Omega Message – December 1997
Cecil duCille
(SATURDAY AFTERNOON MEETING)
(July 1997 Sonlight Gospel/Living Word Illinois Convention)
CECIL DUCILLE: I do believe that of the things we have spoken about, that there are many of you here who have problems with it. You have problems with the doctrine we preach, the word we give; and it is time for us to respond to the Gospel that we say we believe in.
If you believe the Gospel, then you will not let this time pass without asking certain questions, and digging into certain matters, and getting them straightened here right before everybody, so that everybody can be blessed. You see what I mean?
Janet mentioned just one thing. She was not here yesterday, so she could not have known what transpired. So what I am saying, it is better that she was not here. She was not here, so you cannot say she heard what transpired.
Well, what transpired was what I had on my heart, as the pressure that was coming from the brethren, with the disparity between what we are preaching and what the brethren believe. Many people are asking questions like, “If we leave this group, will we go to hell?” “What difference is there between us and the other churches?” There has been a bickering in the back, and we want you to bring it forward, out in the open! Let us discuss it before we go on to the next message. Hallelujah! We pile up message on top of message, and you did not get the first one clear. Amen!
We are not going to put a black mark on anybody who asks a question, or where you have a situation that you genuinely do not understand and you want to know where we are.
Q: If I go to a person and say, “I cannot fellowship with you anymore because you are in sin,” and if the person says, “I repent,” how do I know it is true?
CECIL: If I just come and tell you, “I repent,” you have to take me at my word—until you prove otherwise!
If someone did you wrong, and the person comes and says, “I am sorry,” then that is it! Whether or not they are not true and are putting it over, you have to take it! You have to become the fool—right there—until you prove otherwise!
So, to go to a person, and say that you are not having fellowship with him anymore, you are going to have to tell that person why; and say, “You are a fornicator!” or whatever it is. That is what the Scriptures say. He said, “If a BROTHER walks disorderly, do not walk with him!” Now, that is simple! However, if it is a SINNER who is walking disorderly, you can have business with him.
Q: Where does the longsuffering come into it? It says we are to be “longsuffering.” To me that means that you are to be [patient], you are supposed to pray for that person, and you are supposed to labor with that person.
CECIL: We are talking about sin in the body of Christ. Our sister asked the question, and we are dealing with the matter of “sin in the body.” We take the situation where there is somebody who is coming to fellowship and he is in sin; and after he has rejected counsel and has not repented of the sin, he is still coming. He is still preaching; he is still walking up and down giving testimonies, and is part of the body. You must say to him, “No! No!” The Body was made to cleanse itself, and you should say to him, “No! You must repent! I know about your sin, and you must repent, because we will become guilty also!” Yes! Yes!
Q: When our sister asked about not fellowshipping with someone who is walking disorderly, my understanding—just from the way the Lord has taught me—is that there is no fellowship with someone who is walking disorderly. Even though you can be rubbing shoulders and you can be in their midst, there just is no real depth of fellowship; and yet, I do not understand. I have never had the feeling to just cut them off. I just pray for them. I continue to encourage them where I have the opportunity.
I guess what I am saying is that I have not ever found a place where I needed to just completely separate myself from a person. I have to separate myself from that spirit, and I have to keep my heart from being tainted by that spirit. I think of Jesus, how Judas was right in the midst with Him that whole time, and yet, Jesus loved Judas to the very end; but Judas’ own darkness brought him to destruction….
CECIL: Brethren, we are discussing here, in this case, the scripture which says that if a brother walks disorderly, we should not walk with him!” It has nothing to do with praying for him. When you talk about walking with him, if you know any brother or any sister in here that is committing fornication and living in sin, and you say nothing—you are part of the sin!
Q: Right. You have to correct them.
CECIL: Yes!
Q: Okay. So, what is our responsibility?
CECIL: You speak to the person, and if the person does not obey you, then it is Matthew 18. You take a witness, and you speak to him with the witness. If he will not hear, you take him to the church. Your responsibility is over. Let the church deal with him. If he neglects to hear the church, then count him as a sinner. (We minister to sinners and pray for them.)
Q: What makes us so sure that we are not going to end up in trouble like all the rest of the churches?” Because, many brethren have said, “Well, the track record of the churches—they build a building, they organize, [they all fall into the same old mess].” What guarantee do we have…?
CECIL: We are guaranteed, because the word of truth is preached and the brethren believe it, and you all are watchmen who are watching to see that it does not happen. That is it! It is not just one person who is responsible to stand up and say, “This one has become Babylon,” because after you receive the word of God, and then you feel like putting in a pastor here, there is nothing I can do but continue to preach to others who will receive it. That is what happened to us in California. That is what happened to us in many, many places. We work, and we build up the place, and somebody comes in and takes over, and puts down the work. So there is nothing in ourselves that we can give you as a guarantee, except that we know that if the word is believed, we cannot become a denomination; and it is you who are going to stop it from becoming a denomination.
Q: I was in some meetings a long time ago where “Ultimate Reconciliation” was preached, and one of the things that they taught and said (they always worked on a fear tactic) was that if you do not agree with them, then you must not be one of the “chosen” or one that is [saved]. The thing that seems to come to me then, when I hear a lot of the talk that goes on (that we all hear) is that there seems to be something that is going forth, that is underlining—that if we do not agree with what is being brought forth in every aspect, if we are not in agreement with a lot of these issues, then, like you were saying—you had that dream that said that there were those that went off. What I am saying for myself, is that if I do not feel that I am in agreement with every issue, then I can become fearful that I would be one that would leave; but if I was one that left, would I [be lost]? Do you understand what I am saying?
This is what I see happening, that you do not want to be under a control of fear [so] that if you do not agree with somebody, that you will not have liberty to speak and share that we are not in agreement—because that is where we are at. You are saying that we will not become a denomination, but if we are in fear to speak when there is an issue, then how can we be a check and a balance for one another?
CECIL: Praise God! That is a major part of the problem—that the brethren are talking this among themselves. Yes. There is a fine line, but the whole idea is that all the cults have that one thing common among them—that if you do not agree with them, then you are an “outsider” and the peer pressure comes to bear upon you.
Now, when I say “all the cults,” I mean from the Catholic Church right down to all the other cults, because the Catholic Church is the chief one that brought in that doctrine that says, “If you do not agree with us, then you are lost.” “If you do not believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, then you are bound for hell!”
Now, let us get to the basic thought! God has only one church. There are not two churches. God has only one church. You either belong to that church, or you do not belong to that church. That church, however, is divided into three sections. So, there is an Outer Court section—That is, those people who are saved and are your brothers, but they are in an Outer Court realm where they do not absolutely obey God. There is not total obedience out there. They move and do their own thing, and God allows them.
Then you have a Holy Place section—People who have been baptized in the Holy Ghost and they begin to follow the Holy Ghost; and they begin to have miracles, and they believe in miracles and speaking in tongues, and things like that. They are in this Holy Place area, where we all are. Amen.
Now, then, God is separating the Holy Place, and bringing out of the Holy Place an “eklektos”—a group of people who will be absolutely obedient, which will be the Holy of Holies Church. He says, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate….”
Now, what we are saying, it concerns those who do not obey this voice of God to come out and be separate, not the voice of duCille! That is the reason why you should question what duCille says and what the other ministries say. That is why you should question it. Question it in love. Question it in peace. There is no problem in this, because God says we should maintain the unity of the Spirit, until we come to the unity of the faith (Ephesians 4:3,13). So even God does not expect us all to believe the same thing; but we are coming, and the more we come the more we preach the Word. The more the truth comes into us, the more we grow and the more we come towards where Christ wants all of us to be. None of us are there yet!
So we are traveling on, we become traveling companions, and when the thought goes forth that if you do not agree with them, then you are an outcast—it comes from the enemy! That one does not come from us, but there is very little opportunity to defend the position, except in a forum like this. I think this is why Sister Janet had a word from God to stop us before we went on to the next message.
The idea is that we need to consider where we belong? Is God calling you to the Firstfruits Company? Is He calling you to be of the “elect” class? The only way you know that, is because in your heart you want to be—and you did not put it there! It is God Who put it in you.
There are some people in the bars out there today, committing sin out there in the world, who belong to us! There are people in the Outer Court who belong to us today! So, you see, when we say “us”, we mean those progressive people who are going on with God, and who WANT to go on with God! It is not just “us,” the little people who fellowship with our groups, but “US,” the body of Christ scattered over the whole earth—those under the leadership of Christ.
So, this is the story, and I do not know if somebody else could put it straighter.
BROTHER EMANUEL UDEGBUNAM: I would like to read from Phillipians 3:14-16,
“I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us as many as are mature have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.”
Cecil, you see, I have said this before, that there is that pressure that this sister says. It exists in this fellowship, and it is good for us to face it!
It is almost like, if you do not quickly agree, you are in trouble; and I think that in our preaching and sharing and in communicating the Word of God, that it should not come from our perception of hardness [or legalism], but from the mind of God, as revealed in the Word and in the Spirit.
I think that there is that hardness that comes from preachers in our midst, that makes it appear that, “Unless you are doing this that I am saying now, you are finished!” I am saying the truth! Since we are having a town meeting, we might as well [view] our minds! Praise the Lord!
I think that, on the basis of the Word of God, that every one of us has to be fully persuaded about anything we are believing or doing, because, individually, we shall all appear before the judgment throne of God! Amen!
CECIL: I want to say, first of all, that I agree with what he is saying, but there is a certain amount of dogmatism that is necessary for every man that preaches the Word, because the Word of God is direct, and pointed, and sure, and uncompromising; and if a preacher is vacillating, or wishy-washy, he is not a preacher of the Word of God!
He must be sure of what he is preaching! He must be dogmatic! He must know what he is preaching! Yet, of course, he must have mercy on those who are listening. Amen.
In the case of the Gospel that we preach, there are certain things that you can do that disqualify you!
BROTHER EMMANUEL: For example?
CECIL: For example, “unbelief.” Unbelief disqualifies you, and unbelief will prevent you from making it into that area of successfully expounding the Word, and it is necessary for us to press a little sometimes.
BROTHER EMMANUEL: Idolatry? [Does it disqualify a person?]
CECIL: Disobedience is like the sin of idolatry. If it were the unpardonable sin, if you could not repent of it and turn back, then it would not be necessary to preach. “Unbelief” is a spirit. There is a spirit of unbelief that is upon some people, and in everything they must find something to doubt and to dig into, and that disqualifies them!
…Now, do we fully understand? Is everybody here in agreement with the reply we gave to our sister here concerning that very troublesome issue, which is being pulled up and down, and that is hurting a lot of the brethren, who are saying that we are a cult?
You need to examine yourself, “Are we a cult?” If we are a cult; if you have any belief, or any thought in your mind that probably we might be a cult, then we need to examine that. A cult is some organization that has a great big leader, and everybody follows the leader wherever he goes—Is that the way with us here? I should not think so!
Q: Yes, Brother Cecil, I have not been saved all that long, and I am searching real hard, and I am not questioning what you said yesterday, but what I would like is for you to give me some Scriptures for what you were just talking about: the Outer Court and the Holy Place; and also the “eklektos,” and the “ekklesia.” I missed your scriptural references on that yesterday, and that was a new concept to me. Thank You.
CECIL: Well, that would take a few days to go into, but let me put it as shortly as possible. There is a principle in the Bible, that the Old Testament is really the Scripture, and that the New Testament is the manifestation of the Old. So that, the pattern laid down in the Old Testament must be brought forth in this church and in us! So that if the Old Testament had an Outer Court, Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle (Solomon’s Temple had an Outer Court, a Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies), then in the church, there must also be an Outer Court, a Holy Place and a Holy of Holies! You agree? You see that then?
Q: [Relate it to] the body of Christ?
CECIL: You said, “the body of Christ,” but I am saying “the church.” I want you notice that. The church, as Brother Frank will tell you, is the “ekklesia,” and that word means the “called out.” So everybody who is called out from the world to Jesus is in the church! The church begins with salvation. If you were a member of a church before you were saved, you were not in the church yet until the time you got saved (until the time you entered through the gate of the Tabernacle). Okay?
The Church, then, has three parts; and one part is called the Outer Court, and the other part is called the Holy Place; and another part is called the Holy of Holies.
The Outer Court Church is really the place where you are prepared to enter into Christ, and you do not get into the Body of Christ until you come through the door of the Tabernacle (Jesus said, “I am the door!”) and you come into the Holy Place and become a part of Christ! Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah, but the body of Christ is an organism of which Jesus Christ is the head. That is how simple it is.
FRANK DUCILLE: There is no proof text that says it exactly, but God says we are made in His image and if we are made in His image and if it is as we are told in the Scriptures that we are the temple of God, then there is a resemblance (an analogy) between the temple of God (as the human person) and the literal temple of God which consists of these three parts: Outer Court, Holy Place, Holy of Holies.
Also, there is no proof text for the doctrine of the “trinity,” which says God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but all through the Scripture it is implied.
So we find a tripartiteness (a “three-ness”) in all of it: in God and in our human temple. Furthermore, a temple is a church, and so the same analogy goes to the church, which is the body of Christ. So it is the Family of God in heaven: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the temple at Jerusalem: Outer Court, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies. It is the human person: spirit, soul, and body; and it is the Church…. There is analogy also. You have to study the whole issue, and not just find a single proof text.
CECIL: What Brother Burt just said to me, is that the question that was asked is, “How will we know that the word that we are preaching is really of God?”
I know that the word we are preaching is of God, and it would seem to me that there are some of us who are not really sure that the word we are preaching is of God. It is a difficult question to answer, because when Jesus called me and gave me the word, He indicated that the proof of the word would be in the manifestation of the word. In other words, if I preach to you that Jesus saves you, and you accept Jesus and you get a touch from the Lord, then you know that the word is true! Amen!
The proof of the pudding is really in the eating, and most of the people who come against us, they do not eat the pudding. The people who are making the most fuss, I happen to know that they are on the outside edge. They have not dug deeply into anything. In my estimation, we are dealing with something here that can only be dealt with if you have faith in the Lord. As I have said, it is a matter of belief or unbelief, and I think that is the whole story.
If a person does not believe, the first wind that comes, it blows him away. You remember the word that we gave yesterday from Matthew 13.
“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:”
The problem is, that some of our hearts are like the wayside, where people are tramping up and down, and vehicles are running up and down, and there is no way we can expect the Word to take root under those circumstances!
Now, some seed fell on stony soil, and that means it is another type of person’s heart that is a stony soil. Some seed fell on good soil. It brought forth a hundred fold. Some seed fell among thorns. Many of us have thorns in our lives that grow up and choke the Word.
That is the basic thought. I am at a loss to answer that question any further, because a person who does not believe cannot be convinced! The believers need to dig in, and to make sure of what they believe. I have discovered that [some of] the people who are attacking us believe the Word, because they are attacking us on the very basis of the Word, saying we are not keeping the Word — which is very good.
Sonlight Devotional 