A LITTLE CHILDREN

In Sin we want to have Dominion.
In our Sinful State—we desire to have Power. Not only do we desire—but we exercise it.
In Sin, Power is not only a desire—but Sin and Power are almost synonyms.
Who doesn’t desire Power?
Satan desired Power—possibly even before he sinned. And simultaneous with his rupture from the Lord, he desired to have a Dominion.
He wanted Power—and we are not an exception. The struggles that we have are struggles for Power.
Even as Independents—and within the family we want to exercise Power. And we have Bible texts for that—we have Bible texts to support any type of deviation. David had it—and modern human beings also have Bible texts.
"And towards your husband shall be your desire, and he shall rule over thee."
We have Bible texts.
There is a Bible text in Scripture that I would like to understand. I don’t understand it. I have to receive it by Faith. All of God’s Word is received by Faith. All of God’s true knowledge is received by Faith. There is no knowledge of God that is received in a rational way. Because all of God’s knowledge is given through revelation because God knows that He needs to teach me that nothing is mine. Nothing is mine! Everything comes from Him. And Scriptures claim that the only Wise One is God. I am not wise. He is the Wise. How difficult it is to admit it. How difficult—especially for adults.
We believe that we know. We believe that we have. We know that we have power. But how difficult it is for God to teach us that.
And here there is a Bible text that I place before you as a homework, as I have for a homework for myself. My reason does not understand it. My mental capacity is not able to grasp it, but I have to come in faith. You’ll find it in Psalm 8.
"O Lord, our Lord."
For me it is very beautiful how David starts off. David is in complete recognition of God. He recognizes the Lord and the only great theme for him is the Lord.
"O Lord, our Lord. How excellent is Thy name in all the earth. Who has set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. . ."
And of sucklings!
"Hast Thou ordained strength."
The strength—and the Power—in the little babies. I don’t understand it.
In Goliath I see power. In David there was power. The adults are the ones that have power. In developed and mature men we find power. The rich have power. Those that have some type of recognition are the ones that have power.
But God says, "Out of the mouth of babes hast Thou ordained strength." I don’t understand it. I don’t know if you understand it.
But in matter of salvation we don’t have to understand this—we have to experience it—as a fact. And these acts, if they don’t come through the path of reason, if they don’t come through that mental laboratory of ours—for us they are not truth.
But thanks be to God that scriptures are not given in a laboratory way. They are not of a sensorial nature—they are given through revelation. And our Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11. Listen to what Matthew 11 says—we know it by heart—we know it as a Bible text—we have done exegesis on it—but we don’t have the experience. Verse 25:
"At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."
The Lord is pleased in revealing Himself to children. That is His pleasure. Why?
And today this manifestation has been destroyed. Today children are Satan’s objectives, because the old people—we are already possessed by him. So now his objective is reaching and taking control of the children.
Heaven has given us a science of education and you know that heaven’s science of education is a redemptive science, because for Jesus, to educate is to redeem. To educate is to restore. To educate is NOT to inform—to be informed. Anyone can be informed, but to be redeemed, heaven says that the science of education is the science of redemption.
And many of us have failed in that area. We have informed our children but they have not been restored. We have given them a secular education. They have degrees. They have obtained power. They have dominion. They have received recognition. But they haven’t been redeemed and God wants to redeem the children. He has purposed Himself to redeeming the children.
To Nicodemus the Lord said: "If thou wantest to see—ye have to be born again."
And to the disciples He said: "If you want to enter in." What is more, to see or to enter in? What is more? What do you prefer—to see—or to get inside? It is more to be able to get in, and we that are curious, we want to go in.
And to the disciples He said: "If you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you have to be converted and become as children."
But these children—to these children—God did not tell them that they would see, the Lord did not tell them that they would enter—the Lord said: "of theirs IS—of them IS—the kingdom of heaven."
How did Jesus teach? Different from how we teach. How did Jesus teach? With acts—He was very objective—and with the most simple—simple way. And He took a child—not like this child here—this child has a difference with the children of Jesus’ time and age, because, in Jesus’ time, children were more innocent than these children. 2,000 years ago—can you imagine a child of 2,000 years ago? It is kind of difficult to imagine it.
Can you imagine a baby in David’s time and age? 3,000 years ago—the days of King David—a child—a baby—it is difficult to fathom it.
But 2,000 years ago—children, without sugar. A child today without sugar? Without a genetic trail of sugar consumption? A child without Television? It’s a strange child. A child without internet? A child without pornography? What kind of child? What kind of children? Oh how much the Lord wishes that our children could be raised up like that!
But we today—these children—to these children—we put them the movie of Goliath and we place before them the movie of Goliath and we do not know that that Goliath is just an actor—he is not real—he is not real. And we destroy the children with that Goliath.
And then we present to them a David, who is also an actor and they pay him to be an actor, but he is not real. Which is the real David? That is the one I must discover in the scriptures and show those children the power of David—the dependence of David—David’s trust, his certainty, and the knowledge he had in the God of Israel.
These children without movies can come to know David’s God. But we have lost that reality, and we teach them about Goliath with the movie and possibly, I myself as a Dad represent this Goliath in stead of showing them David. What a dichotomy! And how we destroy the power and the strength that there is in a child that God would like to use to finish this work at this time and age.
There is a characteristic that children have—when a child is born—how much does he know? How much does he know? Nothing! That’s where his power lies—the power of God—not the power of earth. He doesn’t know anything.
When a baby is born how much can he do? How much can he do? Nothing! He can’t do anything. That is where the source of power is according to God, not according to our secular world. Because we can, we know, we are wise—"without Me—ye can do nothing." How difficult it is to experience for the adults—but for children that is easy.
When a child is born how much does he have? How much does a child have when he is born? Nothing! He can’t do anything; he doesn’t know anything; and he doesn’t have anything—nothing. And for us—nothing—is nothing and no one wants to be nothing.
We want to be Somebody.
Why did Jesus say, of the child is the kingdom of heaven and not to hinder them?
But we as adults what do we do is to hinder their entrance in. Even though we are religious—let’s not speak about secular parents. We have hindered their entrance. The disciples were a hindrance. And we hinder from our own children, entering into the kingdom of heaven. This culture has denied children entry into the kingdom of heaven.
But how different is God’s conception of life, because what He conceives—because the conceptions that we have performed should be a conception in the Spirit of the eternal Father. But we have lost that reality and that is where our degeneration and depravity begins. When God said that we should multiply—when He said that we should multiply—He was the One that gave that order—He was the One that said that we should fill the earth. He said that to Adam and Eve and He said it in an imperative language. He said it as a supplication, as an order. But when He said that we should multiply ourselves, He did not order us just to multiply the biological factories. That is the work of spiritualism. Spiritualism has made us to multiply just in a biological fashion. That physiologically we reproduce; but not to reproduce in the image of God. What had to be multiplied was God’s image. But we have multiplied just the cells—without the Spirit.
Oh, Elizabeth and Zachariah, they multiplied the Image of God—from the womb—through the Spirit, because in them—scripture says of them that both were righteous—that both of them were righteous. Not before the temple—not before men—not in the synagogue—not in the liturgy—not in the Reformed—not with the Independents—but before God. And He is the One who gives witness that both were righteous and without fault—and without fault!—before the Law—the Torah—and the Law of the Lord.
And what were the results? Oh my beloved, when Zachariah and Elizabeth conceived, were they breathing? Were thy breathing? No they weren’t breathing. When God formed Adam and Eve—He breathed—what was it that He breathed? His character—His being—what He is in His essence and the result was, in this body of cells—in this human form, what He made out of dust—what He breathed in was His Spirit and character. The reality—what is concrete in God. Then He told Adam and Eve—and He has told us—multiply God’s image.
Let us fill our house with God’s image. And God knows that in children, He has to begin. And Ellen White, she says, that higher education are the first years of life. But in the secular world, superior and higher education is post-graduate studies. And we believe in post-graduate studies, but God knows that higher education begins in the womb. There is power in that! A mind that is completely blank, that is void. A mind that is empty, empty of this secular knowledge; empty of these sensorial conceptions; empty of all these philosophies; that it might be filled only of God’s knowledge.
But we have failed in that. Mary did not fail in that. Elizabeth did not fail in that. Hannah did not fail in that. And we have a job, and you know that most of us lost that first birth.
I lost that first birth, but God in His mercy permits us to be born again. And each human being within this simple context can be born two times. The first birth—we lost it. And God has forgiven us. We were ignorant—and God forgives sins of ignorance. And He gives us the opportunity He gave Nicodemus—to be born again. Every human being—has the opportunity of being again a child. Every human being. We—with seventy years of age; with eighty years of age; with fifty years of age or thirty—we can become as children again. And receive the strength, the strength of babies as Psalm 8 says.
There is a characteristic in children, where lies the strength, the power, the dominion, the authority—the authority of God, the divine power.
Oh beloved brethren, Satan wants God’s power without God’s character. He desires power, and human beings in sin, we want power—all types of power—even intellectual power and mental power, even Biblical power. But God’s power has only one foundation—His character. These children, who are born for the first time and the children that are born a second time—that power is their’s; it is implicit in the new birth. It will not be ours—it will always be of Him. And we claim that His things are ours. But the scriptures teach—and you have observed it—that these children are born and they don’t have anything; they don’t posses anything; they don’t know anything; and they can’t do anything.
Have you been present at the birth of a child? Or have you been present at the birth of a horse? Have you seen the difference? How long does it take for the colt to start walking and prancing around? Almost immediately. And why does it happen like that with a human child? The Creator knows why—every child—every child—needs two images of God that might be one. They are made into a help-meet for him. In support—made into security for him.
Not so with the colt, or the calf, or with any other animal. But these children are born for communion. These children are born for dependence. These children are born in faith. These children need a Mom and a Dad—they need. They are born in necessity, they are born dependent and never can they lose that—because when they lose that dependence—they have become adults and they need to be born again.
The Bible says in 1st Corinthians, in 1st Corinthians Paul says something. Let’s see if we admit this. Verse 2 of 1st Corinthians chapter 8; "And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."
In our fallen condition it is very difficult to admit this, which is the problem of husbands and wives. She knows! She knows—and she knows that she knows. And she manifests that she knows. But then she has an encounter with another one that also knows that he knows. And he knows that he knows. And when two wise are confronted, how difficult it is to agree! We know too much.
But children don’t know anything and our Lord, He can write—He can write in the mind of a child all what is His. He can write His Law; He can write His moral values; He can write His name. Oh my beloved, the 144,000 are 144,000 children. Because they have permitted God as Revelation 14:1 says—they have permitted the Lord to write in their frontal lobes—write in their mind—the character of the Father and the character of the Lamb and that’s why they are 144,000—they permitted the heavenly Father to write and all the preconceived things that they have—they have placed them aside so that He could write the image of God in them.
