HOUSE OF HEAVEN - PART 1 
                                 by Henry Stanley 
 
Let's begin with 1 Peter 5:6-11. This has helped me in the past when I 
was my old self. " Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of 
God, that he may exalt you in due time; Casting all your care upon him; 
for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the 
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom 
resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are 
accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all 
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after 
that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, 
settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
Thank God for His Word! That Word that established us, makes us perfect, 
settles, established us in Christ Jesus the Lord! I want to encourage us 
to get into the Word of God, because that is our food. It is so important 
that we eat of the Word of God because as we do, the Spirit of God is 
going to reveal the truth of Christ to us, in us, by us - because it will 
be Him who is the exalted One and the magnified One. The Lord has been 
dealing with me concerning 2 Corinthians 5. Many have taken these 
scriptures and taken them "over yonder" somewhere - maybe after you die 
and go to the grave. The understanding is that you put off this body, 
this robe of flesh and then you will be able to put on the New Body. But 
I want us to look and see that the Word of God teaches us that we live 
and we abide in that New Body NOW! 
 
2 Corinthians 5:1, "For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
with hands. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon 
with our house which is from heaven; If so be that being clothed we shall 
not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being 
burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that 
mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for 
the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the 
Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at 
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not 
by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from 
the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, 
whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we all must 
appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the 
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be 
good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; 
but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in 
your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give 
you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer 
them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be 
beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your 
cause.  
 
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if 
one dies for all, then were all dead; And that he died for all, that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which 
died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after 
the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now 
henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is 
a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become 
new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by 
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To 
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word 
of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 
We've read this whole chapter at the beginning, and now we'll look also 
at several scriptures and compare them to other scriptures. Go to Psalms 
44:21, "Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the 
heart. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted 
as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast 
us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our 
affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; 
our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for 
thy mercies' sake." You will find the quotation of that passage of 
scripture in Romans 8:35-39. 
 
Let's go to Romans 8 and begin at verse 33. " Who shall lay anything to 
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that 
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who 
is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or 
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As 
it is written, (here is Psalms 44:22) For thy sake we are killed all the 
day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these 
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am 
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love 
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
Now we'll go back to 2 Corinthians 5 and compare some things in the Word 
of God. Verse 1 says, "For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." The Word of God tells us He is 
building a house not being built by the hand of man; it is not a natural 
house - it is a spiritual house. Let's look at 1 Peter 2. I want to 
establish something concerning the Tabernacle of God. God dwells in a 
Tabernacle. The Word of God says in the book of Revelation that God 
tabernacles with man. In 1 Peter 2, Peter tells us we are a spiritual 
house. Verse 3, " If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To 
whom coming, as unto a living stone..." The Word of God is talking about 
One who is living, One who is alive. Revelation 1:18 says, "I am he that 
liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen; and have 
the keys of hell and of death." We need to allow the Holy Spirit to cause 
that to ring in our hearts. Jesus has all authority over death and over 
hell. Why? Because in death and through death, He conquered death. He was 
not held in death - He destroyed hell, even in His death.  
 
Hebrews 2:14 says "...that through death he might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil." So we're talking about God that 
is a Living Stone. The Word says that as He is this living stone, He is 
also disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. In other 
words, there were those who rejected Him. John 1 tells us He came unto 
His own, and His own received Him not. But to as many as believed on Him 
and received Him, to them doth He give power to become the sons of God. I 
want to show you that God is teaching us by the Spirit, by the Word, that 
this Body that is called the Body of Christ, that is called the Church of 
the Lord Jesus in the earth is not a Body that we just put on after we 
die and are put in the grave six feet under. I want us to see God's Word 
speaks of His Life in you and me, in all of those who have been born 
again of the Spirit of God. And this realization has to come. You see, 
the Lord has been dealing with my heart about REALITY. Do you know that 
if the Gospel, what we preach, teach and believe; if the faith that we 
have is not exercised upon the truth and in reality of Christ - it can 
never be really real in us. It will not be real if we are just looking at 
the Word of God as just "someday". 
 
The Word of God shows us in verse 4 of 1 Peter 2 that Jesus Christ is a 
living stone. He was disallowed of men because men turned Him away and 
had no heart to receive Him. Men did not trust in Him, but He was still 
the chosen of God. He was chosen of God to become the very Life, that He 
would become a Living Stone in order that He would have a house that He 
would build for His Life, for His manifestation, for His appearing, for 
His glory to come forth. In verse 5, " Ye also..." What is this saying? 
As He was a living stone, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a 
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the 
scripture, Behold I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and 
he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore 
which believe he is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the 
stone which the builders disallowed..." 
 
See, the builders were the high priest, the leaders of the pharisees and 
the scribes of that day. They had not understood what Moses had said. 
Therefore, when Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, 
and Jesus was standing in the midst of them, they did not know Him. So 
the builders, His own kind disallowed Him - they rejected Him. But still 
we find that "...the same is made the head of the corner." So even though 
they rejected Him to be Head, God is saying here that I make Him Head - I 
make Him the chief cornerstone. 
 
Now we know that when people would build a natural house in olden times, 
they also had cornerstones. And in those cornerstones was the strength of 
that building. They were usually found to be a bigger stone that would 
wrap around each side of the building. And the Word of God teaches us 
that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. The builders rejected Him - would 
not let Him be the foundation, the chief cornerstone of their life. But 
nevertheless, God has purposed in Himself to have Jesus Christ as the 
cornerstone of a building.  
 
Let's look at 1 Peter 2 verse 4 very carefully. He was a living stone. I 
want us to establish this. Who is the living stone? Jesus Christ! Now 
look in verse 5. "Ye also as lively stones..." How are we made lively 
stones? By Jesus Christ! And look how clear the Word of God is. This 
house is a spiritual house. You are lively stones, and they are built up 
a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices 
unto God. How? By Jesus Christ! The spiritual sacrifices are offered by 
Jesus Christ. See, it's not you and I offering something up; not you and 
I doing something. It is by and through Jesus Christ that this house is 
offering up sacrifices that are acceptable to God, and the only way that 
anything can be acceptable unto God is it must first become through, and 
by and of Jesus Christ the Lord! 
 
Verse 6 says, "I lay in Sion..." Mt. Zion here is a people of God. If you 
go in the Old Testament to the book of Isaiah you see this. In the Old 
Testament it is Zion, and in the New Testament it is Sion, but it is the 
same thing. And God is talking about how He was going to establish His 
righteousness in Zion. "In Zion is my holy habitation", Isaiah tells us. 
So in verse 6 he is saying that as the scripture speaks, we find in 
Isaiah 28:16 this quotation. "Behold I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, 
elect..." I want you to notice that this chief cornerstone is an elect 
stone. This stone is above every stone! But it is by this stone that 
every stone that is in the building, the House of God, the Tabernacle of 
God, this spiritual house has life. It is by this One that is precious, 
to everyone that believes on Him; and to them that really believe on Him, 
they will not be confounded. No confusion! 
 
Folks, God is making the Word of God plain to our hearts - the reality of 
Christ. There are many places we can go to, but let's turn to 1 
Corinthians 6. I want to establish what kind of house we are talking 
about. Let us establish from 2 Corinthians 5:1 that we know that when 
this house (earthy) is dissolved, we have a house that is from heaven. 
We've taken that scripture and taught that after we die, then we're going 
to go to heaven and we're going to have a new body. But I'm looking to 
establish the reality of Christ with you. I want to establish first that 
He is the Chief Cornerstone. Christ Jesus Himself is that elect One. He 
is that Living Stone, the One that has been placed in that spiritual 
house, and to establish this house for Himself. 1 Corinthians 6:13, 
"Meats for the belly, the belly for meats. But God shall destroy both it 
and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." Now I'm 
telling you - the body is not for fornication. And yes, it does apply to 
natural fornication, but we must remember that it also applies to a 
spiritual fornication - a people who say that they love God and are not 
walking in the Truth of Christ, in the reality of Christ.  
 
So the Apostle says "the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, 
and the Lord for the body." We're going to be dealing with body. We're 
going to deal with such words as "mortal, immortality, life" and all of 
this. See the thirteenth verse is dealing with an appetite. Now, what is 
your appetite? Is your appetite for the flesh? Is your appetite for the 
world? Or is your appetite for the Lord? Is your body a body in which God 
can come to live in, to be manifested, to be revealed in? We're going to 
see as we go along that God is going to establish that we have within us 
a body that is called the Lord's Body. It is a spiritual body, it is a 
heavenly body. We bore the image of the earthy. We're going to bear the 
image of the heavenly. 
 
Folks, that's not waiting until your natural breath goes out of you and 
you are buried. So in verse 14 he tells us, "God hath both raised up the 
Lord and will also raise up us." Notice this. What is He going to do? 
He's going to raise up the Lord and He's going to raise up us. This is 
going to be important, because we are going to see that as Jesus Christ 
died and He was the firstfruits from among the dead, you and I died in 
His death, were crucified in Him, and are raised and brought forth in His 
Resurrection. See, the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body, 
and God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own 
power. He's talking about raising up us in a body! 1 Peter 2 has already 
established that - a spiritual house. Didn't he say this was a spiritual 
house? He said it was an elect, chief cornerstone, precious, a living 
stone by whom also we are made lively stones.  
 
And in 1 Corinthians 6:15, " Know ye not that your bodies are the members 
of Christ?" Your bodies are the members of Christ." Shall I then take the 
members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid." In 
other words, do we take our bodies and they become involved in anything 
else other than the Lord? See, a lot of people have not yet come to this 
place of understanding and they really think they've got a "work life", a 
"pleasure life", a "church life", a "family life" - all of this. But I'm 
telling you what has to happen is that the only life which there is, 
which is Jesus Christ the Son of God - if you are in Christ, must come 
forth. You only have but one life, and that life, which is Christ, is a 
manifestation of Him whether you're involved in what is called Church, or 
what is called the job, or the family or the sports. GOD HAS ONLY GIVEN 
YOU ONE LIFE. You don't have five different lives. The Life that is 
given to the Body of Christ, the Church, the members of the Body of 
Christ, is only Jesus Christ Himself. And therefore HE fills all these 
things. Many people try to make these things Christ, but it is really 
that Christ fills all of these things.  
 
So here we are told your bodies are the members of Christ so we are not 
to take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot. God 
forbid. " What, know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one 
body." What he's showing here is that there's only one body - if we're 
joined to a harlot, to the world; and he's really talking about the 
system of the world. "For two, saith he, shall be one flesh." In other 
words, if we belong to the harlot system, then we're one body, we're one 
flesh with that body. Verse 17, " But he that is joined unto the Lord is 
one spirit."  You don't have seven different kinds of spirit. You don't 
have the spirit of the devil and the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of 
man. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. The reality of Christ 
is that if we are joined to the Lord, then we are one Spirit. 
 
In Romans 8 it tells us that if the same Spirit that raised Christ from 
the dead dwells in you, He shall quicken your mortal body. Paul goes on 
to say if you're joined to the harlot, then you're one body. You can take 
thousands of people, and if they are of that harlot system, they are 
still one flesh, one man. See, Adam represented all of mankind. The one 
man Adam represented all of mankind in the natural. And the One Man, 
Jesus Christ represents all of those who are alive of the New Creation 
Man, the New Man. Adam represented all those that were dead in sin. 
Christ represents all of those that are dead to sin, and that's a world 
of difference! 
 
