Mrs. Hall meets Jesus

[Seeker]

Wow.....Now Lorraine Hall has met with Jesus! From one of Vic's 2,439,877 sermons: Restoration to the tree of life: 21, Aug 2022

Three years ago, Lorraine was hospitalised due to
a life-threatening emergency. As the doctors
operated on her, Lorraine ‘left her body’. She
wondered why they were wasting their time
trying to save that poor decrepit body she was
looking down upon.
She turned and saw the Lord. He gave her
garments, and on top of the garments was a white
stone. There were three garments. They were the
garment of priesthood, the garment of salvation, and
the garment of praise.
The Lord was asking her to find her way in her
sonship in relation to Him, not in relation to me.
I had gone home, because Lorraine was quite
precarious, and the pain was extreme. The
doctors told us that they nearly lost her, and they
probably did, but the Lord sent her back to us.
The Lord spoke to me, quite clearly, ‘Will you get
out of My face? What do you think your headship
is that you can keep intervening between Me and
Lorraine?’
I was operating like a fallen cherub. I thought that
was how it should be. The Lord said, ‘You step
back and close your mouth, and allow Lorraine to
become a son with Me at the tree of life. Be a son
at the tree of life, and begin a new way of relating
as an old couple.’
I took courage from the fact that we were still
younger than Abraham when he learned this.
Only at the tree of life are we able to obtain a
remnant of the Spirit. Our conversation at the tree
of life is ongoing through courtship, as young
married couples, and in old age. We accept that,
through the physical and relational difficulties
that we experience every day, the Lord is
processing us.
Letting go of the emotions of sin
In old age, we often polarise toward temperament
types and become very set in our ways.
We need to be delivered from these emotional
contentions. We need to learn to let go of the
emotions of sin and to dismiss the issues that
provoke us.
As a couple who are in leadership, our
conversation has had to shift from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, to the tree of life.
Following this experience, Lorraine became upset
as she looked back over her life and felt that her
life had been a failure from then to now.

This is, of course, just a smidge of what's written in this paper.

[Stargazer]

Geez so Vic, Julie and Lorraine have all faces the Lord ugghhh maybe the Lord is trying to wake them up to seethe hurt they’ve all inflicted in everyone else…. Maybe Lorraine Hall should humble herself and contact her family who she has ignored and turned her back on for 50 years.

[Stargazer]

Geez so Vic, Julie and Lorraine have all faced the Lord ugghhh maybe the Lord is trying to wake them up to show them all the hurt they’ve all inflicted in everyone else…. Maybe Lorraine Hall should humble herself and contact her family who she has ignored and turned her back on for 50 years.

[guest]

As far as I understand those who have an encounter with Jesus are transformed from darkness to light- never to harm others as they had previously. ( Eg: Paul)

If Lorraine and Victor Hall have met Jesus, their lives would be transformed. They would not shun family, they would repent and be restored to those they had shunned.


It’s not what we say but what we do, that shows the love of Christ!

[guest]

on top of the garments was a white
stone.

Can anyone give an interpretation of ‘a white stone’?

[BreakFree]

do you have a PDF Seeker?

Poor Loraine, She only got to rub shoulders with Jesus. Unlike Vic who seems to have dinner with Abraham, Moses, Enoch, Elijah and Melchizedek on the frequent. She must feel left out.

Without reading too far into this, the first line, "Serious Medical Emergency" how vague can you be Vic. More to the point why didn't Loraine share her own testimony?

Enough of the lies, why don't you speak the truth for once you coward

[guest]

Can you post more of this sermon?

[Seeker]

Thank you guest...I will do my best!

[Seeker]

It seems the powers that be at RFI are eliminating any written track of their so called 'special word delivered by the gifted, graced star messengers/angelos/bretheren, et al in the right hand of Christ, The Only (and I mean ONLY!!) truth is what GOD has laid down to the presbytery (also know as Vic) of the blessed RFI organization.

Yes, the written word that Vic has been so proud of (8-10 or more!) in his many, many , MANY new books...that only serve to rehash and restate everything from Unto Perfection until now. Remember all those wonderful books written 'in this season' that really spoke to you, but you can no longer find at the bookstore (or even remember for pity's sake!) let alone remember the title was?

