’s the difference between immortality and the resurrection.

You see, the first… When I went back to college, the first writer that really turned me on, because I didn’t know Jesus, was Plato. I just really got turned on with Socratic thought, which is idealism of the highest order. And if you remember how Socrates, that Athenian cat fly, who was killed because he asked the wrong questions at the right time.

And that last night that he was with his disciples, he called them to himself. And he assured them that he had identified with eternal ideas. Truth, beauty, love. He had identified with all these ideas that were eternal. Consequently, he could not die. He assured his disciples that really there was no such thing as death. Simply transformation. And that he would be eternal and move on to those eternal joys.

And giving his disciples this kind of assurance, he drank the hemlock, put his robe around him, laid himself upon his couch, and went to sleep. And you know, I’ve heard that kind of poetry read at funerals, there is no death.

And I’ve even heard funeral messages that suggest, just as a tree is cut and chopped into wood, and the wood burns, some of the work goes out as heat, energy, some drops into the grates as potash, some goes out in the furnace of smoke, all the way, that there’s no such thing as death, just transformation. There is no death. Now, Cullmann contrasts that with Jesus. Here, Jesus, with His disciples, the last night, “Will you pray with me for an hour? Watch with me.” He prays for an hour and comes back, they’re asleep. And then Jesus goes back into the garden and prays with such agony that sweat drops of blood coming off of His forehead. Now, Cullmann says, “What is the difference between Jesus and Socrates? Does Socrates have a better understanding of life than Jesus?” “No,” says Cullmann, “and rightly so. It’s because Jesus has a better understanding of death than Socrates.”

Death is real. Now, we don’t have to be afraid of it anymore because for God’s sake and for our sake, it’s a defeated foe. But Jesus died. He perfectly identified. Now, as He went on through death, God would not suffer His Holy One to see resurrection. I mean, see corruption. And on the third day after the crucifixion, and third day means completion.

Dr. Bill was talking about Lazarus, stinketh even until now. And he did. It was three days. It was complete death. That’s why old folks used to allow people to stay out three days before they buried. Well, just because the family lived on the other side of the nation, other side of the nation was eastern Ohio. -oh.

Well, we stayed out three days because that was the finished time. If anybody stayed out that long, they were surely gone. Completion. Starr Daily, brother, Dr. Bill asked that he not be embalmed for three days. He had just a thing. He’d seen prisoners who were buried alive.

And that thing would, you know, sort of remain with him. So he asked that his body be kept without embalming for three days. And they did it. Bless his precious heart. Don’t you love Starr? He’s the one that introduced me to the Ohio CFO.

That’s right. You all wouldn’t have loved me. You can hardly take me as it was. No, I take that back. You loved me from the beginning. And one of the first people I met was Nana Skeen over in Delaware. And she was the prayer hostess. And I went to the prayer room. She and David came in tonight. And I went to the prayer room with Donna. One of the first things I did after I got to Delaware CFO must have been 1955 or 6 or more along in there. Middle, late 50s anyway. But Starr had that within him that wanted to be identified as total dying. And Jesus stayed dead three days. On the third day, the same power that separated day from night. The same power that scooped out oceans and heaped up mountains. The same power that spangled the heaven with the stars. Glory to God. Put a ring around Saturn.

And put the red into Jupiter. Or Mars or whatever is the red planet. And the same power of creation reached into that tomb and raised Him out of that grave. Not translated Him. We’re not dealing with translation. Don’t mess around with that little old silly mess.

Who in the world wants you to be translated like you are? And just have you on your hands forever? That’s the trouble now. And if we get you in heaven like you are, look what you’ll do to heaven.

Same thing you’ve done there. It’s not translation. Even if we could be translated. That doesn’t change anybody. It’s not translation that we’re talking about. It’s resurrection. That Jesus Christ is man dying as sinner on behalf of every man. And He’s God dying for sin on behalf of every man. But in the resurrection, He’s man coming alive in the new order. Hallelujah.