Of the children is the kingdom of heaven. But children in my judgment and you can test it—every child in this fallen world is born in faith. Every child is born in faith. But as adults we loose faith and the characteristic of adults is loosing their faith. And the more we grow we have greater unbelief. And the more we grow, the more suspicious we are. The more we grow, the more we suspect of others.
But children don’t. Children are not suspicious. If they were suspicious, those children would not permit themselves to be abused. But today Satan has permitted that parents, the very same parents and relatives abuse children. And today that is a daily fact in all this fallen world, because the child is born in faith. He trusts. He trusts in Dad; he trusts in Mom; he trusts in his uncle and his aunt—he trusts—so he gives himself and we have lost the capacity of trust—in God’s Word; in our Lord; in His counsel; in His Law; in His Grace and in His Spirit.
But adults—we have faith—we have a lot of faith. We are monsters in faith—but in false faith. We are monsters in false faith—because we trust—we trust tremendously—we trust in ourselves. We have trust—in our selfishness—in our pride and in our wisdom and in our analysis and comprehension. We are monsters of comprehension—in our selfishness.
That is why Jesus said adults will not enter but children will enter. And if you want to see the kingdom of heaven, you have to be born again. And Nicodemus—at our height, at our level, in relationship with our culture—all of us are PhDs compared to Nicodemus. Because what we know now, Nicodemus not even imagined it. What did Nicodemus know about cell-phones? Nothing! Nothing! But we are PhDs in comparison with Nicodemus. And the Lord told Nicodemus, "You are a teacher in Israel."
Notice how the Lord—in every man’s sphere—approaches in order to save him. He does not offend him in order to create resentment. He offends him in order to redeem him. God’s wounds are for salvation. And Nicodemus understood and he experienced it. Nicodemus was a doctor—in his sphere he was the professor—he was a wise man and he knew that he knew. But he came to Jesus, and he came to Jesus led by the Holy Spirit. He did not come in another way—he came led by the Spirit. And you know that the Holy Spirit does not manifest partiality. He moves all of us; He reproves all of us; He convicts all of us. If we accept Him, He will convince us.
He will convince us in our homes, where lies our family problems. He will convict us and He will convince me that the problem is not in her. The Holy Spirit never comes to me to convince me that the other one is sinful. The Holy Spirit will always come upon me, to convince me, that I am the problem and not that she is the problem.
And if I have trust I will trust in Him. And in order to trust in Him, I have to be as a child. Have you seen children? Children when they feel, when they perceive that they are going to be without communion, that father is going to separate from them, that mother is going to go away from them, they experience something and they don’t want to be separated. He doesn’t want to break the relationship—because children are born in faith, and in communion. They want to belong to Daddy, and to their Mom, they want to be there. And when a child perceives that; when a child perceives that Mom is going to go away he starts to experience fear. And he has this fear; he doesn’t want to separate himself. The child grasps and he grabs his Mom’s skirt—he has faith—he trusts—he needs communion. He is born in communion. But what do we do? In Latin countries, we tell children, "Children, don’t cry! Be a Macho. Don’t cry." And we use a deceptive technique. We take him to the back room, and we put him some toys, and we turn on the television, and we put a movie. And now we even give him a cell phone and give him a computer and internet and we entertain him. And then, when we have him entertained, we tip-toe outside.
We are very intelligent and we destroy thus their faith. And we destroy their communion. And we destroy their trust. And we are criminals! Destroying children. Oh my beloved, when has the Eternal Father separated Himself from us?
At what age did you separate your children from you? At what age were you as a child separated from your parents? At what age did the yellow bus come? At what age—and we were separated. And in that moment, when the yellow bus comes for the first time, what is the children’s reaction? They cry! They reject! They don’t want to be separated. They were born in faith, in trust, in dependence—but we separate them.
At seven years of age, at eight years of age, father comes home, or the mother comes home, and the child does not greet Dad, and he does not greet Mom. He doesn’t know who Mom is. He doesn’t really know who Dad is. But he knows about movies and he knows what is on television. He knows who is the actor, he knows who is the great sports man. And he knows very well the basketball player. But he doesn’t know his papa, and he doesn’t know his momma. The child has been trained to love things. And we change his values; we change his values from trust a person, from trusting in father, from trusting in mother, to place his trust on television; to place his trust on toys. Oh, loved ones, what a crime!
Children are born in faith. Jesus was born in faith. And Mary—never separated herself from Him. John the Baptist was born in faith and Elizabeth never left him. Together as one without rupture, without separation.
But today we separate, because we need to have and having is more important than these children. For us, having is more than faith. And that’s why we—faith in God’s Word, faith in God, that’s an idea—something abstract. Something somewhere up in the air. Our monstrous faith is in what we have; in what we possess; and our values, are about having things. We cannot live without having and each day the more ‘adult’ we become; we want to have more things. And the more we want to have things—the less we are; the less we are.
In order to be—we don’t need to have anything. And these children are born, without having things. And they are born without a desire of having things. But we teach them to have things.
Paul said; "We bring nothing to this world when we are born." Nothing! What did you bring when you were born? What did you bring? Nothing!
And when we die—how much do we take? Nevertheless we place our faith in what we have. And God has desired that we loose faith in what we have and that we might place faith in He who made heaven and earth. Because He wants to found His fortress in children—in children.
If you do not become—and are converted—as one of these—I assure you, verily, unto you—unto you Peter, unto you John, to Matthew, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
What a simple lesson. What a simple lesson! But we don’t understand it. Our mind is so complex, our knowledge is so structured, and our wisdom is so abundant, that we don’t understand what doesn’t require even a dictionary. When our Lord Jesus was very objective, and when He saw the desire for power; the desire of greatness; when He saw that those disciples were already structured with the mind-set of the synagogue and the Pharisees. They wanted to be the wisest. They wanted to be the great ones.
The Lord simply looked for a child, a child of 2,000 years ago, and he placed him in the midst of them.
I can imagine the disciples—"What does Jesus pretend to do with this?"
If you are not converted and become as one of these—ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever humbleth himself as a child shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever trusts, as a child trusts, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Because of them—theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
My beloved brethren, the Holy Spirit wants us to be born again. As Nicodemus—and that we might be born into communion with Him; into dependence on Him; in the certainty of falling into His arms. And just as these children give themselves, just as this little girl gives herself, and comes, and remains here, and obeys, in the same way God desires that your life—that my life—that our lives, may remain, may begin, may be surrendered, may trust, and may wait and may rest, in His arms. In His power.
Then His kingdom will be ours. All what is His, will be ours. Because He is ours. Jesus said, "Our Heavenly Father"—"Our Father"—He is your Father!
Oh beloved, we are orphans. We are orphans. May God permit us to be children in Him.
AMEN

WHO IS MAN?

How do we know?
We know as the enemy knows.
But we don’t know as Jesus knew.
The Knowledge of Jesus is different from the knowledge of Satan and he has taught us to know as he knows. But we need to know as Jesus knew.
There is something that Jesus knows and it’s in His heart, it’s in His mind, it’s in His feelings and it’s in His work. What He knows and what He is, is only one thing.
What does He know about you? He knows something about you; He knows something about us that He will never loose—He will never loose. That’s why He came to this earth, because He knows who you are. But we—what we should most know is who is my neighbor? That is what we should most know.
A husband—who he should most know, is about his wife, but that is what we less know. We know her as the enemy knows her, but not as Jesus knows us.
What does Jesus know about you that we have forgotten? Then our knowledge only reaches the world of ideas. Satan’s knowledge is a knowledge of ideas. And Satan knows in that realm, who are you. But that is not True Knowledge; that is a false knowledge because True Knowledge has to be real. It has to be authentic and it has to be one—it’s a Knowledge that is integrated.
God knows that a child is the image of God. God knows and He knows that from the child, the image of God is the Kingdom of Heaven. But Satan doesn’t know that. Satan has the idea; he knows that human beings are in the image of God, but the way he deals with them is Satanic. The way he deals with them is unto perdition and the way he deals with them is criminal.
But the way Jesus treats us is redemptive; is in Hope; is in Love; is of Faith, because He knows who is mankind and He knows it in reality. When He approaches man, He approaches to God’s image. He does not approach a sinner; He approaches to God’s image. He cannot think that he is going to be lost. He is hope and salvation for him because He knows who is man.
Do we know who is man? The only thing we can do with humanity, if we know mankind as Jesus knows us is to justify him. But the work that Satan does least is to justify, because he has the idea—as an idea he knows—he has the information—possibly more than you or I have—but he has lost reality and he has divorced the idea of reality. That has happened with us—that is what we know and that is why we sing but what we sing is only an idea.
There is a hymn in Spanish that says; "I left it all". It’s an old hymn; "I left it all". It’s a beautiful song; it’s a beautiful idea; it is beautiful as liturgy and if we play it on the piano it reaches our senses; but it’s not real. We haven’t left anything! We continue in our selves. We continue in our selfishness. We haven’t left anything—but we sing it—that’s how Satan sings too. He sings ideas; he sings concepts; and he knows concepts. He knows Bible texts and he knows this is truth—but as a theory, not as a living thing.
Jesus handles these things as truth. He came to give us life. He came to give life unto the children and He told them that theirs was the Kingdom of Heaven. But Satan knows that they are God’s image but his purpose is to destroy that.
Spiritualism–terrible how spiritualism is! And that is the common denominator of all of our thoughts. We can think it. We can even feel it. We can theorize about it. We can be philosophical about it and we can make a theology out of it. But we cannot make it Truth; because Truth is what is and in order for it to be, not only does it have to exist—besides existing—it has to be pure. If it isn’t pure it isn’t real, because what isn’t pure is false. And if my idea is only an idea but it is not real, in the way we deal with others, then it is false.
What did Jesus say about the children? Psalm 8:2: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength."
And here David is beholding the heavens and when he beholds the heavens, and he beholds the moon and he looks at the stars, in a very personal language. David is not speaking theory; David spoke in a personal language; "Your hands! Your hands!" for David, God was real. "Your hands—made the moon and made the stars; made the heavens—Your hands!" David’s language is person to person.
For David, the Creator was the eternal ‘Thou Art’. He was the eternal ‘I Am’. And when he beholds the heavens and the stars, the question that arises is, Who is Man? What is man? Who am I? Who is my neighbor? Who is my wife? Who is my son? And he finds an answer—a little lower than the angels—a little lower than angels. A child—a little lower than an angel. And then he says; the crown—a child is God’s crown. "And Thou hast crowned him with glory."
