THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB PUTS THE WIFE BEYOND THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE AND CARNAL RITUALS. But Now

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2 THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB PUTS THE WIFE BEYOND THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE AND CARNAL RITUALS But Now Thought for the book taken from the Message delivered on September 7, 2014 Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

3 2014 by Ben Howard All rights reserved. This book cannot be sold, nor in any way be used for the soliciting of funds. All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version Bible Published by the Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

4 THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB PUTS THE WIFE BEYOND THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE AND CARNAL RITUALS But Now Good morning to each one of you. Let us be glad and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and His mercy that He has freely bestowed upon us. I m reading today from the Book of Acts, Chapter 17. I believe that you will receive something from the Word today that will be very special to you. I remember when we were in Mozambique visiting many towns and villages as I preached to the saints there. We have enjoyed being with the saints in Africa over the many years. But there was one particular place in Mozambique called Tete where I preached a message that we simply titled, But Now. I said in this message, God once winked at our ignorance, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent, putting the emphasis on but now. After the meeting, while on our way back to the hotel, our driver, who was also a minister, was rejoicing in the Lord. And as we traveled back into the city of Blantyre, Malawi, where we were staying, every few minutes he would say, It was that way, but now. But now it is different! That message meant so much to him. This message (But Now) is on our website and can be heard and viewed there. It was a real good service as the saints of God worshiped and the Spirit of Lord blessed us. I was thinking about that meeting this morning as I was reading in Acts, Chapter 17. So we praise God for His working in a special way. It brings us to conclude that God is moving in this day as we rejoice over our marriage to the Lamb of God. We re not in the old way; but we re in a fresh new part of the Word of God, and we praise Him for it!

5 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 2 So today I m going to take a thought, The Marriage of the Lamb Puts the Wife Beyond the Times of Ignorance and Carnal Rituals. It s by revelation that God has put us beyond the times of ignorance and carnal rituals. That s what the marriage does. But sadly there s many people today that don t realize that the marriage of the Lamb has taken place. They still want to be attached to, and operate like, some carnal church system. But this message isn t attached to a church system. This is for the wife of the Lamb which is in the earth today. So before approaching the scriptures, let s pray and ask the Lord s blessing upon His Word. Heavenly Father, we come to you now. We come praising you, Lord, that your Word will go forth and have free course and will find a lodging place in every heart where you ve ordained it to go. And we thank you for it, in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Before reading Acts 17:22-30, I want to summarize what was going on before Verse 22: There were certain happenings that began to take place in Berea, and the brethren had to send Paul away, because the Jews of Thessalonica had received word that the Word of God was being preached by Paul in Berea, and they came also and stirred up the people against him. So the brethren sent Paul away by sea, and they that conducted Paul to a ship brought him unto Athens, Mars Hill. He was there for only a short time when he sent for Timothy and Silas asking them to meet him there. And while waiting for them, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. He therefore disputed with the Jews in the synagogues, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with those that he met. Then certain philosophers mocked Paul, as they said, What will this babbler say? He seems to be a bringer of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. Then here in Verse 22 is where Paul begins his sermon on Mars Hill. It says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Verse 23, For as I passed by, and beheld your

6 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 3 devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. Notice that these people were given strictly over to superstition. And that s about the way of the religious world today; there s a different altar to every god (modern day Christianity, denominations). Then Paul goes on to say in Verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein (He s telling about the true God.), seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; He is the Lord of heaven and of earth, see. And He doesn t dwell in temples made with hands. Solomon built a temple to the Lord God for Israel s prayers and their dedication, but it was made known to Solomon that God doesn t dwell in temples made with hands. That is, He doesn t dwell in buildings made of wood and stone, because our bodies are the temple of the Lord. Many people come to church buildings and they think the building has something to do with meeting with God. But the building is only a place to get out of the weather; and there is no holiness in the building. God doesn t dwell in the building; He dwells in us, and we in Him. The only temple that will have any relevancy to it as far as an earthly building is concerned will be the Jewish temple that will be built in Jerusalem. And that will be for Jesus Christ and His wife to dwell. His throne and ours will be there. In Africa (as well as other places) we have had many meetings outside. And many times the Lord blessed in a mighty way. I remember a particular meeting in Malawi where at the end of the message, while we were praying, many birds came down amongst us. At the end of the meeting, we could barely hear the dismissal prayer because of a big bird up in a tree; it was keeping in tune with the one that was dismissing with its song of praise. Those birds would fly down (zoom!) right close to us as though they were putting their approval on our service. We had a good