Yes folks, the great lie of present truth has once again saved Vic among his faithful. I will just ask, (implore), those still in the xcf death grip...stand up! Open your eyes to what is real! Look for the truth! Search for your self! Line up with the real word (The BIBLE) and see what happen's. Please, please... do not take Vic/Peter/David/Richie/(Blah, blah's) anyone's word on anything! Please, I Implore you to (as Paul says) "test all things"....hold on to what is good and reject the rest. I'm pray The Lord will reveal the truth to you of what these men are all about. Blessings to all the brave, wonderful people who share here.I pray I will one day I will be brave enough to post with my real name. For those who do so, I admire you so much. I can only imagine the cost you have all paid to post here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I pray for a wonderful New Year for you all.

As I searched for their 'word' pdf's to show here in their own words, I was shocked at how little contents is left to read.....you have to force your self to listen to 45 minutes to an hour of the same ol, same ol stale retoric from the master of deceit.... sir victor rip you off.

[Seeker]

Since so many pdf's/documents have been purged from the limpstand, I'll attempt to post what I've saved before vic's minions delete everything. must be some paranoia going on in the xcf confines. Please be on the lookout for kool-ade. vic may change the communion...er, sorry! I mean the Agape meal, to no longer abiding of the body, just this wonderful little drink....I will stop now, Anyway, this one is titled:
The remnant church
Victor Hall
Notes prepared for the National Bible Seminar, 30 September – 2 October 2023
The bride is the Israel of God
• Speaking to those who belong to the church, the apostle Peter explained, ‘You are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you
may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not
obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.’ 1Pe 2:9-10.
• Peter was identifying his readers as the company of believers whom the Lord Himself
nominated, through the prophet Hosea, as His bride. Hos 2:16-20. The Lord said, ‘Then
I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not
obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, “You are My people!”
And they shall say, “You are my God!” ’ Hos 2:23.
• Integrating this same statement with the prophetic declaration of Isaiah, the apostle
Paul identified the Christians in Rome and, indeed, the whole Gentile church, as being
part of a remnant drawn from the twelve tribes of the true Israel of God. He wrote, ‘As
He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her
beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said
to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel
be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved”.’ Rom 9:25-27.
• We see that the bride of Christ is the true Israel of God. This group is a holy nation,
and is also a royal priesthood. They are a remnant representative group called ‘the
church’, whose history is part of the history of the nation of Israel, which began with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The church is now made up of Jews and Gentiles who have
responded with repentance and faith to the word of the cross. This word calls them
out of the world, making them ‘the elect’ of God. They believe the gospel, and choose
to obey this message. Their sanctification, which is the fruit of obedience, defines
them as ‘the elect’, the bride of Christ. 1Pe 5:13. 2Jn 1:1. 2Jn 1:13.
• The church is a community of believers who have been called out of the world. They
are described by James, the Lord’s brother, as ‘the twelve tribes of Israel scattered
among the nations’. As congregations, they belong to the true Israel of God. Jas 1:1.
This company of believers are the redeemed remnant of Israel, gathered in lampstand
churches. They are not scattered and lost as Ephraim was when they were conquered
by the Assyrians under the judgement of God.
• Although, as a fellowship of churches, we are legally recognised as ‘Restoration
Fellowships International’ (RFI), we identify as a lampstand church. What does this
mean? Is our identification as a lampstand church merely a new, or novel, church
designation? Are we any different from the multitude of denominated churches
throughout the world?
• We believe that the Lord is sending messengers to us, and to all Christians. By the
capacity of the Spirit, Christ’s messengers proclaim the word of present truth.
1Pe 1:12. 2Pe 1:12. Through this ministry, we are being exhorted, and enabled, to
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make our calling and election sure. 2Pe 1:10-11. In this regard, we are being called to
choose the predestination that God has chosen for us before the foundation of the
world. That is, we are choosing to become sons of God and part of a remnant church
by election.
• I trust that, as we consider this subject today, we will be illuminated to see that our
legitimacy as a Christian group is not based on any other validating enterprise,
accomplishment, or historical expression. Rather, we believe in the initiative that God
took towards Abraham, and in the extension of this promise to us. Gal 3:14. Abraham
was called by God to become the father of new humanity. By faith, he believed the
word of the Lord, who said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are
able to number them ... so shall your descendants be.’ Gen 15:5. Abraham’s children
would be as the stars of heaven and would glorify God as His own special people.
The gospel that brings salvation
• Today I will speak from Paul’s letter to the Romans, which explains that, as we
respond to God’s call, which comes to us through the word that is brought by His
messengers, we are the elect who are established as part of the remnant church.
