The Christian’s Identity

Well, first of all, I want to thank everyone for coming, it's good to see you all here. And I want to thank especially our translators who make it possible, because of everyone in the room, there's only about two that actually benefit from the English. So this is mostly for the video, and welcome to all of you who are watching, and we hope that you are blessed through the service.

So we've been talking about the heavenly signs, God's heavenly language, and how that shows us things in heaven and what they mean. And last week we talked about the importance of looking in the heavens, and how it's our role to look back and forth in the heavens, and then we will discover the sign of the Son of man here. And my wife already shared during the children's time a little bit about the sign, so for those of you who are new, you'll have a little bit there, you'll see that again.

But God directs us to look into heaven, and we see that, and then we will look up today at how that applies in our lives. So, first of all, What's this? Some weeds, yes? If I planted this in the ground, and it grew into a big tree, what kind of fruit would it have? Who can tell me? Mangoes, right? This is a mango. Part of a mango tree.

Why would it produce mangoes, not let's say apples? Because it's a mango tree. How do you know it's a mango tree? Does it say, I don't see any label anywhere that says it's a mango? How do you know? Okay, the kind of leaves, we recognize it as a mango tree. Good.

So, there's something in this that tells the plant to grow in a certain way, to produce leaves that are long and broad, and many different characteristics, and ultimately to produce mangoes. In this little stem, there is something written that describes the mangoes, the fruit that we eat, and I think it's all in here. Because if I just take this, I plant it in the ground, it grows, it produces mangoes.

Those mangoes are somehow written in here. How is that? Okay, today, and with modern science, we know that it's because of something very tiny that is inside the plant. Who can tell me what that is? The DNA, that's right.

It's called the molecule of life. And that DNA, it describes everything about the plant. The DNA is like a big book.

And in that book, there is a chapter that describes the leaves. And then there is another chapter that describes fruits. There is another chapter that describes the flowers.

And another chapter that describes the roots. And the book is all written in that molecule of life. Everywhere in the plant.

Every part of the plant has the entire book for the whole tree inside the plant. And that's the DNA. DNA.

So that DNA, it's like the law for the plant. It says, okay, make the leaves in this way. It's a long law.

And many, many, many specifications. That's why it's a big book. Because it has many details that it has to describe.

All in that one molecule. So when you talk about a plant and what it is. And it's true for any living thing.

We are the same. It's all written in a book. And that book is our DNA.

You can think of it like... I wanted to call our talk today, The Christian's Identity. Because it's about who we are as Christians. And it's about our DNA.

Just like what makes the mango tree produce mangoes. It's in the DNA. In our DNA, it's a lot like a big panel with lots of switches and knobs and knobs.

You know, long leaves or short leaves, broad leaves, narrow leaves. Many different controls that can be adjusted to produce, that describe how that tree should look and work. So the question is... Is it always the same? Does it ever change? Does our DNA ever change? Maybe, maybe not.

We'll see. But one thing is sure. Because our body is made up of many, many, many, what we call cells.

Look something like this. These are just skin cells. If you look very closely, you see the individual units.

And inside each one is the whole book. But yet, we're not all the same everywhere. We have ears, we have a nose, we have eyes.

Every cell in every part of our body has a whole book. But in our ears, it's open to the chapter on the ears. Even though it has the whole book there, it's like it's reading out from one part.

And in every part of our body, it's a different part of the book. And that's how it works. Altogether, the book describes who we are.

But each individual part is described in a separate piece of our DNA. But there's more to it than that. Because what about when you're young versus when you're old? You know, when I turned around 20 years old or so, it was like somebody took the knob.

And this knob was how much hair we had. And then it all sort of slowly over a few years, came in down and down until we had not much left. So our DNA changes, or at least it's expressed differently in time, as well as different places of our body.

But still, it's all written in the book, in every cell of our body. Okay. So, now let's put this in the context of creation.

Because in the beginning, God created all the big things with this DNA. Each one has its own book. And he made it perfect.

And in the end, you know, you know the account. After every day of creation, he said... Who can tell me? What did he say at the end? He created something one day, and he said, he looked at it, and he said, it's good. After every day, he said, he looked at it, and he saw, wow, that's good.