7 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 4 time and the birds enjoyed service, too. Those were some of our most enjoyable meetings. So it s not always in a temple or church building; it s having church in your heart. That s what Paul was trying to convince to these people that God doesn t need your altars. God doesn t need all these things because He dwells in our hearts and not in the rituals of man. Let s go a little deeper into his testimony, Verses (And I agree with what Paul is saying in these verses.), Neither is worshipped with men s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; God doesn t need you to fix something beautiful for Him and then say, God gave us a beautiful service. That s not God s way of doing things. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; Another thing that Paul tells the people of Athens is that God made us all from one blood. I preached a message in Mchacha, Mozambique, entitled, He Has Made Of One Blood All Nations, that really brought this out. It lets us know that in the eyes of God, when it comes to receiving the gospel, that one nation doesn t have preeminence over another nation, but we all need the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. Verses 27-28, That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. These people did have one thing right we are also His offspring. And therefore we now speak on this wise, In Him we live, move, and have our being; not in a temple, not in a religious school, and not in certain forms and rituals. It s in the Spirit. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Verse 29, Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, Many times we ve heard someone say concerning a son or daughter

8 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 5 that resembles the father or mother, You can tell whose offspring you are, because you are a chip off the old block. or The apple doesn t fall too far from the tree. Well, Paul is saying here that we are God s offspring. And if we are God s offspring, then the attributes of God will be in us. He is the Word. So the Word will be in us. And when the Word is in us, it s not just what is written in the Bible (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), which is the natural part of the Word, but it s the spiritual Word (the tree of life) that is in us. Jesus said, My words are Spirit and they re life. And we know this truth by revelation, The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. So we are God s offspring and we have His attributes. Continuing Verse 29, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man s device. They were making different types of gods and altars and images to represent their god. Well, I want to say, Our God doesn t need that kind of representation. God made man in His own image and in His likeness. And He put His own life, His own Spirit in us, and by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of God, we are made a part of Him. And the Word says, He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. So we ve got His Spirit in us, and we are joined unto Him by the Spirit. And now the next step after our soul is connected with God s Spirit is what happens in Revelation, Chapter 10, as Christ comes down from heaven. By this transaction God produces a message to redeem our bodies. This is the spiritual body of Christ that Paul prophesied about when he said, For by one Spirit are we all (all the members of the wife) baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13) And by being baptized into the body of Christ, our flesh and bones are now a part of Christ, which are the saints that Paul spoke of when he said, Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the

9 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 6 air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17) Paul spoke of this same event in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, saying, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. That is redemption of the bodies of those ordained to be the wife of the Lamb, of those whose souls were already redeemed by the receiving of the Holy Ghost. This transaction of redeeming our bodies is applied only to the wife at the rapture. All the remaining saints will be resurrected into their glorified bodies at the beginning of the millennial reign after the great tribulation period. And this completes the redemption of all God s children. Now we can say that we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We are part of Him. That is the reason there s a people in this end time that death has no more dominion over; not only in the spiritual realm, but it has gotten into the flesh and bone part of us. This has been made a reality to the living part of the wife of the Lamb only in this hour we are living in, as this light has set upon Ephesians 5:30 that proclaims, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Let s read on, Verse 30 says, And the times of this ignorance.. Many people are still in the times of ignorance, because they try to use other things to connect with God. We don t need any natural works in our connection with God, because that only hinders, not helps. There are many carnal rituals within the religious systems in this day all their graven images, ritualistic worship, and paraphernalia mean nothing. So when we come to worship God, we worship Him in spirit and in truth without regards to the building and altars. That s the way it works for us. This is the reason for the title of my message, The Marriage of the Lamb Puts the Wife Beyond the Times of Ignorance and Carnal Rituals.

