Mal 3:6-18  Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me – Part 2

[Study Aired January 11, 2024]

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 
Mal 3:7  Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 
Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 
Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 
Mal 3:10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 
Mal 3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 3:12  And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 3:13  Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
Mal 3:14  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
Mal 3:15  And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Last week we were talking about how John the baptist was the messenger of God in Malachi 3:1 who understood there was a change coming, and was used by God to point to that change, a change described in this manner: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Rom 3:21, Luk 16:16, Joh 1:17). The elect, unlike John, have God’s spirit within them (Rom 8:9), and as a result are able to  prepare the way of the Lord before Christ’s second coming by becoming mature sons, as John was witnessing to in a type and shadow manner (1Co 10:11, 1Pe 1:12). The natural life of John which was dedicated to God’s service, led to his being beheaded, which also represents how we must lose our first Adamic mind in order to take on the mind of Christ, makes it possible for us to be prepared for the return of the bridegroom (Rev 19:7). John’s natural relationship with Jesus on the earth was the physical relationship that preceded the spiritual one that would begin with the body of Christ on Pentecost (1Co 15:46). In both relationships Christ reveals the encouragement and strength He will always bring us through our sojourn as His servants (Mat 28:20, Luk 7:22-23, Luk 13:32, 1Co 10:13). 

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; [John and Christ] and afterward that which is spiritual [Body of Christ being prepared, Christ returning in power and might].

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The glorious event of seeing our Lord and King come back in power and in might will be fulfilled at the first resurrection in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye (Rev 19:7, Rev 1:6-8, 1Co 15:52). Until that time we are to “Occupy till I come” (Luk 19:13, 1Pe 1:13) by doing what John did, the difference being that John’s preaching “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” in the wilderness is a type as well of the fiery baptism of God’s word into which we are baptized as we die daily and are baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3). Neither the baptism John was administering in the flesh nor only knowing Christ in the flesh, can save us. However, when we are baptized into His death by a relationship that is made possible with the holy spirit within (Joh 16:7), then we are able to be raised in heavenly places and know the Father and the son in the spirit, which is what eternal life is (Mar 1:4, Col 1:28-29, Mat 24:14, Joh 17:3).

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

We are experiencing this relationship today in earnest, in downpayment form, as we are washed by the blood of the lamb, so those wedding garments can remain in a state that is acceptable to God through Christ being without spot (Mat 26:29, Mat 22:11-12, Rev 19:8, Eph 5:27, 1Ti 6:14, Heb 9:14, 1Pe 1:19, 2Pe 3:14).

Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

1Ti 6:14  That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Heb 9:14   How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
1Pe 1:19   But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

The blessings that become ours are a result of being refined by God in this age through fiery judgment that removes all those spots (1Pe 4:12, 1Pe 4:17). “For our God is a consuming fire“, and the fruit of His workmanship produced through that judgment is the main theme of what we’ll be looking at in this last section of Malachi chapter 3 (Mal 3:6-18).

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Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29), and it is for that reason that “ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” What God consumes or destroys are those things with which we naturally defile the temple (1Co 3:17-19). The way He accomplishes this is by grace through faith, which is a gift of God (Eph 2:8), that will save us if we are given that honor to endure that judgment today and be made ready as the bride of Christ (Tit 2:11-12, Heb 12:6, Rev 19:6). 

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

We are not consumed, “For I am the LORD, I change not“, meaning with God there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17-18). “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23:19, Rom 3:4, Heb 6:18-19) So all His promises are true including the promise that all men will be saved by putting off this corrupt flesh which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, each man in his own order (1Co 15:22, Luk 12:5). The corrupt flesh is connected to a corrupt heart that is either judged in this life or in the great white throne judgment (Rev 20:15).

Mal 3:7  Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, WhereinH4100  shall we return? 

In Genesis 12:18 we see the same Hebrew word ‘wherein‘^H4100 used as the word “what” and “why”. God is showing us that He does not change and what He has always desired is obedience, but He was always aware mankind would not naturally obey unless dragged to him, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.”

Gen 12:18  And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What^H4100 is this that thou hast done unto me? why^H4100 didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

The desire of God has always been for all the world to “Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts“, but the reality is that our fleshly carnal hearts, without a miraculous gift of being spiritually healed, cannot return to God and keep his “ordinances.” So we reply unto God, “But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” Return to what? Why? What value is there in serving the Lord?  We say all this at first if we are not being dragged to Christ and continuing on in the truth to become disciples indeed who are granted to overcome and witness Christ make war against the beast within that we otherwise could not (Isa 4:1, Mat 7:1, Luk 6:46, Joh 8:31-32, Rev 13:4).

Paul says this about his own life in Acts 20:24 regarding how we ought to think about our own day to day dealings with the world (Luk 6:38), knowing that through Christ we can be preferring others before ourselves (Php 2:4, 1Ti 5:21, Rom 12:10) that we “might finish my course with joy” by losing our life for His sake, presenting it a living sacrifice wherever we are led of the Lord (Mat 10:39, Rom 8:14-16). This all ties in with the verses we are looking at tonight which tell us to bring “all the tithe” into the temple (Mal 3:10), all our lives committed to our Father as unto a faithful Creator (1Pe 4:18-19).

Act 20:24  But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

The disciples all had the same question about being a living sacrifice, and questioned the Lord himself about all that they had given up to follow Him (Mat 19:27-29). They matured into a conviction of seeing there is nothing to hold onto in this life (Php 1:23-24), and that with the mind of Christ we ought to be doing only one thing with the earnest of our inheritance within (Php 3:13-15, Rom 12:1-2).

Mat 19:27  Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 
Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 

“This whole nation” is cursed, meaning our whole land is cursed, which land represents our cursed flesh in the earth going the way that seems right to us but leading to death (Pro 14:12) because of our thoughts and actions that are not yet in accord with the will of God at this point (1Jn 2:15-17). 

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

It is only when we are blessed to have our old man cursed, by hanging on a tree, which symbolizes our dying daily process (Deu 21:23, Gal 3:13), that we are then able to mortify the deeds of the flesh as we live by the faith of Christ (Gal 2:20). What begins as a curse when we see our wretchedness in these bodies of death leads to life, as we’re given victory over the giants of our land through Christ, little and by little (Deu 7:22), taking away that curse in the land so we no longer rob or defraud God of our lives that belong to Him (Isa 43:1).

Isa 43:1  But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

We first rob ourselves of the blessing He has now given to us to see, “the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (of verse 10) (Gen 13:15, Mat 19:28-29).

Gen 13:15  For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

The carnal mind also asks the same question as in verse 7: “wherein‘^H4100 have we robbed thee?” We do not see our blindness which is the curse Christ has pronounced upon all the world and will remain until the eyes of humanity are opened by Christ, “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation” (2Co 4:4). It is when our eyes are open that we can then confess our blindness that naturally questions God’s motives with questions like, “Wherein^H4100 have we robbed thee?” and “Wherein^H4100 shall we return?” of  verses 8 and 9 (Joh 9:39). All the world has been blinded by Satan (2Co 4:4), and it is all to the glory of God, “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him”  (Joh 9:2-3, Rom 9:20).

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Mal 3:10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

The key point to be realized in this verse is the word “all“. God does not play second fiddle to our flesh that is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9), so how are we actually going to bring “all” our life, represented by the ‘tenth’, the “tithe”, “into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house?” There’s only one way, and that way is through Christ (Rom 7:24-25).

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

God knows our hearts perfectly and makes His strength perfect through the weakness of our flesh so that we do seek Him with all our hearts and consequently find Him (Jer 29:13, Heb 11:6,  Php 2:12-13). He knows our doubting hearts can’t imagine how we can make war against the beasts that we are (Rev 13:4) and yet challenges us over and over as His children: “and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.“

The reality is that everything is of God, our blindness which He causes, our bringing our life as a living sacrifice into the storehouse, our doubting of what He can do through us, and then ultimately the victory He brings us when we are brought to our wits’ end and dragged to our safe haven in Jesus Christ. That is when He “pour[s] you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” and that blessing that is poured out is the life of Christ within each of us being shared, being poured out for each other as a joint that supplies in love (Psa 107:27-31, Eph 4:16).

Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Mal 3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:12  And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

The “delightsome land” represents our bodies that are the Lord’s (Rom 12:1), and He will fight our battles for us. “For the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2Ch 20:15), and we will be victorious, “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.” That victory is all predicated on whether we bring “all the tithe” into the storehouse which represents the throne of God, where the body of Christ resides (Heb 10:25). No man can come to Christ unless the Father drags us to him, so “what can we say to these things?” If God is for us, who can be against us (Joh 6:44, Rom 8:31-39)? Clearly there is no room for boasting in the life of a Christian who is living by the faith of Christ and being dragged to Him to accomplish predestined works of our Father (Luk 17:10).

“Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time^H7921 in the field, saith the LORD of hosts” is another way of saying that with Christ in us as our hope of glory, our spiritual fruit will come to maturity, and we will provide spiritual meat in due season as this is what God has ordained from the foundation of the world will happen within the body of Christ (Eph 2:10). 

H7921 shâkôl  shaw-kole’   A primitive root; properly to miscarry, that is, suffer abortion; by analogy to bereave (literally or figuratively): – bereave (of children), barren, cast calf (fruit, young), be (make) childless, deprive, destroy, X expect, lose children, miscarry, rob of children, spoil.  Total KJV occurrences: 23

Isa 66:9  [In the same way,] I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born.” (ERV)

It is not just in the body of Christ in this age that God is working, but also the work that God will continue to do throughout the thousand-year reign of the saints, which is a symbolic number identifying that the elect will be judging all the world and preaching to all nations at an ordained time “in the field” which field represents the world (Mat 13:38). The inward application of this verse is revealed in how God’s church is blessed today to receive the word and be washed with that word in our heavens so we can overcome all the sin of the world that is within us, and that field belongs to the Husbandman who has an “early and latter rain” representing all of humanity, each man in his own order (1Jn 2:16-17, Jas 5:7).

We are always a “blessed” and “delightsome land” when we can fulfill the will of our Father, and that is what God is going to be accomplish in all men in time, bringing all the land into subjection, which is the ultimate goal of our great Father in heaven who is likened to a patient husbandman (1Co 15:28, Eph 1:23, 1Co 12:6, Jas 5:7-8). 