And until we can come to an understanding, and there's a reality birthed 
in our spirit; until we're no longer confused in our minds, we will never 
be able to be fruitful and bear the fruit of God; until there's a true 
understanding and that understanding is given to us by the Spirit. The 
Word of God has a spiritual understanding and only by the Spirit can you 
and I understand the Word. The natural man can not receive the things of 
God, can not even receive the Spirit of God. That's in 1 Corinthians 2. 
So if the natural man can not receive the Spirit of God then we've got to 
see that when we get in 2 Corinthians 5 where he's talking about this 
house, we've got to see he's not talking about the first Adam. He's 
talking about this robe of flesh. 
 
1 Corinthians 6:17, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee 
fornication." He's telling us let's not be in union with the first 
creation, with the world. But let's be in union with Christ. Let there 
come forth a marriage, a true marriage of relationship that we have with 
Jesus Christ Himself. " Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is 
without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his 
own body. What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost?" Is not the Holy Ghost the Spirit? Is not the Holy Ghost the 
Spirit of Truth? Has not the Holy Ghost come within each believer? This 
is what the Word of God says. " Know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the Holy Ghost?" God shows us here that this body is made for the Holy 
Ghost - not for fornication, not for the world; not being involved in a 
union and marriage and relationship with the flesh - but with CHRIST! 
He's showing us here that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which 
is in you. Where is the Holy Ghost? He says He's in your body! Verse 19. 
Paul's asking you and I a question.  
 
" What, know ye not..." Don't you know, don't you understand, don't you 
have a comprehension? " Don't you know that your body is the temple of 
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not 
your own?" So, if you're not your own, who's are you? The body isn't 
given for you and I to live in it. The body is given to us for the Holy 
Ghost. It is a temple for the Spirit of God. It is a temple for Jesus 
Christ to establish Himself, His Life in it! So the Word of God tells us 
you are not your own. You are bought with a price. "...therefore glorify 
God..." Where? Just in your spirit? No - "...glorify God in your body and 
in your spirit, which are God's." This is very important. We've got to 
catch the last part of that verse. What is it saying? You are bought with 
a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are 
God's. Paul says here that your body and your spirit is God's. It's God's 
body and it's God's spirit - it's not your own. You know in 1 Corinthians 
7 where it talks about the relationship of man and wife, you remember it 
says that the woman's body isn't hers, but it belongs to her husband? Her 
body belongs to her husband. This is the same relationship spoken of. 
 
Let's look now in 1 Corinthians 3. I want to bring the Word to you so 
that you can see where God lives - where God is alive. He is alive in a 
body. And we've established that you are a spiritual house to offer up 
sacrifices by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2), and that your body is not your 
own - you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and 
in your spirit which is God's. Now in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10, " 
According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master 
builder..." Paul is talking here and he says I'm a wise master builder. 
I'm going to build and I'm going to build on a foundation. See, if you 
and I are not built on the right foundation, I'm telling you, we will 
build the wrong house! We will always look at the outer shell. We will 
look at the old man, we will look at the first creation and we'll try to 
build Christ on that. But we must come to an understanding that there is 
a death - a process of death that took place in you and I, and that death 
is called the death of the Cross. Dead to sin! The crucifixion of Jesus 
Christ took us there and buried us there.  
 
So now in 1 Corinthians 3:10, " According to the grace of God which is 
given..." Paul said this thing is given to me by the grace of God. He's 
showing us that it's not just something he's doing on his own, it's by 
the grace of God that it has been given to him. "...as a wise master 
builder..." There must be wisdom. He said I must be wise in building the 
right foundation here, that the Church may be established on the right 
principles and the right truth. He said, "...I have laid the foundation 
and another buildeth thereon." But watch this! "But let every man take 
heed how he buildeth thereon." Here's a warning. Paul said he lays the 
foundation, another builds on it, but he says you be very aware and 
cautious as to what you build upon this foundation; you take heed how you 
build on this foundation! 
 
You can't just build anything on this foundation. Paul says I laid the 
foundation, but you take heed how you build on this foundation. Verse 11, 
" For other foundation can no man..." Now he didn't say foundations 
(plural), folks. See, it is established that there is only ONE FOUNDATION 
that this house is built on. The House of God is built on one foundation, 
not foundations. Paul laid that foundation as a wise master builder 
according to the grace that God had given unto him, therefore he is 
saying let us take heed how we build thereon. " For other foundation can 
no man lay..." Paul tells us what that foundation is. "...which is Jesus 
Christ." It isn't telling you to build "New Life Tabernacle" on this 
foundation and make "New Life Tabernacle" or your "church" the issue. "I 
go down to New Life Tabernacle or Brother Stanley's Church". Folks, we've 
got to get rid of that vocabulary. We've got to lose our identification 
with that, and come to the reality of Christ that it is Jesus Christ that 
is the foundation! " Now if any man build upon this foundation. If any 
man build upon Jesus Christ, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or 
stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall 
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try 
every man's work, of what sort it is." 
 
A lot could be said right here, because what you and I profess to be is 
going to be tested and proven. The Word of God tells us that Jesus was a 
tested, a tried and a proven stone. "Of what sort, or what works it is." 
See, God the Father is not going to accept anything to be built upon 
Jesus Christ that will bring glory, praise, honor and magnification to 
man, to the flesh. He's showing that it's only Christ! We've seen and 
heard that the "Church" has boasted on what they've done, what they used 
to do and they do it no longer, and you hear almost nothing about what 
Christ is. Paul is telling us here that in order to have an understanding 
of the house, we must understand that there is a foundation for the house 
to be built on. And that foundation is Jesus Christ. And so every man is 
to take heed because if he tries to bring forth silver and gold, precious 
stone and wood, hay and stubble - God says He's going to try it. And 
there is going to be a fire, there is going to be a testing. There are 
going to be all sorts of things that will come our way to prove what we 
speak. 
 
You know we hear people testify, "I'll never fail the Lord. I'll never do 
this or I'll never do that." Folks, it will be tried. There will be a day 
that man's work shall be made manifest, and it shall be declared because 
it shall be revealed by fire. This isn't talking about a natural fire 
that burns a building up. This fire is talking about the Lord Himself! 
Look at 1 Peter 1:7, but we'll begin at verse 3. " Blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy 
has begotten us again unto a lively hope..." How are we begotten? By 
Jesus Christ to a lively hope. Why is it a lively hope? Because He's a 
Living Stone! And we're made lively stones by Him. Who is that One who is 
a Living Stone? "...begotten us again unto a lively hope by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
Beloved, if you and I don't have an expectation, a hope of the 
Resurrection in us - that Resurrected Life that He is; we have not seen 
ourselves dead and come out from among the dead as He did. I'm telling 
you we have not yet come to the reality of the Truth, because the Word 
tells us we have "been begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled..." 
He has begotten us. And who is this One that is incorruptible? Who is 
this One that is undefiled? It's Jesus Christ who is your Life! "... and 
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the 
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the 
last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need 
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of 
your faith..." 
 
Be careful, take heed how you build on this foundation. Gold, silver, 
hay, wood stubble; for the day will manifest it. And it shall be tried as 
by fire. Peter establishes this to. " That the trial of your faith, being 
much more precious than of gold that perisheth..." See, it's not the gold 
and silver and the things that will rust and the moths will eat up. It's 
not those things of the earth that he's talking about. The gold is the 
glory of God; the silver is His salvation, His redemption; the brass is 
His judgment coming forth within a people. 'That the trial of your faith, 
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried 
with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ." When? At the appearing, coming of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. " Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom though now ye see 
him not, yet believing, ye receive with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your 
souls." 
 
What that is saying is that you have not seen Him in His fulness, where 
your soul is totally and completely one and in marriage and union 
relationship with Him. I'm not saying that He hasn't come in you. So, 1 
Corinthians 3:13, " Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day 
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire 
shall try every man's work what sort it is. If any man's work abide which 
he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work 
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet 
so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God..." It says the 
same thing it says over in 1 Corinthians 6:19. " Know ye not that ye are 
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" So, he 
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. That's what he says in 1 
Corinthians 6. He that is joined to a harlot is one; he that is joined 
unto the Lord is one spirit. Here he shows us the Spirit of God dwells in 
us.  
 
"If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the 
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Now, how does man defile the 
temple? Years ago we used to preach that the way you defile the temple of 
God is whether you smoke or drink, or do this or that. But to defile the 
temple of God is really for you to have your life there and not His Life. 
If any man defile the temple of God. If I or you live in the temple of 
God, we defile it. See, it's God's temple. It's not for you to live in, 
it's not for me and you to do something in it. It's for Christ! You're 
not your own, you are bought with a price - YOU ARE THE LORD'S! You've 
been crucified; you've been put to death. And because you are dead to 
sin, you live unto God - you don't live unto yourselves. 
 
This is simply saying to us that the body is given to us for God to live 
in, for God to have an expression, for God to be manifested, for the 
conversation of God to come out of it - not the conversation of the 
world. " Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus 
Christ." Paul is showing us that the temple is the temple of God and it 
is holy - which temple you are. It's holy because it is God living in it! 
And when you and I do not allow God to have supreme control and 
preeminence in the body, we defile the body when we try to do it. When we 
try to make ourself better, instead of letting Christ do it, we defile 
the temple of God. Man has been trying to do that for years. Man has been 
trying to make himself better. But it's not making himself better, it's 
to come to the reality of the Truth that is in Christ; that you are dead, 
as Colossians 3 says. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also 
appear with him in glory." That word "appear" is when Christ is 
manifested, then shall you be manifested with Him in glory. What is it? 
It is a manifestation of HIM! 
 
Folks, if our earthly house is dissolved, we have a house from heaven. 2 
Corinthians 5:1, " For we know..." See, three times we've read, " What, 
know ye not..." Don't you think that God really wants us to know? Paul is 
saying here, "For we know..." We know. We're not guessing about this. We 
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. Notice 
"were dissolved". "... we have a building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
So we have established from 1 Peter 2 that the house is a spiritual 
house. We are lively stones built up as a spiritual house to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices by Jesus Christ. The only way you can offer this up 
is by Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying that we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Paul is saying you 
don't wait until this body is put into the dirt and this happens. When we 
get into the death, burial and resurrection, you're going to find that 
in, and through, and by Jesus Christ, by the resurrection - you have died 
to one, and you come forth in another. " For we know that if our earthly 
house were dissolved..." Then we have a house that is from heaven. This 
house is not made of hands; this is not a house of flesh. This is a house 
that is a spiritual house for Christ Himself to have His Life, His 
Glorification in. Oh, that the Father may be glorified through that 
Glorious House that He has brought forth in His Son! 
 
PART 2 
 
We are talking about the House of Heaven. We have seen that Paul had 
established the building of God and the foundation that it was built upon 
was none other than Jesus Christ Himself! It is very important that we 
understand this. The House that we are talking about is Christ Himself. 
You and I are members, and we are brought forth as members of the Body of 
Christ. We are joined together virtually by the Spirit of God and made 
One by Him. And Paul gave us a warning that every man is to take heed how 
he builds on this foundation. Anything that is built on this foundation 
that is not Christ, not of the Spirit, not of the Word of God, certainly 
will not stand the test of the fire. In this study we must first see that 
Christ is the True Tabernacle. He is the True House. Then when He is that 
Tabernacle, when He is that House, then we'll know we're talking about 
that House that is from heaven - which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 
Looking back to 2 Corinthians 5 again, Paul said in this scripture "we 
know this". There must be a knowledge, an experience that you and I come 
to realize. This earthly house, this mortal house, this corruptible house 
was a house that was given to us of Adam. The House that is of heaven is 
given to us of Christ! This is going to be very important.  
 