10 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 7 Reading Verse 30 again, And the times of this ignorance God winked at; Now there was a time when the Bible schools served a good purpose and people were helped as they studied in the Bible. Many people felt that the more scriptures you could quote the more spiritual you were. But I have noticed through the years that those who focused on quoting many scriptures were among the most ignorant about what the scriptures were saying. In that day God was working more in the natural realm of the Word, but now God has moved by revelation and brought it over into the spiritual realm. What happens is people get the tree of knowledge, which is the written Word only; not knowing that it won t produce without the Spirit of the Word, the tree of life. Here we have to go back to the Garden of Eden where God placed two trees (spiritual laws). One of those trees was the tree of knowledge, which in our day is the natural Word. But without the tree of life, the tree of knowledge will kill you, The day you eat thereof, that day ye shall die. But the Spirit of the Word (revelation) is the tree of life. That s what makes it live. The Spirit makes this Bible come alive. It makes the letter of the written scripture come alive to us. And the Word is not necessarily always written. But once it is written it becomes the tree of knowledge and it is valuable and it will produce what it says when it is connected with the tree of life. Now in the days of Jesus earthly walk, His words were life, the words that He spoke; for He spoke things that weren t even written, as did Paul. And when God made a covenant with Abraham and gave the promise to him and his seed (the children of Israel), that was unwritten present-tense Word. Then years later, Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt and they were there 430 years, and still there was unwritten Word. Then God led them out with a mighty hand. Think about it; all this time there was not one scripture written anywhere. But the living God spoke to them from time to time. (Hebrews 1:1-2) Even from the beginning in Genesis all the way through; they were

11 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 8 some four thousand years down the road without any written scripture. So how did the Jews know the Word then? The Word was spoken Word before the law was given. God moved by the Spirit, and it was life to them. It was the same way with Jesus and the new covenant. He said, My words are Spirit and they are life. That was the Word before it became written Word, which in this day has become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the Book of Galatians, Chapter 3, Paul writes about being under grace and not under the law. And he tells us that the promise was given to Abraham without the law (written Word). Then he asked, What was the law for? Then he answered the question by saying that it was given because of transgression and would last until the seed came to whom the promise was made. (Galatians 3:17-25) That s when it ended. So the children of Israel couldn t correctly serve God without a written law. That s because the natural unconverted people chose the ways of the world, which was the ways of the devil. But then God raised up Moses and He gave him the Ten Commandments and other instructions, which we find in the first five books of our Bible which covers the period of time starting with Adam and Eve. Think about it, while they were without the written Word, the only thing they had was spoken Word from God and the history which was passed on to them by word of mouth of what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob said. But there was no scripture written until the law was given unto Moses. And when Paul came it was about the same way, no written Word on how he should lay the foundation for the Gentile church to be built upon. It s very clear that when Jesus came and brought His message, much of it was unwritten. This was pointing to the very end of the law age which ended at His death, burial, and resurrection. Afterwards came Paul with the spoken Word for the Gentiles (and any of the Jews that would accept his spoken Word

12 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 9 ministry) which engaged them to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2-3) Then the church fell away from the spoken Word and the marriage was delayed. Then God took Paul home. A few years later, much of Paul s writings were gathered together as the saints realized that these letters were God s Word for them; for in them contained the Word to engage them for the marriage. This is the Word that became the tree of knowledge for all the church ages, and the wheat and tares ate of this same Word. The tares used it to create a carnal church system, which produced death; while the wheat (God s children) accepted it by revelation, which was eating of the tree of life that was in heaven (in the midst of the paradise of God), and it gave life unto their soul, although they died physically. But they are now waiting for the resurrection in our day. This brings us to the end time when in Revelation, Chapter 10, God sends us the spoken Word in the form of the little book which ends the church age law for the wife as the marriage takes place. So it has become now as it was then. In the day of Jesus earthly ministry the Jews continued in the Law of Moses. And now, even after God has given us the spoken Word, the church world continues in the church age law and their rituals. Many things that Jesus said and did, the religious Jews couldn t handle, because they couldn t find it in the scriptures. But Jesus Christ was the very Word standing there speaking. See, that is what it is now. It s Christ in the earth, the living Word of God amongst us; and it s not how much we ve read or how much we ve done this or that. But the Word is Spirit and it is life and the revelation of what the Word means is in your heart. We can get carnal knowledge of the Word, but if that is as far as we go, it will kill. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says, For the letter killeth, but it is the Spirit that giveth life. In Romans, Chapter 7, it talks about the oldness of the letter and the newness of the Spirit. So we ve got both here; the Bible is the oldness of the letter, but that is not all we need. We ve got to have the newness of the Spirit