Church congregations that are part of this remnant are the expression of the bride of
Christ in every city.
• As a presbytery who is overseeing this fellowship of churches, we are not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. Paul introduced his letter to the Romans with this same
confession, declaring, ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the
Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is
written, “The just shall live by faith”.’ Rom 1:16-17.
• This message is the gospel of sonship, which Paul proclaimed from the prophetic
Scriptures. Even though the Roman church had already been established as a Christian
community, they had not been grounded in the gospel of sonship. As He did with the
Roman Christians, the Lord is delivering us from many other gospels. He is doing this
so that we can receive and be established in the gospel of sonship. This is important,
for the gospel of sonship is the only message that delivers salvation to those who
believe. Rom 1:16. Paul’s initiative was first to the Jews, and then encompassed
Gentiles from every tribe and nation under heaven.
The calling of God
• Paul focused our attention on the implications of choosing our calling and election,
writing, ‘For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He
predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom
He justified, these He also glorified.’ Rom 8:29-30.
• With this statement, Paul described the goodness of God toward us. It is manifest as a
pathway upon which He has made every provision for us to be His chosen people. In
Christ Jesus our Lord, we are kept and guarded in the love of God. As we have already
considered, this is what it means to be the bride of Christ, a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, a ‘called-out’ people, the church. We are part of the history of Israel as the
fruit of what He initiated in Abraham. Accordingly, as congregations, we belong to the
Israel of God. We are part of a redeemed remnant gathered in lampstand churches.
• Before the beginning of creation, God foreknew every person. He foreknew and
predestined each of us for sonship. Those whom He foreknew and predestined, He
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also called. Calling gives to every person the freedom of choice. The freedom of choice
expresses the very nature of God’s own fellowship, which the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are offering to us. The fellowship of Yahweh operates freely by love.
• Choice offers freedom. Love is then extended to us in the call to choose. Faith is the
response that the call creates. Rom 10:17. We see, therefore, that the call introduces
freedom, love and faith. Once we believe and trust, we are joined to the fellowship of
Yahweh Elohim. The love of God is then poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 5:5. The love of God gives to us the capacity to be godly. It wins our heart,
causing us to respond to God because we believe in His love and His integrity; we
believe that He is faithful. Our faith is now motivated by His love. Gal 5:6.
• When love is our motivation, how we live, and what we do, are an expression of the
obedience of faith. Rom 1:5. This means that we are justified by faith. Rom 5:1. Faith
is interactive as we make offering. By faith, we are able to join Christ’s offering, and
we are able to make offering. This is the expression of our love for God. It reveals our
participation with Yahweh in the offering love that belongs to Their fellowship.
• When we believed, we were then adopted by Christ and are being glorified,
progressively, with Him. Christ is not an adopted Son. He is Yahweh Son, the true Son,
the Begotten Son. We are adopted by Christ and are glorified with Him and in Him,
becoming members of His body through baptism.
• Our journey in this life is from mortality to immortality. We journey with Christ in the
fellowship of His sufferings, which are entirely for our sake. We are being glorified
together with Christ and, progressively, are receiving the full measure of His life,
which is resurrection life. It is immortal life; the life of Yahweh Himself. 2Ti 1:10.
• Faith working by love is an accountable response of fellowship between Christ and
every individual. This is the expression of the love between the Son and His bride. It is
producing an accountable, honourable, holy and sanctified response, by which we are
being delivered from all idolatry and every other love.
Predestination and destination
• Before, in the counsel of Yahweh, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit prepared a
predestination for every person. This defined for us a unique expression as a son or
daughter of man in the image and likeness of God. The predestination of each of us
was then accomplished by Christ in His offering journey. It was completely fulfilled
on the cross. The cross then becomes one of two things for us. If we choose sonship,
it is the means by which we are glorified according to our predestination. However,
the cross is hardening, judging and damning us if we reject our predestination to
sonship.
• There is a pathway that is established by our choice, which becomes the destination
that was prophesied by the prophets. That is, what a person chooses, becomes their
destination, proclaimed by the word from the foreknowledge of God. God predestined
Judas to sit on one of twelve thrones and to judge twelve tribes. Mat 19:28. However,
Judas did not choose to believe the call to join the fellowship of Christ’s offering. The
prophet Zechariah then prophesied, not Judas’ predestination, but his destination.
This prophecy created for Judas the outcome of his choice.
• The specific predestination of every person is encompassed in the statement of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit when They said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image and after