At the very end, after the whole week, he looked at the whole picture of all the things that he had made, and all together, he saw it, and he said, wow, that's very good. Then, what did he do? Then he stopped. He didn't have anything more to do, because it was already done.

It was very good. There was nothing more he could do to improve. Alright.

And so, that's how it began. But then, after some time, of course, Adam and Eve enjoyed the garden for a while. And then, there was the temptation and the sin.

The fall into sin. And sin is like a virus. Viruses have become popular these days.

They're very, very tiny. And so, if you look at them on a microscopic level, there's different types of viruses. And they look something like these.

Let me show you a little bit on the inside. They're all basically the same thing. They're like a bag, or a sack, or some container, different shape.

And inside, there is either DNA, or something called RNA, which is basically the same thing as DNA. It's different, but it can function in the same way. And so, we have a virus, which has some DNA in a sack.

Most people say it's not even living. Because it has to have a living being, or an organism to attach to. And then, for example, if we catch a virus, we usually breathe it in.

It attaches onto us. And then we do the work. We multiply the DNA.

Not our DNA, but in this case, the virus's DNA. So, we have our book of DNA, right? But the virus comes, and it says, here's the virus DNA. And it comes and puts its own DNA in our book.

So now, it's like a photocopier. And this photocopier is making copies. And the virus comes, and you can imagine, if you put the book on the photocopier, then it starts copying the virus DNA.

It reminds me of a time when I was in college. One of my professors had an assistant, he needed some copies made. So, he put a little note on the front saying, please make 40 copies.

And he put it in the box of the assistant, of his assistant. So, the assistant came, found the little thing, and the note. And she made the 40 copies.

And guess what happens? On every copy, please make 40 copies. Please make 40 copies. And then he removed the note.

So, that's how the virus is. And then it gets copied. And our body is designed to fight that off.

But sometimes, it actually gets incorporated into our book. In a permanent way. And so, no longer is it something separate, but it actually gets written into the book.

Into who we are. In fact, they say up to 10% of our DNA is made from ancient viruses that our ancestors caught. And the DNA from those viruses became a part of us.

And that's the only reason it's now a part of us. That's a lot. 10%.

And that's a lot how it works with sin. In the beginning, God made us perfect. There were no imperfections in the DNA.

But when Adam and Eve sinned, it was like the virus came and introduced itself into our DNA. But it wasn't just anywhere in the book. It was in a special place.

It was in the beginning. In the beginning of a book. It tells you things like who wrote the book.

And gives you some information about the book. Who published it, all that stuff. And that's where the virus changed the information.

So suddenly, mankind instead of being allegiance to God. Instead of responding to God's commands. Now in the beginning of the book it says, this is the book of the serpent.

Because it was the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve. And so mankind had a big problem. That continues until this day.

And so the question is, how do we heal our DNA? How do we fix that problem? We all have books that say, this is written by the serpent. And we don't want that. We want to be God's possession.

We want to be responding to Him. How do we do that? And that is where the sign of the Son of Man comes in. Now, in the sign of the Son of Man.

It tells a story. That story begins with Orion. We began to study Orion in like 2010.

And really we studied it for about 10 years. So there is a lot that we learned about Orion. But don't worry, I won't cover it all today.

But I do want to point out a few different things. That show you a little bit about what it represents. And this comes from Revelation chapter 5. Let me just put it vertically.

So in chapter 5 of Revelation. I'm not going to refer specifically to different verses. But the story is there more or less.

And it describes the scene of a throne. The throne of God. And of course God has three persons.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And here we have representing the throne. A star for the Father, for the Son, and for the Holy Spirit.

So there is that scene in the Bible of the throne. And the Bible continues. It says there were around the throne.

Four living creatures. Do you see them? Each of the four stars. The bright stars surrounding the throne.

So Orion represents God's throne. And it further continues. And it describes 24 elders.

In a circle around the throne. Now those we don't see,

but it tells us something. Because what else is divided into 24 parts. And you notice how these people around the throne, the 24.

They are described as elders. They are described in terms of their age. How much time they have lived.

And so it has the idea of time in there. And those 24 elders around the throne

represent 24 hours. Just like the day has 24 hours. So that's just a brief overview.

