Audio Links

Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

A brief summary

Green is the first color mentioned in scripture which is a combination of two of the three primary colors. It is the combining of the primary color blue with the primary color yellow. We have shown that the spiritual significance of blue is its association in scripture with the things of the heavens. All that binds together Christ’s tabernacle is the blue loops at the ends of the curtains that make up the tabernacle. The robes of the priests and all of the holy things were wrapped in blue.

Yellow, on the other hand, is associated with the deadly disease of leprosy. It is described with different words but all of those words are associated with the deadly disease of leprosy, and leprosy was prevented by keeping ones self clean of pollutions.

So the combining of the two primary colors of blue and yellow produce green. Green, therefore is a scriptural word which will always be a reference to the combining of these two colors with the goal of turning that which is born in a yellow and dying condition into an immortal, blue spiritual body.

Last week we saw how God gives us only “every green herb” for food until we are truly baptized “with the washing of water by the word.”

Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Only after we have been crucified with Christ, have endured the waters of baptism and are risen in newness of spirit, are we given “everything that moveth” as strong meat to nourish us:

Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

So “every green herb” is just another way of saying that we are not yet able to accept the “strong meat” of the word of God. The green herbs may be a little better than the milk of God’s Word, but it is no more the stage of maturity than is the ‘milk.’ Both are, in God’s Word, for those who “are weak in the faith.:”

Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, [but] not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

So we saw that it is only the strong in the faith, who are able to receive “strong meat.”

Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat

Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Introduction – Green As Both Positive and Negative In Scripture

Today we will look at how the color ‘green’ is used in the New Testament, and we will again see that green is the result of the process of the work of the spirit upon the flesh. We will see that as that process is being completed “all the green grass is burned up.” We will also see that as “all the green grass is burned up” there is another and later crop of many “green things in the trees, and in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt” which had not even come up yet when “all the green grass was burned up” at the beginning of our deliverance from Egypt.

Exo 10:15 For they [the locusts which came after the hail had already destroyed “every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.”] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Understanding this Is, Was and Will Be principle in God’s Word helps to clear up many apparent contradictions in the book of Revelation and throughout God’s Word. For example…

Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

…Is followed in the very next chapter with this apparently contradictory statement:

Rev 9:4 And it was commanded them [the locusts] that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

Why only a third part of the trees in chapter eight? Why all the grass? The answer is that all of the increments mentioned in the book of Revelation reveal the fact that salvation is a lifelong process. It demonstrates the truth that we must all “keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Rev 1:3 Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Why would God want to “burn up” that with which He is working? Here is why:

1Pe 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

Why must the “glory of man… wither and … fall away?” Here is why:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Flesh and blood” are sinful:

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Sinful flesh, even the flesh of Christ, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” The only reason the flesh of Christ did not rot into the earth is that He was resurrected from the dead and was “changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

It was after Christ had been tried and condemned, after being beaten within an inch of His life, that he made this statement:

Luk 23:26 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear [it] after Jesus.
Luk 23:27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.
Luk 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
Luk 23:29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Luk 23:30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
Luk 23:31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

What is the “green tree” and what is “the dry?” Christ had “come to his own, and His own received Him not:”

Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Nevertheless, multitudes were following Christ, listening to His parables, being healed of their diseases and eating of His loaves and fishes.

Mar 6:34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.
Mar 6:35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time [is] far passed:
Mar 6:36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
Mar 6:37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
Mar 6:38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
Mar 6:39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
Mar 6:40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.
Mar 6:41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave [them] to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
Mar 6:42 And they did all eat, and were filled.

Why did Christ tell His disciples “Give you them to eat?” Does this mean that he now expects us to perform this miracle just as He performed miracles of healing? Absolutely not! What this is telling us is that God wants His disciples to give his followers spiritual nourishment. “Give ye them to eat… their daily bread.”

Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

This is what Christ was doing for the people. He did it daily. This was “the green tree.”

“He began to teach… much people… He commanded them to make all sit by companies upon the green grass… they did eat and were filled.” But they were still “in a green tree,” and it was this very group of people who would soon be without His teachings. They would be then be “in the dry” and calling for Christ’s crucifixion only days later:

Luk 23:31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

Here is the answer to that question:

Lam 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

What is “the destruction of the daughter of my people?” Is this only a physical invasion and loss of national sovereignty? No, that is not what “the destruction of my people” means. Here is what really is destroying God’s own people to this day:

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

These are not just words which “will be.” This is the state of God’s own people today. This is what is within each of us when we are “in the dry.” While we are blinded to our blindness, we are unaware that “every green herb” is being eaten by the locusts in our lives; we are literally starving to death and devouring our own flesh as we continue in our blindness and our rebellion against the Word of God:

Deu 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

Deu 28:22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Amo 4:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

Hag 2:17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.

“The green”, on the other hand, is that time in our lives where God’s spirit is still dealing with us, still in the process of turning the yellow we are into the blue we are all to become:

Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The key to understanding the book of Revelation is Rev 1:3 and 22:6-7:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings [are] faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed [is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

What do locusts do? Locusts eat up “all the green things which the hail had not destroyed.” Green is a process which has an end. It is a process which, like the flesh in which it is working, must one day come to its consummation.

Exo 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous [were they]; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
Exo 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

But had not every herb and all the fruit trees already been destroyed by the hail?

Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

The destruction of Egypt is a process which gets more intense as it progresses. There are many who fear God, and yet they are still “in Egypt:”

Exo 9:18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19 Send therefore now, [and] gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; [for upon] every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20 He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21 And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.

Why did Israel live through all of this? Was it all simply a historical event? Is that why all of this was written? Was it written so we could know what happened? Here is what Paul tells us:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

“Happened to them and are written for our admonition?” Why? So we can be prepared for a plague of hail to be followed by a plague of locusts? No, that this is an incremental spiritual process is revealed in this very same chapter:

Exo 9:27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD [is] righteous, and I and my people [are] wicked.
Exo 9:28 Intreat the LORD (for [it is] enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.
Exo 9:29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth [is] the LORD’S.
Exo 9:30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Exo 9:31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley [was] in the ear, and the flax [was] bolled.
Exo 9:32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they [were] not grown up.
Exo 9:33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
Exo 9:34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

“The hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field” and yet there was still much work to be done with the flesh because “the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.” Here is what this Old Testament type is telling us:

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

“Let both grow together until the harvest” is not a once in a lifetime statement. The flax and the barley are smitten first, but the wheat and the rye have yet to be dealt with. Neither the barley and flax nor the wheat and the rye are smitten before they “are grown up”, or as Christ put it, “until the harvest:”

Exo 9:31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
Exo 9:32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they [were] not grown up.

Our sins are not judged until they have matured. Otherwise the needed lessons will not have been learned. So letting the tares grow with the wheat “until the harvest” is an inward statement of how “judgment begins at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17).

Here is another type and shadow of this same spiritual principle:

Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

The “giants in the land” are nothing but a later, more mature type and shadow of the “green things” of Egypt. The natural man sees the fact that Israel was not affected by the last seven plagues and turns a type of God’s dealing with carnal babes still in Egypt into a type of His dealings with grown sons. It amounts to spiritual suicide which takes away the elect’s part in the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son [Greek: uihos – grown son] whom he receiveth.

Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

We will break here for this week. Next week we will see how this color, and its significance as the working of the spirit in this dying vessel of clay, is applied in the book of Revelation.

Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.