13 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 10 to make it work. And for the wife that is the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10, revealed unto us by the sounding of this last trumpet. The little book is brought down from heaven and given to us by Christ, the Mighty Angel. The Book of Redemption was sealed away, the whole Bible was sealed away, waiting for God to open the seven seals and take from it the little book which was sealed away within it just waiting to be given to the wife (both dead and living) for the rapture. This message is like it was with Paul when he said, I dare not speak of these things that God has not wrought by me. And he began to preach the things that related to his calling of getting the virgin engaged for the marriage in this day. I preached a message recently, A Message So Radical That There Has To Be Another Foundation Laid For It To Sit Upon. Well, the little book is the tree of life which has come to reveal the tree of knowledge (which was Paul s writings) and give its proper place in the chronicles of the scripture and cause it to live. Because when Paul received it at the beginning of his ministry, it was life from God. But then the old enemy got in among the people with his iniquity and the saints fell from the Word; and the life of the Word that would make us bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh was picked up and sealed away within the Book of Redemption until this hour. But Christ came and gave us the words of this life, and we ate it; therefore the enemy can t get to this life which is now in the wife, because we have been baptized into Christ. Satan can t get inside the body of Christ. So in our text verse, Paul was telling them, We re past the time of ignorance. And now that s what I m telling you in this message. Verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now (see, that s the change) commandeth all men every where to repent: See the, but now. It was then similar to our day of these denominational systems. Coming through the church ages there were, and are now, many different rituals. But, thank God, He gave them Jesus Christ who walked among them as High

14 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 11 Priest during that time and made intercession for them, which was represented by the taking of the bread and wine which they referred to as the Lord s Supper or communion, which was showing the cleansing mercy of the blood of Jesus Christ during that past age. We find this transaction taking place in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation. Those chapters show seven church ages, and in the very first church age the Word came forth, Thou art fallen; you ve left your first love. And so God provided a way to work among the fallen church and bring them through that time period. It became necessary for them to have some natural ordinances to help them to have an understanding of the mercy of God on them which served to keep the knowledge of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for them on Calvary fresh in their minds. Also during those dreadful days of coming through the dark church ages, God let them see the city of New Jerusalem and heaven as a blissful country that they would go to if they endured and overcame the devil and all the hardship of those troublous times. That s a picture of God s grace and mercy. So the gospel that God gave them was just to survive on, and He sent messenger s to proclaim it to them; known in the scripture as the church ages. All these things they had to come through. But now. But now we ve passed that till of Ephesians 4:13. That s when we became married, and now we are beyond these rituals. We re beyond the ignorance of having a certain church order. Paul wrote in the Book of Ephesians of this time of perfection (It was his first letter written from prison.). This book was sent to the Church of Ephesus and it was also sent to the Church of Laodicea. Ephesus being the first church age and Laodicea being the last. Notice, it was sent to both. And in the Book of Ephesians you ll not find any church order whatsoever. That s where it tells us that there is a marriage to take place. That s where it tells us that we become bone of His bone and

15 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 12 flesh of His flesh. That s where it tells us that we become the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. And that s where it tells us that there is one baptism. It cuts out all the baptisms but one, and that is our baptism into the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:5) God once winked at our ignorance and there were certain rituals (such as join the church) that people went through; and it was necessary because they were still in the fleshly realm. And even now we are asked, What church do you belong to? Well, I belong to Christ. We are Christ, the anointed Word. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we belonged to a church we couldn t belong to Him, not in the realm of being married to Him. Because you have grown away from needing church rituals to keep your conscience alive to Christ. You are one with Him. He is your very life. It s Christ in us the hope of glory! We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. We have been translated by the Spirit of God into the Kingdom of God. So we re translated out of this world. And if we are still living in this world (I m speaking here about the customs of the world and the way the world lives) then we are not in Christ. All you ve got to do is read the Book of John, Chapter 17, to see that. Jesus prayed to God to take the world out of us. He said, I pray that you ll not take them out of the world. In other words, I pray that you won t take them out of the world but you will take the world out of them. And through this last trumpet message God has explained the full Word to us, the part that relates to the wife of the Lamb. I am so happy for the Book of Revelation and for the fact that God saw fit to include it in the Holy Bible to preserve it for us. There are so many things that we never would have known without it. One of the things that really stands out to me is about the tribulation saints. We never would have known that those saints won t make the rapture but will have their place in the Kingdom of God as is shown in Chapter 7.