In Colossians 1:5 it says, "For the hope which is laid up for you in 
heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 
which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth 
fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the 
grace of God in truth." Paul is saying here is a hope; this is an eternal 
hope, an expectation. It's laid up for you, in heaven. The emphasis here 
is on this word "heaven" - a House of Heaven. Verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 5; 
" We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building of God." Paul shows us that there must come this 
understanding that we know that the earthly house is dissolved. And until 
that understanding comes in our hearts and spirits, we will never be able 
to understand that we have a building of God, a house that is not made 
with hands and that is eternal in the heavens. Except the first be 
abolished (Hebrews 10), except the first be done away, the second can not 
be established. And where must it be done away? Where is this building? 
Where is this earthly tabernacle? This mortal that we are talking about? 
It's going to come to an end when we begin to understand that here is a 
building that is of God. And this building from God is a house, but it's 
not a house that is made of flesh, not a house made of hands, but it is a 
house that is eternal in the heavens.  
 
This House from Heaven, that is eternal in the heavens is not made with 
hands. We will establish this in Jesus Christ as the True Tabernacle. We 
must be able to see that the one that is dissolved is Adam, the first 
house. Do you remember in Haggai it speaks of the former house and the 
latter house, and that there is no comparison of the former house to the 
glory that is in the latter house? All of that is similar to 2 
Corinthians 3 when the Word of God spoke concerning Moses and the law; 
and how glorious that was - the first covenant was glorious. But then, 
the New Covenant, this New Creation, this order that God is bringing 
forth in His Son is more glorious. There is no comparison to that which 
is Moses and of the law; and to that which is of the Spirit and of 
Christ. All of the things of the old covenant were types and shadows, and 
their fulfillment is in the Person of Jesus Christ Himself! 
 
The Word of the Lord establishes who this tabernacle is. "We know that if 
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have..." It's not 
something we're waiting for, It's when we come to an understanding of the 
Spirit. To relate to God concerning the things of God, we must recognize 
that God is a Spirit, and in order for you and I to be able to understand 
the things of God, we can only understand them by the Spirit of God. This 
House comes out of the heavens; it is a House that never passes away. The 
first house dissolves, it gives way. When does it give way? When there is 
a cry within our hearts, that in this tabernacle we groan and are 
burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, or just get out of this body. 
The Apostle is telling us that we no longer live unto ourselves, but we 
live unto God. As long as we live unto ourselves, then we can be absent 
from the Lord. Even though we are the House of God, even though we are 
One with Christ, until the mind is renewed by the Spirit of Christ, we 
will always see ourselves in this first house. He's not saying that we're 
waiting someday to lay down this body so that Christ can come forth, so 
the eternal life can come forth and the House from Heaven can be built. 
Paul is telling us that our groaning is not be unclothed, but to be 
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life, which is Him. 
 
What are we groaning for? What are we burdened for? Are we down here on 
this earth wrestling with the devil? Do you know that so many Christians 
are so sin conscious. If we could ever get our minds transformed, 
translated out of the first, and come into the second, we wouldn't be sin 
minded, we wouldn't be flesh minded; but we would be God minded, Spirit 
minded. There is a place where the devil does not exist, and that is in 
Christ! I don't say there isn't a devil. Sure there's a devil to those 
who continue to live in the first man, in the first house. Their life 
consists of what they can touch, taste, see, smell and hear - in the 
physical. Their life is earth bound. The book of Revelation says, "Woe, 
woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth." If that's your habitation, woe 
unto you. But Ephesians 2 tells us we have been given a building of God 
as a habitation of His Spirit, for God to live in; not you, not the 
devil, not the principalities and powers, not the spirits of this world 
to live it; but for God to live in! This is for the habitation of the 
Spirit; for God to live in, for God to be manifested, and that's exactly 
what Jesus did when He crucified you and I and brought us forth in the 
Resurrection. We'll see what Body that comes forth with. It's the Body of 
the Resurrection, which is absolutely a totally New Body! 
 
Let's go to Hebrews 9. I want to establish again who this House is. Who 
is this House that is not made with hands, that is eternal in the 
heavens? Paul said, "For we know..." I can't emphasize this enough. Do we 
really know this? We ought to know this; there ought to be a 
comprehension of this. This thing should not be a warfare in our minds, 
but we ought to come to a place that we know that if our earthly house of 
this tabernacle were dissolved... And it is dissolved because we have a 
building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now 
Hebrews 9:11, " But Christ being come an high priest of good things to 
come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle..." Two things I want to 
say here. One is the first tabernacle, the tabernacle of the old 
testament had divine services. It was a worldly sanctuary, and this was a 
tabernacle made, where was the candlestick, the table of shewbread, and 
all of that was presented (verse 1). But I want you to see that in verse 
11, " Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a 
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, 
not of this building." 
 
He is saying here is Christ, that is not made of hands, not even made of 
this building. You see, the first tabernacle was a type and a shadow; it 
had divine services, it had the shewbread, it had the golden censor, the 
candlestick, it had the vail and the Most Holy Place, but it finds a 
fulfillment in a Person! You see, we look at this outer shall, we look at 
this tabernacle, we look at our bodies and we say 'we're just human, 
we're just flesh'. But I'm telling you, we need to stop being just human, 
and we need to become what God has said - we are partakers of His divine 
nature! The reality of God is that God is divine, and in His divineness 
there is a divine service, but this service is the Spirit working within 
the believer's life. So here in Hebrews 9:11, Christ being come an high 
priest, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 
not of this building. And as we reference 2 Corinthians 5:1, we have a 
building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. So 
who is this House? This House is none other than Jesus Christ! It is the 
House of God! 
 
Verse 12, " Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own 
blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
redemption for us." How precious! " For if the blood of bulls and of 
goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to 
the purifying of the flesh; How much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works..." The Word of God is teaching us that 
the blood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Spirit of God should purge our 
conscience from all of the dead works. What is dead works? Dead works is 
trying to be in Christ, and yet to say that we are in the first creation; 
we are yet in Adam, yet in this tabernacle. He says we must have our 
conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God! 
 
Where does God live? God lives in this New House, God lives in this 
building, this House of Heaven, the eternal House that is made not with 
the hands of man. Folks, this is where God has brought you and I. He's 
done all of this certainly not for Himself, because He was already 
perfect. He was already the Tabernacle; He was the High Priest. And we 
have that High Priest that was over the House of God! Who is and what is 
the House of God? It is none other than Jesus Christ, and yet Jesus 
Christ coming forth living in you, and living in me! 
 
In 2 Corinthians 6:16 it says, "And what agreement hath the temple of God 
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God..." Look back at 
Hebrews 9:14, " How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your 
conscience..." Folks, as long as our conscience lives in a realization of 
an old man, of an old creation, of a tabernacle that has been dissolved, 
we're going to have great problems, and perplexities and distress. We're 
going to have great fears and doubts. But the Word of God says God has 
not called us unto fear, but He has called us unto a sound mind. He has 
called us to be in a place where Christ and Christ alone is that 
tabernacle, is that House. This is the eternal House. This is the House 
that is from Heaven. This is the building we have of God. It's a building 
that is Christ Himself - CHRIST IN YOU AND YOU IN HIM! 
 
So in 2 Corinthians 6:16, " What agreement hath the temple of God with 
idols? for ye are the temple of the living God..." You're not a temple 
for Satan. You're not even a temple for yourself to live in. As long as 
you and I live there, the Word of God says in 1 Corinthians 3 we defile 
the temple. It's God's temple - it doesn't belong to you! It isn't a 
place for you to live in any more. It's a place for Christ and Christ 
alone to live there! No longer you. "Ye are the temple of the living God; 
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be 
their God, and they shall be my people." This House of Heaven is none 
other than Jesus Christ who is your Life! It's Jesus Christ who is the 
Resurrection! It's Jesus Christ who is the I Am! You see, he that has the 
Son has life; he that has not the Son has not life. So we're not talking 
about life in anything else. You can't find life outside of Christ! You 
may be wrapped up in many things in this world, but that's not life. We 
can see this is Matthew 6: take no thought for your life. The word "life" 
there speaks of 'soul life', natural life. Take no thought for your life, 
but the life is more than raiment; it's more than food and these things.  
 
This Life is abundant Life! This Life is eternal Life! This Life is Jesus 
Christ Himself! So in 2 Corinthians 6:17, "Wherefore come out from among 
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 
thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye 
shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." He's saying you 
are going to be my sons and daughters if you do not make an agreement 
with anything other than God. He said you're not your own; you're bought 
with a price. You've been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. You've 
been begotten by that Beloved Son. You are no longer your own, and we've 
got to stop living unto ourselves, because that's the realm of death, of 
heartaches and misery. As long as you try to find your life in anything 
other than Christ Himself, you will live as a Christian, and yet be 
miserable! There's no other way to say it. You've got to come to this 
place to know that the first is done away and the second is established. 
But the second can't be established until you let the Spirit of God write 
it upon the tables of your hearts, bring it forth in your mind, and you 
absolutely refuse any longer to live in that tabernacle. That's what he 
means by 'while we're at home in this tabernacle, we're absent from the 
Lord.' And I'm not talking about this body laying down and dying. It's 
talking about this thing is given away unto the Life that He is! 
 
How can we be in the body and still be present with the Lord? It is to 
let the Lord be the King and rule supremely in authority over the body 
that is His. It's His body! The body isn't even yours! We saw this in 
referring to the wife (1 Corinthians 7) - her body isn't hers, but it 
belongs to the man. As that is in the natural, the Word of God tells us 
our bodies are the members of Christ; our bodies are the temple of the 
Holy Ghost, and we are joined together as One in Christ Jesus.  
 
So we want to establish from Hebrews 9 that Christ is the High Priest. He 
is of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle. He's 
the One not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. And in 
reality, His conception was not of man; His conception was of the Holy 
Ghost. When you and I are born again, we are not born again of a 
corruptible seed, we are born again of an incorruptible seed. The reality 
of this is when we have a spiritual conception, then there comes forth a 
spiritual birth. And after the spiritual birth comes, what God teaches us 
and leads us in Christ, is all pertaining to the Spirit. Some people get 
shaky over that, but it can't be any other way. God is Spirit. The Spirit 
has His habitation in you. You are the building of God, you are the place 
for Jesus Christ to live in, for the manifestation of Christ to come 
forth, not you. So, Christ is the Tabernacle made without hands. 
 
Hebrews 9: 23-27, " It was therefore necessary that the patterns of 
things in the heavens should be purified with these (that's talking about 
the blood. See, even in the old testament they purged the things with 
blood); but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than 
these." I'm telling us it's no longer the blood of goats and calves, but 
now it's the blood of Jesus Christ, it's that One that came from heaven 
Himself! And he is showing us that the heavenly things were purified with 
better sacrifices. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made 
with hands..." Three or four times we've seen there is nothing of the 
hand. It's not the doings of man, not the workmanship of man. The Word of 
God tells us in Ephesians 2:10, " For we are his workmanship, created in 
Christ Jesus..." See, the workmanship of Christ created in Christ Jesus. 
The House that is from Heaven is Christ Himself! He brings us into that 
true Tabernacle, dwells in us, lives in us and we live in Him! 
 
