<TITLE>09. Par 319-328</TITLE>L-319 Those Pharisees were preachers, and they were unbelievers, and in hell today for it. Just as religious as they could be, and pious, but they didn't believe Him. And they called Him "a devil," and disputed His Word. And some of them said, "If thou be, now come down off the cross. Perform a miracle. Let us see you do it." One smote Him on the head, with a stick, and said, "Prophesy and tell us who hit you, you a prophet, and we'll believe you." See, unbelievers! They make-believe that they were believers, but they were unbelievers, unregenerated, separated, though they were holy and pious.

L-320   Yet, that's the same thing stands today. Men and women can go to church and have the long face, and--and pious as they can be, and never lie, steal, and try to live their religion as best they can. But, unless they are a believer, they're lost. So there's no scratch of legalists in the Bible. Calvinism is... Grace is what God did for you, and works is what you do for God. It's absolutely separated.

L-321 If you quit lying, quit smoking, quit stealing, quit committing adultery, quit all, done everything, kept the commandments, and went to church, baptized every Sunday, took the communion, washed the feets of the saints, done everything, healed the sick, and done all these other things, unless you're born of the Spirit of God, elected, you're lost. "Not him that willeth or him that runneth, but God that sheweth mercy."

L-322   Esau tried his best to become a Christian, and couldn't do it. The Bible said he wept bitterly, seeking a place to repent, and couldn't find it. Before he was even born, God condemned him, 'cause He knowed he was a rotten shyster in his heart. God by foreknowledge knew it. He said, "I love Jacob, and I hate Esau." And Esau looked like the gentleman. He stayed home, taking care of his old blind daddy, fed the cattle, and everything, was a good boy.

L-323 And Jacob was mama's boy, little old sissified story-teller. That's what he was. You have to admit it. The Bible admits, brings it. Run around, doing everything. And--and, mama, hanging around with mama. But, yet, Jacob, with all of his ups-and-down, and his sissified ways, he still had respect to that birthright. That's the keynote.

L-324 Esau was twice the gentleman of Jacob. If we had to judge him today, to be a member of our church, you'd take Esau, a thousand to one, if you didn't know him. But God took Jacob.

L-325   What would you do with Saint Paul, if he wanted to be a minister? A little, old hook-nosed Jew, and a mouth setting sideways, going along just fussing, and how he's going to tear out the Church. He's going to do everything. You'd thought he committed the unpardonable sin. But God said, "He's my servant."

L-326 God takes men and makes them different, not men taking God and becoming different. God takes man and makes him different. It's not what you do, what you will, what you think. It's what God does. There you are. And that's the story.

L-327   Now, this great Melchisedec, what a story on Him here! We want to read a little bit, this type. We had to run through it so fast. We're going to start back here on a certain part of the Scripture, and we're going to start about the 15th verse.
And it is yet... more evident: that there... for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest.

L-328 Now, Melchisedec was a priest. Was he? Here is what He was. We find out that God, in the beginning, was a great fountain of Spirit. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] He had no birthplace. He had no dying place. He had no beginning of days. He had no ending of years. He was just as Eternal as Eternity is Eternal. He never was born. He never did die.


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