1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 
Jas 5:8  Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Mal 3:13  Your words have been stout^H2388 against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 
Mal 3:14  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
Mal 3:15  And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 

These three verses do not demonstrate the converted mind that becomes as a child of Matthew 18:3 but rather a  stout^H2388 (self-willed stubborn, obstinate, hardened) heart that replies back to the Creator, “What have we spoken so much against thee?” This self-willed child says, “It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?” Not seeing the value in all God’s words is a curse, and not seeing the need to die daily and to walk “mournfully before the LORD of hosts” is also a curse (Ecc 7:2-4), and produces the fruits of that cursed ground, as mentioned in these terms, “now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.” This is the spiritual condition of the world we live in today, and David contemplated this supposed stability in the earth (that we all were in our appointed time), and He concluded, as we can through Christ, that they were all, the “now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered” on slippery ground. David says it is better to be in the house of mourning being judged by the Lord than to align oneself with those who were prospering in the earth (Psa 84:10-12, Psa 37:1-11)

Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 
Psa 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 
Psa 84:12  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

Psa 37:10  For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be [Mal 3:18].
Psa 37:11  But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace [Mal 3:12].

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

The way to deal with the wickedness of this world and the iniquity that is abounding more and more in this time as evil men wax worse and worse at the end of the age is to not forsake the assembling of ourselves (Heb 10:25) which commandment is being related to us in these words, “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” When we fear the LORD and think upon His name, we are blessed and given peace that passes all understanding (Php 4:7). Thinking on things pure, honest and just (Php 4:8) is also what brings us peace. It is in the confines of this healthy relationship of thinking that “a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” Christ is the author and finisher of that book representing those who have kept the commandments of God and are ready now to judge the rest of the books of humanity in the great white throne judgment (Rev 20:12).

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Php 4:9  Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

It is our Father in heaven who tells us that we are His workmanship (Eph 2:10) in this manner, “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” He has shown great mercy to us and given us great riches and honor to be judged first in this life, to be spared from the plagues to come upon all the world (having gone through them already), and as such we are called God’s spiritual jewels, being formed through fiery trials, sore pressed on every side at times, just as physical jewels are formed over time with great heat and pressure in the earth (Rev 15:8, Rev 18:4, Rom 8:18, Heb 11:25-26).

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

It is when we are judged and go through much tribulation in this life (Rev 3:18) that we begin to “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Heb 5:14).

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

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.

Our being dragged to Christ is for the express purpose of purifying us (Heb 12:6) so we can become discerning sons and daughters of God being spared, “and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (1Jn 3:1-2).

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. “and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him“.

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Est 10:1–3 The Greatness of Mordecai

[Study Posted December 20, 2020]

Est 10:1  And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea. 
Est 10:2  And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 
Est 10:3  For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. 

The concluding chapter of the Book of Esther focuses on the greatness and power of Mordecai, who represents Christ. Knowing his greatness and power is the same as Jesus Christ being unveiled to us. Thus, the objective of the Book of Esther is to unveil Jesus Christ to us, that is, to show us the process of coming to know Christ. As we have demonstrated in the review of the Book of Esther, Mordecai represents Jesus whose greatness and power fills the whole of the scriptures. King Ahasuerus here denotes our Father God who superintends over everything. This concluding review of the Book of Esther will therefore focus on the process of knowing Christ and how such unveiling permeates through the scriptures. The unveiling of Christ or the showing of His greatness and power is about how God changes us from being wicked and insignificant beasts to become rulers of His kingdom.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Christ is unveiled to us in the Book of Esther not in a chronological order as most scriptures do not follow that pattern. However, the steps are as follows:

The Period of our Rebellion 

In verse 1 of this review of Esther Chapter 10, the King laid a tribute upon the land and the isles of the sea. Strong’s definition of tribute is as follows:

Tribute
mas, mees
From H4549; properly a burden (as causing to faint), that is, a tax in the form of forced labor: – discomfited, levy, task [-master], tribute (-tary).

So tribute here means a burden or tax or task, etc. Verse 1 is therefore another way of saying that God has given human beings an experience of evil to humble them by it. That is the beginning of the process of knowing Christ. We must know the first Adam before we can know Christ.

Ecc 1:13  I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: It is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

This experience of evil is the operation of the law of sin and death in our lives which results in us disobeying our Lord, reproving and disannulling His judgments. This is demonstrated in the Book of Esther right at the beginning where the King held a feast.  It was during this feast which spiritually signified the hearing of the word of God that we, as Vashti, refused to pay heed to the King’s words. This was a period in our lives where we heard the Lord’s call through His words but we refused to heed to our Master’s call and followed our own pernicious ways.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24  Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

This period in our lives, as portrayed in the Book of Revelation, is when we are shown the extent of our sins as portrayed in the message to the seven churches and the need for us to be judged. For example:

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Rev 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

The encounter of the Israelites with God in the desert shows us our hopeless sinful state. The Ten Commandments which represent the law of sin and death were therefore given to the Israelites to show them their sins.

Psa 95:10  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Psa 95:11  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

In Exodus 33:18-23, Moses requested to see the Lord’s glory. He could only see the back parts and not the face of the Lord of glory. The back parts represent the law of Moses or the law of sin and death. Seeing the Lord’s face and his glory is operating under the law of the spirit of life which sets us free from the law of sin and death.

Exo 33:18  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
Exo 33:19  And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Exo 33:20  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
Exo 33:21  And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
Exo 33:22  And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
Exo 33:23  And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

The Need to be Judged

If we are destined to be part of the elect, just as Esther was chosen to become one of the possible candidates to become the bride of the King, then we will be dragged to repentance through fiery trials as demonstrated in many parts of the scriptures.

After the law of sin and death has been applied to us, we then come to know that we are sinful and without hope, and so this necessitates that the Lord comes to judge us as shown by the Israelites meeting the Lord on Mount Sinai. During this encounter, Israel witnessed smoke, fire and earthquake on Mount Sinai, representing the need to be judged.

The need to be dragged to Christ through judgment is also illustrated by the dedication of the temple in the Old Testament. When Solomon was dedicating the temple to the Lord in 1 Kings 8, the priests could not minister because the temple was filled with a cloud of the glory of God. Revelation 15:8 gives us insight why they could not minister.  It was because the priests were sinful and needed to be judged by the seven plagues before they could enter the temple to worship. The same thing happened to Moses when he could not enter the Tent of meeting because of the cloud that abode there. We have to pass through this judgment process which is a lifetime experience in order to know our King’s greatness in terms of His power and might as exemplified by Mordecai’s greatness in verse 2 of this review.

1Ki 8:10  And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
1Ki 8:11  So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.

Exo 40:35  And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The Judgment Process

The judgment process is the same as a purification process. In the Book of Esther, before Esther could meet the King, she had to go through a purification process. This purification process causes us to gradually become doers of His words.  That is when we commence the dying process (beautification process) in order to meet our husband the King. We are dragged to meet the Lord through judgment (seven plagues), and it is this judgment process that grants us access to the temple to worship our Lord.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Act 9:15  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Act 9:16  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

2Co 6:4  But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
2Co 6:5  In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

All the Israelites who left Egypt died in the wilderness through judgment, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. The dying of the Israelites represents the dying of our old man in this journey of going to the promised land.

Jos 5:6  For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

The seven plagues in the Book of Revelation are represented in the Book of Esther by Haman’s (the beast within) attempts to put to death all the Jews at an appointed time.  This brings us to our wits’ end as demonstrated by Esther putting her life on the line to come to the King’s presence uninvited. The King extending the sceptre to Esther is like Esther coming from death to life.

Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

What we need to understand is that the judgment process is accompanied by a period when our heavens are opened to receive exponentially the knowledge of God and of His son Jesus.  That is what eternal life is all about. This is demonstrated in the Book of Revelation by a heavenly scene where the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Jesus) prevailed to open the seal of the word of God. Jesus also said in explaining the parable of the sower that as we receive the word of God, there will be more tribulations or persecutions. So the process of judgment and the exponential increase in the knowledge of God go together.

Rev 5:3  And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Rev 5:7  And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Rev 6:1  And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

We can only see the glory of the Lord when we are judged. The glory of the Lord is the devouring fire that destroys the works of the flesh in our lives to be able to hear His voice. In other words, it is being able to hear His voice in the midst of our affliction, as shown in the verses below:

Exo 24:17  And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

Deu 5:24  And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.

The end result of the judgment that is marked out for us is the death of the old man and the birth and growth of the new man. In other words, judgment begets righteousness, which is a life of obedience as we wait for the manifestation of the sons of God.  The manifestation of the sons of God is the same as the joy that is set before us.

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The Joy that is Set Before Us

Through the death of Haman, Mordecai and Esther are given exalted positions in the King’s kingdom.  That represents the joy which is set before us. In our walk here on this earth, this joy set before us is only in earnest form. In other words, only a portion of this joy is given to us now. The fullness will come into play at the time of the redemption of the purchased possession. The purchased possession includes the period of our rulership when the kingdoms of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It extends also to the lake of fire age.  The Book of Revelation shows us the joy that is set before us by unveiling to us the reward for overcoming, the millennial rule, the great white throne judgment and the New Jerusalem.

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The death of that generation which left Egypt through judgments signifies the death of our old man which granted the new generation of Israelites the ability to possess the land of Canaan which God has promised them. The land of Canaan figuratively represents our bodies which must die (a negative connotation), but it also represents the joy that was set before the Israelites and to us (a positive application).

Jos 5:6  For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

In conclusion, these processes outlined show how Christ is unveiled to us as we come to appreciate the acts of His power and might and of His greatness as symbolized by the greatness of Mordecai (verses 2 and 3). This is what Paul was alluding to when he prayed for his Ephesian brethren that:

Eph 1:15  Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Eph 1:16  Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
Eph 1:17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come (His greatness and might):
Eph 1:22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

May God have mercy on us by granting us the grace to know Him and to be found in Him on that day!! Amen!!

Isa 52:1-8 They Shall See Eye to Eye, When the LORD Shall Bring Again Zion - Discussion

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Isa 52:1-8 They Shall See Eye to Eye, When The LORD Shall Bring Again Zion.

[Study Aired January 12, 2020]

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. 
Isa 52:2  Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 
Isa 52:3  For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. 
Isa 52:4  For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 
Isa 52:5  Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. 
Isa 52:6  Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. 
Isa 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 
Isa 52:8  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

The first verses of this chapter are meant to be contrasted with these last two verses of chapter 51:

Isa 51:22  Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 
Isa 51:23  But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

The Lord’s people, His very bride, have for so long been despised of the world and all its religions. They have been lying as dead ‘in the streets of that great city… wherein our Lord was crucified’ in the sense that we “reckon [ourselves]… to… be dead with Christ”, and in the sense that we are “the savor of death unto death” to this world:

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin. 
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And this is the symbolic ‘death of the two witnesses’ of:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

This is actually a description of what happened, and what is happening to Christ, because “as He is so are we in this world” (1Jo 4:17). 