So verse 24, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, 
which are the figures of the true..." Here's the word "figure". Romans 5 
deals with the first Adam who was a figure of Him to come. What was that 
figure? Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, fashioned like unto man, made 
like unto sin. So that He could wrap up that first creation in Himself, 
take it to the Cross, crucify it, abolish it, and bury it in His burial. 
That's what He did. We have a House! For we know that if our earthly 
house is dissolved, we have a building of God, made without hands, 
eternal in the heavens. This is talking about this Body that is the 
members of Christ giving way to none but the Body that He is, the Glory 
that He is, the Life that He is! A House from Heaven! Everyone is taught 
you can't have this House until you die. The mentality of most Christians 
today is we're in this old human flesh and this old human body and this 
world - they live there. And my God, what misery they go through! What 
heartaches they go through! And it will always be that way until we come 
to the place that we know that if this earthly house were dissolved, then 
we have a building of God. Hebrews 9 establishes that Jesus Christ was 
that tabernacle.  
Revelation 21:22 says I looked " And I saw no temple therein; for the 
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And that city had no 
need of the sun... for the Lamb is the light thereof." It's showing that 
nothing of that city is natural; it's altogether of the heavenly, it's 
everything of Christ Himself! The Lamb of God is the Light. He is the One 
who gives light to that city. He's the One that gives light to that 
House. The House of Heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's brought you 
and I into Himself. As Ephesians 1 says, He hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings. What kind of blessings? Spiritual blessings. Where? 
In heavenly places in Christ Jesus! For we know that if our earthly house 
were dissolved, we have a building of God, not made with hands, but 
eternal in the heavens. This is the House of God, the place for God to 
live and be exhibited; the place for God to be glorified. For what 
agreement does the temple of God have with idols? There's no agreement in 
that! The Word of God tells us as believers, why do we live after the 
ordinances of this world? Folks, the mind has to be in the heavens; it 
has to be a spiritual mind that is operating in us at all times - Christ 
filling up all and in all. Oh brethren, how magnificent it is to see and 
to understand that the Lord Jesus is the House; that He's brought us into 
Himself! 
 
Now Hebrews 9:25, " Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the 
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 
for then must he often have suffered since the foundation (the eruption) 
of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." My God, we as believers are 
out here in this world struggling and battling all around, struggling 
with sin and the devil. That's because we don't have an understanding 
that by the offering of Himself He is the High Priest that is entered 
into the Holy Place. The Great High Priest of the day under the old 
covenant had to go in once a year, offer up for the sins and errors of 
the people and themselves. But here was One come without sin - the 
perfect sinless Lamb of God! And He offered up Himself, His own body and 
by that He could make us perfect, and put an end to it all - once in the 
end of the world. He brought an end to those sacrifices of bulls, calves 
and turtle doves. He brought an end to all of that. Folks, God isn't 
interested in you and I just offering ourselves up. Our sacrifices must 
be by Christ Himself! 1 Peter 2 told us that.  
 
God doesn't want any of your sacrifices. As David said in Psalm 51, the 
sacrifice of the Lord is a broken and contrite spirit. And that is 
allowing the Spirit of God to break and to humble. It's That Man that He 
is, that comes into that place and there we stand before the Father - IN 
CHRIST! - presented to God. That's what it says in Colossians 3 - that 
your life is hid with Christ in God. Oh, we have a building not made with 
hands. And Paul is saying, when is this house going to dissolve? When we 
know it! When the Holy Spirit gives us this understanding. When we really 
with all of our heart desire to know the Truth as it is in Christ.  
 
So in Hebrews 9:26, " For then must he often have suffered since the 
foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath he 
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." If He has done it 
folks, you don't have to do it! You have to trust, have that mutual faith 
of the Son of God operating in you. IT IS DONE THROUGH CHRIST! " And as 
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So 
Christ was once offered..." It shows that every bit of it was fulfilled 
in Christ. He became the sin offering and He became the judgment - the 
judgment that was upon sin.  
 
The Word of God says He came to condemn sin in the flesh - Romans 8. 1 
John 3 tells us for this purpose did Christ come, that He might condemn 
sin in the flesh. How did He condemn sin in the flesh? Did He run around 
and just condemn people? No He did not! He condemned sin by wrapping it 
all up in Himself - He became sin. He tasted death. He took it all in 
Himself and became that, and when He went to the Cross, He died to sin. 
We have already said in Adam you are dead in sin, but in Christ you are 
dead to sin. That's a big difference. And the dead in Christ shall rise 
first! Verse 28, " So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; 
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time unto 
(full) salvation." So we no longer see sin, but we see Him who is 
Salvation! We see Him who is deliverance! We see Him who is the 
deliverer! Paul said he was delivered and He shall yet deliver me. Why? 
Because in His sacrifice, in what He has done, it has been offered unto 
God once and forever.  
 
Look with me in Hebrews 10. Here we see we have a high priest over the 
house of God. The Word has established that He is the true tabernacle, 
the tabernacle that is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And 
we're hearing that we know that when this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Verse 9 
says, "...He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By 
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ once for all." We're not sanctified by working hard, by 
doing everything in your ability, power and reasoning. Folks, this thing 
is so simple that babes could understand this - spiritual babes, that is. 
But the "church" has preached to us that it's what we do or what we don't 
do; we've got to work hard to be righteous and work hard to stay 
righteous. But what does the Word of God say here in Hebrews 10:10? " By 
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ once for all. And every high priest standeth daily 
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never 
take away sins; But this man (this man Jesus) after he had offered one 
sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." Oh, the 
power and the authority of God! And He established it and said it is 
done, it is finished, it is a complete work! Can you believe that? Can 
you trust in that? Can you have faith in that which the Son of God has 
done?  
 
"From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by 
one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." For 
how long? Forever them that are sanctified! How are we sanctified? We are 
sanctified by Christ, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ! 
You are not sanctified by your works, your efforts and your means. You're 
sanctified by Christ! This thing is so simple and so easy that most 
people look right over it, and want to make it so hard and so confounded, 
when all it takes is that simple faith, childlike faith. And that 
childlike faith is that you no longer depend upon yourself and your 
ability, your strength and know-how; but you absolutely depend upon Him 
who is that faith and that strength, and that ability.  
 
" For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 
sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us..." Do we have 
this witness? Do we have the Spirit of God? Sometimes I get a little mad 
- if we're born again of the Spirit, why can't we see this? Why can't we 
have this understanding? " Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to 
us..." The Holy Ghost is the witness of God. "...for after that he had 
said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those 
days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their 
minds will I write them." They are going in the heart and in the mind. " 
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where 
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." 
 
And do you know what that tells me? You and I might as well give up and 
quit trying to offer everything that we can think of to God, because God 
has offered His Eternal Son, that perfect Lamb that He is before the 
foundation of the world. He has offered His body, the vail of His flesh. 
I'm telling you, you can't offer anything to God; God won't accept it. 
He's going to only accept that which has been offered and sacrificed by 
the Son! 
He says where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 
Did Christ forgive? Did Christ cleanse? Did Christ sanctify? Did Christ 
bring you into a House made without hands, eternal in the heavens? If He 
is that House, if He is that Tabernacle, and He has brought you and I 
into Himself, then doesn't it stand to reason that we would be the House 
of God? The place, the habitation for Him to live in, to abide in and 
perform His wondrous works in? His beauty, His gladness, His joy, His 
rest, His peace to abide in! Oh, this House we live in is a glorious 
House! It's a House of love, it's a House of peace, it's a House of 
quietness, not confusion.  
 
And He goes on to say, " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter 
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way..." Not 
by Adam, not by your mentality or my mentality, my achievements. No - by 
a new and living way! "...which he hath consecrated for us..." Who did 
it? He has! He consecrated this for us. "...through the veil, that is to 
say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us 
draw near with a true heart..." See, Jesus Christ is the Tabernacle, yet 
He is the High Priest. We have a High Priest that is touched with our 
infirmities, the Word of God says. Therefore, " Let us draw near..." 
Here's the drawing. Who are we going to draw near to? " Let us draw near 
with a true heart in full assurance..." Not even wavering, not even 
doubting or wondering. "... a true heart in full assurance of faith, 
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies 
washed with pure water." Even the conscience. See, back under the old 
testament, their conscience wasn't free; they lived under the guilt of 
their sins, their trespasses. But the Word of God says that this 
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ not only purged our conscience from 
evil works, but it also purged our conscience, and made us perfect - 
complete in Him! 
 
Why? Because God says we come a new and living way! This isn't anything 
of the old whatsoever. This isn't anything of the earth whatsoever. " For 
we know that if our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of 
God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." That the House of 
Heaven! You and I are there - by and through and of Jesus Christ - 
because that's who is that House! House of Heaven is the Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself, the Son of the Living God, the Lord of Lords, the King of 
Kings, the Great I Am - all that He is. He is it! He's built Himself a 
House for His pleasure, for His habitation, for we are built together for 
a habitation of His Spirit! 
 
PART 3 
 
So we have established that Jesus is the true sanctuary, the true 
sanctuary, the House of Heaven. And you and I as members of the Body of 
Christ are brought into that House. Once again our text is 2 Corinthians 
5:1-4, and we see that certainly this is a House of Immortality. 
Everything that is of the Heavens is immortal, eternal. Just think, if 
every born again believer's longing and desire and travailing would only 
be to have that Heavenly House - what a House that would be! What an 
expression of God would be coming forth in the earth! The scripture 
speaks of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the 
sea - that's exactly what would be taking place. But so much of the 
previous teaching and understanding has brought us to seek death in the 
natural in order to obtain this. And the Lord does not mean this at all, 
neither did Paul, because he had a revelation of Jesus Christ. Within 
Paul's life was One who was revealed; that was his Life, that was his 
Resurrection and Way. And all that Paul ever saw was that Christ was his 
Life! So when Paul is talking to the Church concerning the House, he's 
talking about a House that is NOW! It is a Living House, a true 
sanctuary - which is JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF! 
 
Verse 3 in 2 Corinthians 5 says "If so be that being clothed we shall not 
be found naked." Clothed with what? Clothed with Him! "Put on the Lord 
Jesus Christ" Romans 3:14, "and make not provision for the flesh..." It's 
always coming to this: that God is bringing a people wherein they will 
not be found naked. Revelation 3:18 speaks of gold tried in the fire. He 
speaks about the Laodicean church, one who says I'm increased with riches 
and goods; and yet he says, you're miserable, wretched, poor and naked. 
Buy of me gold tried in the fire. We saw in 1 Corinthians 3 Paul talked 
about a foundation. " Let every man take heed how he builds on that 
foundation...gold, silver, wood, hay...what sort it is. For the day..." 
You see, that day is Christ! It's talking about that day, when He is 
appearing, every man's work will be tried, of what sort it is, for the 
fire will test and prove that which is of Him.  
 
We'll go now to Hebrews 8:1, "Now of the things which we have spoken this 
is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of 
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Notice that everything that 
we're talking about is that which is in the heavens, in the Spirit. We 
must understand that the heavens and the Spirit is the same thing. And we 
must understand that the throne is a place of the rule, reign and 
authority of Christ. It's not talking about some chair or podium Jesus is 
sitting on, but the Word of God declares He's sitting on the right hand 
of the Father, which means that He is in full authority and power, might 
and dominion of the Spirit of God. Therefore His throne is at hand, at 
that throne is the Majesty, and it comes from the heavens, in the Spirit. 
"A minister of the sanctuary, of the true tabernacle, which the Lord 
pitched, and not man." We see this again as we did in Hebrews 9 and 10 - 
that this house or tabernacle is not made of hands, but is eternal in the 
heavens. We read this in Hebrews 9:11-13. 
 
We must understand that the House of Heaven, the tabernacle of God is 
with men. The first tabernacle was the tabernacle of Adam; that of flesh, 
and therefore this tabernacle is a greater and more perfect tabernacle 
because it is a tabernacle not made with hands, and it is not of the 
first building. And in Hebrews 8:2 we see that He is a minister of the 
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not 
man. Again we see that this is what God is building; man is not building 
it, man cannot produce this; only that which is of the Spirit, that which 
is of the Word, that which is of God Himself can bring about such a 
House. This is why Paul is saying that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God that is not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens. And Paul deals there that our 
groaning, our burden is to be clothed upon. That is to be our desire and 
the very cry of our hearts - to be clothed upon with that House - NO 
LONGER I, BUT CHRIST! No longer us, but Christ! 
 
