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Roger Tointon—March 15, 2025
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I want to talk to you about what Fred mentioned, Passover is coming. So, what are the things that we should understand maybe a little deeper before that time that we can keep it?
Not just by rote as maybe we did too many times through the years, but that we can keep it in our heart between us and God. That is the thing.
The message then is Christ our Predecessor in all things, ALL things, and we're going to see that as we go through. Where do we start?
Well, there is a place that I thought about that and I said, 'No, I have to go there again, we've gone there so many times. I remember as a little boy, just out of the fourth grade, I went to vacation Bible study and the very nice lady was teaching us. Then she gave an offering early on in the three weeks. And she said, she held up this little New Testament, pocket sized New Testament, King James Version.
She said, if you, whichever one of you can stand up before the class and recite that word for word, I will give you this little New Testament. I saw that little New Testament and I looked at it later that day and I said, I want that. So, I did it!
She came toward the end and she said, all right, who can do this? I held up my hand and I said, 'I can do it.' I had memorized it and I stood up there and I went through John one.
Now it's always been very special, but let's read just a little here because it will get right back to Christ being our Predecessor in all things! We know very well the first three verses.
John 1:1: " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
How about that? All of you, even in the Church, the end-time Church of God that said, no, no, there's only one God, Christ was something else, but He fit in there, but 'no, there's only one God.'
Do you get that out of that? He was with God! He was with God and He was God. And if you check out the Greek, as I've done before, that little word was points out so many different interactions between two different entities. that's what it is.
What did They both say? No beginning and no ending! Well, I don't want to digress or I won't get through what I want to.
Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him… [through the Word] …and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him."
That is phenomenal and we cannot fully comprehend it, but we can know it and we can believe it by faith!
Verse 4: "In Him was life, and the Life was the Light of men."
How many times did Christ talk about that when He was here below as a literal human being.
He was so dedicated to what He and the Father had worked out for the plan of salvation to bring mankind. to create them—which Christ did—and put them through whatever it took for us to be able to be and live in the presence of God.
God the Father cannot, and neither can Christ, but Christ had to because He came here below in the flesh. But the Father, wherever He has been. We can't know for sure where that is out in the universe, but He cannot live with unrighteousness.
That's another reason why Christ literally had to come here below.
Verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us… [the apostles are speaking here, because they literally were with Him]: …(and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father…"
And something major had to happen for Christ to come here below. Another thing that we can only know in a little bit, however, we put it in different words, and I think Fred has brought it up probably first, and that is that Christ, Who was, He had no beginning and He would have had no end. He doesn't because the Father has resurrected Him!
But He had to divest Himself of His own glory! He had to be willing to do that. That's another major thing that Christ did. It shows the magnitude of what Christ did. He divested His own glory and became like us that He had created: lowly human beings!
- What is a human being?
- How much power and strength does a human being have?
That's why these big basketball players and others like that in sports, or they think they're so, you know, like a silverback out there in the jungle. They can do anything.
But what can they literally do? They can live a certain amount of time, and then what? They die just as God said!
Verse 16: "And of His fullness…" We have all received Christ's fullness!
We're going to be talking about that a little more and look at certain Scriptures. The fullness is beyond our comprehension.
Verse 16: "And of His fullness we have all received…
Well we've received it in part; the part that we can because God, when we said 'Yes;' when He parted our mind and we said, 'Yes, I want of that.' We knew that God had intervened into our life. We didn't know fully how upside down He had turned our life, but we found out!
When you've lived as long as I have—and I could point over here (at Fred) how long he has, hey, you know your life was turned upside down and now we have a better idea as to why! Why our life had to literally be changed.
Who was the main one responsible for that after the Father called us? It was our Savior Jesus Christ. We will commemorate His death and renew our covenant with Him in a short period of time. It is Christ Who has been:
- working with us
- putting up with us
- then helping us through the rest of our life from when we were called
That is what the Father wanted because He gave us to Christ to do that very thing!
John 3:34: "For He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God…"
How many times when Christ was here in the flesh having given up His glory, His literal glory as God to become a human being. Now, He was a very special human being, absolutely, and we will touch on that.
But God sent Him here below to speak the Word of God! Christ told those Pharisees and the others in the multitudes He spoke to throughout His ministry here below. He says, 'These are not My words. No, I am only telling you what the Father told Me I had to tell you, to witness to you.'
They would not understand it, and God knew that and Christ knew that. But eventually a few of them did on that first Pentecost after Christ went back to the Father.
Here is another point about Christ Himself when He was here below. He had given up His glory; He was a human being in the flesh, but a very special human being because of:
"…and God gives not the Spirit… [the Holy Spirit of God] …by measure unto Him" (v 34). He had a full measure of the Holy Spirit!