Thou hast crowned him with glory—and what is glory? Character—the moral essence—the same essence of God. The essence of God is the essence of mankind and that’s why, for Jesus here on earth, the most solemn attitude—His most solemn moment was when He approached man. He could not manipulate him; He could not submit him; He could not force him. He could only love him. He could only serve him. What’s more, his values—He respected the person’s values. Our Lord Jesus knew that man is God’s image—crowned with glory—full of light—because he was the work of His hands.
Do we know that? Are we aware of that? The way we treat ourselves is what defines it. And in Scriptures we don’t find definitions. Greeks gave definitions. Greeks are experts in giving definitions. But in the Old Testament, definitions are acts—the acts of God. He defines—gives a definition—with acts, with His work. He doesn’t give definitions as ideas—He defines with acts.
And for Jesus, the way you deal with others, the way He approached us, is what speaks about who is man. Who is mankind for God? His image and likeness—and He knows what He did when He made mankind and has crowned him with glory and honor.
There is something very interesting, not only interesting but important; the inspired counsel says that God created the human mind and it responds to all the faculties of God’s mind. I can’t think it—it is very difficult for me to think it—to consider that our mind is designed as the divine mind. And that the Lord through the Gospel, through His word, through His redemptive method, what He is doing is associating, relating, having communion, constantly, so that our mind might respond to the divine mind. That is the work of the Gospel—of the true Gospel and very vital in this association of minds the experience of faith, because we now in faith need to accept—we need to experience—we need the act that each human being is crowned with glory—crowned with the character of God and full of honor.
We have lost that—as a concept we have lost it. In school they taught me that man is an animal. That’s what they taught me. In elementary school, in high school, in college, I was taught that man is an animal. Once I took a class of zoology at college level and there they taught me that man is an animal, an arthropod, vertebrate, is a mammal, and bi-pedal, stands on two legs. That’s what science taught me. That’s what reason teaches.
And when I learned that, how do I treat my fellow man? And when we marry, with whom do we marry? With an animal, and animals growl at each other; they scratch each other; and they destroy each other.
Not so with the image of God. The image of God—you can only love. God’s image—God can only justify it. God’s image—He can only sanctify it. And in order to achieve it, heaven itself—the Lord Himself—He divested Himself; He emptied Himself; and He Himself descended and was incarnated among us. And He takes our condition upon Himself because His purpose is to reach God’s image and He has to finish in death—in the death of the cross. The most terrible death, in order to restore the child, mankind, the adult, the human being—because He knows who is man.
Do we know it? Or have we lost that? Satan has not lost it totally. He has the idea. He knows the texts—he knows the Bible texts but he has lost the reality of it. Have we lost that reality? We have to recuperate it—we have to recuperate it by faith. By faith it is easy to recuperate it.
My feelings say that he is stupid; my theory says that he is the image of God. That is the science of spiritualism; to break apart; to separate; to disintegrate. At the knowledge level he is a philosopher—Satan is a philosopher, he is a theologian and he knows how to disintegrate faith; and he has disintegrated faith and works. In the Old Testament that is not disintegrated: the verb ‘to hear’ that Moses used so much, that is a verb of salvation. The verb ‘hearing’ in the Hebrew semantic is an integrated verb. The Lord has done marvelous things with us because hearing in the Old Testament is the same verb used for obeying.
It is the same verb. He who hears—obeys. When you hear the car honking, what do you do? Do you obey? And how long do you take to obey? Almost instantaneously; Because we were created as an integrated being and our nervous system corresponds to the faculties of the divine mind and that mind heaven is constantly associating with and that Satan is constantly separating but that God is always trying to integrate.
And the mystery of that integration is by the Word. The instrument that God has in order to integrate us in Him, so that our mind might become His mind, is His Word. It’s a mystery—His Word—it’s a reality—His Word. Paul said, "All scripture is inspired by God."
This is not paper! Satan has made it just paper. But this is not paper. We carry the paper around but we don’t keep the Word. The Word is not white and black; the Word is not letters; the Word is Him! And when God incarnates Himself in His Word it is through His Spirit. And that same Spirit, that same Lord, who inspired the scriptures, is the same Lord who made your life and my life. And when He made our ear, He made our ear in such a way that to hear is to obey.
So; we receive the sensorial impression. We hear the horn honking, and the body is able to perceive, transmit and interpret that message. You perceive it; it is transmitted; it arrives to the mind; it is interpreted; the mind does hermeneutics; and then through another pathway of nervous communication—the motor system—then the order is sent. The human body, created in God’s image: faith; love; righteousness is a fact; is a reality; is something concrete. It happens in the being and heaven constantly in our fallen condition is constantly associating that with us so that it might be a reality and not just a declaration.
Oh, but Satan is a great philosopher and theologian, and he has been able to disintegrate scriptures and God’s plan. And we have fallen into that knowledge and that trap because we at intellectual levels, we know that it’s the image of God. But in reality we call him stupid.
Sometimes, anytime, have you ever felt that someone was foolish? Have you ever felt that? Jesus never felt that! And He placed that in the sixth commandment: "thou heard that is was said ‘thou shalt not kill’—the sermon on the mount—you have heard that it was said of them of old times, Matthew 5:21—oh the comprehension that God has of His law! For Jesus, His law is not a Roman law, but for us westerners, the Law is a Roman concept. That is how we still deal with scriptures. But for Jesus, His Law is not a Roman concept. For Jesus, the Law—He was the Law and He is Love.
That is something very different and that’s why God says in Matthew 5:21, 22: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:" and then tooth by tooth and eye by eye—in the Roman Law: "But I say unto you, That whosoever" Whosoever! Anyone! "who is angry"
Have we become angered? Have we been angry? Against the image of God? Have we been angry against a child? We shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, because he who is angry against his brother, is a criminal in God’s law, because he is the image of God. He is not an animal. He is not a thing. He is not a concept—he is a reality. And to the image of God, the image of God only deserves that God’s Son empty Himself of being what He is and that that may not rise up to His head what He was before creation but that He might descend and He become nothing and He might become one with us and that He might take upon Himself our fallen condition and that He might finish upon the cross.
He knows who is a child. Do we know that? Who is a child? Do we know who is our neighbor? Do we know who is our wife? How do we know it? As the devil knows it—or as Jesus knows it? That’s the great difference.
The knowledge of God is not a theory; it’s not information; God’s knowledge is a participation—is completely different to the way in which we have been educated. Because we sit down in school—ten years; fifteen years; twenty years; even thirty years and all that we receive is information—but not Life.
But when God gives knowledge, He gives Life. When God gives Knowledge, He is the One who is giving Himself—He is the One who offers Himself and we must receive Him. And that’s why in scripture to know—is to enter in—so intimately—in such an intimate manner that what is mine, He takes it—and what is His—I receive it.
I give Him all my filthiness, and I give Him my pride, and I give Him my self-sufficiency, and He gives me what He is. He gives it. Because knowing God is to participate of Him and He compared it beautifully—"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood", and we understand very little of those two verbs because in Jesus’ semantics, just as Jesus gave them of the bread. They didn’t know Him, but as they broke the bread and as they drank the wine, the Lord Jesus was telling them that during three years He had participated them of His glory, of His Character; of His weight, of His consistency in life, of His being.
To Know God is to participate in Him and whosoever participates of Him, the concept of the image of God, the idea of the image of God becomes a reality—something that he lives. And the way we relate and deal with others comes to be just as He dealt with us. That is a reality. The rest is falsehood and is spiritualism. The enemy has made this into a conception—into an idea—he’s the image of God—he’s the image of God and once in a while I am angered against the image of God. Have we been angry against the image of God?
Matthew 5:22: "But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother .. shall be in danger of the judgment:" Is this literature? Is this theology? Philosophy? Is it a concept? Or is it a reality? How do we assume it? Do we assume it as Satan does? Or do we assume it as Jesus does.
And then the Lord adds, because He wanted to explain it well, "and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."
The law of the Lord is not Roman law. It’s not a commandment, it is not a command—it is integrated in His life and in the life of your neighbor and the life of the image of God. And the fact of only thinking it, the fact of only considering it, destroys me. And what I should think about my neighbor and I should believe about my neighbor, and I should know about my neighbor is that he is the image of God.
Jesus—Jesus; the greatness of Jesus; He never under valuated us—never! He cannot conceive to under valuate what He created. He cannot reject what He has done. But human beings in sin, in our spiritualistic condition, we devaluate and we reject man. We take away his value.
Not even from Satan has God taken away from him his value. Because in the book of Job they talked; and how did they talk? Were they angry? Was the Lord angry with Satan? They had a dialogue—they shared. I don’t understand that. I receive it by faith. I have to receive it by faith because if I start reasoning it, I’ll become a devil myself. But it is revealed—they talked—and how did they talk? He even gave him permission. He even gave him permission.
God knew that Job, created a little less than angels, was crowned by the glory of God. And by the grace of God, he was capable of resisting anything coming from Satan. I don’t understand it, but I receive it by faith. And the Lord told him, "Try him. Test him. But don’t touch his life."
In what type of language? In what way? Oh my beloved, when we do not agree, do we get angry? Because the other one doesn’t believe as I believe? And then maybe we think, he’s a fool. And in our thought we are killing the image of God.
Who is man? Do we know who he is? Do we know who is a child? Or have we lost that knowledge. What is it that we must most know? What should we most know? Whom should we most understand? Humanity—because we live with humanity; we eat with human beings; we work with human beings; and without human beings we can’t do anything. You sell something and you buy something and in this world, what can we do without buying and selling? And in order for you to buy, you have to find someone; and in order to sell, you have to find someone.
How do we know human beings? As a client? Or as the image of God. How do we know him?
The science of anthropology is a new science. Human beings were first concerned about chemistry or physics, all that was material—all that was ‘things’. We have forgotten about who is man. And we are victims of that secular knowledge. And when man began to study man, then they came to the conclusion that we are sons of the gorillas.
But scriptures say that man—in chapter one—in the first chapter—that you and I are the image of God. And that between us—between us—there is no dominion, amongst us. And between us, there is no authority. It is so solemn, the image of God is so solemn that the only thing there can be between a human being and a fellow human being is the only thing there is between our Creator and us—Love and Faith. That’s the only thing according to Creation—that’s the only thing. According to redemption—that’s the only thing.
There isn’t power over between husband and wife. There is no dominion between husband and wife. The relationship between husbands and wives is a relationship in God’s image.
And the Lord says that every human being is a gift–it’s a gift. What God did with Adam was to give him a gift. Eve was a gift, in the same way as Jesus is a gift for us. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have eternal life."
What is the value that a human being has? Even in his fallen condition—what is his value? The same value of the Son of God was given to us—was given to us. He came as an intercessor. He put Himself as a bridge. He placed Himself in our position. He does not concede to under valuate us.
It is so easy for us to devaluate a human being—so easily that we do it! And we destroy the sixth commandment; but he that destroys the sixth commandment—destroys the whole law.