Hebrews 8:3, "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and 
sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also 
to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that 
there are priests that offer gifts according to the law..." The Word of 
God is showing us here that Jesus Christ, this true and perfect 
tabernacle, this tabernacle that is pitched of the Lord Himself, is 
altogether a different tabernacle than that of the first, that of the 
law. Verse 5, "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly 
things..." Everything of the first is in types and shadows, but the 
fulfillment of it all is fulfilled in the Person of Christ, in the Lord 
Himself, in the Spirit Himself! This verse shows us this. "...example and 
shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was 
about the make the tabernacle; for, See, saith he, that thou make all 
things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." God gave 
unto Moses a pattern of the tabernacle to be built at that time, and 
Moses was to build that tabernacle as a type of shadow of the heavenly. 
 
See, we have earthly bodies. We looked at this in 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 
Corinthians 6, showing our body is the member of Christ, and the temple 
of the Holy Ghost. Well, the tabernacle that Moses built was a type and 
shadow. So is our outer shell. It's like a shadow or type, but the 
reality of this tabernacle is that Christ Himself is revealed and made 
alive! The first is a type; with your flesh, my flesh and my body, and 
yet it's not my body and your body that is that House - it is Christ - He 
is magnified, He is glorified, He is exalted in His House! So Moses was 
admonished of God and he made the tabernacle according to the pattern 
that the Lord had showed him in the mount. Verse 6, "But now hath he 
obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator 
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." 
Everything of the Spirit, everything of this House is better, much 
better, much greater than all of the first! 
 
Now I want to deal with Moses for a little while. Moses was the mediator 
of the first covenant. In this passage it tells us how the preeminence of 
Christ did reign; how much greater and more, what a greater mediator He 
is. All that was established in Christ was established upon better 
promises. Why? Because the things that were going to be established in 
Christ would never be abolished; would never come to an end - they were 
going to be eternal! The things of Jesus Christ are eternal. That's why 
the scriptures teach we pass through death, we've come to life, we have 
eternal Life abiding within us, and those who know the True and Living 
God are in Him and He is in them! See, this House that we're speaking of 
is a House that does not fade away. There is no corruption to it; it is 
eternal in the heavens because IT IS CHRIST HIMSELF! The very Lord of 
Glory comes forth in This House! 
 
Hebrews 8:7, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should 
no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he 
saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not 
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when 
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because 
they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the 
Lord." All that God had ever done for Israel, and the Word of God says 
they did not keep His covenant. They were never able to walk in it, 
because the works of the flesh were never able to produce that. We see 
that in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which 
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
Here are a people who come forth in a union with Christ. The believer's 
walk is a walk in the Spirit. It is a people who have a union 
relationship, who have been liberated by the Spirit of Christ. Christ 
Himself has come in and liberated them. 
 
In Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ 
has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." 
And God would have us to know that as we live in Christ, we walk in 
Christ, and understand that the Heavenly House is Christ Himself, then 
we're going to be a people who will be free - liberated in Christ, not 
bound by flesh, not bound by the bondages and elements of this world, but 
we are citizens of the heavens. Ephesians 2 tells us that. Now in Romans 
8:2, "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it 
was weak through the flesh..." The law was weak through the flesh; the 
law was the works of the flesh. We know that God had given ordinances and 
commandments to Moses, but in everything that God had given unto Moses, 
it was not to be eternal. It was all a temporal thing, and was destined 
by God to be abolished and done away with. Why? Because this whole thing 
was going to be fulfilled and brought forth in the Lord Himself! 
 
The Word of God tells us in Galatians 3 speaking of the seed, that 430 
years after, the law came; after the promise that God gave to Abraham. 
"Through thy seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed." And when 
Paul deals with this in Galatians 3:16 he says it's not of seeds as of 
many, but as of thy seed, which is Christ. We're going to find in this 
study that we are of that One Seed. There is only One Seed, there is only 
One Body, there is only One Church, there is only One Lord, there is only 
One Faith, there is only One Baptism. And it sums up to this: you and I 
and every believer that is truly in Christ is to come forth in that union 
and relationship with Christ, until what is preached and heard is Christ 
Himself! Why? Because we live by that! 
 
So Romans 8:3 says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; That the righteousness of 
the law might be fulfilled in us..." (look at the union, this 
relationship, this fellowship that the Spirit brings us into) "...who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." See, God brings us into 
His righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ! It's Him who has 
liberated us, brought us into union with Him, and this is why Paul can 
make that statement in 2 Corinthians 5 that when this earthly tabernacle 
were dissolved, we have a building of God. God is going to be the One who 
lives, God is going to be the One that is seen and heard and manifested! 
 
Going back to Hebrews 8:6 we saw that Christ Himself is that mediator of 
a better covenant. A mediator - One who was coming with a better 
covenant, and it was established upon greater promises. Everything of the 
Lord is greater, better and more magnificent than the flesh could ever 
produce. Verse 8 tells us He found fault with them. Why did He find fault 
with the House of Israel? Because they did not walk according to the 
covenant He had made. Verse 9 says this. One thing I want to point out is 
that you and I must come to a place of understanding that you and I can't 
keep the righteousness of God. You and I can't really be a Christian - 
You and I can't really be. It's that which CHRIST IS IN US. You and I 
can't really be righteous. It's Him who is righteous. This is what is 
said here. They didn't continue in the covenant, so God regarded them 
not, and would make a new covenant. He would put His laws into their mind 
and write them in their hearts, and He would be to them a God, and they 
would be to Him a people. That's the same thing God says in 2 Corinthians 
6:18, "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and 
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 
 
The Lord is saying here that this covenant is going to be a New Covenant. 
This is going to be a covenant of the Spirit, of the Seed, of Christ 
Himself, of that covenant that God had made with Abraham. You can read 
that in Genesis 12 through Genesis 22, and you will find how God is 
dealing with Abraham concerning a covenant. And the covenant is none 
other than JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF! So this new covenant that He's going to 
make is not going to be patterned after the old, but is going to be 
patterned after the law of the Spirit of Life! It's the Spirit of Life 
that is in us that frees us from the law of sin and death. This is the 
thing that brings God's people into liberation of the Spirit of God. To 
be free - not always hassling, not always wrestling and struggling. 
"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Tell them that their warfare is 
already accomplished - finished." And yet Christians so often are always 
in a warfare, but the reality is that you are not in a warfare when you 
come and learn that Christ who is your Liberator, Christ who is the 
Preeminence, Christ who is the law of the Spirit of Life that is in you, 
has already conquered the principalities and powers, has already defeated 
the devil, death and hell. Many people say this is crazy, but this is why 
God is bringing a people to come forth in this day, not in a bunch of 
warfare, strife and struggles, but they are seeing that they live by none 
other than Christ Himself, who is that Life! 
 
It's not us - it's Him! He's accomplished it, He has fulfilled it. So God 
said He's going to put this law in their minds, and write it in their 
hearts. Hebrews 8:10b, " I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me 
a people; and They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man 
his brother, saying, Know the Lord.." This is telling us that when there 
is a people who come under this new covenant, into Jesus Christ in the 
realm of the Spirit and the heavens, that in all sincerity we've come to 
a greater thing - and we know the Lord! WE KNOW THE LORD! And how do we 
know the Lord? Because we know that He is our Life! We know that we have 
been crucified, we have been buried in His death, and we have come forth 
in the power of His Resurrection! Oh, that we might obtain that fulness, 
that comprehension of that full salvation that He and He alone is! 
 
So He says, "...for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their 
iniquities will I remember no more, In that he saith, a new covenant, he 
hath made the first old." We've got to come to this understanding. As 
long as you and I are battling in two men - two men in you... I'm telling 
you that's not true. The first is only the outer shell, but the inward 
man is Christ Himself! 1 Corinthians 4 says that though our outward man 
is perishing day by day, our inward man is being renewed day by day. What 
is it being renewed in? It's being renewed in an understanding, in a 
comprehension of Jesus Christ Himself! See the old is passed, the old is 
done away, the old has been brought to an end. Therefore, we are not 
living in an old, we're living in a new covenant. We're not even living 
under the law of the flesh and of works, because we saw the works of the 
flesh could not produce it. Therefore, because it was not able to please 
God, they were not able to walk in the covenant of God by the flesh; then 
the Word of God tells us that Jesus Christ was made like unto sinful 
flesh to condemn the flesh. That wasn't standing up and telling people 
how wrong they were. Jesus wasn't condemning them with His mouth, He 
condemned them in His death! He took it, wrapped it in Himself, did away 
with it, buried it, and in the Resurrection that He already was, He comes 
forth and He brings you forth in the Resurrection.  
 
You know in reality, what is resurrected is you. Think about that, 
because Jesus Christ was already the Resurrection. He didn't have to die 
and raise from the dead to be Resurrected. He did not because He was 
already the Resurrection. It's His Life, it's the Life, it's a Quickening 
Spirit, it's a Life Giving Spirit that He is, and therefore He was the 
Resurrection! And therefore it is you and I that are resurrected in His 
Resurrection, which is His Life. We have been quickened and raised and 
made anew in Him, and brought forth in that glorious union! So, "...a new 
covenant, for He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and 
waxeth old is ready to vanish away." That's where our hearts have to be 
set, and our minds have to be renewed in the knowledge of Christ, in 
order that we can come to an understanding that He has caused the old to 
vanish, that the new can truly be established. 
 
Now I want to go to Hebrews 3:1-17. We've been talking here concerning 
this first covenant, this first tabernacle, which Moses was the mediator 
of. Then we saw a greater covenant, which is Christ Jesus Himself. 
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling..." It seems 
like everywhere you turn in the Word, if you have eyes to see, you see 
this word "heaven", "heavenly". And yet people have taken that and made 
it a far off land, some day, somewhere in the future after we die. And 
I'm telling you that there's no way with the understanding of the Spirit, 
and that Christ was the Son that was revealed in Paul, that he could ever 
put this thing off for "some day". It was a realization of the House that 
He was! It was a realization of what Paul had been clothed upon with! It 
was a realization of the Life that had engulfed him, and therefore there 
was no way Paul could have been talking about something, someday - a 
hundred years from now or so. "...partakers of the heavenly calling..." 
He is telling us there that we are already partakers of a heavenly call, 
a heavenly position. 
 
"...consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus." These scriptures continue to confirm that Jesus Christ is this 
House of Heaven. Jesus Christ is this true tabernacle. The Lord Himself 
is the One that is pitching this House. And as Paul was talking about 
this House that was from heaven, that was made without hands, eternal in 
the heavens, he was talking of none other than the One that was in him, 
that was Paul's Life, that One that had brought Paul into the heavenly 
place. Paul was seated with Christ and in Him, and Paul understood this 
so he says we are partakers of this heavenly calling. We must consider 
the Apostle and High Priest, Christ Jesus. Who are we going to profess? 
CHRIST! This is our profession - CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD! CHRIST JESUS 
OUR LIFE! CHRIST JESUS OUR VICTORY! CHRIST JESUS OUR CONQUEROR! No 
wonder the Word of God says, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that 
is in the world." 
 