16 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 13 Here I m talking about those that are born again; and yet many of them are in some church system and will be there until they are called out by the 144,000 Jews whose ministry starts in the last half of the 70th Week of Daniel. This is seen in Revelation, Chapters 14 and 18. They are the ones that miss the rapture because they were not part of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But we are already translated into the body of Christ, even before the rapture, as seen in Colossians 1:13. For the trumpet sounded forth and it was said, Take the little book, and eat it up. And yes, it was bitter on our stomachs, because we had to change our ways; unlike the many people that are so stuck in some kind of religious order that you couldn t pry them out with a crowbar. But I am telling you, God is moving by His Spirit, leading a people and guiding a people; and it s not like church services where in days gone by that God once winked at our ignorance but now! See, in times of this ignorance some thought they were so smart. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, it tells about the true wisdom of God, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You can t even know these things except the Holy Ghost teaches you. (1 Corinthians 2:13) It takes the Spirit. We have got to give ourselves wholly over to Christ; that s the spiritual realm. This is the way we have to think. This has to be the way we live. This has to be what we are all about. It can t be just thinking about the natural things. Yes, we have got to make a living in the

17 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 14 natural. I m not talking about that. But while we are making a living we can be praising God! The Mighty Angel has now come and given us the little book and baptized us into His body. I tell you, this thing is real! It has become a part of us. When the Holy Ghost dispensation came to an end (the revival part), many people died with that revival and they went right back to the world to live after its customs. In the past, I ve preached in Pentecostal churches where the sisters wore long dresses, not necessarily down to their ankles, but modest and respectable. They had long hair; they wouldn t have dared to cut it off short. Their faces were not painted up. They shouted and talked in tongues and they rejoiced in the Lord. But when the Holy Ghost dispensation passed on (I m speaking of them having only the first leg of the spiritual coming of Christ) they went right back to the world showing that all they had was an anointing. Yes, it was that anointing causing them to shout. It was that anointing causing them to sing. But way down on the inside of the inside there wasn t something saying, Go on. Take the next step. And that next step was God sent a message, Come out of her My people; be not partakers of her sins. There were ten virgins; five wise and five foolish. Yes, many of the virgins were foolish and didn t continue to walk on in the newly revealed Word. But the wise continued to walk with the revelation of the Word as God had revealed it, and they went into the marriage. That s Matthew, Chapter 25, where it says, The marriage came and they that were ready went in; not in the rapture at this time, but into Christ, as the wife of the Lamb. And to them all the world is shut out; and they don t care about the customs of the world or living after the manner of the world. So before our marriage, God once winked at our ignorance; but we gladly move on with the Word just as He commandeth us. Paul said in his day, But now commandeth all men every where to

18 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 15 repent: The wife realizes she can t be careless. We don t talk careless. We don t talk negative about one another. If someone does, that just means that they are not a part of the wife, and there is something bad wrong down inside with their spirit. We ve got to be led by the Spirit of God. Yes, it has to be on the inside of the inside of the inside. David said, The deep calleth unto the deep at the sound of thy waterspout. That s what is in us. If there is a seed in us, God will quicken that seed. And when we get a hold of something from God we just won t let go; we just can t turn it loose! Then that s real. But the Bible talks about false Christ s. (Matthew 24:24) Christ means anointing. So there are false anointed ones and to them their anointing is real, as they have that diluted spirit that Cain had in him, being part animal and part human. This created within him a hybrid seed, and his spirit was part of that breeding. Now that brings forth a spirit that is not a pure human spirit and it s not a pure beastly spirit. It s diluted enough that it can be sanctimonious and worship God. Paul spoke on this matter in the Book of Colossians 2:14-19, and told us that Christ spoiled all powers and principalities (that s the spirits that are not pure). This is the same spirit that Balaam and all the other false prophets throughout time had, starting with Lucifer before mankind was on earth. Jesus spoke of this spirit in Matthew 24:24, saying, For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. So you can see that this message of the trump of God puts the wife with the knowledge beyond the times of ignorance and carnal rituals, because we are in the body of Christ. Now I want to read in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, and I ll pick up with Verse 2. Paul is talking to the Corinthians, the same group as those in 1 Corinthians. He is writing back again to them. He says, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused (engaged) you to one husband (That s Christ; I have