Jesus explained it even further and He spoke about liturgy and we are children of liturgy. And He spoke about the Sabbath—if you bring your offering to the altar—if we bring an offering to the altar. Oh my beloved ones, which is the first offering we must bring. The way we deal with our fellow man—that is the first offering. Because that was the offering He gave us. But we have changed that offering for coins; for papers. And we do it with good motivation.
But if we bring that offering, the offering of paper, and while I bring that paper offering, then I remember that my brother—my brother—has something against me. Not that I have something against him, because what I have against someone else the Holy Spirit convicts me constantly. But the Lord Jesus placed these things on a level that is totally alterocentric. If I remember, if I consider, if I think that some human being, who is being indifferent towards me, that there is a cold atmosphere between the two of us. He avoids me.
Have we experienced that? Yes, we experience it. Sometimes it is even with our wife. Sometimes it is in the family that I experience that something is not quite right. There is a cold atmosphere but I go to the temple to offer myself to God. Oh my beloved, in God’s law that is not letters, that is life, that is love, that is His character—between me and him there can’t be coldness. There can’t be indifference. There can’t be barriers. The only thing that should be between us is love—even towards our enemy. Love thy enemy, that is the law of the Lord, because our enemy is the image of God.
The knowledge of Jesus is very different from Satan’s knowledge. Which is our knowledge? "And this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." That is the true knowledge, to know Him. Because knowing Him, is to restore my relationship to humanity in God’s image.
To know Him is to participate of His image and likeness. And in creation there is a chain that can’t be broken between what He did; between what He is; and between what you are; and between what my neighbor is; and what natural law is. That’s why Jesus said that if we do not forgive—He does not forgive. Because it is a chain—it is a chain of the integration of creation. But that chain was broken by sin, but that chain is restored in the redemption process.
There are two creations; the first creation and the second creation. The same Author of the first creation is the same Author of the second. And the purpose of the first creation is the same purpose of the second creation. The restoration of God’s image—not as an idea—as a reality. And the evidence of this fact is the way we treat each other.
How do we receive each other? Because Jesus said, in Matthew 18:5 Jesus said, "And whosoever". Once again this pronoun that is so wide—it is not exclusive.
"And whosoever shall receive one such little child in My name Receiveth Me."
For me this is not theology. For me this is not philosophy. For me this is a reality. It is not a declaration, it is a fact. And it has happened in me by God’s grace because He is associating through the gospel, by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the work of the new creation, through His Word—He is associating my mind with His mind.
Oh, if there is a solemn thought, it’s the thought that God, when He came to this earth, not only did He identify Himself with us, because it is easy to identify yourself with. Nowadays in the United States you have to identify yourself. Before you didn’t have to do it. You have to show a picture—your ID—before you didn’t have to do that. To identify ourselves is easy. But Jesus did not just identify Himself with us—He went beyond—because He is a reality. The concept is identity, but the reality is to assume our identity. He assumed our identity. He became one with us. And He said whatever you do to one of these little ones, you have done it unto Me. To Me!
The indifference that I have with my fellowman, the way I feel with my fellow man. The judgment that I make of ‘foolish’, ‘stupid’, that I do in my thoughts, I am doing it to Him! To Him. And that is killing, and that is breaking the law, the law of the Lord, that is perfect and that converts the soul.
Oh my brethren, this gospel is so beautiful! But it is beautiful when you live it. And you can live it, in every encounter with a human being. And you can value; and you can dignify; and you can uplift. I can descend and I can go down, and I can empty myself, and I become totally void, as a child—as a child, in order to dignify and uplift my fellow man, because he is the image of God. And through the image of God, God’s relationship with her, after sin, was in blood and we understand very little about this.
For heaven—in order for heaven to be able to reach me—had to spill blood. It’s the price of blood. Oh my beloved, heaven desires–He wants us to have encounters in that manner, that we might participate each other in that way. Then by faith in God’s grace, we will become children: "and of them is the kingdom of heaven".
May God bless us and keep us!

TEH SECOND COMMANDMENT: PART 1

We are speaking to a group that loves the law of God, so we don’t have any problems.
All reformatory movements have deformed themselves. The word ‘reform’ is in itself a problem, because people want to change the forms. But the Holy Scriptures are not a book of forms.
Culture gives us forms; the Lord gives us principles, and the principles never change. A principle can never change. That’s why the Lord never changes; because He Is.
All human things are manifested through forms and we need to see behind the form what is the principle and we need to live the principle.
We cannot compromise on a principle. We can compromise on a form. But in religion, many have confused form with principle, or principle with form. And in religion we make forms into principles. And we make principles from forms.
Jesus never confused a form, but He had to live in the external forms of the Hebrew culture and forms change from time to time. Jesus’ world was different from Isaiah’s world. Isaiah’s world was a world that had not been penetrated by the Greek culture. But Jesus’ world had been evangelized and penetrated by the Hellenistic culture. And forms are constantly changing and that’s why we have to reform forms. So people reform forms and many times they are unaware of the principles.
So here we have a serious cultural problem and I cannot resolve it. Joshua couldn’t resolve this problem but he arrived at a conclusion: "I and my house, we will serve the Lord."
A serious problem among reformers, when a reformer wants to change somebody, he gets into a problem. John Calvin wanted to change the Swiss people; he wanted to make changes in the people of Geneva. With the best heart; with the best motivation; and he had to flee. He couldn’t reform them.
Who can reform us? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can change our forms—He’s the only One.
When in Germany they wanted to change the worship, it was a cultural tragedy and the enemy used it to try and destroy Luther’s work. The people wanted to take away the idols but the problem is not so much in the idol. The idol is a representation and it’s evil—it’s evil—according to Scriptures it’s evil. But there is something greater than the idol, and that is what is behind it. And what is behind the idol is what makes the idol an idol—it is affection. And when we love something, values are formed. What makes the idol an idol, is not the form, but the principle of love, and the principle of faith. Then to change a form, the first thing you need to change is not the form itself. It’s the value; it’s the love that we need to change, and when we change the affections, the idols will disappear.
Most reformers have failed in this. They have taken away the form—the external form, but the affection and the love remains for that form. And people will always be looking for forms because the affections are still alive.
That’s the problem we have with television. Children watch television, and suddenly the parents are converted. And they’ve been watching television for fifteen years. Mom went to work and the movie was the one that entertained them. And in this cultural process where we are loosing our person, our values of security—our values of belonging, of love, the values of relating one to another, are transferred to the television set, and we loose that from the person.
So fifteen years in this process and the television and the child are not two—they become one. Just like the drunkard and liquor become one. So people are born again, so they know that television is not good for their children, so the natural motivation and the natural reaction, is to take away the television, and we take it away. But we don’t take away the love for the television. We don’t take away the pleasure; we don’t take away the taste and the problem is the taste. What we need to change is their inclination and their taste first. And the only way to change a taste, the only way to change a pleasure, the only way to change a love, is to give a greater love instead.
And the only greater love, the only affection that is greater, the only real love that there is—is God’s love.
But we have failed in giving that love, and when I do not give that love, a void is created, an emptiness is created, and Satan is an expert in filling up these voids. We create a crime when we don’t pour out God’s love to our children; because we are preparing them to be empty. And today there are many gods; that is what we have today, because anything that separates me from the love of God—anything—that will take me apart from the will of God, is a god, and we love that, and it’s a serious problem.
So we come to the conclusion, as we come to understand these things, we come to one conclusion—it’s you and your family.
Joshua lived in Moses’ time. Humanly speaking it seems impossible that the people of Israel should go astray in Moses’ time. But they went astray in Moses’ time. And when Joshua arrived on the scene the people of Israel had gone so astray that Joshua had to make a proclamation. You remember Joshua’s proclamation, Joshua said very clearly, and he said it as a challenge, and he told them: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, or the gods of the Hittites, or the gods of the Canaanites, or Jehovah. Because I and my house, we will serve the LORD."
For Joshua, idolatry was a problem, and he wasn’t able to resolve this problem. And the way of solving this problem was; ‘me and my house’. We are living in a time when you and your family should serve the Lord; because if you look around you, you are not going to find faith; you are not going to find purity; you are not going to find sanctification out of our family. And even in our heart there is only sin and who can legislate that?
The Holy Spirit is able to change our idols. The Holy Spirit breaks through culture and breaks my values, but He breaks them unto salvation. He does not break them to destroy me. And at the same time when the Holy Spirit breaks my values, He restores and builds eternal values. And He makes the New Birth possible—that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. He does not force us—He does it through pleadings—He begs us. He does it in love, because that is God’s plan, without forcing, to give His love.
So the answer will be an answer of love, because any answer that is a forced answer, will convert the person into a Pharisee, or a schizophrenic. Righteousness by works; people will clean the bowl outside. And all reforms are full of plates that have been washed on the outside but not internally.
The work of God is from inside out, it is not from outside towards the inside. The Lord works inside first and then outside. But we—we only look at what is external and we fool and deceive ourselves with the external. But the Lord looks at what is in the heart.
That’s the problem and the Lord will give you wisdom to solve this problem.
Let us look now at one of the reasons for the law of God, and let us look at the principle that is underneath. It is very important that we learn the principle that is under God’s law.
The language of God’s law is a very simple language—the most simple. Nobody can misinterpret God’s law. The clearest word that we find in English and the clearest word we can find in Spanish—I don’t know for you which one it is, but for me, the clearest word I can find is ‘NO’. It’s very clear. Do you need some hermeneutics to understand the word ‘no’? Can you interpret the word ‘no’? And if it’s a no that comes from God—but the Divine ‘no’s’ go against human forms. And then we have a problem. Joshua couldn’t solve that problem. We need to solve this problem by faith because each one of us can give an answer to the Lord in our hearts.
One of the things that is difficult to understand today is the biblical principle of separation. The Lord always wanted a separate people. The Lord always worked to have a separate people. One of the most difficult things is to know how to separate ourselves and at the same time, still be in the world. That’s a tremendous job.
Those who will be saved, have to learn this.
Daniel learned this and if Daniel could learn, we can also learn it. He lived in Babylon, and he did not live in one of the suburbs of Babylon, he lived in the house of the King of Babylon. He had to eat from the table of the King of Babylon. He lived in Babylon. He was a citizen of Babylon and he was not a part of Babylon. He never polluted himself with Babylon. Not many human beings have had that experience.
Most of us assimilate, and that’s the danger, that we will be assimilated. The Lord knows that that danger exists, and Deuteronomy 7 is very clear in regards to what the Lord did—He destroyed seven nations—seven nations! To destroy seven nations, my brethren, to separate His people—we can’t imagine that, because today we don’t work with those forms. But in that time, that was the way of doing things. Many people don’t understand these workings of the Lord. But He is Sovereign.