Who is in the world? A lot of people think that's just the devil. But 
folks, that's the Adam, that's the flesh, that's the carnal mind. Greater 
is that understanding of the Spirit of the Master Himself that rises up. 
Oh, that we no longer be conformed to this world, to the first man Adam; 
but we be transformed by the renewing of our minds! That is, the mind of 
Christ, the mind of the Spirit. That we would be quickened by the Spirit 
and we would actually see that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus now, and we consider the One who is the Apostle, the One who is the 
High Priest of that calling, that we have been made partakers of in the 
heavens! 
 
Hebrews 3:2, "Who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses 
was faithful in all his house." I've been going back and reading about 
Moses in Exodus 2, and how there had been a decree by the King, another 
Pharaoh who came after Joseph had been in Egypt. And he made it so hard 
on the children of Israel. And Moses was born and the decree went out 
from that King that all male Israelite children would be put to death and 
that was because he looked around and saw how the Israelites had 
multiplied and that they could join in with the enemy if there was a war 
and totally wipe Pharaoh out. That was why Moses' parents hid him in the 
ark. And if you read the history of it, Pharaoh's daughter went down and 
saw the baby in the basket and so she preserved him. Then his sister was 
there and said how there was one of the Hebrew women who would be able to 
keep the child, and that was Moses' mother! It's a wonderful story, and 
we'll see that Moses went on to follow the Lord and not to become 
involved in Pharaoh's army and sins of that world. But rather, he chose 
to suffer the afflictions of the righteous than to partake of what was in 
Egypt.  
 
And as I read that I began to see even a clearer picture of a type of 
Adam and Christ, and how Pharaoh and Egypt were the type of the world, 
the flesh, the first man. And how Moses in his heart desired not to be a 
part of that, but rather chose to suffer the afflictions of the 
righteous. And that's a reality that God has to bring in our hearts as 
believers. We must come to that place where we understand we are not 
living in two men; we're not living in two creations or two worlds. But 
we are living, and are made partakers of that Apostle, that great High 
Priest, Jesus Christ, who is over the House of God. He is the House of 
God, to bring you and I into that fellowship of that Son, so that you and 
I could live in this world in the heavens, manifesting that which is in 
the Spirit! 
 
So in Hebrews 3:2, "Who was faithful to him that appointed him..." In 
other words this Apostle and High Priest, Christ Himself, Christ Jesus, 
He was faithful to the Spirit, He was faithful to God. "...as also Moses 
was faithful in all of his house." I want you to see, here's a house. 
Moses had a house, but what did this house represent? It represented the 
law, it represented flesh, something that no one could keep, no one could 
walk in, no one could be made perfect in, no conscience would be free. 
The Word of God tells us all of this, but it was a house, nevertheless. 
So Paul used this in 2 Corinthians 5, if the earthly tabernacle were 
dissolved, then we have a building of God. He is showing us that we 
should come to an understanding to know that this house "were" dissolved. 
And it "were" dissolved in the death and burial of Jesus Christ. This is 
when this house was dissolved. The first was done away with in Christ. 
You were crucified and buried with Him. Therefore if you were crucified 
and you were buried with Him, then the earthly tabernacle is done away 
with. It's dissolved by Him and in Him! 
 
Now I know that full understanding hasn't come into our hearts, so as the 
Spirit of God brings about that understanding in us, we begin to 
comprehend and we begin to put on more and more of that House that He is. 
That's the reality of it - you and I live it, not to ourselves. God 
hasn't given us even this body for us to live in. He's given it for 
Himself. "Ye are bought with a price, you are not your own. Therefore 
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." So as 
Moses here was faithful over his house... And that's where people have 
been; they've been faithful to themselves, faithful to Adam, to that 
which is corruptible, that which is done away. They live in that 
understanding and walk there, and Paul tells us in Galatians 5 we can't 
do that. He says we can't do that because then there is a warfare, 
because the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, 
and therefore they are contrary one to the other. And that's where the 
Christian, the believer is always in this warfare and turmoil. Why? 
Because they see themselves in Christ, and yet they declare that they are 
not totally in Him. 
 
So Moses was faithful in all his house. Verse 3, "For this man was 
counted worthy of more glory than Moses." What man? The man Christ Jesus, 
the Apostle, the High Priest of our profession, the One who was faithful 
to God. What the Father gave Him to do, He was faithful in it. What the 
Father appointed to Him, He was faithful in it. And does not the Lord 
Jesus say that as the Father has life in Himself, He hath given to the 
Son to have life, and those that are in the Son, the Son has given His 
life unto they that live by His Life! The Word just fits together like a 
puzzle when you begin to allow the Holy Spirit to take the Word and it 
becomes a Living Word. And this Word is none other than Christ, and you 
come into that union, that fellowship, that relationship, and Christ is 
Preeminent in all, and your soul is liberated in Christ! Galatians 5 
talks of this liberty and a yoke of bondage. What is this yoke of 
bondage? Trying to live your life, and Christ's too. You can't do it. 
There's only One Life in Him - that's Him! The other is soul life. And 
that Life that is really Life is Eternal Life. 
 
"For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he 
who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house." It never 
ceases to amaze me - we can look at a natural house and we can think 
that's the most beautiful house, and we very seldom ever think of the 
craftsmanship and the skilfulness of the carpenter that built the house. 
And this is exactly what happens to the believer many times. He sees he's 
the house of God, he looks at himself and then he begins to glory in 
himself and in his works, and admire all that he is as a Christian. But 
he never considers that the house wouldn't be the house except for the 
One that built it! And that's what this is dealing with here. As Moses 
was faithful in his house, then this Man Christ Jesus, is worthy of more 
glory than Moses inasmuch as he who has built the house has more honor 
than the house. God is the One who deserves honor, glory, praise and 
thanksgiving. "For every house is built by some man; but he that built 
all things is God." So if God builds it, man can not take the glory and 
honor for it - it doesn't belong to man. No wonder God said "no flesh 
shall glory in my presence." 
 
"And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant for a 
testimony of those things which were to be spoken after..." Catch that. 
See, everything here was a type and a shadow. Moses was faithful; Moses 
was the servant. The Word of God says Moses was one of the meekest men 
that ever was, but in all of that he was the mediator. He's the one that 
went up on the mount and there he communicated with God and received the 
Word, the commandments from God, and came down off the mountain and 
related it to the children of Israel. But in all that Moses was, he was a 
type, he was a shadow. Everything - the faithfulness, everything that he 
was, was a testimony of that which was to be spoken after Moses. In other 
words, of that which was going to be fulfilled and come forth in the 
Person of Jesus Christ Himself. "...a testimony of those things which 
were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; who 
house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the 
hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye 
will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in 
the day of temptation in the wilderness; When your fathers tempted me, 
proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with 
that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart (in their 
comprehension, their understanding); and they haven't known my ways..." 
You could deal with this whole chapter because it deals with the wrath - 
because there is a people who do not enter into the rest of God. There is 
a rest! That rest is full confidence. As we've said, we've come to a new 
and living way; we've come with a true heart in full assurance. Folks, 
the rest to the people of God is coming to the recognition that it is no 
longer your works or my works, but we cease from our works, and we enter 
into that rest. We labor to enter that rest. The laboring there is the 
yielding unto the Spirit of God, and God bringing about that which needs 
to be done in us.  
 
So the Word says Christ is a son over his own house, whose house we are 
if we hold fast the confidence. What kind of confidence is he talking 
about? He's talking about the confidence that has already been 
established, worked and done in Christ! He's not talking about trying to 
build something up outside of Christ, but the confidence we have is in 
that faith of the Son of God that works in us - that we stand, we speak, 
we move, we act in that which Christ has already accomplished for you and 
me. The only reason that we will continue to struggle is because we will 
not hold fast the confidence of Christ! I'm not talking about confidence 
in ourselves, or in our works. I'm talking about confidence in the faith 
of the Son of God; of moving and acting and believing that which is Him! 
This is how it's established.  
 
Hebrews 11:23, "By faith, Moses when he was born, was hid three months of 
his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not 
afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to 
years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." See, we have 
got to allow the Lord to rise up within our hearts, so that we will 
refuse to be called the son of Adam, the son of the flesh, the son of the 
world. Why? Because we haven't been born again of the flesh and of man, 
but we've been born again of God and of the Spirit! We've been born again 
of the Word, and we've got to come to the place where we refuse to be 
called the son of Adam, the flesh, the world, the first. "Choosing rather 
to suffer afflictions with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ..." Now this is 
talking about Moses, but Christ was there. 
 
See, Paul brought it over there in 1 Corinthians 10 speaking of the Rock 
that followed Israel, and that Rock was Christ. So, "Moses... esteeming 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he 
had respect unto the recompense of the reward." This reward is Christ! 
Not what was in the world, not what was in Egypt, in sin, in Adam - but 
what is in Christ! The riches of Christ, the unsearchable riches of 
Christ that come forth, the manifold wisdom of God that comes for, that 
is unveiled in Christ, who is made wisdom, sanctification, understanding, 
redemption and salvation.  
 
The reproach of Christ - he esteemed it greater than all the riches that 
were in Egypt. No doubt Moses could have been Pharaoh's ruling son, but 
he refused to be that. We've got to allow the Spirit to do that in us - 
only God can do this. We've been in the midst of what we've known as 
Christianity, and it's God who drew you and caused you to be separated. 
It was God! Why, you were right in the midst of it, and regardless of how 
much the afflictions and reproach will come, you are going on to follow 
the Lord and being faithful and obedient to what He's called you to. 
Folks, I tell you, the riches of Christ is the glory of it all! We have 
this treasure in earthen vessels. Oh, the suffering of this present time 
is not compared to the glory, the divine presence, the every essence of 
Christ, the fulness He is - there is no comparison to it! Paul says, the 
outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed. Christ increases, we 
decrease. My Lord! See, it's all done in Him. I realize that the Spirit 
of God has to bring us to this understanding and this walk, but it does 
not do away with what is already done, already finished and established 
in Christ. And this is what the Holy Spirit would bring us into, to teach 
us, to bring us into His fulness. And that we live there - not just read 
about it, but LIVE THERE!  
 
Verse 27, "By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, 
for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." What was Moses enduring? 
He was enduring every affliction, the wrath, the reproach of Christ, 
everything that the world - Egypt, Pharaoh - could bring upon him. He 
endured them because he saw The One that was invisible! Only those with 
the eyes of the Spirit; only those that have the understanding of the 
Spirit; who live in the heavenly can behold this invisible One that He 
is! And this is what Moses saw. "Through faith he kept the Passover and 
the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should 
touch them." Under the blood, the Passover. And Jesus Christ was the 
Passover, the sin offering, so that no longer could Adam, anything of the 
first destroy you. But that you come into the glorious liberty of the 
sons of God, that you would come into the glorious liberty of Christ 
Jesus Himself! "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; 
which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." That's where God is 
taking us. God is bringing His people into an understanding that there is 
a House made without hands. The Lord is pitching this House. It's a true 
sanctuary, a true tabernacle - it is JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF! And therefore 
He brings us into Himself for the purpose that you and I may live, and 
live only by Him! 
 
PART 4 
 
When we speak of the Word, the Bible, the Word of God, we must remember 
that it is speaking of Him! Yes it does speak of a union and a 
relationship of His people who are brought into that Oneness by the 
Spirit and by the Word working within their lives. Yet we must come to 
this realization that it is not I, it is Christ! The only Life is Jesus 
Christ - He is the Only Life that there is! So we're talking about the 
True Tabernacle, which is the House of God, which is Christ Himself. And 
when this tabernacle is dissolved, we have this building of God. It's not 
something that we're waiting for, to die as far as the natural is 
concerned. It is that working of the Cross that takes place in our heart 
and understanding, and that causes the doing away of you and with me, and 
bringing forth HIM! This is what we must understand when we talk about 
the tabernacle of the earth being dissolved. God doesn't want us living 
in that old understanding, that world, that man - the first creation, the 
first world, the first heaven and earth. Because God said He has shook 
the earth, but He's not only going to shake the earth, He's going to 
shake the heavens! And that heaven is the mind in which man has lived in 
and tries to conceive God in an understanding of the natural or carnal 
mind. God said He's going to shake them until everything else is gone, 
and it's just God! 
 