With no spiritual understanding it appears that a time will come when we will ‘finish our testimony and then be killed by the beast’ just before Christ returns to this earth. However, with the mind of the spirit we know that neither Christ nor we stop testifying against our own old man and this world until we draw our last physical breath.

Christ’s testimony, just as our own testimony, was “finished” the moment it was rejected of “His own”:

Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 
Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

He, too, “counted [Himself] as… dead in the streets of that… city” long before He was nailed to the cross, and the scriptures themselves tell us that He did as He tells us to do:

Luk 9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily [“die daily” 1Co 15:31), and follow me.

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is [spiritually] crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin. 
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He that is ‘dead’ has ‘finished [his] testimony’ and is “lying dead in the streets of that great city where also our Lord was crucified”:

Isa 51:22  Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 
Isa 51:23  But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

Christ “reckoned [Himself] to be dead… from the foundation of the world”:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Outwardly, our witness against this world is the light of our lives in a dark dying world, as explained by Christ Himself:

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 
Mat 5:15  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Our ‘light’ is seen as “good works” only by “all that are in the house” of God in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). In time, seeing Christ in us, the world also will ‘glorify [our] Father which is in heaven’, but in the meantime, they do no such thing, and instead we are to them as dead men in the streets of spiritual Babylon. “The streets of that great city…” symbolize the ways of the harlot system which rules over the kings of this world. In those ‘streets’ we are as dead men:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

“When they shall have finished their testimony”, and “where also our Lord was crucified”, are both in the aorist tense, and are continuing in our lives. “Make war against them… overcome them… and kill them”, are all in the future tense, telling us that what is happening in the aorist tense will continue to happen into the future until the end of this age.

Our witness is ‘finished’, and we are to this world ‘killed… the savor of death unto death’ at the moment our witness is rejected just as it was with Christ:

Luk 9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Joh 10:30  I and my Father are one. 
Joh 10:31  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

Christ considered Himself to be on the cross “daily” as He served His Father and spoke His Father’s words. As such He was, to this world and to our own ‘old man’, “the savor of death unto death”:

2Co 2:16  To the one [our old man] we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other [the new man within us] the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

The very fact we are on the cross and rejected by this world is to this world proof positive that we are not favored of God:

Mat 27:39  And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, 
Mat 27:40  And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. 
Mat 27:41  Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, 
Mat 27:42  He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. 
Mat 27:43  He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

Such words are logical carnal reasoning to our old man. If the Christ we believe in is so powerful why is He not ruling this world with a rod of iron right now?

The answer to that question, posed by the Jews and their leaders, symbols of the religious leaders of this day, is that if Christ had come down from the cross before His death, we would have no propitiation for our sins. The price would not have been paid, and our faith would not have been tried. It is not simple faith, that saves us. “The devils also believe and tremble”. 

Jas 2:19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 
Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works [without being tried in the fire] is dead?

What saves us is “the trial of [our] faith… [which is as precious as] gold tried in the fire”:

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it [our faith] be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold [faith] tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

The fact that it has been almost 2,000 years since the death and resurrection of Christ, and the fact that the religions of this world appear to be so firmly ensconced in their rulership over the kings of this world, and the fact that so very few can see and hear the voice of the True Shepherd, all serve as fiery trials of our faith, and it is few indeed who have been given to believe these words:

Hab 2:2  And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. [Heb 12:1]
Hab 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 
Hab 2:4  Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith [tried in the fire].

“The vision is yet for an appointed time” and the last thing any of us should do is to tell ourselves it is all spiritual and it is all within and “all [outward] things continue as they were from the fathers”:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

We are to see our old man as ‘chief of sinners’, and as ungodly as anyone who is cast into the lake of fire at the great white throne judgment. But we are also given the faith to see our old man as being given the gift of faith which is “tried with fire… in this present time” (Rom 8:18), and therefore, by the sovereign hand of God made to be “the first to believe on Him… (Eph 1:12) the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb… (Rev 14:4), the church of the firstborn [Heb 12:23], [to be in] the resurrection to life” as opposed to “the resurrection of judgment”.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven [the book of life], and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape [the lake of fire], if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

It is all because the Lord Himself, “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11), has chosen us as His people through whom He will “fill all in all” (Eph 1:23):

Isa 51:22  Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 
Isa 51:23  But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

Any and all who are faithful to Christ’s doctrine have been walked on “as the street” by the rulers and religious leaders of this age. 

The time will come, and it is here in earnest even now, that we are no longer to see ourselves in that way:

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. 
Isa 52:2  Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 
Isa 52:3  For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. 

“Shake yourself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion…” That is the peace of mind which, at this very moment, is the fruit of being sealed with His spirit and knowing God and His Son, even as we are to this world “the savor of death”. 

The best is yet to come in the form of “the redemption of the purchased possession”:

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

‘Firstfruits’ are not the only fruits, and ‘the first to trust in Christ’ who are given to be “to the praise of His glory” are not the only people who will “trust in Christ”.

Notice the similarity between these words here in chapter 52, addressed to “Jerusalem… the daughter of Zion” and the words of the previous chapter addressed to the “Arm of the Lord”:

Isa 51:9  Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 
Isa 51:10  Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 
Isa 51:11  Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 
Isa 51:12  I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;

Again in this same chapter:

Isa 51:16  And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. 
Isa 51:17  Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

‘Jerusalem… the daughter of Zion… the Arm of the Lord’ are one and all symbols of the same thing. They all symbolize those who are called “overcomers” through “the sufferings of this present time… this present evil world” to whom the Lord is here saying “You are My people”. This is how we are to regard “the sufferings of this present time”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Gal 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

“A new name… the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem” are all speaking of His doctrine, which is “rather to be chosen than great riches”:

Pro 22:1  A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

There is within us at this very moment, in “the earnest of our inheritance”, a “new heavens, a new earth, and a new name, New Jerusalem”:

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Pro 22:1  A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

Isa 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Isa 66:22  For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 

2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

Rev 21:1  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The ‘new earth’ is being wed to the ‘new heaven’… “and the two become one”:

Mar 10:8  And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 

Christ’s “new name” is nothing less than His “new covenant”… His doctrine, which is “rather to be chosen than great riches”:

Pro 22:1  A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. 

Son 1:3  Because of the savour of thy good ointments [Your doctrines] thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

Mat 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

These words of Isaiah 52 tell us:

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

These words are the very foundation for these words in:

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 
Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 
Rev 21:11  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 

Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 

These next verses summarize the journey of every man who has ever been dragged to the Lord:

Isa 52:4  For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 
Isa 52:5  Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.

Do not make the mistake of thinking these words about blaspheming the name of God are addressed to those among whom the Lord’s people were scattered. Not so! It is we, the Lord’s own elect, who are the first to blaspheme His name by refusing to be obedient to His doctrine as the Lord makes so very clear concerning our ‘qualifications’, or the lack thereof, as His chosen people:

Eze 36:19  And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 
Eze 36:20  And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 
Eze 36:21  But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. 
Eze 36:22  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 
Eze 36:23  And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

When the world sees how the Lord has been so merciful to you and to me, to a people who have so blasphemed His name by all their rebellious ways… “the heathen shall know that [the Lord] is [indeed] the Lord”. 

We will all “give an accounting” of all our shameful sins and our rebellious ways, but the Lord’s mercy endures forever (Psalm 136), and “He [has] devised means, that His banished be not expelled from Him”.

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

We are all separated from the Lord by our own sins:

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 
Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

In spite of the fact that we, the Lord’s chosen people, have “blasphemed His name continually” (vs 5), He has determined that He will still drag us to Himself:

Isa 52:6  Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. 

The Lord will do the same for all men, “every man in his own order”, but the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb (Rev 14:4) are His firstborn, and the double portion of the inheritance belongs to them (Deu 21:17 and Exo 4:22) , and it is they who will be used of the Lord to bring forth all the rest of the family of God to Himself, and that is truly “the good news of the kingdom of God” brought to us by the Lord Himself:

Isa 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

Meaning:

Mar 1:14  Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel [“good tidings] of the kingdom of God,

King David had a great appreciation of a united Israel, which gratitude he expressed in these words:

Psa 133:1  A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 
Psa 133:2  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 
Psa 133:3  As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion [The Lord’s elect]: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Paul tells us that we are “overseers of the Lord’s flock… watchmen” who should be willing to lay down our lives for the Lord’s sheep:

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

By this time Paul had already admonished the church at Corinth, and all of us, with these words:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

The last verse of our study today is the fruit of our obedience to all the scriptures which make 1Corinthians 1:10 possible in our fellowship today:

Isa 52:8  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. 

If indeed we are ‘Zion’ and ‘holy Jerusalem’ then we will even now “see eye to eye” concerning the doctrines of the Lord, and we will “all speak the same thing, and… there [will] be no divisions among us, but [we will] be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”.

That is our study for today, and here are the verses for our next study:

Isa 52:9  Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 
Isa 52:10  The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 
Isa 52:11  Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 
Isa 52:12  For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. 
Isa 52:13  Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 
Isa 52:14  As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 
Isa 52:15  So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Psa 127:2  It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Psa 127:3  Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psa 127:4  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 
Psa 127:5  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

The title of our study this evening is taken from Psalm 46:1, which says “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Those words are a promise which describes the power God will give us through Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2) the one who is building the house, or keeping the city as stated in Psalm 127:1. 

No one can go unto the son unless the Father drags him there (Joh 6:44), so being built a spiritual house in the Lord is a work of the Lord granted to those to whom it was ordained from the foundation of the world. These following verses describe who that foundation is and how that foundation will come about and why it must come about, and they are very much connected to the truth of how the Lord will “build the house”. 

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

It is God who determines the times and the seasons, the hardening and softening of hearts, and therefore knows who it is with whom Christ will come and sup (Rev 3:20), and when the Father drags us to Christ it is for that very purpose of having Him work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Rev 3:14-20, Php 2:13). He knows our works are initially meant to be neither cold not hot, but lukewarm, and so the means by which He has devised to save us from this banished condition (2Sa 14:14) of lukewarmness is described in these verses below that describe the only thing which can truly change our proud hearts and turn them into hearts that are humble and contrite and vessels fit for the master’s use.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent [Heb 12:6, Heb 5:14, 1Pe 5:10, Heb 5:7, Rom 2:4, 2Ti 2:12, 1Pe 4:12].