And He came up out of that grave not just as spirit going back to spirit. New Testament’s not dealing with immortality in the soul. Mr. Wordsworth does that. Mr. Plato, romantic literature does that. But New Testament is not dealing with immortality of the soul, philosophy students.

Immortality is dealing with resurrection of humanity. For the story is that He came out of that tomb lock, stock, and barrel. Didn’t even leave a fingernail in the tomb. Not even a stray hair. Only thing was left in the tomb were the napkins that He didn’t need anymore. Nothing of Jesus left in the tomb. What happened to Him? Well, that’s what they began to ask. And so, for the next 40 days, this master of disguise who loves to hide Himself and wait to be recognized. Isn’t it beautiful? This one who made as if He would go on, that’s the Emmaus Road story, made as if He would go on, waiting to be asked, “Won’t you come in and have supper with us?” Isn’t that something about our Lord? Waits to be recognized. Don’t you know if it had been me, out of shadow on, “Hey, look, it’s me.” He waited. He waited. Let Mary think He was a gardener. “Tell me where you’ve laid His body so that I might go and anoint Him with spices.” And that was a little more than He could stand. And He called her by name. And nobody could call Mary’s name like Jesus, and nobody can call your name like Jesus. Hallelujah. Darling boys and girls, I mean, Jesus called you by name and you got a new name.

I was down in Daytona Beach and I was in the CFO and I was preaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost and wasn’t getting too good a reception and I’m paranoid anyway. And boy, I was praying and I spent the night in the prayer room one night and while I was sitting there in the prayer room, the Lord wrote a new name on my forehead. I can feel it now. And He called me by that name. I’ll not tell you what it is. And when He called me by that name, I was called up into ecstasy. I don’t know what time it was. The next thing of which I was aware, I was about three miles down the beach and day was breaking and I had my hands raised and was praising Jesus in just about every language going.

I tell you, nobody can call your name like Jesus. And every once in a while I get a little down and feel like maybe nobody loves me anymore. You ever feel like He doesn’t understand you, darling? You don’t. You haven’t been married too long, have you?

And she said she’s not married at all. That’s a good indication. We do feel like sometimes that nobody understands us. It’s just amazing. And we get a little down and we’ll hear that whisper. All I have to do is hear the whisper of my name and I come alive. I tell you, that’s what Mary did. He just called her name and she cried out, “Rabboni!” Boy, she knew He was alive. “Go tell my disciples I’ll meet them in Galilee,” like I told them what. They went on Galilee but didn’t find Him. So they went fishing. Fished all night. Just like you hadn’t caught a thing.

“Hey, boys, caught anything? Cast your nets on the other side.” And just instinctively in obedience to His word. You see, if you don’t know Jesus, if you’re not aware of His presence, if you’ll keep His word, it’ll bring you in touch with Him. It’s amazing how obedience to the word will bring you in the presence of the Lord. Glory to God.

A lady called me one time. I picked up the phone. The voice said, “If you don’t help me, you’ll be the last one that ever hears my voice.” I said, “What are you going to do?” She said, “I want to kill myself.”

I said, “Are you really?” And I began to pray. She said, “I certainly am. I’ve got to have heaven.” I said, “Doug, I thought you loved me.” She said, “That’s why I called you.” Well, I said, “You sure laid a heavy one on me. If you love me, let me be responsible for your dying.”

Darling, I don’t know where I want to take all that or not. But I said, “If you were to die right now, where do you think you’d go? Up or down?” She said, “You didn’t talk to me like that. I’m saved. I know I’m saved. You know it. I’d go to heaven.” Well, I said, “Who do you think you’d meet?” She said, “I’d meet my Lord, my Savior.”

Well, I said, “I want to just tell you something. If I knew I was going to heaven and meet Jesus, I believe I’d want to go on His terms. I sort of hate to go in an act of disobedience.”