Our text is 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. I want you to notice that the burden 
that we have in this tabernacle is not to lay this tabernacle off or to 
be unclothed with this, but to be clothed upon with our House which is 
from heaven. As long as we live in this tabernacle, in this understanding 
of the first creation, then we stand naked before God. But Paul says an 
understanding of the Spirit comes and shows us that Christ is the True 
Tabernacle, that Christ is the building from heaven, that Christ is that 
House eternal in the heaven, not made with hands. The Word of God says He 
was not born of the will of man or flesh, but of God. The Holy Seed of 
God, the Spirit of God entered into Mary's womb, she conceived of the 
Spirit and that which was born was born of God. So much so, the Word of 
the Lord said 'This is Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God is with us.' 
There was a House that God had brought forth by the Spirit. When that 
Word was made flesh that Word also was coming forth in the reality of the 
Spirit of the Father. 
 
In this tabernacle there is a groaning. If there's not a groaning in you 
and me, in our hearts to be clothed upon with Christ, to put on Him and 
let Him be the Life and the Light that is coming forth, then you and I 
are living in the wrong tabernacle. We're living unto ourselves and we're 
not living unto Him. The scripture does not say He's taking you out of 
this body, it's telling you that this mortality is swallowed up, it's 
swallowed up of Life! It is swallowed up by that New House, that Heavenly 
House, that Tabernacle that is from Heaven. When this groaning comes in 
us to be clothed upon, we wait the redemption of our bodies - and we're 
brought out of one. It may be true that you're in a fleshly tabernacle 
here - you look at me. I may look at you and we see an earthy shell. But 
that is not our true identity. Our true identity is that House that is 
from Heaven - the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! And Paul says in Romans 8 
that all of creation is groaning and travailing and even we ourselves are 
travailing and waiting for the redemption of our bodies. In other words, 
no longer that you and I live there, but the redemption of our bodies, 
and we're brought into the Life of another. So that we live by another, 
we walk by another, we know and understand by another. It is a spiritual 
understanding that God brings the Church, believers, into. 
 
So in verse 5, "Now he that wrought us for the self same thing is God." 
The Apostle is saying that He has brought us into Christ, into this new 
relationship, this heavenly place, for the purpose that we might be 
clothed upon, that this mortality might be swallowed up in Life. We are 
wrought to this, for the self same thing is God, who also has given us 
the earnest of the Spirit. What is the earnest of the Spirit? It is to 
bring us into that understanding of Christ so we can see, know and 
understand. He goes on, "Therefore we are always confident knowing that 
while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. (For we 
walk by faith, not by sight.)" 
 
"Therefore we are always confident, knowing..." See, there are two things 
that the Spirit of God wants to establish in our hearts  - knowing and 
confidence. We come to know by the Spirit - God is a Spirit, and 
therefore He has brought us unto Himself, into that union - in and 
through and by and of His Son. Colossians 3 shows us that. "Ye are dead, 
and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life 
shall appear (is truly manifested) then shall ye be manifested with Him 
in glory." Paul is dealing here with the very confidence and knowing that 
while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. If that is 
true to the carnal mind and our natural thinking and what we have been 
taught in times past, then all of our lifetime in this earth, while we 
are in this shell, this tabernacle - then we are always absent from God. 
There is no way that you can be in the presence of God, there is no way 
that you can know and understand God if that is what that scripture is 
saying. While you are in this body, you are absent from the Lord. We have 
to think about that. But what is he saying? He is saying that we have a 
confidence, that we walk by faith and not by sight. 
 
This is the problem - and we say, 'But brother, we are in this flesh, we 
are in this world.' And that's what they live by - what they see. And 
Paul says this thing is not the body that you see, but it's the Body that 
is the invisible Body, a spiritual Body, a heavenly Body, and this Body 
is none other than Christ Himself! So he's saying we know that while we 
are at home, while we live, while we make this body (the flesh) our home, 
our dwelling place; and we live unto ourselves and to the world and to 
the flesh, to our own self passions and desires - then we are absent from 
the Lord. And Paul is saying that he desires that a people come forth and 
that will not be their home. We say when someone dies, 'Well, a Brother 
or Sister has gone home, gone home to be with the Lord.' But that is as 
if the whole time they were on this earth that they were absent from God! 
The carnal mind has taught us that. But this House from Heaven, which is 
Jesus Christ the Lord Himself, does not teach us this. He is showing us 
that we have died unto one and we come forth in the resurrection of 
another! And therefore, as He died unto sin once, so then reckon 
yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God! He showed 
us that in 1 Corinthians 6 - your body, your spirit, which is the Lord's. 
 
So if we understand this in our old understanding, the whole time we are 
in this robe of flesh, this tabernacle, this body, then you are absent 
from the Lord. Then God is not present. God's Spirit does not dwell in 
you, you don't live in God or have a relationship or fellowship with Him. 
And in fact, you have no salvation, and we have no forgiveness of sins if 
that is true - we are absent from the Lord while we are at home in this 
body. But the writer says that God has wrought us and given to us the 
earnest of His Spirit. Now, why would God give us His Spirit if we are 
absent from Him, if that's what these scriptures really mean? The 
understanding comes by the Revelation of Jesus Christ! Christ revealed in 
you - Christ made known. Christ as The Life, Christ as The Resurrection, 
Christ as The Death, Christ as The Burial. Everything is fulfilled in 
Christ! 
 
Now back to verse 6,"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that 
while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we 
walk by faith, not by sight)." God tells us that we can not walk by sight 
- we walk by faith, we walk by the confidence, we walk by the knowledge 
of the Son of God, in that knowledge in what the Son of God has already 
accomplished and done for us. So we walk by faith and not by sight. "We 
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and 
to be present with the Lord." What Paul is saying is here is our 
confidence. Our confidence is to be absent - no longer to make this 
house, this shell, this earthly tabernacle our home, our dwelling place; 
that we live unto ourselves, and we live unto the world. The Word of God 
says that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of 
life - none of these are of God. They are the flesh, they are the first 
man, they are not of God and there is no good in that. They are of the 
first creation man, of Adam, of the world. So the Apostle is teaching us 
that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God! 
That building we have established is Jesus Christ Himself, who was that 
tabernacle. 
 
Hebrews 3 told us the Son was faithful over His own house, whose house we 
are, if we hold fast the confidence. What confidence? The confidence of 
faith! The confidence of that which Jesus Christ Himself has already done 
for us! What joy there is in that great salvation that you and I live in, 
walk in, move in! The Apostle is saying you are absent from God when you 
make this flesh body your home. When you live to yourself - your purpose, 
your will, your plan and desire - then you are leaving God out of it. 
When you say, 'It's I, it's me, it's us that does it', then we're leaving 
Him out of it. And God says, when you leave me out of it, then I'm not in 
it. I'm not your Life, I'm not your dwelling place. I'm none of that. But 
the writer is saying here we have this confidence and we know that if we 
are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. We walk by faith and 
not by sight. And we are rather willing to be absent from the body and to 
be present with the Lord. When we no longer make this "self person" the 
god of our life, then He will be! 
 
I've seen signs about the power that is in the inner man - humanism - man 
himself achieving that power. And to a great extent the "Church" has 
taught God's people that. Proverbs says, "As a man thinketh, so is he." 
That means as a man thinketh of the things of God, then he is of God. But 
if he thinketh the things of himself, then it is not God. This especially 
has come in with the New Age movement - the power of inner self; we can 
do it without God, God gives us the ability to do it. We don't need God 
because we have that power, we have that strength in ourself. And what we 
hear all the time is I, I, I. Someone once said - look at sin, and what's 
in the very middle of it? I! 
 
So we have to see in this scripture that it's not if you live in this 
body, but if you make this body your habitation; if you make this the 
place of your life and this is the only life that you allow to work in us 
- then you are absent from God. God could be in you, and you would not 
know it! Why? Because God is not your home, God is not where you live - 
you live to self. Self achievement. Self will. And it is why the majority 
of people today do not want this kind of teaching and Gospel, because it 
applies the Cross; and the Cross never saves you! There is nothing of the 
Cross that saves you and causes you to live! None of that causes you to 
live. It causes you to die; it causes you to be crucified, to be 
mortified. It causes you to be abolished, done away - dissolved. Folks, 
the Gospel of the Cross does away with you and I, and it brings Christ 
Jesus Himself as the Living One! Paul saw this - no longer I that lives, 
but Christ liveth in me. I live by the faith of the Son of God. While I 
am in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. I don't walk 
according to my sight, to my natural seeing, to my natural hearing. But 
Paul says for people who do, who live in that understanding and walk by 
their sight and their own hearing, they are absent from God. To be absent 
from the body is to be present with the Lord. 
 
We must come to the place where we absolutely make ourselves absent, 
empty, void. The Bible says in Philippians 2 that Jesus thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God. He made Himself of no reputation. Prestige, 
reputation - men and women glory in that. Paul said he gloried in the 
Cross! Why did Paul glory in the Cross? Because when the Cross works in 
our lives, it is the doing away of you and I, and it is the bringing 
forth and raising up of Him who is that Life! You have no life without 
Him! HE IS LIFE! You don't have life! I don't have life! HE IS LIFE!  
 
Paul said in Romans 7 that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. 
Verse 13, "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. 
But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me..." Paul said 
there was one time that he lived. Sin was there, but he was not conscious 
of sin, was not made aware of sin, and he lived. But he said that when 
the law came, then sin revived, and he died. (Romans 7:9) "...sin that it 
might appear sin, working death in me..." Every where you study the 
Apostle Paul because of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the mystery of 
Christ that was being unveiled in his heart, you will find that there is 
a continuing mention of him dying - of the Cross, of the crucifixion. And 
here he is saying it again. "...working death in me by that which is 
good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." 
 
The Apostle is saying that by the commandment, the law he became sinful, 
unlawful, he appeared as a sinner. That's all that you and I will ever 
appear to be as far as the Adam man, the first man. If you and I continue 
to try to live in that man and that understanding, you always appear as a 
sinner. There's no way free from it; as long as that mentality is there. 
Sin, that it might appear sin, worketh death. "The wages of sin is death, 
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord." Paul 
is saying the commandment here shows me what I really am. Yet the law is 
spiritual, because Paul is seeing now in the light of Christ, in the 
understanding of the revelation of Jesus Christ; because in Chapter 8 of 
Romans he tells us God has brought us into the law of the Spirit of Life 
in Christ Jesus. And that Spirit of the law of Life in Christ Jesus has 
freed us from the law of sin and death. And what he's really saying is 
that He has freed us from Adam. He freed us from this earthly tabernacle 
being our home, our dwelling place.  
 
But My God, our Home is Christ! Our Life is Him! Verse 14, "For we know 
that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal..." Paul is teaching those 
believers who had come to Christ, that for himself, he is nothing, he is 
carnal. The law is spiritual "...but I am carnal, sold under sin. For 
that which I do I allow not, for what I would, that do I not; but what I 
hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the 
law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that 
dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no 
good thing; for to will is present; but how to perform that which is good 
I find not." Paul is saying he can't find it in himself. And all the 
efforts - the praying, the studying - all that there is - I still can't 
find it in myself. The reputation, that image that man puts upon himself 
- must DIE! He must become one who doesn't want to be recognized, but 
that the Lord Himself would have that recognition. And this is exactly 
what happens when we're clothed upon with the House of Heaven! 
 