Our likeness.’ It is proclaimed and preached to us through the Scriptures. Those who
receive this word are the elect. They are preserved to their predestination, which has
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been prophesied to them through a messenger. In the Old Testament, the Lord’s
messengers were the prophets. In the New Testament, these messengers are the
ascension gift ministers of Christ. Eph 4:11-12. However, the destination of the one
who does not choose is also proclaimed by the prophets.
• A person’s predestination is proclaimed, before. This is either confirmed by the
prophets, or they proclaim another destination on account of a person’s rejection of
the word of their predestination. Consider, for example, the word of the Lord
concerning Jacob and Esau. Their predestination was that the older would serve the
younger. Gen 25:23. However, based on their response to the word of their
predestination, their destination was then proclaimed, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I
have hated’. Mal 1:2-3. Rom 9:13. This was because of God’s foreknowledge.
• In His foreknowledge, God addresses those who are departing from their
predestination. Through His messengers, He warns them to cease from pursuing the
destination they have chosen, and to choose, through repentance, His predestination
for them. If they resist this word, it defines the outcome of the destination that they
have chosen. This then locks them up to unrighteousness and unbelief, and this
becomes their judgement.
• The word of a person’s predestination is proclaimed from the foreknowledge of God,
before. This is how God was able to raise up Cyrus before he was born, to be the one
to aid the Jews as the exiles returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Isa 44:28.
Isa 45:1-5. The predestination of the Jewish nation was preserved by the prophetic
word concerning Cyrus. Ezr 1:1-2.
• We could say that the predestination of Pharaoh was to submit his kingdom to Moses.
If he had chosen this predestination, Pharaoh would have become the representative
of the Lord. He would have submitted to, and supported, God’s purpose for His
people, Israel. This support may have included sending armies ahead of Israel to clean
out the land of Canaan, ridding it of its idols. Pharaoh and his people would have then
gone to Israel to worship the Lord.
• The prophet Zechariah noted that this is what will happen in the time of the end,
writing, ‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which
came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of
hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles ... if the family of Egypt will not come up
and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord
strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.’
Zec 14:16,18.
• However, Pharaoh hardened himself time and again. It was not until the sixth plague –
when boils broke out on man and beast – that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh
for the purpose of judgement. Exo 9:12. At this point, because of ungodliness,
Pharaoh’s predestination as a son of God ended. The word proclaimed judgement as
the destination that belonged to his choice. Accordingly, he perished, with his army,
in the Red Sea.
The adoption
• Jesus Christ is the One who adopts us. The Father has predestined us to adoption as
sons, by Jesus Christ, to Himself. Paul explained this point, writing, ‘Just as He [God
the Father] chose us in Him [Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to
adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself [i.e. to become His sons], according to the
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good pleasure of His [the Father’s] will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by
which He made us accepted in the Beloved.’ Eph 1:4-6.
• Jesus Christ is the One who becomes the Everlasting Father of those whom He adopts.
Isa 9:6. The Father does this work in Christ so that we might become joint heirs with
Him when we join His offering journey. Highlighting this condition of the adoption,
Paul wrote, ‘For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs –
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified together.’ Rom 8:15-17.
• This adoption gives us the right to journey with Christ so that we are able to obtain
the inheritance of the divine nature. The Son has this inheritance, for He is the
Firstborn among many brethren. Rom 8:29. This is what the Father has predestined,
before. As we noted above, God the Father predestined us to adoption, and to be
joined to the fellowship of offering that belongs to Christ, the only Begotten. By
participation in Christ’s offering fellowship, we receive the divine nature.
• Our adoption places us in Christ, where we were chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. This was God’s choice, which we are then able to choose. Paul
emphasised that this is all according to God’s foreknowledge, predestination, calling,
justification and glorification. Rom 8:29-30.
A wild olive tree
• Paul asked the question, ‘Has God cast away His people?’ Rom 11:1. He was adamant
that this was not the case! Significantly, Paul was not asking whether God had cast
away the Jews. He was referring to all of the sons of God who had departed from Him
following the flood. God has not cast them away forever, in the same way that He has
not cast away the ten tribes of Israel, nor the nation of Judah.
• There was an election given to all those who walked by faith, even prior to Abraham.
Job is an example of a person who walked in this manner. Making this point, Paul
said, ‘For as you [Gentiles] were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained
mercy through their disobedience.’ Rom 11:30. The Gentiles had obtained mercy