He had to have that to go through all that He did, but He did, and He was very special. We will see how special hopefully hereafter a bit.
Verse 35:" The Father loves the Son and has given ALL things into His hand.
Do you think Christ is up to that? Well, that is ridiculous to ask, to us who know!
But how many people out there around you—your neighbors, anywhere you go—really believe that? They may believe in His name, that He existed, but they have no clue what he is doing now for a few whom the Father has called!
But one day they will find out, and even you and your neighbors will be astonied—when they come up in their time, whichever that is: in the Millennium or on the Eighth Day.
They will think, 'I lived next to that guy.' Can you imagine? Well that's our opportunity. That is something to look forward to, and we do look forward to it!
I think of that every time about people I know in the world, and I just wish I could take them and set them down, or some of them I know I would have to grab by the lapel and shake them a bit before I tried to convert them. I can't convert them, but that's what we would like. We don't want to keep this just for us, a puny few, but God has a plan. He has that plan that They agreed upon, and it is being worked out.
Verse 35: "The Father loves the Son and has given ALL things into His hand."
Now that is astounding, and we can only attempt to inculcate it all the way.
Heb. 2 tells us some things further, a little more depth maybe, about what Christ, why He literally had to come here in the flesh. That meant He had to give up His Divinity as God. He had to do that!
That is something that we just cannot grasp. As hard as I try, it doesn't so far. I'm sure that's with the rest of you.
Hebrews 2:14: "Therefore, since the children are partakers…"
He had been making the analogy about someone who was going to rule like a king, like David, and so on. And if they were very, very young and not ready, then they were under a tutor. Now He's making a new analogy:
"…since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, in like manner He also…" (v 14)—Christ our Savior!
He's using the same analogy because He did, He came here as a human being.
"…took part in the same…" (v 14).
Why? Why did He come here below? So that the Plan of God would work!
There could not be salvation unless He did that, because there was no one who could pay the ransom for sin except Christ Himself Who was the Creator of all mankind. That is who is being offered salvation, it's human beings.
Christ became like us! But what did He also have to do? He did that before He began His ministry! Right toward the end of His short life here below, He had to overcome Satan the devil!
What was Satan? Satan was the one that made the plan what it is! Three main divisions:
The first time for salvation and that's after Christ literally came down here that is being talked about hereto pay the ransom so that salvation could start
It has started; it's been going on since the time Christ went back to the Father and 50 days later the Holy Spirit of Power came. It came, and even on that Pentecost there were some that believed and were baptized later and received the earnest of the Holy Spirit of God. Just like we had to, way down here toward the end of this age.
That's the way the plan works. You cannot do it without God opening the mind and without receiving the Holy Spirit! We know that. But Christ had to come here below so that He could overcome Satan and be here—even though He's back with the Father—with those whom the Father would call and give an earnest of the Spirit that would give us the opportunity to understand the Plan of God. Even want that little bit that we have to do.
Yet, it becomes major, because if we don't do that little part what happens? We don't make it! We will not receive salvation, because we have to repent of sin every time we do it!
That's why we have to go to the Father every day and ask for forgiveness. That's what we have to do. The more you do it the closer to God you become, and the closer to God you become the deeper you can understand the whole Plan of God and what awaits us.
We can't comprehend that now except a little. But the closer we get to God the more we will feel it here (in the heart) and the more that we can turn and help a neighbor even if that neighbor is not converted by God.
Our neighbors, we can do things for them that they can end up so thankful that you cared enough to reach out to them. What are we doing if we do that? We're simply setting the example that Christ said!
He says you have to learn, you have to love your neighbor as yourself and that's not just brethren in the Church. That's everybody around us!
Now we hate what they're doing, so many of them, and especially those at the top. We see that so vividly now. It is pure evil! But what did Christ say in Matt. 12? When he brought up the unpardonable sin, He first said all of these things, evil, evil things, gross things! He says, 'I can forgive this, but there's one thing I cannot forgive, and that ought to spur us on who know that and know what it is. That's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that God in His love and in His graciousness gave to us!
In earnest, we don't have a full measure, but one day we can.
1-John 3:2: "Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is."
Then we can literally see the Father and the Son face-to-face. Oh, when that day comes and we just, we need to stir ourselves up looking forward to that day, because that is the precious promise that God has promised us and Christ promised us.
Hebrews 11:6: "Now, without faith it is impossible to please God…." He's saying salvation must be by faith!
- Do we see Christ?
- Do we see the Father?
- No!
- Do we know Them? Absolutely!
When I was a little boy trying to earn that little New Testament, I believed in Him then. How old was I? Well, I was quite young, I was waiting on the fifth grade.
Thankfully, for some reason—and I think it's because God chooses whom He's going to call—in the time when Christ came here below and went back to the Father until now—that He knew very early on, if not soon after conception. He knew He was going to call us at the right time.