So they destroyed these seven nations and after that destruction, to establish the people, so they wouldn’t be confused with the world, the Lord spoke about marriage. He told them that they could not marry someone that was not of the people of God. ‘Thou shalt not give thy son to their daughter, neither shalt thou give thy daughter to their son,’ because they will be corrupted.
What about us today? Have we followed this commandment? Have we been assimilated? How difficult for the Lord! One of the things that is the most difficult for the Lord, is to form a people that will not be assimilated by the culture. A family is converted and the children, they are not converted. When they are fifteen years old, they are totally assimilated into the culture, and we have to start again.
If this people had conserved its children, since the days of the pioneers, what power would we have! A genetic power—because in the law of God is promised the protection of our genetics. And God knows how to protect that, and He said ‘No’; and ‘No’ is ‘No’. For me, the word ‘No’ is ‘No’.
Let’s look at the problem. What is behind God’s law, when it is spoken in a negative way? The Lord gave His law in negative language. In the Garden of Eden there was a law, because God’s law is as eternal as Himself, because God’s law is not a rule. It is not a Roman law. God’s law is Him—His character. It’s difficult for us to grasp this, because we have learned that God’s law is a set of rules. But we have not learned that the law of God is a Person.
But God’s law is His character; it is what He is, and before sin, the expression of God’s law was something totally positive. But after sin, He had to give a law with the purpose of preventing. Heaven works with us in prevention. He does not work with medicine, the medicine—the remedy is after we sin. But before we sin, He has placed prevention. God does not want us to get sick; He wants us to be without sickness. In the same way He wants us to be without sin.
So in order to be without sickness, He gave us His commandments—natural law and moral law. In order that we might not sin, He gave us His law, so that we can know that the word ‘No’ means ‘No’.
There is something here that is very important; the Lord knew that my capacity for feeling—that my feeling capacity cannot be apart from His will. My capacity to feel was created to be lived in God’s will. My feelings were given to me to remain in God’s will; in God’s image; in His likeness. When God created us, the image of God was everything and our feelings were at the service of the image, at the service of His will. In that way, my feelings were not independent. They depended upon the character and the image of God.
Satan’s work, the specialized work of spiritualism, in the process of disintegration—not only has he disintegrated the body from the soul, when body and soul are separated and they are no longer one, there are many more things—emotions are separated from principle in such a way that emotions and feelings and sensory capacity—all that has to do with my feelings and emotions is separated from the only will—God’s will.
That is what is behind the law in negative language. And heaven knows—heaven knows, and has experienced it very well, because God is the best laboratory that there is. He’s the best scientist and He knows all the research throughout eternity. He knows what would happen in my capacity to see without God’s will—apart from the principle of God’s love.
Divine love independent of my visual capacity, the only thing that it can do is to destroy me. And the Lord placed the commandments: Thou shalt not commit adultery, and the Lord Jesus explained it: anyone who beholds; he who looks; independent of the principle of love is committing adultery in his heart.
The Lord anticipates the disintegration of the process of feelings and morality. Everything that has to do with our feelings and that which is moral is one in creation. But the enemy has separated it. And when we become independent, the only thing that can happen is that we degrade.
There is an expression in the Scriptures that explains this very well, Numbers chapter 15; and look how the Lord prevented it. The Lord knows what happens with our eyes and how the Lord has permitted the use of the word, and here we enter into the field of education. The Lord knows that my feelings need to be educated by His Word first. So my feelings can be conditioned, educated, by the Word. And we have failed in this.
Our feelings see the things that are out there, before receiving the Word. And when my feelings perceive the outer world, independent of the Word, that’s Satan’s work.
That’s the way we have been educated—all of us. Mary taught her child the Word as sovereign and the Word informed His senses. The other way around was that his senses would inform himself. And the law of God is given for this, so that our feelings will be informed by His Word; by the character of God; by His reality, before anything else.
That can be done even in pre-natal life and mothers have failed in this. And that’s where we see how deep God’s Word is.
Look at this illustration—Numbers 15: it’s given in a rule, in a form. But behind this form is the principle. But we read the form with our senses, while in the spirit we should have seen the principle. Let’s read verse 37 and onward. "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:"
The Lord had to use as a resource, sensorial things because He is constantly uniting our things with His. He knows how to do this.
Verse 39: "And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it." Look—a sense; you must notice here, the senses. The Lord has taken into account all our capacity to feel and He prevents, because He knows what will come afterwards, when I see.
We can include another element in here; very important. Today it is not important, but for the Lord it has always been important. How were Adam and Eve dressed? I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything. A dress of light? I can’t imagine that, but they were dressed. I don’t know how Adam’s skin was before sin, and if there was some difference between his skin and his dress of light—I don’t know. But something happened when Adam and Eve sinned and it was very important. And what happened when Adam and Eve sinned, happens in us when we disobey. And my feelings are depraved and degenerated more and more, and the Lord wants to prevent that.
Verse 39 "And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:"
Heaven knows what is in my capacity to feel when it is independent of God. And we don’t measure that. We measure money, we count money, we add money, we multiply money, but we don’t measure morality. We don’t measure spiritual things.
We have machines that can measure anything. We measure the earth, we calculate the earth. We weigh the potatoes. What is it that we don’t weigh? What is it that we don’t measure? What is it that we don’t count? All material things, but God counts the feelings, because feelings is what destroys the soul and the spirit and God has taken that in account in God’s law.
And He has restored that with a very simple word, ‘No’. What is the principle that is behind—His love and His mercy, to save us and redeem us from all of this process of depravation.
Some people think that the Catholic Church was the one who changed the commandments. Haven’t we changed the commandments too? What is more damaging, an advertisement on television, a naked woman on television, or the Virgin Mary? Which is more damaging? How do they dress the Virgin Mary? And how do they show the women on television? What is the effect that it has on the feelings?
Thou shalt not make thyself images. Oh, my brethren, what is behind that—we have not measured it. The Holy Spirit has measured it. The Lord has measured it. It’s a very interesting commandment, because this commandment speaks of three spaces—three spaces! Heaven; earth; and under the earth. Is there any other space left? There are not more spaces. Up; here; and under.
It’s difficult for us to understand this, because in Moses’ days the communication industry didn’t exist. How did they communicate? In Moses’ day it was closer to God’s divine plan. What did Moses have to do to communicate with his wife? Take out his cell-phone? You and I—you and I—that’s what God created. I am for you and she is for me. They loved each other, served each other, that’s the Lord’s communication department. Person to person.
It’s very simple. Have we lost that? And today we have a whole world of communications—totally different from Moses’ time. How can we manage the world—how can we manage the world without letting the world affect us? Only the Lord will teach you—only the Lord.
Some people say that cell-phones produce cancer. I don’t know if it’s true. Other people say that television produces cancer; that the rays that it emanates produce cancer. Everything that man makes is out of harmony with God’s plan. Everything that man makes, goes against God’s creation. Everything! Man is unable to make something that is in harmony with God’s creation. The only one who can create harmony is the Lord.
But we live in the world and only the Lord—only the Lord can protect us from the world. Jesus said, "Keep them from evil". Being in the world—it’s the science of God. With you; with me; and the Lord gives us the wisdom to do it in the best way.
There is something very important and in a later presentation we will arrive to that point, but we want to establish God’s principle in regards to our feelings and our morality. I want to leave you a piece of homework for that presentation. Your are going to think about the following, Exodus chapter 20, verses 3, 4 and 5. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."
That is the homework: what is the iniquity of the fathers upon the children in relation to images? What is the iniquity?
As parents we say we love our children. And if we are grandparents—grandparents love their grandchildren even more, but here it says that the fathers visit iniquity against their children. Which parents? The Philistines? The Canaanites? Or those of God’s people?
How could there be iniquity between parents and their children, and what is that iniquity? Think on that, and when we determine that, we can easily understand why there shouldn’t be any images. Why there should be no images.
And together with this, there is another verse—very important verse, and we will end with this verse: 2nd Corinthians chapter 4:18. "While we look not at the things which are seen," Paul presents us the prevention that is found in God’s law in Greek terminology, in the Greek culture.
"While we look not at the things which are seen," what is it that we see? What we can see. Have we learned to see that which is not seen? It continues: "But at the things which are not seen." We have to see what is not seen, because in revelation, that which is invisible is the true and what is visible in this world is all temporal.
May the Lord bless you. Let us pray:
Dear Heavenly Father,
In Your wisdom You have revealed to us the way of prevention. You have created Your law, Lord, and You have revealed it to us in Your Word with one purpose—to redeem us; to restore us; and to renew Your image in our lives. Lord, we live in a totally depraved world and we do not know all the things that go on in this world. One day when we will be with You, we will understand what this world really was. But Lord, teach us how to walk in this world, looking at the invisible. Amen.

THE EDUCATION OF JESUS

There are two sentences from the Pen of Inspiration. One of them we mentioned yesterday. God has created the human mind in such a way that every faculty that we have in our mind, responds to God’s mind, this is what God’s inspired counsel tells us in Christ’s Object Lessons Chapter 25; when it considers the parable of the Ten Talents. Then in 1897 Sister White said, "If we fail in understanding the science of true education, we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
God’s education is through faith. I wasn’t educated in faith. I was educated in this secular world and they taught me scriptures with the secular method. Which is the secular method? Reason; but not through faith.
How difficult it was for me to find something of faith—very difficult. By God’s mercy, the way we must approach God is in faith. He approaches us in faith. He comes to us in faith. He has complete trust and believes that we can be born again, that we can become children once again. He has that faith.
Faith does not condemn. Faith does not accuse. Faith does not point at. Faith is not a yoke and faith is not a dominion. Faith. Trust. Faith sees what cannot be seen.
Reason sees what can be seen. Reason sees sin and reason sees wickedness. Reason sees what is the iniquity inside of the other person. Each time I use my reason that way, what grows within me is my pride and my self-sufficiency, because I learn through my reason. But when I learn through faith I arrive to the conclusion that there is nothing in me, and I become humble. Faith makes us humble, but reason fills us up.
Jesus was taught through faith. Where did Mary learn? Who taught Mary? Mary taught her child in faith. How did Mary learn? If we compare Mary with us, we have PhDs in comparison. Because Mary; what did Mary know? The only thing that she knew was—and she said; "Behold Thy servant". Behold Thy servant. "May God’s will be done in me according to His Word."
She permitted everything; she permitted everything and she walked by faith, and she developed a child who never became an adult—never became an adult. Behold the Child educated by the Lord so that He wouldn’t become an adult. The more He grew; He was more dependent, in greater communion, with greater ties, closer to His Father.
But with us it is opposite. The more we grow, we separate ourselves. We become more independent; we believe more in ourselves and we trust more in ourselves and we trust less in Him. And when we come to His Word, we reason it out, but we don’t trust in it.