through the disobedience of Israel and of the Jews. Paul continued, saying, ‘Even so
these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also
may obtain mercy.’ Rom 11:31.
• The jealousy of God, through the ministry of Paul to the Gentiles, was to provoke the
Jews so that they would desire what God was giving to the Gentiles through faith. As
they saw the life of God being revealed in the Gentile churches, they were able to
recognise that they had failed to obtain the divine nature by pursuing the law of
righteousness in their own strength. Noting this point, Paul wrote, ‘But I say, did Israel
not know? First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a
nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation”.’ Rom 10:19.
• Paul then said, ‘For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the
Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who
are my flesh and save some of them.’ Rom 11:13-14. Echoing what we have already
noted, Paul hoped that the life that was manifest in the Gentile congregations would
provoke the Jews to jealousy so that some of them might be saved and would join the
remnant church.
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• Concerning the gospel, the Jews are enemies for our sake but, concerning the election,
‘they are beloved for the sake of the fathers’. Rom 11:28. There is a love of God, for
the sake of the fathers, all the way back through to Noah. It also proceeds back from
Noah to Adam through the ministry of every believing father in the line of the sons of
God. This point is made in Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews, where he noted, ‘By faith
Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead
still speaks.’ Heb 11:4. Paul then listed a number of other men and women who,
through the course of history, by faith, were the elect of God.
• Referring to the Jews, Paul noted that branches were broken off so that the Gentiles,
who belong to a wild olive tree, could be grafted into the fatness of the root of the
olive tree, through the cross. Rom 11:17. In this regard, mercy was shown to us.
Through their disobedience, Christ was crucified. God has committed them all to
disobedience, in the cross, so that He might have mercy on all. By this means, from
the days of Noah, Ephraim, the Jews, and the Gentiles have the opportunity to be
grafted into the olive tree. However, if we are disobedient, we will be cut off again. The
Lord is saying this to all churches and Christians, as the end of the age approaches.
• This is the work of the cross. Through the word of the cross, those who believe and
obey the word are being polarised, or grafted, into the kingdom. However, those who
are disobedient are being polarised out; they are being cut off and discarded. In the
place where He says, ‘You are not My people’, there is a word coming, declaring to
those who receive it with repentance and faith, ‘You are the sons of God’.
• There is a remnant in every generation who receive the proceeding word of God. This
remnant has, in fact, been a preserving agent for the whole world. As the prophet
Isaiah declared, ‘Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant [or elect
group], we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.’
Isa 1:9. There is a fatherhood that has proceeded through many nations that has now
completely replaced Adam and Noah. This is the fatherhood of Abraham and his Son,
Christ, in whom all the families of the earth will be blessed. God is able to graft them
all back into the root, which is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through Christ.
Mercy on all
• The Lord has committed all to disobedience and judgement in the cross so that He
might have mercy on all. Rom 11:32. This mercy is ministered through the word of the
Lord. Drawing from the words of Moses, Paul wrote, ‘For He says to Moses, “I will have
mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will
have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God
who shows mercy.’ Rom 9:15-16.
• Speaking to the Romans, Paul said that their disobedience came after the days of
Noah, and opened the door for Abraham. That door continues forward from Abraham
to his Seed, Christ. The promise to Abraham and his Seed is found in Romans Chapter
3. In this passage of Scripture, Paul observed that ‘there is no difference; for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His
blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance
God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the
present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who
has faith in Jesus’. Rom 3:22-26.
• Paul was highlighting that there would be a propitiation for the remission of sins that
are past. The word that proclaims this mercy proceeds all the way to the end of the
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age, where we now live. These are the mercies of God, by which Paul beseeched us to
present our bodies a living sacrifice. Rom 12:1. Presenting ourselves in this manner
means joining the fellowship of Christ’s offering. This is the gospel that Paul
proclaimed in the book of Romans, which we have not properly understood until this
present time.
The elect
• In relation to the population of the world, since the establishment of the church on
the Day of Pentecost, until the Father takes His seat at the end of the age, the elect are
a very small group who hear the call, receive it and obey it. They become the elect,
who are the Israel of God, because they receive the word of promise that calls them to
becomes sons of God. First, by adoption, then by joining Christ’s offering journey,
they are brought to the Father, and they receive the inheritance of the divine nature,
after which, by the working of the Holy Spirit, they are born as sons of God. All sons
of God belong to Israel.
• The proposition that Paul made at the end of Romans Chapter 11 is that God has not
cast away anyone, from the time of Noah onwards. However, the elect comprises ‘one
from a city and two from a family’. The Lord made this clear through the prophet
Jeremiah, saying, ‘ “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married
to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to
Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with
knowledge and understanding”.’ Jer 3:14-15. This shows how small the remnant group
actually is.
• The Lord revealed this remnant group to Elijah in response to his claim, ‘I have been
very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your
covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am
left; and they seek to take my life.’ 1Ki 19:10. However, the Divine response was, ‘I
have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and
every mouth that has not kissed him.’ 1Ki 19:18. If the Lord was referring to the ten
tribes, it was 700 people per tribe; it was 600 people per tribe if He was referring to
the twelve tribes. This was a very small group, yet they were called Israel! They were
not cast away, because they were the elect who had not bowed their knee to Baal.
• As we considered earlier, Isaiah declared that, without the small remnant, the whole
world would be a smoking plain like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isa 1:9. Rom 9:29. We note
that the fire of judgement could not fall on Sodom until one man, Lot, was taken out.
He was thrust out of the city with his wife through the ministry of two angels of the
Lord. His wife left reluctantly, looking back to Sodom. For this reason she was
destroyed. Lot was called a righteous man; he was ‘one’ who was taken from a city.
• Jesus warned that the coming of the kingdom at the end of the age would be like it
was in the days of Lot. Specifically, He said, ‘Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:
They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day
that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed
them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ Luk 17:28-30.
We see that, at the end of the age, when God’s people have come out of the world, and
the whole world becomes the New Jerusalem, there will be a number of smoking
plains, here and there. Those who are the Lord’s people will have been taken out, one
from a city and two from a family, to become part of the New Jerusalem.
8
A preserving group
• Those who are called sons of the living God are adopted in Christ, and are a
‘preserving group’. We note that Jesus called the elect, ‘the salt of the earth’. Mat 5:13.
They are adopted in Christ, and fellowship with Him in His journey, and they receive
the divine nature and are born. We have imagined that, once we are born, we are no
longer adopted sons. However, the adoption runs parallel to the three dimensions of
being born of God – that is, born to see the kingdom; and born of water and the Spirit
to enter the kingdom. Joh 3:3-5.
• We continue in the adoption until we receive our spiritual body in the resurrection.
Paul called this ‘the redemption of our body’, writing, ‘Not only that, but we also who
have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly
waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.’ Rom 8:23. We see that the
adoption is complete at the last trumpet, when everything of our humanity as a
created son is completely brought all the way through to being new creation; that is,
we have fully become a man in the image and likeness of God.
• We have to be born to see the kingdom first. Then, by water and Spirit, we enter the
kingdom. A new heart and new spirit is given to an adopted person who still sins. The
viability of our sonship, which does not sin but must mature, is contingent upon our
regeneration and our renewing as an adopted son in the fellowship of Christ’s
offering and suffering journey. In this regard, the condition of our heart, which is ‘the
ground’ that is being regenerated and renewed, needs attention. If the ‘stones’ of our
other law and the ‘thorns’ that belong to our desires for other things are not removed
from us through the circumcision of Christ, the seed of our sonship, which does not
sin, can die. When this happens, our eternal sonship is lost.
Sons of the living God
• We began these notes with Paul’s restatement of Hosea’s prophecy, ‘And it shall come
to pass in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they
shall be called sons of the living God.’ Rom 9:26. Hos 1:10. The term ‘living God’ does
not just mean that God is eternally alive. Rather, it means that He is the One who gives
life. Sons of the living God are sons who live by His divine life. This is more than
sonship by adoption. It means that they are receiving and living by the divine nature.
• Paul drew attention to this implication of sonship, writing, ‘Even so the Lord has
commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel’. 1Co 9:14.
This is the same point that Jesus made in response to the temptation of Satan who
said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread’.
Jesus responded, saying, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God”.’ Mat 4:3-4.
• Although it is not clear that Darius the Mede understood that the living God is the
source of life for those who are born of God, he recognised that the life of God had
protected Daniel when he was thrown into the den of lions. To this end, he declared, ‘I
make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear
before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom
is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He
delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who
has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.’ Dan 6:26-27. He recognised that
Daniel had been saved by the life of God