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

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. 

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice [Joh 6:44], and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

When we build a city, it is a vain labor, and when we try to watch over that city, it is in vain as well, and which tells us is our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6), and our ability to watch for and overcome the adversary is impossible without the Lord both building and watching over that which He builds as the good shepherd (Eph 2:10). 

We are called with Christ in us to build each other up in our most holy faith (Jud 1:17-25), not having dominion over each other’s faith (2Co 1:24), but watching and praying together as the day approaches (Mat 25:13) and looking well to the flock to protect it against the adversary with Christ in us (1Pe 5:2, Mat 16:18). Our part in that sense is to know it is Christ who is building the house and witnessing through us how to properly give warning to those nations within us, heeding and not despising His goodness which leads those nations to repentance. In turn we are being a witness to all other nations without of this changed life we now possess through Christ. These verses in Ezekiel explain that process of witnessing within and without for the body of Christ (Eze 3:1-11, Eze 3:8, Eze 33:1-11, Eze 33:4-5).

Eze 3:8  Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.

Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

Man’s concept of building does not stand the test of time either physically or spiritually, whereas that which God builds will endure and last forever, reminding us that only Christ can be Christ (the true witness, the true watchman), and only Christ can truly be the author and finisher of our faith with the words of eternal life our Father has given Him (Joh 6:68, Joh 2:19, Joh 16:15). God must show us this contrast of who the real builder is in our life in order to humble us so that we can become that new creation that is founded upon the apostles and prophets (1Co 3:6, Eph 2:20). What the flesh ultimately wants is instant gratification, a ten-second sinner’s prayer, and no lifetime of overcoming that would involve falling seven symbolic times and witnessing against those nations within us over and over as we are delivered from sin through Christ (Pro 24:16).

Our hope is that with Christ in us (Col 1:27) we can learn to appreciate this process which will bless us with “an heritage of the Lord” as we go from glory to glory in the Lord being sanctified along the way as a result of that hope of glory within. Christ alone is able to make us stand and present us before our Father without blame, and Christ works through each of us to that end as we wash each other’s feet, or take care to help each other as we learn how to walk circumspectly at the end of this age.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 

Jud 1:24  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 
Jud 1:25  To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. 

Joh 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 

Eph 5:15  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 
Eph 5:16  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

In tonight’s study, we will look at how the heritage of the Lord, “the fruit of the womb reward”, is not physical children, although our children can and do bless us; more importantly they represent the natural part of our walk in this life that is first – in every instance unless they are being dragged to the Lord – and will be sacrificed for our sakes so we can learn how important our new spiritual children are in the Lord (2Co 4:15). Those children are represented by these verses in our study that refer to His word, or doctrine (Psa 127:3-5), and just to further brighten this point Christ used many different parables related to family (Mat 19:29, Luk 14:26) and physical things to contrast for us the value of His word, and our relationship with Him in this life, who is the word of life and way to salvation (Joh 1:1, Joh 14:6).

Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 

Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

The reward for all mankind is ultimately everlasting life, but God drives home the point through the existence of mankind just how little regard He has for flesh, and what sacrifices will be made for our sakes so that we can inherit eternal life as His kind of first fruits (Jas 1:18) who will one day show mercy to the rest of His creation (Rom 11:32, Joh 12:40).

Our joy and happiness in this life comes in obeying the commandments of God and pleasing our Father always by holding fast to the words of eternal life He has given us and with which He is sanctifying us. If we endure through the chastening those fiery words bring about when they are used to convict us and heal us, and don’t despise that process, we will be received as sons. The Lord also knows that the correction is not easy and that we naturally despise it, but He will if we are being saved in this age, get us through the humiliation which judgment brings upon our old man (Joh 17:17, Pro 3:11, Heb 12:6).

When we have our “quiver full of them” [His word likened unto to arrows and children], we are rightly able to divide the word, and that fullness of our quiver represents the sum of God’s word that is truth (Psa 119:160), and with that undefiled word within us we become, by the grace and faith of God, an Israelite indeed (Joh 1:47) being able to be like our master in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning, nor thinking above what is written (Jas 1:17, Joh 10:30, 1Jn 4:17, 1Jn 4:6).

The process of becoming more and more like Christ, shining more and more until the day star arrives (Pro 4:18, Php 2:15, Rev 22:16) is why this Psalm is once again “a song of degrees” as we go from glory to glory having the veil of our carnal heart ripped and seeing more clearly through this glass through we see we darkly for now (1Co 13:12), being kept humble in these earthen vessels, even being chastened and scourged as we learn obedience through this life by the things He allows and orchestrates for our benefit (Eph 1:11, Rom 8:28, Isa 45:7).

We actually grow in our ability to trust God after the flesh is put off, and then do we with joy-filled hearts see and comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height (Eph 3:17-19) after we have suffered awhile and are established through Christ (1Pe 5:10, Rom 8:18). After that established mindset happens we have need of a patient mind which perseveres as scripture says (Heb 10:36) because God has called us to a race that will require endurance and a longsuffering spirit which must be develop over time (Heb 12:1-3).

His mercy will prevail upon the church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us, and in the end we will deeply understand the wretchedness of flesh (Ecc 3:18, Rom 3:10) and the love He has set on us first which was demonstrated in His great mercy and forgiveness toward us while we were yet sinners (Rom 5:8, 1Co 1:26-28). This is all being accomplished by God so we can then do the same for the rest of His creation that needs to be redeemed by those very few saviors who are being saved first (Mat 22:14, Oba 1:21). 

As we go through this process of being redeemed of the Lord, we will be blessed to remember that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” and today is the time of “Jacob’s trouble” for those with whom God is working and bringing unto perfection in this age (Jer 30:7, Mat 24:15-31). It is that trouble God brings upon our souls that is the means to the end (2Sa 14:14), the judgment upon us (1Pe 4:17) which is restoring our souls and making us one with each other and Christ and our Father (Joh 14:20). 

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

This opening verse plainly states something that the rest of the Psalm will be used to confirm, as it shows us what it means when you are blessed to have the Lord build the house, which is what is happening when the sword or word of God does not depart from your house (2Sa 12:10).

Strong delusion was upon us when we did not see God’s total sovereignty in every aspect of life, in the good and the evil. The world without, if they were able to peer into our hearts, would see the conviction of the elect and proclamation that many are called and few are chosen and consider that true gospel as the smell of death to them, because it has not been given to them to understand what we see, and that in the positive sense of death we are lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem (2Co 2:16, 2Co 3:5, Rev 11:8). God has mercifully allowed us to identify with Christ on the cross, and our need to be buried into his death in order to do the works of Christ as we are given power to both mortify the deeds of the flesh or overcome sinful flesh, and live out our life to His glory with everything that we say and do (Luk 9:23, Gal 2:20, Rom 8:13).

When we mortify the deeds of the flesh or are crucified with Christ, what naturally follows is that we will be led of the holy spirit and the spirit will bear witness that we are his children (Rom 8:14-17). That is once again a process or song of degrees so that we never lose sight that it is the Lord who is building the house, and destroying the beasts within our land little and by little (Deu 7:22).

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. [Heirs who have an heritage spoken of in verse three “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward“]

When we are convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38-39), we will be comforted to know and see that the Lord has been destroying our earthly works because He loves us and wants us to see clearly and continually that “except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain”.

Psa 127:2  It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. 

Psa 127:2 Futile is it for you to rise early, And stay up late, Eating the bread of grievous labor; Yet so is He giving to His beloved in their sleep.” (CLV)

All is vanity the preacher says, meaning we are subject to vanity in the flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God and our flesh is not where our hope lies (Ecc 1:2, Rom 8:20). We “rise up early” in the morning, and are still only awake in part, not seeing the fulness of Christ, the fullness of the Sun of righteousness (1Co 13:9-13, Mal 4:2).

1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 
1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 

We also sit up late seeking the Lord all throughout the day and into the night (Joh 3:1-3) and he gives us “bread of sorrows”. Remember the key note verse to this Psalm is the first one that talks about how we try to labor and figure things out in our heavens by building the house, and all our ways seem right to us (Pro 21:2, Pro 16:33) but God says otherwise of our flesh which He frustrates for the very purpose to show us that the way which seems right to us leads to death and that the prophet can be easily deceived because it is the Lord who is doing it (Pro 14:12, Eze 14:9). 

Joh 3:1  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 
Joh 3:2  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 
Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 

When we are blessed to die daily to that notion that we can labor and find the Lord with our own righteousness and many wonderful works, it will be because the Lord has brought us to that blessed point where we cry out for help being at our wits’ end. Then we will see through the darkness and find our joy in the morning, our Lord, who takes us through the storms (Psa 107:30). After the storm, after the wonderful works of God unto the sons of men, we will learn the better way which is to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, our safe haven (Joh 17:3) who blesses us to be led by God’s holy spirit so that we can have true liberty (2Co 3:17). 

2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The “bread of grievous labor” does not enlighten and quicken us as God’s word will when it is rightly divided (2Ti 2:15), and yet that obscurity is unavoidable as we ‘come out of her, my people’ and little and by little begin to see and acknowledge the bondage Babylon had us in by decree of our Lord. We have to experience that glory to glory event of coming out of Babylon to know and be convinced we are no better than anyone else and it was all by the grace and faith of God that any one of us could have ever overcome and endured until the end of this life (Mat 24:13, Php 4:13).

We can plant and water all day long, but if God does not give any spiritual increase by opening our heavens, no growth will be had (2Ti 3:7, 1Co 3:6, Ecc 2:21). Conversely, God’s children are given the ability to labor for the meat which does not perish, and that healthy desire is expressed in these verses below and spoken of in the parable of the loaves and fishes that will multiply simply because Christ has prayed for us and asked our Father that would be the case (Mat 14:16-22, Joh 17:20, Luk 22:32).

Joh 6:27  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 

Ecc 5:18  Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. 
Ecc 5:19  Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God [Eph 2:8].

God’s elect are growing in their desire to be with Christ in the fullness and no longer in part, the fleshly part that is only in earnest and promised to pass (Eph 1:14), and that is what we groan today and all the creation groans as they await the adoption of Gods sons to be born. The world certainly does not believe that that is going to be the case but regardless what they think (Isa 3:1), the world still wrestles through the night [like Nicodemus] because God has put in the hearts of man to be ever seeking and never able to come to the knowledge of truth (2Ti 3:7) as they groan for something greater, that something being the workmanship of God in their lives. The elect will be used to fulfill that desire in all of His creation through the lake of fire judgment that will bring about that new creation (Php 1:23-24, Rom 8:22-23, 1Co 6:3).

