"PHASE I
OF THE ETERNAL PURPOSE"
Sept 6, 1998 pmMF Blume
Gene 2:22-24 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
In Gen 2 Adam had a rib removed and built into a woman.
- In Gen 4 they "reuinted" and Adam KNEW Eve.
- The same pattern is with the Church and Jesus.
The literal Hebrew reads that GOD "BUILT" the woman. We have been taken from The LAST ADAM'S side
With that in mind, read...
Matt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Ephe 2:19-22 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone]; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Colo 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
To finally resurrect and KNOW HIM.
Phil 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; Phil 3:20-21 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
All problems began when woman was taken out of man, and sinned. - God saw that this was the origin of trouble amongst mankind.
- So God decided to not trash His eternal purpose, but instead pick up from where things went wrong and start again with the same plan.
- So He began at the point where Adam laid down his life and went onward to the point of the end of the world, that we have not even experienced yet!
- And He "spliced" out all that period and replaced it with Jesus laying down his life and a Church taken from His side, spiritually speaking, and coming forth.
- This is similar to how a recording is made.
- A piece is spliced out and replaced so that one would not even notice the change.
- In God's mind, when all is over and done, it will be as though nothing evil ever occurred.
- All that went wrong was replaced with Christ and the Church.
We are in the PHASE I of the eternal purpose. - We are in the period after God extracted the church from Jesus' side and is presently building this church.
- Note all the references to the church being BUILT in our text.
- And we have yet to experience to reunion of Christ and the Church, and, as Paul called it, WHEN WE KNOW HIM.
- That will be PHASE II
- If PHASE I is so much and so great, working in two thousand years of effort, how great will PHASE II be??
We are the CHURCH being built by God.
- We are the CITY being presently constructed.
- We are also called the TEMPLE of the Lord.
- And we each are lively stones being built up at this very moment.
We are absent from our true Home. - Phil. 3:20-20.
- Paul said in speaking about the anticipation to KNOW HIM that our conversation, or ADDRESS and LIFESTYLE, is in Heaven.
- We do not belong here.
- And we look to heaven form where the Lord will return to take us there.
This picture is throughout the Bible. - Abraham was in a land given to him by God.
- He was told to look around and see all that was his.
- Generations later, famine came and his people left that land and went into Canaan.
- Then God brought deliverance and took them back to that same land again.
The promised land is HEAVEN. - Famine came and we could no longer go to a tree of life and eat it.
- Sin cut us off.
- But Jesus is coming to return us to our home.
Men dream of paradises. - Why?
- Atheists say that man evolved from animals and we adapt to our environment.
- Lies.
- We did not adapt.
- More and more we feel we are not at home here.
- Why do we dream of paradises, why does every culture have a paradise story, if we are supposed to have adapted to this environment?
Jesus died, was buried and rose again. - In 1 Cor 15, Paul said that if there is no resurrection of the dead to come, then Christ could not have risen.
- There must be a future resurrection as much as there was a Christ who rose from the grave.
- They are interlinked and inseparable.
As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:22.
- Adam is dead today.
- Those in him have that as there end, also.
- But Jesus is glorified today.
- That is our end since we are in Christ.
Notice that 1 Cor 15:23 says that AFTERWARD we who are Christ's shall be made alive. - That means we have something to come.
- We are only in Phase I.
- The end is coming to all people, but the end of those in Adam is destruction (Phil 3:18-19).
- Our end is victory over death.
A LAST TRUMP will sound when the LAST ENEMY is destroyed. - That is death's defeat when we are glorified.
Paul said in 1 Cor 15 that man is a seed. - The difference between the world and the saved is that we seeds have God's Spirit in us.
- And this Spirit will explode in this seed and resurrect us at the sound of the trumpet.
- The world will remain and die.
Our bodies die and are buried out of sight because they are SOWN IN DISHONOUR. - We have to bury our bodies.
- They must be removed from our sight.
- Dishonour grips them.
- BUT THEY SHALL BE RAISED IN GLORY AND BEAUTY!
Our bodies die and are in a state of being weakened and weakened until all strength is exhausted from them.. - But they shall be raised IN POWER.
- WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
Our bodies are sown in a state of the NATURAL. - But they shall be raised SPIRITUAL BODIES.
- Natural bodies exist upon wind and breath.
- So weak.
- But we will be raised in SPIRITUAL BODIES that rely upon the power of God's SPIRIT, not WEAK BREATH.
- We do not totally know what Paul meant by spiritual body, but we do know that they will be more like the angels' bodies that could appear and vanish, and be more SPIRITUAL than anything.
Adam was breathed upon and received BREATH of Life. - He was a living soul.
- He lived by the same breath that animals live by.
- Breath is so weak.
- BUT SPIRIT WILL KEEP OUR NEW BODIES ALIVE AND VIBRANT FOR EVER!
Jesus is not a mere living soul, like Adam was, but a QUICKENING SPIRIT. - QUICKENING means LIFE-GIVING.
- He gives SPIRIT to the dead.
- Mankind who took all it could from mere breath, only to grow into dishonor and weakness will receive SPIRIT from Jesus.
- Jesus gives more than BREATH.
- He breathed upon them and said, "RECEIVE YE THE HOLY GHOST."
John 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
This was purposely done to follow the pattern of God breathing wind into Adam, but to show the greater breath of SPIRIT.
That breath became a mighty wind in the upper room and filled all the people with the Holy Ghost in Acts 2:1-4.
Notice these references to Jesus giving SPIRIT.
John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand. John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
John 17:2-3 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 5:21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth [them]; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Adam came before Jesus. - This is our pattern as to our PHASE I and PHASE II experience.
- Natural body comes first.
- Then Spiritual body.
- 1 Cor 15:48.. Jesus will change us and our bodies to spiritual bodies when He returns.
- To become like Him more perfectly.
- THEN, Paul said, WE WILL KNOW HIM.
- Paul said we will know Him when we attain to the resurrection of the dead (Phil. 3:10-11).
- THEN the church will be married to Him and united as one.
- So we need to have that SEED of our bodies filled with the SPIRIT so that they will change at that day.
When God saved us we were not given all.
- It was a PHASE I of Two Phases.
- Do not let religion make you comfortable down here in PHASE I.
- We were saved and given PART of what is our's.
- One more step remains.
- The resurrection.
- WE ARE THEREFORE SAVED IN A STATE OF HOPE.
- We do not have all yet.
Roma 8:18-25 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].
While we wait by hope, the Spirit strengthens us.
Roma 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
While we wait, we must remember we are ordained of God, if we love God, to experience a total change to be totally like Him.
- Presently He works on our hearts and souls.
- Then He will complete the changing and PHASE II will occur as our BODIES are changed into spiritual bodies.
We are presently being BUILT UP so that we will KNOW HIM.
- Do not miss this working and do not think going to church is the ultimate experience.
- We are only getting ready for the BIG DAY.
Is your goal to KNOW HIM, as was Paul's?