House of Heaven, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In the book 
of 1 John, chapter 5 it tells all about that Eternal Spirit. Hebrews 
tells us about that Eternal Spirit; how the blood of Jesus Christ through 
the Eternal Spirit purges. Paul is showing here that how to perform good 
isn't in him, he didn't know how to do it; you don't know how to do it, 
brothers and sisters. So you and I might as well stop thinking that we're 
going to do it. Paul says in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Man doesn't 
want to accept that. Man in himself, in his own self image does not want 
to accept that he's rotten, low down and no good! But he wants to praise 
himself - I - I do this, I'm doing this. That is the man that is sitting 
in the temple of God and exalting his own power and means. 2 
Thessalonians 2 tells you that. He sits in the temple of God and exalts 
himself as God, and the carnal "Church" has taught us that this Anti-
Christ is some man, coming out of some place - they have claimed it to be 
all kinds of people. But I want to tell you who it is. Any one that lives 
their own life and their flesh is their home - that is the Anti-Christ! 
That is the spirit of the Anti-Christ because they are exalting 
themselves as God. That's plain, but I'm telling you, Paul was not 
ashamed to admit what he was. But today religion has brought us to be 
somebody and something that is important. 'God loves you, and you are 
important to God', they say. What do you think God did before we ever 
came along? 
 
Paul admits the law is spiritual but I am carnal. There is nothing 
spiritual about me at all. But it's the One that is in us that is 
spiritual! It's the One that is in us that is Life! And the doing away of 
us brings forth Him. Verse 18, "...for to will is present with me..." The 
will present with me - is Christ. That's the Spirit, the Truth that 
Christ is, is present with me. "...but how to perform that which is good 
I find not." If we would just come to this place and get honest before 
ourselves and God, and say how to do good I can not find in myself. How 
to be a Christian - I don't know. How to live righteous - I can't do it. 
The "Church" has taught you that you can do it. You can do it - the self, 
the false god, the idolatry that has been set up in the hearts and minds 
of people - and they think they don't need God. But Paul admits he can't. 
Paul admits he doesn't know how to perform good. I can't find it in me. 
"For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that 
I do." Do you ever find yourself there? By self efforts, self works, self 
means, self righteousness! I'll tell you, you and I will show up every 
time like that. Every time that I want to do something good, I find 
myself doing evil. And every time that I do something evil, I want to 
call it good! 
 
What is the evil there? Me living there, me living my own life. I'm 
talking about the House of Heaven, that when this earthly tabernacle of 
this house is dissolved, we have a building of God, eternal in the 
heavens, in the Spirit. Do we have a body? Yes, we do. What body do you 
and I have? In 1 Corinthians 15 it asks the question - what body do the 
dead come forth with? You come forth with the Body of the Resurrection! 
Which is the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! The Church comes 
forth in the Resurrection! The True Church comes forth in the 
Resurrection of Christ! Who is that Resurrection? Who is that Life? Not 
to be, but who IS! So what body comes forth? The body, except it be put 
in the ground and dies, it abides alone, but when it is planted... Where 
was it planted? It was planted in the death of Jesus Christ! It was 
buried in the burial of Jesus Christ! And there comes forth a New Body! 
So I tell you, if we make this flesh tabernacle our home, we will be 
absent from the Lord. But if we make the Body, which is Christ Himself, 
our home and dwelling place, then we are present with the Lord! 
 
Look at Romans 7:19. Let me ask you - was Paul born again here? In fact, 
Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He was a preacher and teacher, and 
here he was instructing the Romans. He was telling them - it's not of 
yourself, that any man can boast. I've heard that all my life - man 
boasting, woman boasting, the "Church" boasting on what they used to be 
and what they used to do, but they don't do it any more. I don't do it 
any more - I don't, I. But I'm telling you if this thing exceeds male and 
female, Jew and Greek, bond and free, it has to go to a greater depth of 
an understanding of the Spirit than what the "Church" has ever brought us 
into. The reality of Christ, the Life of Christ, the House of Heaven is 
none other than Christ Himself! If it seems like I'm repeating - so what! 
Oh, that God would make this a reality in us! That we would absolutely 
come to know and we would have confidence; that we would walk by faith 
and not by sight, not by our natural sight. Oh Beloved, eyes have not 
seen, ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the hearts of 
man...those things that God will reveal to them that love Him.  
 
Yes, God's people - they love Him, but they are in idolatry. They are 
caught up unto false gods. The "Church" is caught up into false doctrines 
and false teachings, damnable doctrines and heresies that have kept the 
minds of people in bondage unto themselves. When Jesus Christ wants to 
bring us unto the glorious liberty of Christ, and cause us to see that we 
are nothing and we are nobody! BUT IT IS CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL! So Paul 
says, what I would do, I do not, that which I would not do, I do it. And 
that's going to happen to you and me every time we try to do it. You'll 
be a miserable failure. You'll be wretched, weary, faint hearted and 
disappointed if we live and make this flesh thing our home. And while we 
make our bodies and self purposes the god of our life, there will truly 
be no real joy and peace, because you'll fight and you'll struggle and be 
at war all the time in your life. You'll feel so condemned and unworthy. 
Why? Because it's not you - it's Christ. And if it's not Christ, then it 
is you. But what the Lord desires to bring us to is to realize it's not 
us, it's HIM! 
 
Verse 20, "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but 
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, 
evil is present with me." What is this evil that is present? SELF! Do 
you know your worst enemy? Your worst enemy is you! Brethren, if we allow 
the Spirit of God to work the reality of Christ in us, all the devils in 
hell, all the voices in the earth, could never make you turn and go 
another direction. But you see, we have lived on our feelings, we have 
lived on what is said or done, our circumstances, and they completely 
control us. Christ must control every situation! God doesn't want us to 
live that way, but until Christ truly becomes all and in all, that will 
be so. And every time you think that you've got it licked, there will be 
something that will come in the way to show you that you can not do it. 
And most of the Christian world would condemn you because of that. See, 
everybody is trying to be like Jesus. But they said to Jesus once, "Thou 
art a good man". He said, "None is good but God", showing that the only 
good thing is the Spirit of God! I know the "Church" world doesn't want 
to hear this kind of preaching. People who want to live their life and do 
their thing and go their way do not want this kind of Gospel, because it 
moves them off of the throne; it moves them out of the way, shows them 
that they must come to the place that they can't live it. There's only 
One who lives this thing - and that is CHRIST! Jesus Christ the Lord is 
the One who lives it! He is the Righteous One! He is the Holy One! He is 
the Sanctified One! 
 
Verse 21, "I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present 
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." What Paul 
is saying here is I've already found out myself, as far as me, I can't do 
it! So where is my delight, my pleasure and joy? He said I delight in the 
law of God. What is that? Is it some commandment? No - it's the law of 
the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus, who has made me free from the 
law of sin and death. And we could say - who has made me free from the 
law of Adam! And brought us unto the law of Christ! Romans 8 tells you 
that, showing that the law being weak through the flesh, God sending His 
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh.  
 
Folks, you and I are going to have to face that God has condemned your 
flesh and my flesh. It's condemned - you can't sanctify it, you can't 
make it holy, you can't make it righteous before God. You can not do it! 
He came to condemn sin in the flesh. And who did Paul say was sin? He 
said he was! The law was spiritual, but I am carnal. Paul goes on, "I 
delight in the law of God after the inward man." See, that's another man! 
That inward man is Christ Jesus the Lord Himself! I delight in the law of 
God after the inward man - not after the outward man. That's our problem! 
You and I are always looking on the outward man. And Paul has declared in 
2 Corinthians 4 that though the outward man perish, the inward man is 
being renewed day by day. There isn't anything God is going to save of 
you and me! God doesn't want anything of you or me! He wants that which 
is of Himself! One of the prime examples of that is found in Genesis with 
Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was a promise of the Spirit. Galatians 4 tells 
us that. And Abraham had to take that very thing that was of his loins, 
as far as the natural was concerned, and take it and offer it up unto God 
and sacrifice Isaac on the altar. That's a prime example of what Paul is 
saying - that as that outward man is perishing. But you see, there is 
more praise and glory going on the outward man - 'he's a good man, a good 
brother' - you hear that all the time. What did Paul say? There is no 
good thing in my flesh. Jesus said none is good but God. So is God trying 
to save you and me? Or is He trying to bring us to an understanding that 
He has done away with you and me in Christ's death and burial, and in His 
resurrection He brings forth a whole new creation, a whole New Man - a 
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness - God's 
righteousness. NO LONGER I, BUT CHRIST! 
 
Verse 23, "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law 
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin..." See the 
constant raging and war going on? James spoke of the lusts of the flesh, 
and that when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when 
it is finished, bringeth forth death! I'm telling you, this Gospel of 
Christ and what Paul is saying here is that He wants to take this mortal 
and that there would be such a cry in our hearts to be clothed upon with 
Jesus Christ - the Life, the Sanctification - all that He is! To be 
clothed upon with HIM! That mortality is swallowed up of Life! And when 
it is swallowed up it will no longer be you or me - it will be Him! Life 
- He's the only One that has Life! "I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am 
the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." And that man comes by 
the way of death, by the way of the Cross. Then He brings us into that 
union of the Spirit of God.  
 
"But I see another law...bringing me into captivity to the law of sin 
which is in my members. O wretched man that I am!" I want you to notice 
that Paul was a saved man here, Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ 
declaring this Gospel to a people. And yet he says here, 'O wretched man 
that I am.' He didn't say, 'O wretched man that God is.' He said I am 
wretched, and he says, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death?" Oh My God folks, who is going to deliver us from the body of this 
death? "I thank God through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. So then with the 
mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." 
Then he goes on in the eighth chapter. "There is therefore now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
What am I saying? That in my flesh there dwells no good thing. Don't look 
at me and say Henry Stanley is a good man, because Henry Stanley is 
wretched, miserable, poor and naked, if he lives to himself. But now the 
deliverance comes. The Word says we have been translated - we have been - 
translated out of the kingdom of darkness into His dear Son! For what 
purpose? That the Son Himself would be magnified as the light and the 
glory of God in the earth! This is the House of Heaven! This is what Paul 
is talking about. Scripture upon scripture confirms that while you are at 
home in this body, you are absent from God; if you live to self and not 
to the Lord. You must recognize that you are nothing and nobody, but 
Christ is all and in all. Even Jesus said this - 'it's not I, it's My 
Father. The works I do, it's not me, it's the Father.' 
 
 
 
Heavenly Father, we're so thankful. There is so much in your Word, and I 
pray that the Holy Spirit would just tie it together in the minds and 
hearts of these brethren. Lord, continue to reveal this reality of 
Christ, this revelation of Christ, this True House. Father God, that we 
may hear the Voice that speaks from Heaven; not the voice of the earth, 
but the Voice that speaks from Heaven. And to know that when that Voice 
from Heaven speaks, we will not harden our hearts, but Lord that we would 
yield and come to that place of total surrender, total crucifixion, in 
our understanding. That we would see the purpose of that true faith of 
the Son of God that worketh in us. For we live by faith and not by sight. 
And Lord, we ask you to cause that confidence, that knowing, that 
assurance, that true and full assurance as Hebrews 10 tells us, to grip 
our understanding and that we would come into the fulness of that which 
you are. IN JESUS' NAME WE PRAY. AMEN!