Look back on your calling, your own calling! I mean hindsight, as they say, is so good. Well, it is because you begin to see that if this had not happened, oh boy, this would have happened—that type of thing.
I know I can look back and see all those times that I not only believed in Christ, and thought I knew God, but I didn't until the appointed time came! But it helped me accept it at the time of my calling, I know that, because I understood that God Himself, Whom I had believed in, had literally entered my life and touched me.
That's the way I thought of it at the time, that He had reached out and touched me and I listened to what this man was saying and I said, 'This is astounding! And I never missed a broadcast after that. When nine o'clock at night came, I knew what I was going to be doing, because it was so fascinating what I was learning. That's because God parted my mind!
He had to do that. He had to do that with every one of us! Then He gave us to Christ. What has Christ been doing? Well, we may have worn out an angel or two and we may have worried Christ, but as Paul says in Heb. 13, He'll never ever leave us! He is there for us.
Hebrews 2:15: "And that He might deliver those who were subject to bondage all through their lives by their fear of death."
Isn't that what human beings fear the most when you come right down to it? They fear their life ending! I don't care how old they are. They fear that time because they don't know the Plan of God and what God promises to those who are His! But we do!
Verse 16: "For surely, He is not taking upon Himself to help the angels the angels… [that's Christ] … but He is taking upon Himself to help the seed of Abraham."
We know that and we go over that every year at the Passover. That covenant between Abraham and Christ and the Father, it's all there.
Verse 17: "For this reason, it was obligatory for Him [Christ] to be made like His brethren in everything…"
He was, except that He had the preeminence.
"…that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God… [pertaining to the salvation of God] …in order to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (v 17). Had to happen! He had to come here below!
Verse 18: "For because He Himself has suffered, having been tempted in like manner, He is able to help those who are being tempted."
Every time we're tempted, He's there to help us, to succor us. And when we do something that is grievous, He knows; He knows how hard it was and how easy for a human being to do that. And He runs intercession for us!
Romans 8:27: "And the One Who searches the hearts comprehends what the strivings of the Spirit are because it makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
He runs intercession for us to the Father! He says, 'I know how it is, please forgive them.
When you have Christ asking God, that, you have beyond what we can comprehend.
Colossians 1:17: " And He is before all…" Our Predecessor!
He had to come here below and do everything that we had to face in our own life. He had to face it in kind.
"…and by Him all things subsist. And He is the Head of the Body, the Church… [we know what God's Church is and we, through the grace of God, are a part of that] …Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead…" (vs 17-18).
He had to because He had not been risen by the Father there would be no salvation; the Plan of God would not have worked.
"…so that in all things He Himself might hold the preeminence" (v 18)—Christ does!
Christ certainly earned that in everything that He did in His determination. You're going to hear more as we get closer to Passover of how He literally filled there when what He had to go through on that last night, and the next day hanging on the cross for six hours.
Every time when they're on the cross the way they crucified them, especially as time goes on, if you have to take another breath, you have to painfully lift yourself to let the air come in and down with nails through the feet and the hands. Think about that!
Christ was willing to go through that. That's why it is so important to understand what He did and what position He holds. We will never be above Christ, but look what He has promised. We can become his very brother, the very brother of our Savior! We literally need to soak that in!
Verse 19: "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell."
We've read in John where we started, and here it is again:
ALL things, the fullness of the whole Plan of God, rests in Christ and what He did and is doing now because we are not there, yet. We do have to keep that in mind.
I'm not accusing anybody of wanting to turn back. No, we don't want to. But we do get tired, we get weary, and we get sidetracked.
Sometimes that's straight from our enemy, our major enemy, Satan the Devil. He knows the button he can push in Roger Tointon. I think he knows in each and every one of you what button he can push. Then what happens? Well, you know what happens! Sin comes! Then we have to humble ourselves before God and repent.
As we draw closer to Passover, this is just one more Passover. How many Passover's have you kept? This will probably be my 60th Passover—59 or 60.
Each one now, we don't know how many more Passover's we can keep. But each one is so precious that we need to come to it and look at our life and look at what God wants by going to His Word of Truth.
- we know what we have to do
- we know our assignment
So brethren, let's not get weary! Let's never get so weary that we think we have to sit down by the side of the road and rest, because you might not get up and go forward! That's only an analogy, but you know what I mean.
So brethren, when it comes, have a great Passover!
Scriptural References:
- John 1:1, 3, 14, 16
- John 3:34-35
- Hebrews 2:14
- 1-John 3:2
- Hebrews 11:6
- Hebrews 2:15-18
- Romans 8:27
- Colossians 1:17-19
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Matthew 12
- Hebrews 13
RT:bo/po
Transcribed: 3/22/25
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