But there is one especially important point. Because it says that one sat on the throne. And it describes him as a lamb.

Having been slain. Now who does the lamb represent? He represents Jesus. He is the lamb that was slain.

And the interesting thing is that these stars have names. That have been there since ancient times.

And the name of this first star. Is Alnitak. It's an Arabic name.

And it has a special meaning. It means the wounded one. So the lamb was wounded.

The Bible says he was wounded for our transgressions. That's Isaiah 53. And so that's how we see

especially around this star Alnitak, that this is a clock.

So that's where our story begins. It begins with the lamb. And it describes the lamb as being slain

from the foundation of the world. So from the time of creation.

And so Alnitak and the Orion clock is pointing back

to creation. By the way it's Alnitak because that's a name

describing the character of Jesus as the Wounded One.

That's a name for Jesus. Just like sometimes we call him Jesus. Sometimes we call him Christ.

Sometimes we call him Almighty. Wonderful Counselor. The Bible uses many names

that describe the same being, God in the person of Jesus. And here we see one more. The wounded one.

And that's a biblical term. He was wounded for our transgressions. But Alnitak is the Arabic form for that.

So that's a new name for Jesus.

And the Bible even says, I will write for you My new name.

Expresses that also. Alright so here we have a description of the sanctuary as the throne of God as described in Revelation.

And that brings me to an interesting chapter in the Bible. Ezekiel chapter 47.

I will reference the English, but you have the Spanish and German there as well.

And it starts out. Afterward He brought me again. So this is Ezekiel in the vision. And he is

talking with the angel. And he brought me again to the sanctuary.

To the door of the house. He is seeing this vision in several chapters. Where Ezekiel is showing a vision of a temple, a sanctuary. And here. If I can get this. Afterward he brought me again to the door of the house. And behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house. Now that's interesting.

Let's go down a little bit to verse 3. And when the man that hath the line in his hand. So you're somebody who's measuring.

And he went forth. Eastward. That's where the waters were coming from.

And he measured a thousand cubits. So. If here is the wall of the house.

He measures. A thousand cubits. Far, far away.

A long stretch. And then he brought me through the waters. And the waters were to the ankles.

And then. He measured a thousand more. And brought me through the waters.

And the waters were to the knees. And then he measured a thousand more. And the waters were to the loins.

And then he measured a thousand more. And it was a river that was too deep. He couldn't pass it through.

Okay. So let's look at this visually. If here is the edge of the house. He measures a thousand cubits. And then the waters to his ankles.

He goes a thousand more. The waters to his knees. A thousand more.

The waters at his waist. And finally. He measures another thousand.

And it's very high. He can't pass. So what does that mean? Well.

First of all we see. There's a total of four thousand cubits.

And these are describing the waters that are flowing.

The waters flow in one direction or two directions? One direction. In one direction.

We're talking about a river that flows in one direction. What else flows in only one direction? Time only flows in one direction.

Alright. Now. Look at the sign of the Son of man again.

And I've changed the picture because Orion is also known as the hourglass.

Which also hints to its role as a clock.

You know how an hourglass functions. It has sand in one bowl.

And it drains down the other. And then you turn it over.

So here we have a clock measuring time.

And what else do you see? Remember we said this is the sanctuary in Revelation. And from the sanctuary there flows a river. Well, that's interesting. So those 4,000 cubits maybe represent 4,000 years. Is there evidence for that? Well.

Let's look. First of all. It's interesting if we go back to Ezekiel. So let's go to verse 8 in Ezekiel 47. Then he said unto me. These waters issue out toward the east country. Right? So they come from the sanctuary.

And they go out to the east. Right? And they go down into the desert.

And go into the sea. Well that's interesting. They go down into the desert and into the sea. Do we see that? Let's look again. So coming down. And I don't have the picture unfortunately. But there is another constellation at that point. It's the constellation of Cetus. Who represents Satan. In the Bible he's known as Leviathan. Right? He's got his hands on the river like he's pulling the river down. And Satan leads us or he pulls us into the desert so to speak. And then goes down to the desert where Satan is.

There with his temptations and then up to the sea.

And of course this is a whale. Where do whales live?

In the sea. So, down to the desert where Satan is.