Our rest God gives us is found in being able to deal with this temporary and fleeting life where we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. “So he giveth his beloved sleep” is not physical sleep necessarily, that is a shadow of the restoration that our spirits need, but rather giving his beloved sleep is giving us the ability to rest in the Lord (Gen 2:2, Heb 4:11). When we labor to rest in the Lord, it is the Lord giving us that sleep spoken of here and that is how the house of God is being built; not by might or power but by His holy spirit as we rest in the Lord (Zec 4:6).

Psa 127:3  Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. 
Psa 127:4  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 
Psa 127:5  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 

I’ve grouped these last three verses together that are speaking of the same point, that our heritage is to be the first to trust in God (Eph 1:4, Eph 1:12), in his words of eternal life that are found in “the fruit of the womb” which represents Jerusalem above the mother of us all, the church (Gal 4:26, Eph 3:10). 

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

We are the first to trust in God “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” and He is the only one who could have brought about those conditions where we are accepted of Him through the beloved (Joh 3:16, Eph 1:6, Joh 3:16, Rom 5:10).

The “children of the youth” are likened unto “arrows are in the hand of a mighty man”, and we know that mighty man is Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith who is making it possible for us to be sanctified by God’s word in our life today (Mar 3:27, Joh 17:17).

We are not ashamed of the gospel (Rom 1:16) and are called to be fellow laborers together who are not ashamed because we can rightly divide the word of God (2Ti 2:15), and that is what it means to have those “arrows in the hand of a mighty man”. 

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

Those words of eternal life, and the ability to rightly divide them, is the gift and the heritage that God gives to the weak of the world as we prove all things and hold fast to that which is true by Christ’s might, or “the hand of a mighty man” (1Th 5:21), who gives us the ability to overcome “the enemies in the gate” of both our own deceitful and desperately wicked hearts (Jer 17:9) and the hearts of all mankind that will never prevail against the body of Christ (Mat 16:18, Col 1:24).

God is going to make all this happen for the benefit of all the world, and reassures us that it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom in earnest today (Luk 17:21) and one day in the fullness (Luk 12:32, Rev 11:15). God’s elect are the only ones in the flesh who will be granted to be overcoming through Christ and who can and will declare to the rest of the world, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Isa 24:13-18 Glorify Ye The Lord In The Fires

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Isa 24:13-18 - Glorify Ye The Lord In The Fires

Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
Isa 24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
Isa 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

We have been blessed to know that no man can "sing for the majesty of the Lord, [and] glorify... the Lord in the fires" without first experiencing 'treacherous dealers dealing very treacherously, leanness, fear, and the pit and the snare'. We know this to be true because, according to Jesus Christ, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God":

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

These verses in 1 Corinthians will help us understand the depth of the truth of Matthew 4:4:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

These verses all confirm the words of Job to his wife who was urging Job to "curse God and die" to escape the misery he was suffering from his loss of all of his physical possessions and of all of his children. Suffering all of that loss in one day was then compounded by being afflicted with boils from his head to his toes.

When urged by His wife to "curse God and die", Job's response is very revealing for those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear:

Job 2:9  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

It is very few sermons which have ever been preached about 'receiving evil at the hand of God', and yet that is exactly what the scriptures teach us.

Another way of saying what the book of Job is telling us is that "man shall... live... by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God... all things are [ours]... the world... life... death... things present, [and] things to come; all are [ours]".

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

That all-encompassing statement includes the last three verses from our last study:

Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

As we saw in our last study, "the city of confusion" is the Biblical symbol for the religions of this world with all of their conflicting and confusing doctrines. We are all snared by those doctrines in our own time until that city begins to be besieged and broken down and made desolate, and is in time utterly destroyed.

It is "when" it is becoming obvious that the siege of the city of our rebellious, Babylonian old man is succeeding and "the gate [of] the city... is smitten with destruction" that we continue our study of how the Lord is dealing with each of us. Remember from our past studies how we have demonstrated that we are "the land" with which the Lord is working His work in our lives. It is "the land" with its "city" and the city's "gate" which is being "smitten with destruction" and is "left desolate".  It is when we are brought to that helpless, prostrate and hopeless state that the Lord's fiery work within us is just beginning, as we are told with these words:

Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

To understand what we are being told here we must ask, "What is being signified by the shaking of this olive tree and the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done and the grapes are gathered?" The answer is that this is the same shaking as the shaking of the "great earthquake" of these verses:

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; [Isa 24:23]
Rev 6:13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

In spiritual terms, the shaking of "a fig tree" is the same as "the shaking of an olive tree". Both cast their fruit as a result of this "shaking" which is caused by "a great earthquake", which symbolizes the same thing as being "shaken of a mighty wind". The message of Revelation 16:12-14 is taken in its entirety from right here in Isaiah 24, including the darkening of the sun, the confounding, or 'becoming as blood', of the moon:

Isa 24:23  Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

These verses concerning the casting of the fruit of the fig and olive trees and the darkening of the sun and the confounding of the moon, are the negative application of all of these words because the verses we have just read all symbolize the revealing to us of the false doctrines and the traditions and practices of our time in Babylon. These are the things which nourish and bring Babylon's food and light to us while we are smitten with her blindness and with the fruit of her olive tree and her grapes and the fruit of her fig tree. However, the fruit of her ways is being shaken and cast down to the earth in a mighty work of the spirit of the Lord. Even her "stars... [her false prophets] fall unto the earth... as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when shaken of a mighty wind". That 'wind' IS "the spirit of the Lord... the words [Christ spoke - Joh 6:63]" doing its mighty work in our lives, and when we finally are given to see the good that comes of destruction wrought by that "great earthquake", then we will "lift up [our] voice, [and we] shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, and... cry aloud from the sea" which 'sea' symbolizes the flesh in which we already possess the spirit, in down payment form, "until the inheritance of the purchased possession" (Eph 1:11):

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Finally, being made aware of the deception in which we were living brings us to our next verse:

Isa 24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

That is exactly what we can do even now simply because we have been given faith in these inspired words:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

We are merely "the first to trust in Christ... the first fruits unto God and the Lamb".

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

We are not the only ones to trust in Christ, neither are we the only fruits "unto God and the Lamb". As His "kind of firstfruits" we are the Lord's anointed who will rule with Him during the thousand year reign, and then we will also judge angels in the lake of fire. There is a "harvest at the end of the year" as well as a firstfruit harvest:

Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of [Passover and] unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, [the summer Pentecost harvest] which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Jas  1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

What a wonderful relief, what peace of mind it is to finally be made to know that the Lord is working His Work in everything in our lives for our good. What a blessing it is to understand that all the pain which accompanies the loss of our children and the loss of our families and all of our possessions, and the excruciating pain of all of our afflictions, is "all... working together for [a very good] purpose (Rom 8:28). We must remember that the physical loss of all of Job's possessions, and the physical death of all ten of his children, along with the affliction of boils from his head to his feet, all symbolize the agony we endure in the loss of our own false doctrines we so long cherished, along with the rejection by our own families and friends, as we refuse the demands made upon us of maintaining the lifestyle of our own materialistic flesh, as well as the lifestyle and traditions of our physical families and friends.

If we are obedient to His words, this is what we told will happen to us:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

These are but some of the fiery trials which are upon all who will "take up his cross and follow [Christ]", but these trials are not worthy to be compared to the glory which will be revealed in us if we are granted to "follow after [Christ]":

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Knowing and having faith in this Truth gives us the ability to "glorify the Lord in [our] fiery [trials]" and to bring to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving even in the midst of our severe trials of life:

Isa 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

David glorifies the Lord in the fires in Psalm 107.

Psa 107:19 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We have demonstrated that "the sea" is the symbol for the clay vessel of flesh and blood into which we are all born and out of which we all arise (Rev 13:1). Our fiery trials are all experienced in this age while we yet dwell "in the isles of the sea", meaning in these vessels of clay in which Christ dwells.

Paul elaborates on the message of "glorify the Lord in the fires" in 2Co 4:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels ["isles of the sea"], that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
2Co 4:12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
2Co 4:14  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Being 'troubled on every side... perplexed... persecuted, and cast down are "the fires" in which we are to "glorify the Lord", even when all these trials cause us to feel at times that God has forsaken us, as did both King David and as the Lord Himself:

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That is our flesh crying out to let Ishmael be the heir (Gen 17:18), but that was never meant to be. Only Isaac will be the heir because he symbolizes the new man who is 'the Lord's Christ'. For that very reason the natural man persecutes the man of the spirit:

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Joh 12:27  Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers [symbols of our flesh] were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

For Christ to pray "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" helps us to understand the meaning of this next verse:

Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

This is exactly how we all treat Christ before we are given His spirit and become "His Christ":

Luk 22:47  And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.
Luk 22:48  But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

We do not know it, but our every day in Babylon is spent there denying and betraying our Lord who told us to turn the other cheek, love our enemies, and follow in His footsteps.

Joh 13:18  I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Joh 13:19  Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.

Like the apostle Peter, we are made to look back and see our own denial of our own Savior:

Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

We are all aware of the fact that Peter did indeed deny his Lord thrice before the cock crowed, and he went out and wept bitterly because he was forced to admit that he was not willing to die with Christ:

Luk 22:56  But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him.
Luk 22:57  And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not.
Luk 22:58  And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not.
Luk 22:59  And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a Galilaean.
Luk 22:60  And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.
Luk 22:61  And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Luk 22:62  And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

Peter is each of us while we are denying Christ, which we all do. In time, if it is to be so in this age, the Lord turns and looks upon us as we are in the very process of denying Him as we teach and act contrary to His doctrines. When that happens we are guilty of dealing with Christ in a treacherous way, and like Peter, who was made to face his own treachery, and like Paul on the road to Damascus, we will be struck down by Christ turning and looking upon us and bringing us see ourselves as He sees us. Christ sees our old man as His adversary, because that is what we are by nature (Rom 7:17-25).

But after we "[go] out and weep bitterly" and repent, we then become "the Lord's... Christ" (Act 4:26). Notice how quickly we transition from praising the Lord to bemoaning treachery as we see in verses 16-18. That is because we are passing from our part in denying Christ to repenting of that sin and now becoming the recipient of the hatred of all men. Now it is our turn to experience the many Judases, the Hymaneaus, and Alexanders, the Phygelluses and Hermogenes, the Alexander the coppersmiths (perhaps the same 'Alexander' of 1 Timothy), as well as Diotrephes, who turned on the apostle John, one and all being from within the very body of Christ, the very churches which were raised up by the apostles themselves.