But we know a lot. The scribes knew a lot. The Pharisees knew a lot and the Sadducees knew a lot. The Hebrew people knew a lot; they knew a lot of the letter of the Word. But they didn’t have faith. What was it that they didn’t practice? What was it that they didn’t practice? All that liturgy they had; all that system of the sanctuary services. They were very careful with each specific color, they had all the fringes, and they handled all the different robes—but they didn’t know the real Lamb! And when Truth came, and when Truth became incarnated, and when the Word became flesh, they did not recognize it. Their religion was handled through reason, but not through faith.
Mary educated her child by faith. Luke, in a Bible verse that we know by memory and this verse should teach us a lot; in Luke chapter 2, the scriptures say the following, and we should remember what Paul said about Jesus: "but when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, subject unto the law." Subject unto the law—just as we are.
Mary understood something of that without reasoning too much, but with a lot of faith. And we should know the difference there is between reason and faith. Because our reasons are born in our head, but faith is born in Him.
Philosophers reason, theologians reason, all human knowledge is a child of reason. And what does reasoning depend upon? Of our senses. Who informs my senses? The external world that is around me; and every perception I have of the outward world is educating me. But God has made His knowledge in such a way that He reveals it, He reveals everything, and His revelation is born in His mind. And His mind is not sick with what makes my mind sick.
Almost everything that I perceive with my eyes, and almost everything that I hear with my ears, and almost everything I touch with my hands, is infected with sin and wickedness. It’s affected by pride and selfishness. But all that God has made, and all that He has revealed, is born from a pure mind, from a righteous mind, from a clean mind.
What kind of a mind, what class of mind? In Deuteronomy 32 it tells us what kind of God we have and what type of God, what kind of God has revealed Himself in His word. Beginning in verse 2: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:"
Like what? Like the small rain. As showers upon the grass, that is how revelation comes upon us, to everyone who is willing to receive it by faith.
"Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. They have corrupted themselves."
Who is God? He is clean. He is pure. He is the only One. That God was the One that Mary knew and she trusted herself into the arms of that God.
Abraham’s experience was something similar. He didn’t have a child. He asked God for a child. He needed an heir and God promised him that He would give him a child that would be born of him. Scriptures say he said; "Amen", the Hebrew expression for faith. He trusted, but reason was telling him that it was impossible. Science was telling him that it was impossible. His senses were telling him that there was no possibility. But possibility is God. What is impossible for us is possible for Him. And He is able to make us into children once again, even though we are adults.
Our Lord Jesus never was an adult. He was always a child. We read in Luke chapter 2 in verse 40, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:"
Now we have a problem with the word ‘wisdom’, and in this western culture we even have a coefficient of intelligence. We have even placed on a numbered scale, wisdom; a hundred ten, a hundred twenty, a hundred forty, a hundred sixty IQ. I don’t know how much you would measure Jesus up to. But what is wisdom?
We know the letter; but Mary did not know too much of the letter, but she had the experience. She lived in the presence of the Lord. She didn’t do anything without the presence of the Lord and she did everything according to His Word. She accepted everything according to His will. Who is the Word? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We understand the semantics of the word ‘fear’ in that context; it’s the effect that results from being in the presence of God. That’s an experience of faith.
Our ‘presence’ is of an idea of God—that is all our ‘presence’; an idea of Him, but not reality. For Mary, an experience of faith—He was real for her. And in being real for her, He was a reality for the child—God; because the child’s reality is the reality of what the parents are. If in the parents that is not a reality, then the children don’t know anything.
Sister White says that true education is an influence. Have you read it? True education is not a curriculum of algebra or math. True education is within; is implicit in he who knows God. Mary knew the Lord; in her own sphere, she had the fear of the Lord. Everything she did, and everything she thought, was in the presence of Him. And the child was growing up and was strengthened and His growth was simultaneous, and not only simultaneous it was also encouraged, synchronized in mind, in heart and with His hands, He was synchronized.
The Bible text says, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." What is the grace of God?
Today children don’t receive from us grace. Do you know what they receive from us? They receive disgrace. In the way we treat them; in the very same way in which we conceived them; in the relationship we have with them. They receive disgrace, instead of receiving grace. And then we ask ourselves, why don’t they love me? Why don’t they obey me?
And while we are wise in this secular world, we do not know the science of true education, because to educate is to redeem. Educating is not informing. Educating is redeeming; to redeem this fallen human nature that I have given by the law of inheritance. I have given to this child my heritage, my fallen condition I give unto them, so I should know how to restore it.
If my relationship with Him—if God has restored me, then an influence—an invisible influence—intangible influence—an influence that you cannot measure with human instruments; the child will receive it. God has made things in such a way that these children, as the child Jesus needed two images—two images that had become just one through faith. And that influence, the influence of Mary and the influence of Joseph, the same influence in two personalities with the same criteria; with the same will and with the same purpose. Without controversy; without dichotomy; without being broken apart in their relationship. They did the work, the work that we should have done and that we still should do if we are born again and we become like children in the kingdom of God.
Oh, but the problem of adults is that we know too much. We know everything. We understand everything and no-one teaches us. And I pretend to teach her, and she pretends to teach me, and while we both teach each other—what we really do is contradict each other. And the influence—the influence we are exerting on them, that influence makes any child a schizophrenic.
Aw, but Jesus was born and He grew up in an environment of grace. My loved ones, each contradiction amongst us is a ton of disgrace upon our children and it is not grace. That’s a principle in God’s education. It’s so simple, so elementary and so deep, because it is truth! And what is so beautiful in this culture, is that it is free. It doesn’t cost anything. How much did Mary have to pay to educate her child in grace?
But today, education is a terrible business. It’s an industry. Who has been more than Jesus? Who has been more than Jesus? No one—and no one will be more than Jesus. How did He become the greatest? By faith. And He was educated by the Word; in the Word. But today, we cannot fathom that. We do not think it possible, because we are sons and daughters of reason, and as we see how everyone is educated, that’s the same way that we are educated. But Mary understood.
Luke chapter 2 verse 52: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour [grace] with God and man." Now notice Jesus’ curriculum, a curriculum that is totally different. Aw, but people are very concerned about the curriculum; math, chemistry, physics, psychology, English and Spanish and grammar, phonetics—oh what is it that we don’t teach? We have a huge curriculum and even expensive.
And then we have different grades, first, second, third, fourth and fifth. And each time that he passes a grade we graduate him and we put on him a hat and we even put a robe on him and now those children even in elementary school they begin to puff up—because they are graduated.
In the school of Mary, no one graduated. In the school of Mary, in this divine education, each day we diminish, and we diminish and we diminish more and we learn how to descend more. And there is no graduation, because it will go on throughout eternity, we will continue learning and we will be filling up in the knowledge of the Lord, just as the waters fill the ocean.
But we don’t understand that, because we are children of reason; because grace and kindness and faith don’t produce. We are educated in what produces and our mentality is formed to produce money and things.
But Jesus was educated to produce faith, to produce grace, to produce redemption. He was educated to redeem. He was educated to restore. He was educated to reconcile. He was educated to forgive and He was educated to justify. And even on Calvary, dying, He forgot about Himself, because He did not think on Himself, not even on Calvary. On Calvary He was emptied of Himself. There was nothing in Him. He was concerned for the thieves, justifying the thieves, seeking for the repentance of the thieves and reconciling the thieves; the eternal purpose of God.
Should it be ours also? Should it also be ours? Or we are of this world of production. I know people who have told me, "When I get so much money, then I will begin doing God’s work." They will never do God’s work.
With what capital did Jesus do God’s work? What type of capital did He have? What budget did Jesus have to do God’s work? What is the budget that we need, so that the Holy Spirit might do His work in us? And He might convert us into children? How much budget does the Holy Spirit need for that?
Oh, but we have our mind geared into accounting and we reason that way, because we are children of reason. But Jesus was a child of faith. Not from bread alone shall man live. To live without bread? To have lunch without bread? Have breakfast without bread? That’s inconceivable. My reasoning is with bread; but Jesus’ reasoning was by faith—God’s Word.
What a difficult thing to experience. For me it was very difficult and for you it might be easy—for these children it is easy—because they are born without—with a clean mind, with a blank mind, so that we can write in them—faith. And if our influence is the influence of God, then they will just receive grace. And in grace and in love they learn to trust. But if they don’t have that influence, then they receive another influence, because every human being, we are in the divine influence or we are in the influence of sin, because there are only two influences and these two cannot be mixed.
Jesus always received Mary’s influence. Can we imagine Jesus, thirty years—thirty years—carrying water to His Mom? Happily? In that time water did not come in like it comes in today. In that time, you had to carry water. But we don’t carry water. The only thing we carry is this little water bottle—that’s easy. To carry water—that’s work—a heavy burden!
Perhaps you haven’t carried water here. We have had to carry water. When we began in Venezuela there was no bathroom, there was no water pipe system—we had to carry the water. And when we took a shower—that’s something different. The child Jesus had to carry water, until He was thirty years—willingly—with love. Without getting tired, without murmuring—it was a pleasure for Him to take water to Mary.
He had learned the first lesson of faith. He had learned to obey. He learned to obey. Oh, but today’s children—today’s children—which is the child today that is obedient? How difficult it is today to find an obedient child. And Ellen White says that obedience should be instantaneous. Instantaneous obedience—can only be developed in an environment of grace and treatment by faith, under the roof of two persons that respire—that when they breathe, they breathe out affection—divine affection; divine trust; and the only thing they breathe and transpire is their knowledge of God.
When Mary breathed out, Jesus breathed that in; and in that breath, what there was, was the breath of God’s image. And Jesus—they didn’t need movies, or theatres, nor comedies—the real comedy and the real theater was the relationship of Joseph and Mary. And twenty-four hours a day, the child was absorbing and was being transformed, beholding what was real, authentic in Mom and Dad. The curriculum was implicit—was implicit in that. Oh, God’s education is something that is implicit. He in us, the hope of glory.
The child Jesus, pay attention to the phenomenon and we’re going to read it here, Jesus is performing His ministry—He is in His full ministry—John 14:10 says: "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" that is something that is very beautiful! I don’t understand it, but we can experience it. While we would expect that the husband would be in the wife and the wife in the husband—but the father in the son, the mother in the child and the child in the father—scriptures present that as a reality.
But for us this has stopped being a reality. At what age does the child become independent? At what time do we separate ourselves from the child? I know mothers that, fifteen days after the child is born, they go to work and where does the child stay? But we don’t want them to be independent and we don’t want them to stop recognizing us. We don’t want them to have insecurity problems when they are teenagers. But we create that disposition, because we do all that was contrary, opposite to what Mary did.