And then into the sea where the whale is.

Where the sign of the Son of man is. And then it says something very interesting about what happens.

He brought me through the waters. And sorry that’s verse eight again.

They go down into the desert. And into the sea. And when they're brought there.

Being brought forth into the sea. The waters shall be healed.

So. Let's get this straight in our minds. We have four thousand years going through the desert. To the wilderness everywhere until the waters are healed. And this represents Christ. It's a figure of a person.

And that person is dead. Just like Christ died for us. And he died four thousand years after creation. So it holds.

It stands that it does in fact measure four thousand years. It points to the time of Christ.

And I want to point out one other thing. Orion. These stars represent His wounds. Remember Jesus is the Wounded One. And so Orion shows us the wounds that he bore for us on the cross. Where were his wounds? In his hands. So we have representing he wounds on his hands. His feet.

Where else did he have wounds? On his side. On his head. He had a crown of thorns.

There's even a little star for the head showing the crown of thorns. And after he died, there was a very important wound. Because they thrust the spear in his side.

It's worth saying. And that's represented by the stars in his side. And what happened when they pierced his side?

Blood and water came out. And you see there's even the Orion nebula there dripping down with the water and blood. But in a greater way it serves as a river. This river represents the flow of blood and water from Jesus' side.

Very symbolic. So you can see it like this. From his side flowed a river of blood.

And for 4000 years as humanity went through the wilderness with sin until Christ gave that blood. All through that time they were looking back. Or rather they were looking forward to His sacrifice when the waters would be healed. When life would be restored because what Jesus did on the cross. He made it possible for our lives to be restored.

For our DNA to be restored. In the blood it’s the DNA.

And so we see here also in the wilderness. It's the wilderness of sin. Where we have this experience. With our changed DNA.

The book now has something wrong written in it.

The virus of sin. It is in our book. But after 4000 years, Christ came and made a sacrifice.

And his blood covers all of that time. And you know that's where the story of Ezekiel ends. There's the 4000 years.

And Ezekiel lived in that time. From creation until Jesus. Ezekiel lived in this time. And this was the part of the river he couldn't cross it because he wouldn't live long enough. But he could look back in history to see the beginning of his ancestors.

You can always look back in history, but not into the future. And so here we have, from creation until Christ this progression. And then we have the cross.

So that's how the story ends in Ezekiel because he couldn't see further.

But when you look at the sign of the son of man in heaven. What do you see? It's up there.

No. It goes on. And this is how the heavens complement the Bible. In the Bible we see the first part of the story that leads up to the cross. But in the heavens we see that it goes on.

And of course we've lived for about how many years since Christ?

2000. 2000 years since Christ. Right? Two millennia ago.

So we're up in this area. After 4000 years Christ made his sacrifice. And John recorded that in probably the most famous verse of the Bible. John 3.16. Where it says. For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So that shows God's love for man. You know a cross has two parts.

There's a vertical part that shows the relationship between God and man. But then there's also the horizontal part that shows the relationship of man with man. So there's God's relationship. God gave his only son because he loved the world. And Jesus as the son, He came and he became human.

He was a man. And in that way. He shows the horizontal part of the cross. Where man is helping man.

Jesus as a man helps the rest of us.

He unites us back with God. So we see their symbolism in the cross itself. But again, the story continues.

How long has it been from creation until the present?

In layman's terms. Six thousand years. So we see in total there's six thousand years. But up until the time of Christ, there were only four thousand years. Now that has an interesting parallel.

Because, why did Jesus die? What was broken that Jesus needed to die? Remember the book of our DNA is like the law. It's the law that defines who we are. And God's law is what defines Who He is. It's his character. And when Adam and Eve sinned, it was a breaking of the law. The law of their DNA was changed. It was broken.

So, Jesus died because of the broken law. And he died after four millennia. And in the law, the ten commandments, there are four, the first four commandments describe God's relationship with man. I am the Lord your God.

I brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. It's about

not making carved images. Also about the relationship with God.

So the first four commandments relate to our relationship with God.

Whereas the last six commandments relate to between man and humanity. For example,

Honor your father and your mother. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery.

Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't covet.

Those are all about our relationships with each other. So in the ten commandments, we see the same relationship between God and man. Between man and man.