This is what the apostles endured, and this is what we, too, are enduring and must continue to endure to the end of this age:

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

2Ti 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
2Ti 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
2Ti 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.
2Ti 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15  Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16  At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

Notice what we are being told. What is revealed in these verses is much more far reaching than most realize. There are eight names Paul and John mention as men who "concerning the faith have made shipwreck": 1) Hymenaeas, 2) Alexander, 3) Phygellus, 4) Hermogenes, 5) Philetus, 6) Demas, 7) Crescens, and 8) Titus. We are told these men "blasphemed... are turned away from me... concerning the truth have erred... have forsaken me... did me much evil, [and] has greatly withstood our words". These are all prominent men within the very body of Christ who the Lord gave the task of causing "all them which are in Asia... the seven churches of Asia", in other words the whole church, including you and me, to turn on their own apostles, the body of Christ Himself, and "cast them out of the church". "No man stood with me but all men forsook me." The apostasy of the church was completed before the apostles had all died. That is why the book of Revelation and all of its judgments of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vials, is addressed to "the seven churches of Asia":

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Once again, this is not a history lesson. This is what we all do when we are deceived by the doctrines of these false prophets; by the doctrines of the "great harlot". When we do this we are denying Christ just as surely as Peter and all the other apostles did.

All of this treachery was prophesied in these verses here in Isaiah 24, which are words that have 'proceeded out of the mouth of God'. The Lord's words are "a two-edged sword", which means they are the death of our old man, while at the same time being the life of our new man. So we read that even as we glorify God in the fires, and sing songs of glory to the righteous, we also experience the leanness and the treachery of treacherous dealers as did the apostles. It was all prophesied to be so.

I want to read verses 16, 17 and 18 all together:

Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

Our service to Christ was never intended to be a pleasurable experience:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23  But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

We are called to be "hated of all men" and to have "all men for[sake us]", but that is the very best experience any man will ever have if he is granted to "endure to the end". To get to be granted that honor, we must first be taken in the Lord's judgments, and we must flee from the noise of the fear of the Lord  and fall into the Lord's pit. Then we climb out of that pit only to be taken in another snare, simply because the windows from on high are opened, and the seven last plagues are being poured out upon us as the very foundations of our earth are being made to shake violently.

Mat 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

All of this is just part of experiencing the seven plagues of the seven angels. It sounds as if nothing good can come of having those plagues poured out of the heavens upon us. There is no denying that this is a time of great fear. Our earth itself is being shaken violently, but this is the fact of that matter:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

This is "the revelation of Jesus Christ"! It is the revealing of our old man's ways and his Babylonian doctrines, which make us flee from the truth, as it did to Adam and to Cain, and as it did to Peter when the Lord turned and caught Peter's eye just as he was denying his own Savior "with an oath".

Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

Gen 4:9  And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

Peter fled from fear of dying at the hands of the mob, and then he found himself snared by his own conscience, which made him "weep bitterly". The foundations of his earth shook, and it was the worst day of his entire life to have to face the fact that he was not really willing to die with Christ as he had so proudly proclaimed that very same evening. In Truth that day was the best day of Peter's life because, like Job, Peter finally stopped thinking so highly of himself and came to realize what Job eventually realized:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Here now is this very same message of these first 8 verses of Job 40 in the New Testament. Here is how Christ deals with us when we think we can serve Him in our own strength:

Luk 22:60  And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.
Luk 22:61  And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Luk 22:62  And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

These stories of Job and Peter are not just history lessons. Job and Peter typify you and me. There was no way Job could keep the Lord's "hedge [up] about him", and there was no way Job, of himself, could have kept from condemning God for what the Lord had done to him. There was no way Peter could avoid denying the Lord. There was no way Paul could have avoided persecuting the saints and being struck down on the road to Damascus, and there is no way you or I can avoid being ruled over by the law of sin and death which operates within our members:

We are expressly just that:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

It is all a  matter of the seven last plagues having to be fulfilled before any man can enter into the temple of God in heaven (Rev 15:8). All of this being said, it is equally true that there is no way any man can avoid, in the end, being dragged to true, heart-felt repentance and being "made alive... in Christ":

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, ["all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth"] even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

That is our study for today. Lord willing we will finish chapter 24 next Sunday, which I have entitled: The Lord Shall Punish The Host of The High Ones On High and The Kings of The Earth Upon The Earth.

Isa 24:19  The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isa 24:20  The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Isa 24:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
Isa 24:22  And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
Isa 24:23  Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 48 Discussion

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Isa 10:12-15 The Judgment o​f The King o​f Assyria

Isa 10:12  Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
Isa 10:13  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
Isa 10:14  And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
Isa 10:15  Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

Notice carefully what we are told here in verse twelve:

Isa 10:12  Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

The word 'wherefore' refers back to the previous four verses:

Isa 10:8  For he [the king of Assyria] saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
Isa 10:9  Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
Isa 10:10  As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
Isa 10:11  Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

We are told here that because of the pride of the king of Assyria he will be punished only "when the Lord has performed His WHOLE work upon M​ount Zion and on Jerusalem". The King of Assyria and the King of Babylon are the enemies of God's symbolic people of Israel. Assyria and Babylon typify "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth".

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Inwardly and spiritually Isaiah 10:5 is telling us that "when the Lord has perfomed His whole work upon M​ount Zion and on Jerusalem", at that point, if indeed we are 'Judah and Jerusalem', our names have been​ written in heaven, and we have been given "power over all the power of the enemy":

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The inward application will be the focus of this study. However let's never forget that the inward application of the Word is only the 'Is' portion of a Christ who "is, was and will be". This Truth is repeated twelve times in various forms in the Book of Revelation, meaning it is a foundational Truth as well as an extremely important fact to keep in mind as we strive to know who our Lord is and what He is doing with His creatures.

Here are just two of those twelve entries of this all important description of our Lord and His character:

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Rev 1:17  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
Rev 1:18  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Rev 1:19  Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

So when we are told "that when the Lord hath performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks", those words have a dispensational application which includes the past historically, the inward present, as well as an end-of-the-ages 'lake of fire' application.

"When the Lord has performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem" speaks to the whole work which is now being done in His judging His own house, the house of God".

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

The work which is yet to come will be performed upon those who will be raised up from the dead who "obey[ed] not the gospel of God" in this age. That will take place only at that  'great white throne judgment'. Those who will come up in that latter resurrection will still be afflicted  with this spirit of the proud, self-righteous, and rebellious "King of Assyria". At that time the Lord will send His firstfruits to do what His Father sent Him to do, which is "that the world through Him might be saved":

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

That is the dispensational application which we must never deny, otherwise we are denying one third of the 'is, was and will be' character of Christ who is His word (Joh 1:1). We will return to this dispensational application of these words in next week's study. Our emphasis today though will be on the inward application of the judgment of this spirit of the king of Assyria within each of us.

We will, Lord willing, always focus first on the inward application, yet it is of utmost importance that we realize that the inward, spiritual application of these Words of God are always to be taken as being true only in downpayment, "earnest" form at this present time. Like Christ while standing before Pilate, we know and must confess that we are kings, yet we must also be aware and confess that "[our] kingdom is not of this age":

Joh 18:35  Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world [Greek: aion - age]: if my kingdom were of this world [age], then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence [this age].
Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Christ had no illusions that Pilate would "hear [His] voice" and set Him free, or that Pilate would give his power over to Christ in this age. Christ said these words to Pilate for our sakes, so we would know that we, too, are really even "now the sons of God... [are now] kings and priests", and yet this is true only in "earnest", downpayment form, and we do not yet have "the purchased possession".

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The apostle John confirms this Truth:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

So it is inwardly and spiritually when we are told:

Isa 10:12  ... when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, [He] will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

This judgment of the King of Assyria also is taking place "now" within us in downpayment form, in "earnest... until the redemption of the purchased possession", and that judgment requires that we continue to punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks [by] bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ:

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

There will not be one person in the first resurrection who has not himself experienced the punishment of the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the punishment of the glory of his high looks.

We have a story which typifies what must be done within us before we will be able to enter into the temple in heaven (Rev 15:7-8). This is not simply a history lesson. This is a type of us (1Co 10:11). This is the story of the fruit of the stout heart, and the glory of the high looks of King Nebuchadnezzar within us being punished by our Lord:

Dan 4:19  Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies ["Judah and Jerusalem. This dream is to God's firstfruits].
Dan 4:20  The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;
Dan 4:21  Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation:
Dan 4:22  It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
Dan 4:23  And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;
Dan 4:24  This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:
Dan 4:25  That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Dan 4:26  And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. ["He himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" 1Co 3:16]
Dan 4:27  Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
Dan 4:28  All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 4:29  At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
Dan 4:30  The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
Dan 4:31  While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
Dan 4:32  And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

Nebuchadnezzar, as a type of us, was given the heart of a beast for seven years, just as we are given the heart of a beast "until the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfulled":

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

Standing on the sea of glass is the same as being in the temple, inasmuch as the "molten sea" was reserved for only the priests, the sons of Aaron [2Ch 4:6], who typified Christ as our high priest. Because the priests typify the elect firstborn, this chapter concludes with these words:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon [typifying God's elect], cannot receive or sit upon his throne until the seven years of judgment and the destruction of his stout heart and the glory of his high looks are accomplished and he knows that the heavens rule on his earth. Nebuchadnezzar's seven​ years of punishment until the wrath of God against him is fulfilled typifies our own punishment under the seven plagues and not being able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues which fill up the wrath of God against Babylon The Great within us are fulfilled in our lives.