19 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 16 got you engaged to Christ.), that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul had a gospel that would undo the lives that were deep in sin and make them virgins to Christ. Paul had a gospel that he could say about them that were morally defiled and certainly not virgins, Such were some of you. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) And that means that they were not virgins in the past, but Christ Jesus the great un-doer undid their troubled lives for them, and they had become virgins by accepting the gospel that Paul preached. (The marriage of the Lamb has brought the wife to the place where God undid everything in her life that was contrary to the perfect spiritual plan of God for His Son s wife. But now she has moved beyond being a virgin to being a wife.) Verse 3, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. This gospel is not complicated. It just takes a revelation to understand that the serpent corrupted the minds of the virgins in Paul s day, just as he did Eve s mind. But once married to Adam she could never stray again. So has it been with the living virgin that has become the wife of the Lamb, because we re not tossed to and fro after our marriage to our one and only love, our Husband and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now He has made us a part of the Godhead. Let s go from here to Ephesians, Chapter 4. I want to begin reading in Verse 11. And keep in mind that by this time we have passed beyond the time of having this ministry outside the body. This same ministry is now on the inside of the body of Christ. I want to begin reading Verse 11 where Paul tells about the ministry. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: God has put all that ministry that was in the outer realm inside the body. And while it was outside, Paul said, Obey them that have rule over you; these things I command you. But

20 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 17 inside the body it is Christ; everybody has got the same mind. We re beyond that till of Ephesians 4:13. Watch Verse 13, (This is the way it is after the till.) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, (watch) unto a perfect man (we express Jesus Christ perfectly), unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: Now, do you want to see Christ? Look at us. Someone may say, I want to see the man Christ Jesus. Well, look at us again, because we have reached the full knowledge of Jesus Christ and come to the full stature of the man Christ Jesus. This happened when we passed that till. This means we have come to the place beyond engagement, to the place of being married to Him. Because in the very next chapter, Ephesians 5:30-32 Paul is referring to Adam and Eve and tells us that we have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Yes, we are made out of the same Word that Jesus Christ was made from. And when this happened we became Christ the wife. See, up to Verse 12 we were virgins. But once we get to Verse 13 we are no longer virgins, we are His wife. And after this came into fulfillment, we fulfilled Verse 14, That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; See, that we henceforth, notice that. Now we can say as Paul did, From henceforth let no man trouble me (us). Verse 15 says, (here s what we do) But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. That s what we are doing to one another; we are edifying one another. We will never pull down. We will never talk against another member. We are not like the religious people of today. I know that some of them say, This ole sister did this, or That ole brother did that. People in the religious

21 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 18 world are known for their backstabbing and talking negative of one another for the sake of conversation. But thanks be to God who has eliminated that from the body of Christ, we stay right with God s Word. We are far beyond that, beyond being ignorant, beyond rituals, beyond water baptism, beyond taking communion, beyond foot washing. We ve been married to the Lord Jesus Christ. We ve become the wife of the Lamb, the very Christ in the earth. Amen. God bless you today. Heavenly Father, we just thank you today for this opportunity thou hast given us to meet together in this building, and not just in a building, [but inside the house, just as the disciples followed you inside the house] one more time this side of the rapture. And, Lord, I just thank you, for your servant Paul; for he not only told them what fallen mankind was, but he told them how to get out of the situation. He said, For you were that, but now you re cleansed, you re washed. O God, I pray that whatever situation your wife finds herself in, and all those that are yet to be a part of the wife finds themselves in, Lord, that they ll know that there s a way to be sanctified, to be washed, to be justified, and to come forth as pure gold. O God, help us all to do thy will. We pray in Jesus Christ s name.

22 2014 The Marriage Of The Lamb Puts The Wife Beyond 19 AUDIO/VIDEO SERMONS AND BOOKS All sermons by Brother Ben Howard are recorded on Cassette tape, CD's, DVD's, and Mp3 formats. Also, there is a collection of published books that are available for download or by request as well. Please feel free to visit us at our website often as new materials are constantly being added, or write to our postal address below. Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A. TwoAnds@soundofliberty.org