When Mary separated herself from Jesus—she became desperate and she sought out for Him–three days He was lost. And when they found Him, Jesus told her: "I am in my Father’s business." At what age? These children can have a business with the eternal Father. At what age? Joseph and Mary unconsciously had prepared Him in their influence, to be under the influence of the eternal Father.
Oh my beloved, in God’s Word—in His Spirit—in this living Word, there is a mystery that is explicit. How a child matures; how does a human being mature? If he has been exposed to a living experience of God’s Word in us.
Pay attention to what it says here. Verse 10 of chapter 14: the words that I speak unto you—the words that I speak unto you—I speak not of myself: the words. Thirty years, Jesus; thirty one years, Jesus; thirty two years; and at thirty years of age—thirty-three years of age—His self did not speak. His will did not speak. He did not speak of Himself. He was a child. He did not speak of Himself—because truth is not born in us—what is truth is in Him. What is truth never shall be ours; it will always be of Him.
Jesus never spoke of Himself by Himself. He was a child. That was how He was educated. That was as He was born—in faith; in dependence. And as He grew, He grew in grace. He grew in faith. He grew in wisdom.
Oh my brothers, these children today—they grow and they grow physically. They grow biologically. But they also grow in selfishness and in pride and in self sufficiency; but they should grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. But what human beings say is that times have changed. Times have changed. So we blame time. Oh, beloved—mine is the fault and you have an assignment—to learn, which is the wickedness which is visited upon the children.
The Lord taught me education with the second commandment. The Lord told me many years ago—these children were four years old. 1970, 1971, and God told me, "Your children are going to be lost." And I asked the Lord, "Lord, what should I do? What should I do so they won’t be lost?" Second commandment; the second commandment is a treatise of redemptive education.
Through reason it cannot enter—it has to be by faith. Joseph and Mary understood that and at thirty-three years of age Jesus did not speak of Himself. And the question is, when you speak, who speaks? I or He in me? That is the difference.
And let me tell you something, human beings, we speak a lot—a lot. We speak, we know how to use our tongues. We know how to use our tongues. But our Lord Jesus, He learned to not speak of Himself. It wasn’t His self that spoke and the Bible says even more about that in John chapter 5 and in verse 30: "I can of mine own self do nothing:"
In today’s education, in the education we have today, they teach you that you should be you. Be yourself! You can! That was Satan’s education. "I Can! I can arise, I can go up and I will be up. I will ascend and I will be on the throne and I will have dominion. My mental faculties, my beauty, what I have received, that is mine and I’m going up!" That is the foundation of education.
Have we been educated that way?
Jesus was educated in a contrary position to this. "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
Oh my brethren, Jesus was thirty-three years old and He said, "My Father, my Father." He depended on His Father; He did not depend of Himself. He did not depend on His experience. He did not depend on His education. He did not depend on His knowledge. He did not depend on anything in Himself—completely dependant upon His Father.
And we are orphans in reality. Our heavenly Father is an idea. Really our father is our own self. He is our father and we depend on him—we depend on our self and of ourselves. We depend on our strength and we depend on our reason.
But Jesus did not depend on anything that was in Him—He was a child, and He never became an adult.
Verse 19 of chapter 5 of John: "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you," and the expression here translated as ‘verily’ is the same expression of faith by Abraham, Amen, Amen. What is sure. What is certain. The only thing that is trustworthy.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself," Nothing!
Have we done a lot of things? Have we done a lot of things? And the more we do, in whom do we trust? In what we have done. Oh, we have created our own Babylon. We are small Nebuchadnezzars. But in the same essence, Nebuchadnezzar said when he saw his house, and he saw his palace, and he beheld his gardens, and his columns and pillars, "Isn’t this the house that I have built for my own glory?"
Isn’t that our same experience? We find something in the computer; we learn something in the computer—Oh, we did it! We make a house, its better than our neighbors—Oh, I have a house! Even in our ministry we can feel that way.
But our Lord Jesus; "The Son can do nothing of himself"—Nothing!
Nothing? What is nothing?
"But what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he (the Father) doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." What a child—What a child! What a child was Jesus, He never became an adult. In Him was power. In Him was strength, because He was a child—just born—who needed the milk of the Father; the Spirit of the Father; the breath of the Father; the knowledge of the Father; the will of the Father; the righteousness of the Father; everything that was of His Father. And They were One; the Father was in Him.
No wonder He said, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God. Knowing Him; and the Hebrew word for knowing is a word that indicates an intimate communion—and intimate communion. Not of things, not with things, because we have intimate communion with our money; with our budget; with things, physical—with our car; with our house; intimate communion. But Jesus’ communion was with His Father. That was His communion. Nothing in Him; nothing in His head except His Father; that is how Jesus remained, and He was a child and He shall be a child forever—depending from His Father.
The most serious thing in this world is to be an orphan—the hardest experience; the most difficult life—to be orphans. And the majority of Christians, we are orphans of our heavenly Father. We live by our own selves. We obtain our bread by our own selves. We obtain our own house by our selves, and we find our wisdom by our own selves. We are orphans and the life of an orphan is a very hard life.
And in the same way, these children, we teach them to be orphans. That they can handle themselves independent, that they might live by themselves—that they might depend upon their ego and their own strength. And when they are fifteen years old, they want to have their own apartment; they want to have their own car; and they want to have their own woman. And they leave home at fifteen, sixteen years of age; and at fifty years of age they have been orphans, no one receives them, no one loves them—not even Mom or Dad—and where do they finish? In a nursing home; the government will take care of them.
No one lives with anyone; the family values are finished, have broken apart. I can’t live with anyone—only myself. Only—and I put a sign on the door—‘don’t disturb me’. Private Property.
Oh beloved, Heaven—Heaven is plural! Heaven is collective. It’s family. Heaven is relationship; community; an experience without selfishness. Ones living for others, as Heaven has become nothing, has surrendered itself; has given itself; and incarnated itself to become Immanuel—God with us. May heaven permit us that experience—to live with Him.

MAKING AN IMAGE

Let us open the scriptures in Exodus Chapter 20:4-6 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."
The knowledge of God in the context of sin, is given in the most simple and easy way, and God’s Law is an example of this. The Lord has always told us what is it that we have to do. He tells us WHAT we have to do, and our only answer is obedience. He says ‘What’. He says "Thou shalt not kill." ‘What’. "Thou shalt not fornicate:" another ‘What’. "Thou shalt not bear false witness;" another ‘What’.
The Lord reveals His will in what we should not do. The education we receive in this world is not given like this. What we like to know is ‘why’ not ‘what’ and the Lord has spared us the ‘why’. He has given us something simple; ‘what’.
Here it says, "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image" or anything like it; that is a ‘what’. Before there were any advertisements—we should know what the principle is. But there is a reason here and it is very important that we know this reason. Why did the Lord say, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image"? It is a very simple reason—because the only One who makes real and true images is the Lord.
What is truth? In the last analysis, truth is the Lord. Truth is not a concept. Truth is a Person and that Person is He who made the heavens and the earth. And the only One who can make an image in truth, of truth, is Him. We cannot do it.
And He made the image alive, because Truth and Life are one thing. So it can be His image, it has to participate in God’s Life, and it has to participate of His character and then it is true. And Heaven knows that that which is not true—is harmful--destroys.
He is a true God and when He created the family; we know the verse—"Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness". So the only One who makes a True Image, is the Lord.
Now, He gave us a faculty—He didn’t give it to the angels, He gave it to the human race—we can reproduce that image. It’s our job, and when there was no sin, there was only one image that we could copy—the image of God. But when sin entered, then we have another image, but it is a false image, it’s not real, it is distorted; and now we have the option of two images.
In prophecy we speak a lot about images, because there are beasts, and there is an image of the beast, and we know what the Image of the Beast is. The Image of the Beast is a copy of the character of the Beast; is a copy of the principles of the Beast.
After sin another image appeared, and we have the option—the True or the false. It is very important to us to be able to discern something about what is God’s image. Four-thousand years later, the Jewish people and humanity had forgotten God’s image, and the Lord needed to reveal Himself and He revealed Himself. He didn’t send a book; He didn’t send a philosopher; He didn’t send a prophet; He Himself incarnated.
The apostle Paul tells us it is the same Image of God. Jesus, the Image of God; and we should be able to perceive what that is. The other day we shared with you how we have lost that. It is such a serious thing, to accept—at least to accept in faith—even though in my intellectual mind, I cannot conceive it—but by faith, I should accept my fellow man that he is the Image of God. And the only One who made it was Him.
How can we copy that? How can we copy it? The Lord has promised to reproduce Himself in us. And Heaven knows that the only One who can reproduce the Image of God, is Himself. He knows that we can’t make copies. He knows it.
The enemy has tried to destroy this principle. And the effects—it is impossible to conceive the degenerative effects of this! In Romans 1, Paul explains this. Where does man end up when he looses the Image of God? Paul says it in Romans 1. In very clear language he defines it, and he did it two thousand years ago.
And here we are, two-thousand years after Paul, and what is the Image of God now? Destroyed! Man has changed the natural use according to nature, when man started making other images and lost the authentic image—that is the Lord.
Scriptures tell us in Genesis 9:5, 6; the Lord demands—"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man."
For the Lord, you and I are His image and His likeness, and the essence of that is not physical, it is moral, it is spiritual. And we don’t manage moral values; we manage material values. We are children of material values. For us the most important is what we have. In our fallen and destroyed image, what is important is what we have.
In the Lord it is not important what we have. What is important to the Lord is what we are; because He is. But in order to be in this culture, to ‘be’ does not produce money in this culture. But if we have—that produces money. For us it is very difficult to discern the far-reaching effects of the second commandment.
The Lord gave us a work—Genesis chapter 1:27.28: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."
The Lord gave us the ability to multiply His image and His likeness—the body and the spirit—just like He did it. And we don’t understand the moral responsibility that is therein.
In Genesis 5:1 it is even more clear: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;"
When the Lord made us, He made us in His own likeness; Verse 2 "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created."
And in verse 3: "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son"
And how did he beget this son?
"In his own likeness."
And the work, only in life, only in human beings, can this be done; Not on paper; not on wax; not on stone; not in iron—in people. Truth; real truth—not the appearance of truth—if it is an appearance—it’s not true; if it’s impure—it’s not true; if it’s unjust—it’s not true; because the essence of truth is moral. You don’t do that on paper—you do that in people.
"Thou shalt not make any graven image."
"Thou shalt not make any graven image," because God has made it, and He has given you the ability to do it, in the plurality of God’s Image.
God is plural. He said, "Let US make." He didn’t say, "I am going to do. ." He said, "Let US make." The original name of Elohiym, is plural. "Let us make."
When He made the family, He did something plural and sin has destroyed that plurality in us. In what does that consist? The son does not live for himself. The Image of God in its moral essence is totally unselfish. Selfishness is something strange to God’s Image. The only thing that pertains to God’s image is Love. Love is an experience that is totally alterocentric (other centered).
The son—all the head of the son; all the chest of the son; all of the son’s stomach; the legs of the son; the faculties of the son—are not for the son—they are for the father. They are a gift; and that’s the principle of Love.
In Love, nothing is for the subject; everything is for another. All that pertains to the son was for the father; and everything that is in the father, is for the son. The father is a gift to the son—a total gift. We cannot conceive that in our imagination—it should be our experience, because there will be no stain or blemish of selfishness in the Kingdom of God.
The bond between the father and the son; the relationship that there is between the Father and the Eternal Son, is the foundation of the family.
The male—Adam—was a gift for Eve. The head of the male; the chest of the male; the resources of the male; all that the male had—was a gift for Eve; and in the same way, Eve for Adam; without any type of reclaiming. No reclaims; no demands; only a gift. It’s the moral Image of God. Who can reproduce that?
The Lord wants to do that in us, and that’s why He said, "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image."
Now: Let’s go further. The principle of a plural life, in which I am not mine, I do not belong to myself; Paul said it—have you read it in the writings of Paul? 1 Corinthians 7:4: "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."
In the Image of God, I am not mine and she is not hers, and we cannot imagine that. Our relationship in the Image of God is a relationship of depth and that depth is a depth of love. That is how God’s image is based. That is the base and the essence of the Plan of Redemption and that is why the Lord cannot conceive that His Image be destroyed—that His Image be destroyed.
And much less can He conceive that I as a father and that I as a mother will lend myself to destroy the image of God in a child; because the Lord says in the Commandments, Exodus 20:5: "for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting."
Are we conscious that the Lord visits us? Are we conscious of that? Are we conscious that God visits the parents? Or do we think that this is just an idea—a concept? The Law of God teaches that He who made the heavens and the earth visits families and we don’t understand that much in this culture.
In this culture we like to have our privacy, so we visit on the phone. And when they call on the phone, we invented the answering machine and we hear the person and we let the machine register their voice. We are totally possessed by things.
But God is not like that—He visits us. He visits us, and when you visit someone, what do you perceive? What can we perceive? What can we see? What can we feel? What do we learn? What do we receive? We should be able to receive the Image of God. We should be able to receive the influence of the Divine character. We should be able to receive the redemptive treatment of God.
What has the Lord perceived in the visits in our home? Can He perceive? The Lord does not make a mistake when He perceives, and He has perceived my iniquity as a parent. He has perceived it and it hurts Him in His heart, because the Lord expects that each time that I look unto a child, in my eyes I will reflect the Image of God. In my words I will reflect the tone of God’s Image. In my behavior, in what I do, in my breath, the Lord expects that the influence of His character will be transmitted to the child.
And if that doesn’t happen, it’s another image. What other image? The image of the beast—there are only two images; God’s Image—the image of the Lamb; or the image of the beast.
Heaven says, "six things does the Lord abhor and seven are an abomination to His soul". And the first one—you know which one it is—haughty eyes; haughty eyes. Do we speak with our eyes? Do we preach with our eyes? Do we love with our eyes? Can we hate with our eyes? Can we kill someone with our eyes?
And He visits us; and we destroy God’s Image and I destroy it in myself, but in me it is not so dangerous, but I destroy it in my children. I destroy it in my family. I destroy it with my wife. And on Sabbath I sing, "Hallelujah, Glory to God. Everything I have left", and that’s Satan’s schizophrenic plan to destroy God’s image.
And we say, "Catholics—those who changed the law;" and what about us? Have we changed the Law? When will we restore the Image of God in our lives? Every instant, we need to reflect God’s image. That’s what we were created for, and according to Ellen White, what is education? The restoring of God’s image.
To educate is to redeem. What should your children be able to see in you? The Lord; the Lord. There was a song that you used to sing when you were Adventist children; I sang it. I was taught this song, and I suppose that you learned it before I did because all Adventist songs of fifty, sixty years ago, they were composed here in America.
"Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little ears what you hear. Oh be careful little mouth what you say. Oh be careful little hands what you do. For the Father up above, is looking down in love—Oh be careful little hands what you do!"
What a beautiful song! A beautiful song—it has a lot of meaning, but in reality, in practice—look what happens. We arrive to worship, and we do family worship. We talk to the child about Jesus, and we tell him Jesus is love. Jesus is forgiveness. Jesus loves the meek. Jesus is humble. And that our children cannot get angry—they cannot get angry, they cannot be disobedient, because Jesus was not disobedient. Jesus is our example.
And we sing the song, "Oh be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above, is looking down in love—Oh be careful little eyes what you see! Oh be careful little mouth what you say, For the Father up above, is looking down in love—Oh be careful little mouth what you say!"
We finish worship and the father goes to the restroom, and he doesn’t find a towel in the restroom, and he doesn’t find soap in the restroom and so he gives out a cry, "Woman! What happened! There’s no towel in here! There’s no soap in here!" and our eyes are exalted and our voice is lifted—O be careful little mouth what you say!
Because what I say in worship—the image is different—what I do is different. What I do is different to the concept I am teaching, to the song I am teaching. The wickedness, the iniquity of the parents, over the children, is to show an image that is different from what I believe, from what I think, from what I feel, to what I live.
What is the result? A schizophrenic! And that’s the devil’s plan, to form schizophrenic children; because what we say, is different from what we are. What we believe and what we are—there is an abyss, and that abyss—the author of that pit—that distance—is Satan.
Have we broken the Second Commandment? We need to restore it! How can we restore it? In our character; in our life; in our being. Not with books. Not with figures.
I have perceived that there is one thing that is deadly with children, and even with old people. But before that, let me tell you something: In the child’s nature, in the nature of every child that is born, there is a superlative faculty and the Lord gave us this faculty and woe unto him that destroys it! The Lord will not hold him innocent that destroys this!
Every child is born with the faculty of copying; the faculty of imitating. Why do your children speak English? Because Daddy speaks English. The Lord gave us the faculty of speech, but the language we learn by imitation. That’s the way the Lord made us. The child, every child, is a sponge and he takes in, he absorbs and perceives, he imitates and he copies instantly—we were created like this. We were created to be transformed as we behold an image.
In education, my beloved, there is a principle that is fundamental—basic. What the child most needs, is an image; a model. And if the model is imperfect, the copy will be imperfect. Can we understand this? If we educate in this way, it’s easy. The father copies the Lord, and the other is implicit and the child will copy it.
Where does a child learn to fight? Where does the child learn to contradict his Dad and his Mom? From hearing Mom and Dad contradict each other—it’s the image. It’s the image! We are transformed as we behold.
Who has destroyed God’s Law? Who? Only the Catholic Church? Or we also have done it? And in the level of the home, and pretending to be Christian; my beloved, I have believed that what I have to do is to repent. Repent before the Lord, and repent before my family, and repent before my children, and say like the prodigal son, but not any more like a son, as a father, "Son, I have sinned against thee. I have sinned against God’s Image. I haven’t given you the example, I have not reflected what Jesus is at all and you have copied another image. Forgive me my son! Let us help each other and let us pray for each other, that we might be able to reflect God’s image in the home.
If we do not reflect this, brethren, we are breaking the Law; we are doing away with the Law, in the same commandment. And I believe, my brethren, that all of us need to repent, because the Lord says that He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. To show that we are something different from God’s Image—destroys children!
Many times we punish in our children what we have taught them with our example; with our influence; with our character; and that is terrible. And I have perceived, brethren, that children are born authentic. They want the truth. But we destroy that capacity to be authentic that the child brings when he is born.
In spite of our fallen condition, there is something of God’s image still in us. The element of trust and the element of truth is an element that is implicit and we destroy it when we show another image and another spirit. It is very important for us to be able to discern in the distance what is this of the Image of God? This is a subject that we will never end, and the more you allow the Lord to show you this, you will be transformed because we are transformed as we behold.
Ellen White says that at least one hour everyday we should behold and contemplate the life of Christ. Our imagination—use our imagination, and she recommends that we should place ourselves in the last scenes of Christ’s life. How did Jesus treat Herod? How did Jesus treat Pilate? How did Jesus treat Caiaphas? How did He treat Annas? How did He treat the centurion? How did He treat the soldiers? How Jesus treated people in His last two weeks of life here on earth. How did He treat Peter? How did He treat Judas? How did He forgive? How did He understand? What did He live—the image of God in reality, here on earth, in flesh and bone.
That is what we have to copy. That is what we have to imitate and that is what is going to transform us from glory to glory. When our children will see that experience in us, Ellen White says our children will be converted. That is the job we have. What a job!
My beloved, God is Love and He gave as a new commandment, "that ye love one another even as I have loved you." Was it a new commandment? It was new—they knew the theory; they knew the meaning of the concept of love, but the experience of God’s Love—they did not know it. Some of them were ‘sons of thunder’, and Peter wanted to be the first, he was selfish and the other one was greedy and a lover of money. They needed the New Commandment.
"Love one another as I have loved you."
And Jesus said; "Follow My example."
"Follow My example." And by faith we can follow that example. And we conclude, brethren, we can redeem our families, if we come down like Jesus. He didn’t sin.
We have sinned; we have not shown our children His image. But if we descend, we come down and we go to the bed of our children, and we place our hand on their head, and we tell them, "My son, forgive me! Forgive me! I treated you with anger. I treated you with harshness. I was indifferent with you. I destroyed your trust. I did not receive you, I did not give you the communion that you needed. Oh, my son, forgive me, because I didn’t treat you in God’s image.
Oh my beloved, the Lord will forgive our iniquity, and He will justify our iniquity, and the Holy Spirit will do a work in these children, He will work in our wife and He will do a work that we cannot measure, if we descend—if we go down, and we recognize that we have not shown God’s image.
May the Lord help us. May He permit us to experience the image of God in our lives. That is the Plan of Redemption. That is what Heaven is doing, and that work does not cost us any money. It’s a work of Grace; of Grace. And in Grace He gives us His image and His likeness. And in Grace we should give it to our fellow men.
Let us pray: Our Father which art in Heaven, as we look into Thy Law, we can only see Thy character, because Thou art the Law. Thou art the Torah. Thou art the Revelation. Thou hast revealed Thyself in Thy Word. Oh Lord, permit us to receive it in faith. May we be transformed into Thy image and Thy likeness. Lord forgive the transgression we have made of the Second Commandment. Only Thou canst give us Thy Grace. Only Thou canst give us Thy righteousness. Only Thou canst give us Thy Spirit, so we can reflect Thee here on earth.
Oh Lord, thank Thee for Thy Word! And thank Thee for the Lamb of God, because Thou hast faith that we can come to reflect Thy Image. In Jesus’ name we beg Thee. In Jesus name—Amen!