Before his judgment, Nebuchadnezzar typifies our own old man, who must first be judged and destroyed. He is just a later version of the King of Assyria, who is also a type of our own proud rebellious, yet religious, flesh. Our flesh just naturally believes in the false doctrine of free moral agency. It is that false doctrine which leads us to say:

Isa 10:13  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
Isa 10:14  And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

Let's look closely at these two verses and notice the self aggrandizement the King of Assryia within us places upon himself:

Isa 10:13  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and [I] have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
Isa 10:14  And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

This is my flesh and your flesh. If we so much as deny these following verses of scripture, which we all do in our own time, then we are the King of Assyria whose proud heart must be destroyed. Our inability to see what is in these verses is because of "the pride of life", the fruit of the false doctrine of 'free moral agency', which is one of the last lies we are granted to relinquish:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The preparations of the hearts of Joseph's brothers and their agreement among themselves to sell him as a slave into Egypt were "from the Lord". While there are many other examples of the truth that God Himself hardens our hearts and makes us to err from His ways, I will quote just one more section of scripture which makes this point:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

The King of Assyria within us is "captive to the law of sin which is in [our] members", and he is helpless to do anything about it. We are all so full of ourselves and so subject to "the pride of life" (1Jo 2:16), that this very same story is repeated to us through two other kings in scripture who are given this same mind of:

Isa 10:13  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

The King of Babylon

The first additional example is the King of Babylon, who is also an Assyrian and who actually conquers the King of Assryia and his capital of Nineveh. But the King of Babylon carries on in the same spirit of the "pride of life":

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

We are very unrealistic in our unlimited pride of our hearts. How can we exalt our throne above the stars of God? How can we possibly be like the most High when this is the actual truth of who we really are?:

Isa 14:15  But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.
Isa 14:16  Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, (ESV)

Isa 14:21  Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Isa 14:22  For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.

'Sheol' is the unseen, the grave, and the King of Babylon says all these grandiose things "in [his] heart". But in reality he is nothing "like the most high", and instead he is "brought down to sheol", and he is "the man  who made the earth tremble".

The King of Tyre

Another king possessed by this same pride of life is a third Biblical type of whom we are before we are humbled and brought to know our Lord and His work in our lives. This king also in his heart thinks he is a god. But our hearts are "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9), so the Lord clears the air at the very beginning of this story:

Eze 28:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 28:2  Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:

In spite of the Lord telling us this prince, this king, "is a man... and not a God", that he simply "sets [his] heart as the heart of God", and that he has all the fantasies expressed in the rest of this chapter only "in [his] heart", the churches of this world, the churches of the great harlot and her daughters, still believe and teach that Isaiah 14 and this 28th chapter of Ezekiel are not at all about "a man [whose] heart is lifted up [to] think [he] is a God".

Rather, the churches of this world and the commentaries almost all teach that these two chapters of scripture are about the fall of Satan from the heavens, back some time before the Garden of Eden. The fact is that the scriptures actually teach us that Satan and his angels, by God's design, still haunt the heavens and that the Lord calls heavenly assemblies from which He sends evil spirits to "trouble [King] Saul" (1Sa 16:14-15), and to be lying spirits in the mouths of all of King Ahab's prophets (1Kg 22:22), and that to this very day the heavens must yet be cleansed with better things than the blood of calves and goats:

Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself [into the hearts and minds of His people who "are the temple of God" (1Co 3:16)], now to appear in the presence of God for us:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The Truth is that this same proud heart of the kings of Assyria, Babylon and Tyrus is still in all men to this very day, and we all still "sit in the temple of God, [maintaining that we] are God":

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who ["That man of sin... the son of perdition" within us all] opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Of ourselves we cannot see this man of sin within us. It takes the spirit of God to reveal him to us, so we are told:

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The old English word 'let' means 'to restrain', and it is our old man, our carnal mind, which restrains us from seeing ourselves for the pompous, would-be 'god' which we think "in [our] hearts" we are. "The spirit of His mouth" which destroys "that Wicked... man of sin" within us all, are these very words of scripture which reveal "that Wicked... man of sin [is] the pride of life... in [our own] hearts" which restrains the day of the destruction of this "man of sin... sitting in the temple of God, [by] showing himself that he is God".

But that day of revealing who he is, is inevitable, "and that man of sin... that Wicked [will] be revealed [and] the Lord [will] consume [him] with the spirit of His mouth", which includes these very words:

Isa 10:15  Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

It is humanly impossible for us, with our carnal mind which is enmity against God, to understand the depth of our own apostasy and our own helplessness to do anything about our wretched and miserable and naked condition. We may think in our hearts, and we may act as if we think we are God, but this is far closer to reality:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Then what ​is to be done if we are completely helpless to save ourselves from the captivity we are in to the law of sin in our members? There is only one thing to do, and that is to cry out along​ with the apostle, to our Lord:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

We must be humbled and have the pride of the King of Assyria, the King of Babylon and the King of Tyre burned out of us before we can know that the fiery solution to our helpless and hopeless predicament is the death and destruction of our old man. Only then can we (and we must) express our gratitude for the provision God has 'devised to bring back to Himself His banished'.

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

That really is 'good news'. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we have been humbled to see that we cannot even sin of ourselves and that even our sins are a work of the Lord, "an experience of evil" the Lord has given us to humble us, then we can rejoice with the apostle Paul at the means He has devised and has revealed to us as to who will deliver us from the body of this death:

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

"Jesus Christ, our Lord" is the new man within us, and as he grows within us our old man dies daily.

Joh 3:30  He [Christ] must increase, but I [the old man] must decrease.

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn what it means for our old man, the King of Assyria within us, to decrease until there is very little left of him and his ways:

Isa 10:16  Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
Isa 10:17  And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
Isa 10:18  And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth.
Isa 10:19  And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

Psa 75:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
Psa 75:2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.Psa 75:3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
Psa 75:4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
Psa 75:5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
Psa 75:6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
Psa 75:7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Psa 75:8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.
Psa 75:9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
Psa 75:10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

Right out the gate of this Psalm we are told what we are going to be looking at and how God is going to accomplish this good work of having “the horns of the righteous” exalted. The word ‘Altaschith’ and the word ‘Asaph’ give us God’s very specific purpose for all flesh of all time:

Altaschith H516
– Original: אu^H1500 תu^H1468 שu^H1473 חu^H1514
– Transliteration: ‘Al tashcheth (Aramaic)
– Phonetic: al tash-kayth’
– Definition: Al-taschith = do not destroy

Asaph H623
– Original: אu^H1505 ףpar
– Transliteration: ‘Acaph
– Phonetic: aw-sawf’
– Definition: Asaph = gatherer
– Strong’s: From H622; collector;
Asaph the name of three Israelites and of the family of the first: – Asaph.

Altaschith means ‘do not destroy’, which is what God has promised of all of His spiritual creation, that it will not be destroyed.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Joh 18:9 That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

What will be destroyed is ‘the old man’ or ‘soulishness of man’ symbolized by what this word Asaph conjures up. As a ‘gatherer’, it speaks of the end times or harvest, and as Asaph is also the name of three Israelites; “three” symbolizing the process of that harvest or judgement.

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.

So with these concepts in mind, we are reminded that God has a controversy with the nations of the world whom He is going to gather unto judgment both within and without.

Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.

Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

All the world will be judged each man in his order (judgment is connected to patient continuance, as we possess our souls in patience, and that judgment which begins at the house of God (1Pe 4:17) will one day go out to all of the world, all of Israel who represents the world who will be judged by the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). This judg ment comes about in succession (i.e. process or order) and means the destruction of the flesh, and is symbolized by the three holy days that Israel was commanded to come up and keep year by year.

Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
Rom 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Deu 16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

God anoints the elect in this age to see and understand that we are a part of this process of judgment which is what is needful for us to be enabled to become “pillars” who can judge the congregation uprightly. These are the wonderful works that God is performing in Christ’s body for the sake of the rest of the world who will be healed by our stripes.

2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

We pray that God will grant us the forbearance, the faith, and deep love we need in order to continue to persevere and possess our souls in patience today. This particular Psalm really points to the solution of how God is going to create this resolve in the body of Christ.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

Christ is destroying our flesh or soulishness, as our lives our narrowed into judgement which comes forth from the north (judgment leads to spiritual increase – Psa 75:6). All our journeys in life are leading up to this day of judgement which we are blessed to be a part of and to learn about in His word.

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Psa 75:6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

Jer 1:14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

Jer 6:22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

Psa 75:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith^H516, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near [kin] thy wondrous works declare.

As the body of Christ matures, we give greater and greater thanks (mentioned twice = witness) for being a part of this process of wonderful works that we know are needful and necessary to going onto perfection on the third day as a new creation (Luk 13:32, 2Co 5:17).

The nearness of (near [kin]) or relationship we have with our Kinsman redeemer is expressed in these verses below:

“Thy name is near thy wondrous works declare” reminds us that not only are we his workmanship (Eph 2:10) and that we are called and chosen (Mat 22:14) to do a work greater than these (Joh 14:12), but also that as His body, we too, have been given a new name to see and hear and understand (Rev 2:17) and declare His wondrous works to all the children of men (Psa 107), as the next two verses confirm:

Psa 75:2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

If we go through this process of judgment in this age, and if we are received as sons and daughters through chastening and scourging, a big of part of that process will be connected to our turning our other cheek from those who oppose us in this life. When we are granted to turn the other cheek, we are judging a situation rightly and being prepared by our Father to be judges (Mat 5:39).

Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

1Pe 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Psa 75:3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

Again, if we are judged in this age we are going to see the faulty foundation we once were on, and it will be clearer and clearer how this world is upon that foundation that must crash down and be destroyed in one symbolic hour. We bear up the pillars of Christ in each other and know that this world will reject that strength which is ours today. The end result will be that this world will crash down upon us and be the sword that God uses to perfect Christ’s righteousness within His body. Sampson typifies all of this in this part of scripture.

Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Mat 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Jdg 16:28 And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Jdg 16:29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
Jdg 16:30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

Psa 75:4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
Psa 75:5 Lift not up your horn^H7161 on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

In this particular verse the holy spirit inspires the words every^G3956 man,^G444 three times to remind us again that there is process to this destruction of the flesh that thinks it has power unto itself with no connection to God. It is the pride of life [don’t lift up your horn] of the first man adam that we are warned against (1Jn 2:16-17)

How we warn every man through preaching, or teaching in all wisdom will differ for every situation and every man, but the end goal will always be the same: “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:”

1Co 9:19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
1Co 9:20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1Co 9:21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
1Co 9:22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
1Co 9:23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

“Lift not up the horn” is mentioned twice in this psalm to witness to us that we need to ask God to destroy that part of us that wants to give our opinion, and express our wisdom and power rather than the power of God which comes from above. We do a lot of shadow boxing in the court (beateth the air) with the law where there is uncertainty and days and months and times and years that we wrestle with, but it is when we truly begin to be judged of God by being dragged out of Babylon that we will find ourselves keeping under our body and not exalting our own horn of righteousness but rather praying that we should never be a castaway and able to glorify God with a contrite and broken heart that can only come from Him alone.