And that's what we see in the time itself, in this river for four thousand years. The first four commandments. They point to the time when God showed His part of the covenant. The law. Ten commandments for the covenant that God made with man.

But after six thousand years. There's something else.

What did Jesus say? He said. In John chapter 13 in verse 34.

Jesus speaking. He says: A new commandment I give to you. That you love one another. How? As I have loved you.

That's a tall order. Jesus says. We should love one another as he has loved us. That he also loved one another. How did Jesus love us? What did he do? He gave his life. And then he says. We should love one another in the same way. Oh. That's asking a lot. Right. But,

Jesus said, If you want to be my disciples, you need to take up your cross.

And do what? And follow me. Take up your cross and follow me.

Now. What does that mean? I thought there was one cross, but Jesus says, take up your cross. What is our cross? Do we have something also? And indeed. There it is.

There's a cross for man also. Now ours is different because Jesus gave his blood, so that we can live.

We can’t do that. Our blood won't save anybody, but He said take up your cross. Your cross. He didn't say take my cross.

He said take your cross. That means we have a cross.

There's not just one cross. There are two crosses.

There's Christ's cross. And there's the cross for the church. And what is that cross?

In the story of Ezekiel it says that all along this river there were trees bearing fruits. And those trees in the description match the description in Revelation for the tree of life. And the fruit of that tree is the fruit of the cross that gives us that life.

Now, where do you see that cross after the 6000 years?

What is it? What's behind the cross? It's a clock. There's time. And that time is our sacrifice. We can't give our blood. That won't do any good. But, what can we give? Because think about it from God's perspective. He sees the world. Not just one little part of it.

Like where we live. But he sees the whole world. He sees all of his people.

And he has a deep love for his people.

He wants to save as many as he possibly can. And so He decides to give Himself, His own life.

And so Jesus came. He gave his life. And if we look at it in the same way, If we look at the world today.

And if we have the same love. Like Jesus said, love one another as I have loved you. We can't give our life in a way that will save other people. Our life won't do what Jesus' life did. But if people aren't ready. We can give our life in terms of time. And this is what is also symbolized here.

We have our relationship with God. And our relationship with our fellow man.

And we give our lives to God.

And we give our lives for others. So that we can help others. Right.

We all can help each other. To God. To Christ.

We can point the way to the river of Christ's blood. And we can take up our cross, our sacrifice. Because many times. You know think about it.

There are other people that we know that really we don't like.

You know what I mean? There are people that we just don't like and honestly it's not different with God. There are people that God really just doesn't like.

Why would God not like someone? Why don't we like someone? Think of somebody.

Don't mention the name, but think of somebody we don't like. Why don't you like them?

Is it because of their looks. Probably not. Probably it's more because of what they do. They do things that you don't like. They do things that are not according to the way that you do things. It's the same with God. Many people do things that are not according to his character, according to his law. They break his law.

And He doesn't like that. It's not good. But of course, He loves people anyway. Just like a parent loves their children. Even though sometimes their children don't do what they want. They don't behave in the way that they would like, but he still loves us.

He still loves those who break his law. Now think about that again with those people that you don't like. How should we relate to them?

How did Jesus relate to them? Jesus gave a sacrifice for them.

Why? Because they have broken his law. So when you see somebody that you don't like. And this I think is the sacrifice in it. Our natural reaction when you don't like somebody as well. Exactly. Get away from me.

I don't want to deal with you. Go away. Leave me alone.

Is that what Jesus did? No. Jesus said, I don't like them.

They're breaking my law. They're not the way that I want things to be.

But what did he do? He said okay. We just don't look at planet earth. No.

He came. He became one with us. He came even nearer, but they still broke his law. And they even killed him. That's the sacrifice.

And that's the sacrifice that we need to make for ourselves. It becomes a very practical thing.

When we have people that we don't like, instead of saying, go away! Think about what Jesus did.

And what he called us to do. Take up your cross. Your cross.

And follow me. And he came to earth. And when we have that perspective. When we learn to take God's perspective and see our own cross.

We see people in a different light. Now instead of those people that I don't want to deal with. I don't want to see them.

Just get out of my face. We see potential.

And that's what this river of blood shows us.

This in the blood. It is the DNA. The DNA of Christ.

We have the virus of sin. Tainted the DNA.

Brought us into the desert. But the waters were healed at the cross.

We have everything we need for healing in the cross. Now the waters have Christ's DNA. And we receive that DNA by faith.

And it changes who we are. It restores our hope. And then we can look at others and we see with eyesight like God. Instead of looking at what they are like now. We see what they can be with the blood of Christ. And that's the essence of the sign of the son of man. It shows us what we can be when we receive Christ's blood. It's the salvation by the blood.

I'd like to close with a story. I may have shared it with some of you before. It really made a big impact on me. It happened at a distance. When I was young. About 20 years ago.

All the different churches in the region would come together once a year.

And camp out for about 10 days. And do like a revival meeting.

And they would have different people giving testimonies. And one person got up in front. And without saying anything he looked at me. He had this long face. And this scowl on his face. His eyes were bloodshot red. And his flesh was sunken. He just looked. He looked at me and I said wow, this guy is angry.

And he just looked, but he gave a testimony. And he gave a story. But he shared how Christ had changed him, his heart. And he explained how he had been very angry all the time. All the time. And you could see it. He had changed, his very DNA. And you could see that because he had a different look to him. He looked angry, but Christ healed him. So that was nice.

The next year. We went back to the next meeting.

They invited him to give his testimony again.

So I saw him. And he looked different. He still looked a little bit the same. He still had some of the features. His eyes weren't so bloodshot. His face cracked out a little bit.

He didn't have quite the scowl on his face that he had before.

And I was like. There was a change there. You could see it in his face. And year after year. He didn't get up front but I recognized him in the audience. And I saw every year when he was there. He looked more and more and more peaceful. His eyes had that shine.

He was happy. He was smiling. He looked like a friendly grandpa.

That really showed me how much our lives can change by the blood of Jesus. Because in his blood is restored DNA. And that even can change some of our features. Because when you live in a certain way, it changes who you are.

Year after year. After year, you follow the same habits, the same course of action. It changes our DNA. But when we come to Christ. He can undo that. And that's by faith. It changes who we are. And then we become a new person. So the story of the sign of the Son of Man is a story of faith in his blood. And. The power that He gives us to change. And it also reminds us of the potential of people.

Because for example that man I spoke about. If you look at him, you may say,

Oh there's this angry guy again. I don't want to be with him. Get away from me.

Or. You look at him as somebody that God can change.

Somebody that God can use. I never met him. I don't know what his name was.

I never talked to him. But I saw him from a distance and it made a profound impression in my life. Because I saw before my eyes what faith in Christ can do.

It changes who you are. It rewrites your book. It's the book of your life.

And when Christ is the author of that book.

Then we reflect His character. We reflect his sacrifice and his love for others. And then guess what happens?

Instead of seeing people only like equals.

Only like somebody who is like us.

And we don't want to be with them. Instead, we see them like God sees them.

We see them as His children. Who maybe not in the right way. But they're his children.

And we love them. And we want to do what we can to bring them in the right way. That's our sacrifice. And that's the sacrifice.

That God is calling us to. From the time that he was here on earth until now when we see the sign of the Son of man in heaven.

So with that. Let's have a word of prayer.

Dear Father in heaven. We thank you for your wonders in heaven that show your character. And show us what you are calling us to be. And even giving us an understanding of how to reflect that in our character, in our lives.

By believing in you. And seeing each one as one with potential to have the character of Christ.

To be restored to your law. And that is our desire that many may be restored to you. That you may know them and recognize them before it's too late.

So Lord we ask for Your help.

Because often we fall and we make mistakes. And yet You have shown us that we also have a horizontal part of our cross.

Where though we have our problems. We can still help others.

We can still lift up our brethren. We can still work with others. To show them who you are and what you can do. Thank you for giving your Son for us to give his blood that restores us into Your likeness. As we receive it by faith. And we love you and thank you for all that you have done. And we ask your presence to make it possible for us to do that for us. To sacrifice ourselves, our own feelings, our own desires for your cause. And for the benefit of our fellow human beings. We ask this of you. In the name of Jesus, who was wounded for our sins. And died on the cross. Amen.