“Are you sure you want to meet Jesus having deliberately taken your own life like that? You might have a problem that you work out.” See, that was rational. Now let me say this about most folks who commit suicide. We let the devil whip us over loved ones who’ve done that. I want to tell you, most suicide people that I know are in such a crisis of decision that they’re not rational at the moment. And the Lord spoke to my heart one day concerning a friend who had committed suicide and said, “Tommy, I don’t judge a man by the way he died. I respond to him by the decision he made when he was rational.”

It’s your rational decisions. And this lady was rational. So I said, “You better ask Jesus if you’re going on His terms.” She said, “I’ve never heard anybody talk that foolish.” I said, “It’s so foolish, it had to be from God. You better listen.” And she began to cry and said, “What can I do?” I said, “Stay there until I get there.”

It’s amazing. But somehow another, we somehow think, you know, that we can miss out on these things. But Jesus revealed to His disciples that He was alive and they threw their nets on the other side and pulled in. How many do you think they pulled in?

I want to see how good a scripture students you are. All right, here’s a hand raised right here. Sylvia says 150… 152, 153, 153. All right, Sylvia, that suits you all right. How many of you vote on 153?

Were they menace? 153? Great big ones that broke the net. 153 great. I want to just suggest to you, this time it didn’t break the net. He’s a better fisherman after the resurrection. I believe if you check the scripture, the first time they went fishing, before the crucifixion, the nets were broken. But I believe after the resurrection, 153 great big ones and the net wasn’t broken. I indicate that He much, you know, if anything getting better and better. And boy, Peter knew there was only one that could fish like that. He jumps out and starts running toward Jesus. Got to the shore and who knows what Jesus was doing? Cooking the fish?

What? Where’d He get His fish? He can’t do anything unless His disciples do it for Him, can He? Have no hand but my hand. I wonder how He caught His fish. I want to tell you that’s not foolish talk that God had no hand but my hand. He caught His own.

And if His doesn’t get in yours, you won’t have yours too long. God has no feet but my feet. He’s got His own. He has His own body. And if His body doesn’t get into ours, ours are rot.

God is not dependent on man, but God needs me. No, God’s willing to use him. God is complete. All He had to do was snap His finger and say, “Fish, come.” You know what kind of fish it was?

A Catholic priest friend of mine told me it was a holy mackerel. Jesus brought the fish, put honey on it. Any of you ever eat honey and fish? I have never done it yet. I keep threatening to try. Brawl fish and honey cone. And as these disciples came up, Jesus began to eat and looked at him with twinkle in His eye and said, “Ghost don’t eat.”

You see, His body is alive. Now, His blood is not in it. That’s the difference between the resurrected body, one big difference at least. The resurrected body did not need blood. He had spilled His blood on Calvary. He’s filled with light. He’s filled with light. His blood is veins, His arteries are filled with light. Oh, the light of God. That’s why Agnes Sanford writes about the healing light. His blood atones for sin. By His blood, His stripes, we were healed. His light brings in resurrected life. That’s why when people see Jesus, the resurrected Lord, it’s in His light. In His light, you shall see light. I hope you know those good things. And the fortieth day after the crucifixion, while the disciples were watching, just outside Jerusalem, Jesus Christ was caught up in the spirit and was taken out of their sight.

Where’d He go? Where’d He go, darling? Stand out up and tell everybody where Jesus went. Heaven! He went to heaven. He went to the Father as what? As man. Just like God became man without losing any of His deity, in the resurrection, man becomes one with God and loses nothing of his humanity. Glory to God, you don’t have to worry, honey, you’re going to make it.

Your vile body is going to be changed in the likeness of His own sinless body. Jesus took His body with Him, and every report that’s come back from heaven that’s recorded in scripture has to do with Jesus on the throne of the universe. Stephen, the first martyr of the church, is being stoned there outside the gate in Jerusalem, and he’s trying to throw it rocks back like his Savior he loves back and prays back. And as he’s giving up his spirit, the veil is rent, and he sees into heaven, and he says, “I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father.” Doesn’t say he said to see, saw the Father. No man has seen the Father at any time. To see the Father is to see Jesus. Jesus is the bodily, visible expression of the Father. We know the Father, we experience the Father, we see the Son. God.

Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God. Don’t you know that? You do know that, don’t you? Isn’t it wonderful? Well, now, just to run down and pick up just for a minute, I’ll close, is that nowhere else is there proclamation that God has become man, and become one with man, and wedded Himself. Nowhere else is there proclamation of the fact that God has shed His blood or atone for sin. That’s why in many of the so-called world religions, though there’s ideas of God as love and kindness and benevolence, the concept of atonement and forgiveness of sin is foreign. I was talking with a Buddhist friend one time, and he was asking me about what Jesus had done for me, and I was telling him about Calvary, and His shed blood, and how my sins were taken by Jesus in His own body, and when he was a soldier, and when I finished, he said, “Mr. Tyson, I feel as if, the same way I felt when I had to kill the first man I ever killed.” He said, “While I had him in my sights, and was waiting to pull the trigger, my heart was in conflict within me, I knew there was a better way, but I didn’t know what that way was, and I pulled the trigger.”

“Now,” he said, “when I hear about forgiving grace and atoning blood, I know it’s a better way. My heart’s in conflict, and I don’t know that way.” I said, “Get on your knees.” Glory to God. Ride the log on a tree. I prayed for that old boy, and left him to Jesus. Nowhere else, see, save Jesus, and they’re tolling blood. Nowhere else is that proclamation of resurrected humanity, made one with God. Oh, translated humanity. Miss, what, Annalee, somebody, talks about, you know, translation. He are God, you know, takes that scripture, acts as if it’s a whole Bible. “Know ye not that ye are gods?” And somehow makes us God because we can be translated.

Only in Jesus is there a proclamation of man being raised from the dead and made one with God. But that is true in Jesus. And now, from the realm of resurrection, on the throne of the universe, what does Jesus do with His power? What does He do with the ruling and reigning authority? What does He do with His oneness with God?

He gives it to us. When did He do that? When He sent the Holy Ghost. Jesus sent the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus that the resurrected Lord of the universe is present in the believer. His Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you’re a child of God. You’re not received the spirit of bondage through fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby your heart cries, “Abba, Father.” Child of God. Joint heir with Jesus Christ. One with Him in Jesus Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? How can you know He’s alive? How can you know He’s raised from the dead? I’ll tell you how you can know: through the experience of the Holy Ghost. Christ. And that’s why the work of the Holy Spirit has to do with union with Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit are important. They’re not to be played with. They’re to be desired. They’re to be received. And it’s wonderful. But the heart of the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. For just as in the incarnation, God became what we were in our sin, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we become what He is. And that’s the righteousness of God. I’m going to close by using the words of the one to whom I’m most indebted in this world.

And you know His name. J. Rufus Moseley. J. Rufus Moseley. Brother Rufus, we all call him, didn’t we? Here’s the way he put it. He called it the reverse side of the cross. He said, when Jesus came to us, we put Him on a cross of sin and shame. When we come to Jesus, He puts us on a cross of bliss and glory. When Jesus came to us, we put Him on a cross where He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and gave up the ghost. When we come to Jesus, He puts us on a cross where we receive the Holy Ghost and cry, “Abba, Father.” We put Jesus on a cross where He descended through death into hell. He puts us on a cross where we ascend through life into heavenlies. And as He became one with us in our death, we become one with Him in His life. And I want to tell you this, that through His death, He’s paid the price for you to be born of the Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, healed by the Spirit, to have the gifts of the Spirit, and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Sometimes we feel unworthy. And we think, well, I’m just not worthy to have those kinds of experiences.

I want to tell you and the universe, every work of the Holy Spirit in the life of humanity has been paid for in full. And in the name of Jesus, though you’re not worthy, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. You’re welcome. For He became what we were, that we might become what He is. Lord of Savior. Let’s stay in the spirit of prayer as Brother leads us now in Holy Communion.