1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Jas 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Mat 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Isa 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psa 75:6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

Promotion^H7311 [same Strong’s number used for the English word “lift up” in the previous verses] comes as a result of God narrowing our life in service to Him and His body (Joh 21:15).

All our life we go east and west and south in our steps, and these three directions are always being judged by God’s sovereign hand from the north which has always guided all our steps (Ecc 11:9, Act 17:28) as he prepares our hearts to be comfortable in the north where judgement comes. God’s desire is to have all people abide in the proper judgment and in harmony with Him who abides symbolically in the north from where judgment comes.

Psa 75:7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

In order to get to this place of peace and entering into the joy of the Lord (Mat 25:21) we need to know who is in charge, and how it is by his merciful hand that there is a continual decency and order (1Co 14:40) in His creation which will bring all men one day to praise our Great God and to bow every knee before him (1Co 15:28, Rom 14:11). And in the end it is Christ who is set up^H7311 (exalted) and Adam who is put down^H8213, (humbled, abased) within and without (Php 2:1-10).

Psa 75:8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

A cup of judgment in God’s hand that is “full of mixture”, that is to say has been prepared by God and made to be drunk by all men, “all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.”

When the world is being sanctified by the word of God (Joh 17:17) or wine during the millennium it will be faith given to the nations but not tried faith. It takes more than just hearing the word of God, we must be doers as well, and not just doers for the sake of doing, because that would be equivalent to many good works (Mat 7:22), which is what will happen during the millennium (Jer 6:14, Eze 13:10). It is all done to teach us the most enduring and profound lesson that only Christ can be Christ working in us, both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure (Rom 8:9, Php 2:13).

Like the blessed emails this week about gardening and weeds, we will plant the word of God in the hearts of men and water that field which is the world (Mat 13:38), however the condition of the earth and its ability to receive and be nourished by the word is a matter of timing (Mar 4:2-8). We must live by every word of God and so every amount of growth or lack of growth has a profound lesson to teach us as we see the Master of vineyard harden and soften hearts throughout the ages all to the glory and honour of our Father.

The wine is red, Adamic (H120), as we are told that we will indeed drink it (Mat 20:22-23), until “it is finished” (Joh 19:30) and judgment is complete (Isa 51:22-23-52:1-2).

Psa 75:9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

What a glorious desire and blessed place to rest for ever and ever. We are heading toward something far greater than we can receive in our earnest state of flesh, but we do have a few verses that give us an inkling of how glorious it will be:

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Psa 75:10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

We know that we are the beast that sits on the throne of God showing ourselves out to be God. This is the beast whose horns must be cut off in order for the horns of the righteousness of Christ within us to be exalted.

2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

The new horn of the righteous is the new creation that does show themselves to be the body of Christ and who think it not robbery to be equal with God, in the sense that all things are ours now, and we have become part of something because the old horns have been shaved off and the Lord, the Master Potter, has made something new that lives and glorifies God with every ounce of its being.

1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (represented by those ten horns Rom 8:2)
1Co 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Hi Mike,

I have been reading your papers and Amo 98% comfortable with your teachings.
What my question is, the called and chosen will be resurrected as spirit to enter the kingdom of Heaven to judge and teach. Judge and teach whom? The rest of mankind left on earth? What happens when the rest of the dead are resurrected? Will they be in the flesh? I understand there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but I don’t understand the purpose of a new earth if everybody is resurrected spirit. I am pretty sure I am of the Esau class, as I am just pretty wicked. So am wondering is there a comforting message of my class?
Mike, I really do understand only a few will be chosen and I am only wondering what happens to the rest of us. I Amo 69 years old and have seen ” The Truth” about 60 of those years, until I discovered through your papers that I have been really hoodwinked by the perpetuation of the Pharisees of organized religion. I can truly say I have never been really comfortable with the teachings of my past and really appreciate you.
D____
PS, Just another thought, what is the portent of the resurrection of Lazarus in the flesh?
Many thanks,
D____

Hi D____,
Thank you for your questions.
You ask:

… what is the portent of the resurrection of Lazarus in the flesh?

The answer is the same as it usually is; Lazarus’s resurrection in flesh typifies Christ coming in flesh and through Christ Lazarus’s resurrection in the flesh portends our ‘resurrection’ while yet in the flesh.
Being resurrected while yet in the flesh is what occurs inwardly in all of God’s elect:

Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members [ as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

“As those alive from the dead” means ‘as resurrected.’ Here is the Concordant version:

Rom 6:13 Nor yet be presenting your members, as implements of injustice, to Sin, but present yourselves to God as if alive from among the dead, and your members as implements of righteousness to God.

God’s elect are to live “as IF” they were resurrected from the dead. Here it is again:

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

So here they are combined:

Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

But we are still in our flesh:

Gal 2:20 again: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

So we still have to remain “faithful to the end” in order to complete the passage through the second veil. Oh yes, we are seated with Christ “in the heavens.” But it is in “earnest” only at this time:

Eph 1:11 In whom [ in Christ] also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which [ Holy Spirit] is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

As far as you being Esau, I have no doubt that the publican felt the same way as he smote his breast and agreed with the self- righteous Pharisee about his own spiritual state.

Luk 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men [ are], extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as [ his] eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

The publican felt just like he was Esau. But look at Christ’s assessment of this situation:

Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man [ the publican who felt like he was Esau] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

It is not until you come to have the attitude you are right here expressing: “I am of the Esau class, and am just pretty wicked” that God will even begin to work with you:
I tell you, this man [ the publican who felt like he was Esau] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Isa 66:2 (b) but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

I dare say that right this moment, you are in the best spiritual condition of your life. Keep that humble attitude, and “you will judge the world.”
Mike

Hi Mike

Are we now waiting for His call while in the flesh, not at some far into the future time?
And that time is when He calls our spirit to Himself; when He takes our spirit from our body and the body dies and our spirit leaves our body. Our spirit, or His ‘breath of life’ goes back to the Father.
That is the time of the division of the ‘Elect’ from the ‘Called’; the separation of the ‘Wheat’ from the ‘Tares’, the winnowing time, the separating and the gathering of His brothers to Himself.
Then those who have to go thru the cleansing process, the ones who were not chosen while in the flesh, are the second resurrection. But this all happens to all at the same time, at the time of their individual death of their body, when He calls the spirit, or breath of life, back to Himself.
I don’t think there is a mass resurrection, but each, in his own time is the separation of body and spirit. Hence, death of the body to go into the grave, and the resurrection of the spirit to become a Spirit.
I know I have been repeating myself, but don’t know how else to explain what I am thinking.
Thanks,
J____

Hi J____,
You ask if the moment of death is the same as the first resurrection?
It will certainly seem that way to every resurrected body inasmuch as an unconscious person is totally unaware of the passing of time. Adam himself will be raised completely unaware that about 6,000 years have transpired since his creation.
But the answer is, no, it is no the same as the first resurrection. The reality is that “if the dead rise not then they that are asleep in Christ are perished”, and we do not want to make the claim that the resurrection in its “redemption of the purchased possession” form is “already past”.

1Co 15:16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith [ is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, [ and] become the firstfruits of them that slept.
2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [ trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest [ Greek- pledge, downpayment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, [ resurrection from the dead] unto the praise of his glory.

Everything is ours now, but only in down payment or “earnest” form.
The story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead demonstrates that the return of the spirit to God is not in a conscious state. “Lazarus is asleep… that that ARE asleep in Christ…”

Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Joh 11:12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Joh 11:13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Joh 11:14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath [ Hebrew- ‘ruach’, same word translated ‘spirit’ in the next verse], they die, and return to their dust.
Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit [ Hebrew- ‘ruach’], they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

This is the Truth of the state of the dead:

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Having a spirit which gives us life, does not mean we are a spirit. We are dust! “Dust you are”.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [ Hebrew- ‘ruach’, spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten [ by men].

It was God made us to begin with, and He will make us new in a body of spirit. But that is a future event, and without that future even “they that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished”. God did not say ‘spirit thou art’, he said we “are dust”. So we are not spirits having a physical experience, rather we are physical beings, having a spiritual experience and in dire need of a resurrection from among the dead.
Our Lord is that resurrection for every man.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

I hope this helps to clear this up for you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Dear Mike,

I just wanted to make a comment and ask you if my thinking is correct and that you might, God willing, either expound or correct.
You say quote, ” I cannot tell you how much it means to me to know that you really are praying for me.”
I think I might know how much it means to you that you are in my prayer. Correct me if I am wrong please.
For me, being in the prayers of the brethren is where we are made manifest and present to our Dear Loving Lord and Savior. THIS, is for me, the invisible place, separate to all carnality and worldliness, wherein the Family of the Lord and the Kingdom are made spiritually manifest as in the manifestation of the Sons of God. It is as a fulfillment and expectation that is coming true and the dawning in my heart of the manifestation of the Sons of God.

Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

No longer being a “creature” but a member in the family of God, I am given to see the significance of being in the prayers of the brethren and likewise holding the brethren in my prayer. I am aware of the fact that is told to me by Paul.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

So, Mike, consequentially, it means a lot to me to have you present in my prayers… but more that you have me in yours!
If this thinking is radical or twisted or incorrect, please, I would pray that you edify me accordingly..
I am very blessed to be in your prayers.

Blessings to you,
D____

Good morning D____,

Thank you for sending me your thoughts and for asking for my discernment concerning those thoughts. I agree with you. We are “in Christ” (Act 17:28), and Christ is “in us” (Col 1:27) if indeed He is there.
What I have had to fight is what the apostle Paul fought, and that is the mixing of the consummation with the present situation of being “sealed with the holy spirit of promise… the earnest of the spirit [ down payment] until the redemption of the purchased possession.”

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also [ trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

So we are “resurrected with Christ… in earnest” at this time, and even though we are also “resurrected with him in newness of life”, and even though “Now are we the sons of God”, we still cannot say “the resurrection is already past”. It is not past, and saying it is past “overthrows the faith of some”.

Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

We are “sealed with the holy spirit of promise” and “God knows them that… have this seal”. “We are saved by hope… but why does a man hope for that he already has?”

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit [ of promise], even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body “the purchased possession” Eph 1:14].
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

So yes, we are one with Christ already. Yes, “Now are we the sons of God”, but everything we have now, being one with Christ, being buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him in newness of life is only in earnest and not in fullness. So be very careful to avoid the ‘fullness now’ false doctrine which sometimes dominates many Christian fellowships.
I hope you find this edifying. It is intended to encourage you in your walk. I certainly believe that all you want is to know what is the mind of Christ and His Father because “this is life eternal”.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike