The Book of Joel – Chapter 3:3

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. – 1 Co 6:20 – Eze 37:3.

[Study Aired Sept 21^th]

In the opening two verses of Joel Chapter 3, we were left surveying the valley of dry bones with our Lord as he appealed to us to trust in his deliverance. Otherwise, we, too, would add our blood to the depth of a horse’s bridle (Rev 14:20).

We continue to soberly listen to our Lord while reflecting deeply upon our spiritual correlations to these startling visual images of our disappearing reprehensible nature of refusing to be spiritually aroused by him, our husband.

Significations

Joe 3:3  And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

The concept of ‘casting lots’ was instituted by the Lord of the Old Covenant for his divine selection of a sin-bearing sacrifice of the Lord’s goat and his people’s goat with the institution of the Day of Atonement. Note that goats, too, are to be presented as an offering without blemish (Lev4:23), just as sheep, yet the goat peculiarly represents sin. My experience with goats, and particularly male goats, is that they are wily, and their eyes and mannerisms appear eerily calculating; they are highly self-aware and, by man’s standards, compared to other animals, overtly sexually offensive, even (hopefully) causing the basest of men to squirm. It seems that those aspects of a goat’s nature match mankind’s devilish artful nature of devising ‘inventions’ (Devise; think; plan. Psa 99:8. 106:29 & 39. Pro 8:12. Particularly Ecc 7.29) for his covert sensual and financial profit physically and spiritually. A male goat’s sexual awareness is somewhat parallel to a female ass, as she compulsively ‘snuffing up the wind in her season’ (Jer 2:24) in an Aholah and Aholiabah-like passion to satiate their’s and their lover’s appetite. That is their animalist nature that grotesquely and deliberately equates to us physically and, worse, spiritually, preferring to seek spiritual paramours (Eze 23:20) in worldly ideologies, snuffing up the spirit of wily doctrines of ‘another Jesus’ (2Cor 11:4).

Since our Lord designed goats ‘goatish’ (literally meaning: Lustful, lascivious, libidinous, lewd, wanton, licentious, salacious, randy, concupiscent, horny) nature, an additional nature of a goat lends itself to leading the Lord’s sheep where they normally don’t want to go on their own accord; hence, such a goat is valuable for the shepherd in the world he calls a ‘Judas goat’ to leading a selected flock through a difficult path of dense vegetation, up yard ramps, or to an unwitting slaughter. No matter how many sheepdogs bark and nip at the heels of the sheep, if they do not want to go where the shepherd wants to move them, they stubbornly crowd together for protection. However, the wily goat seems to understand what the herder is frustratingly attempting to do and steps out from the flock; the sheep uncannily lose their fear and ‘magically’ follow the goat precisely where the shepherd wants the flock to go ~ such is Satan’s way represented by his priests in the churches of the world, today, working enchantments in the laity’s minds (2 Ch 33:6-9).

Lev 16:5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
Lev 16:7 And he shall take the two goats for a sin offering, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the Scapegoat.
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the Scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Our Lord, the “fit man”,  led us, the wily Scapegoat, alive and released into the world of sinful wilderness just as was the Lord’s goat to make an atonement with Him in our flesh. The Lord’s goat, though exceptionally subject to sin, represents Jesus’ flesh that didn’t sin as the fifth part (Lev 5:16. 27:1-34) represents faith through a chastisement he didn’t deserve, while our equivalent goat represents us alive in the wilderness of Babylon, dying daily to sin and overcoming by our Lord’s sinless power and might.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

The sin offering is a person who is given to see that there is nothing good about his flesh and its works, and thus his need for a saviour, and the Lord’s goat symbolises making an offering to God for what he is and what he is becoming by Christ’s righteousness being in his flesh (Col 1:24).

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Following are links for a more detailed understanding of the Scapegoats:

Scapegoat: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-scapegoat/

Trespass offering/Lord’s goat: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/do-we-have-a-trespass-offering/

Casting lots by historical customs is a method for two conflicting parties to reach an agreement on a trivial matter, despite their heated debate indicating stubborn, self-righteous, even Laodicean-like piety (wryly observed, Russian roulette would be the more decisive casting of lots). For a possible Elect of God to dally with such delusion clearly identifies cringe-worthy ignorance when our Lord clearly says that we are to know the truth that will set us free from such conceit.

Mat 21:23  And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
Mat 21:24  And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Mat 21:25  The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
Mat 21:26  But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.
Mat 21:27  And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free [Not ‘you might know the truth’ and thus feeling the need to cast lots for the many gods to decide. Thus…]

Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

The casting of lots was and is for Old Covenant people who don’t know Christ’s word because they do not have spiritual discernment. It effectively is gambling on another Jesus when we are commissioned to know ‘the Jesus’, to diligently seek to find his truth and not be so whorishly insipid by saying we don’t know. It is absurd to believe that God needs to cast lots for him to know his heart, and neither do we to know him.

Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

The spirit will show us the keys to the Kingdom, and not by the casting of lots that can provoke Satan to step in and, at Christ’s acknowledgement, request to give us a good threshing and we to run off humiliatingly wobbling bare bruised butts. 

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them [Anointed cloths being a slowly disappearing relic of Jewish traditions].
Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews [ones looking for selfish and financial gain], exorcists [All ministers of Babylonian Christianity deluding the laity], took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 

See, the vagabond Jews were unwittingly casting lots since they didn’t know whether this strange new power came from Jesus or Paul. So they, like wily goats, cunningly concluded that they had best ‘bet’ on both of them, colloquially speaking in English humour, to have ‘two bob each way’ and assure financial gain.

Act 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva [means a ‘mind reader’ priest], a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
Act 19:15  And [low and behold!] the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 
Act 19:16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Of course, the classic casting of lots was performed at the foot of the cross.

Mar 15:24  And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.

Clothing represents being arrayed righteously or unrighteously. Since the “vagabond Jews” cast lots to soundly quash any argument over the personal selection of Jesus’ clothing, it again symbolises our former ignorance of not knowing righteousness from unrighteousness. It symbolically is a very haphazard way of imagining that we can acquire our Lord’s righteousness while refusing to follow his path. It is a version of whitewashing the outside of the metaphorical tomb we are, whose insides are full of decay and stench (Mat 23:27). Babylonian Christianity similarly represents a casting of lots since none of the 40,000-plus denominations speaks the words of the same number of different Jesus, and so, to the laity, their noisome babbling is one big gamble and unwittingly, no winners!

The casting of lots spiritually is his true followers asking the Lord for his will to be accomplished for an assuredly righteous outcome, regardless of personal loss.

Pro 16:33  The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD. 

So, in those regards, how has Israel “cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.”?

Additionally, what it means is that treacherous Judah (Jer 3:7-11), representing the Lord’s priests today who claim to hold the Lord’s word righteously, has had a greater God-given and wilful ignorance than Egypt, Sodom, Tyre and Old Jerusalem. She has utterly disregarded her Lord’s commands and searched for enlightenment in her many idols for a more consuming Sodom-like immediate sensuality, as did Aholah and Aholibah ass-like snuffing the wind for more exciting ‘flesh’, and for us, almost guaranteed to overshadow the spiritual.

Gen 19:4  But before they [The angels of the Lord in Lot’s home] lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Gen 19:5  And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Jud 1:5  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Jud 1:6  And the angels [The Lord’s budding Elect who returned to spiritual Babylon!]] which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Jud 1:7  Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous [the Elect] scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them [the Elect] that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Sodom and the cities of the plain (Gen 13:10-12) were exceptionally rich in goods and were the crossroads of trade for the established world.

In the Biblical sense, to “know” someone is represented by a husband and wife who are allegedly united in a righteous spirit, mind, and body (“allegedly” speaking since the concept mostly remains an ached-for vision and rarely a reality) that the energy of physical and spiritual unity is so unspeakable that the only way for men and women to express its complexity is righteous sexual unity. Subsequently, near-perfect and unified sexual satiation between a husband and wife, at best, cloudedly expresses the inexpressible nature of God, the spiritual condition of the Heavenly that lasts for eternity that only the omniscient spirit can effortlessly abide.

Jud 1:18  How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jud 1:19  These be they who separate themselves, [divided by lots] sensual, having not the spirit.

Jas 3:14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts [and thus resort to the casting of lots mostly within one’s mind regarding the Lord’s word], glory not, and lie not against the truth. 
Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 

As such, “they” spoken of in Joel 3:3 are the Priests of Israel who did not deliver the word of God to the nation righteously, as commissioned. They symbolically and unconsciously ‘cast lots’ by the act of divination and sort other deities from neighbouring tribes since they feared the people, just as a husband, covertly, and from experience, grows to fear intimately approaching his wife and likely rejection; he smoulders in righteous anger hopefully without bitterness for a figurative 40 years (the number for trials or tribulation Acts 14:22) as did the Lord for his wife, Israel. Our Lord hasn’t let the sun go down on his anger, thus giving up on us, since he lives eternally in the spirit of light.

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

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.

Col 3:18  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Col 3:19  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Because of Eve’s curse, the vast majority of carnal husbands are destined to at least inwardly feel an undignified pleading for boudoir intimacies with their wives and often give up and, in Babylon, seek ‘dishonest spoil’ with more willing Aholibah’s physically and most outstandingly, spiritually in the world’s religions. That ghastly inward feeling of fawning for spiritual intimacy is what Christ, too, felt with Israel’s tardiness when he endlessly ‘pleaded’ with her to return to him.

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

“… and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.”

Having sexual intimacies with another female other than one’s spouse is adultery and worthy of physical death in Old Covenant times, and more profound spiritual death today for the Lord’s Elect. But an alleged priest of God, notably a lay Christian who professes to know ‘the Jesus’ to unconscionably penetrate a boy as naturally as a female, is unutterably shameful. Since males directly represent Christ, the sexual engagement of a boy represents the immaturity of Judah and particularly Christians today and their intimacy with not just ‘another Jesus’, but the god they have created of and in themselves.

Rev 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Dog H2965 – Definition:

1. a dog 
2. metaph. a man of impure mind, an impudent man.

Lev 18:22  Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Lev 18:23  Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

While the world is currently hell-bent on normalising homosexuality and lesbianism, and the world since the King James Bible indirectly attributes “dogs” to be synonymous with homosexuality, both the seemingly mild-mannered expression “of impure mind” relating to same-sex interactions, and if not repented, belies the phenomenal and guaranteed retribution in the Lake of Fire.

2Ki 23:7  And he [Josiah, King of Israel] brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
2Ki 23:8  And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

Again, it is the Priests, the Lord’s very Elect, who he holds accountable for our sexual perversions that mirror the spiritual.

Sodomite H6945 – 1. male temple prostitute. From H6942; a (quasi) sacred person that is (technically) a (male) devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry: – sodomite unclean.

Though homosexuality, rape of either sex and adultery are assuredly not lawful, the following verses seem too mild a condemnation for the act of engaging in same-sex intimacies. Nonetheless, and regardless of the world’s many nuanced levels of disgust or acceptance, God gave us over to the lusts of our hearts to starkly contrast our ways with his. Sin is sin regardless of humanity’s scale of rottenness. And so, these verses almost seem blasé.

1Co 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1Co 6:13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats [for this cause, a male member is designed for its female equivalence]: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
1Co 6:14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
1Co 6:15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
1Co 6:17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 
1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

To this point, the above signifies the male spiritual equivalence of those highly innovative (mostly unexpressed) variations of sexual obscenities; so, what is the benefit of selling a girl for wine?

The first correlation that springs to mind of selling a girl for wine is the malicious intention of intoxicating her enough to break down her possible resistance to unwanted sexual intimacy.

Hab 2:15  Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 
Hab 2:16  Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

Sensually having one’s foreskin uncovered, as depicted in Habakkuk 2:16, doesn’t take much imagination to understand the heightened state of vocalised arousal by the intoxicated person, blurting his normally embarrassingly darkest sins for his groomer friend’s itching ears. Since uncircumcision represents physical uncleanliness and, therefore, spiritual uncleanliness, both parties are drunk with their figurative foreskins uncovered symbolically and shamefully revealing their ‘impure’, ‘unclean’ minds represented by a “dog” being an unclean animal (See “dog” above). Both raucously and unashamedly glory in sharing thoughtless ejaculations of normally dishonourable exploits. Noah’s son, Ham, likewise shamefully spewed news to his brothers of seeing his father through the open tent fly following Noah’s night of overly enjoyed wine, lying comatose and naked on his bed (Gen 9:20-25). Ham’s brothers, to their credit, didn’t share in degrading their father and gloriously covered his nakedness.

1Co 7:19  Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

We are to glorify God with our bodies, directly identifying our sexuality and righteous arousal as holy and glorious for Christ, our Husband. His kisses are better than wine, and his wife knows she is guaranteed to bring forth his pure ‘issue’ of truth for spiritual children, the fruit of the womb of our minds.

Lev 26:9  For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Psa 128:3  Thy wife [The Bride of Christ] shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

1Jn 3:9  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed [Being Christ’s seed, and not of the Serpent] remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 

For not glorifying God sexually with our bodies in the purity of marriage, our Lord’s right hand of chastisement will strike us for our drunkenness on doctrinal lies graphically pictured by a man’s shamefully inglorious “spewing” of lies and resulting bastard children from the womb of The Great Whore.

Lev 15:31  Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their [uncircumcised] uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.
Lev 15:32  This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith; 
Lev 15:33  And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.

1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot [or another man, woman or beast] is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh [… mind-blowing, isn’t it?].

And so, a girl being sold for wine is financial gain from the despicable acts of rape or her wilful pimping for monetary gain. It represents spiritual pedophilia by recklessly selling the immature, ignorant or innocent word of God for one’s selfish richness of a vile spirit.

1Co 6:17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 
1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body [Be it fornication with another man, woman or beast he is in unity with that spirit (Ecc 3:21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast [the unconverted man] that goeth downward to the earth? To where Satan’s spirit eats your dust].
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

Num 14:24  But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

The Lord’s Elect are ‘bought with a price’, and that price is Christ and his sinless sacrifice so that we can fill up behind him the spiritual death of our old man.

Subsequently, the Lord has today gathered his Elect in the valley of Jehoshaphat to plead with them to personally judge their nations within for every imaginably disgraceful sexual act represented by Laodicean slothfulness of spiritual homosexuality and whoredoms with the ignorant and innocent for riotous personal gain. Hence, being bought with a price, we glorify God with the members of our bodies in His spirit with a circumcised heart (Rom 2:29), exposing the righteous glory of the headship of Christ and our Father.

Rev 9:20-21-Part 4-The Sixth Trumpet

[Study Aired Sept 1, 2024]

We are continuing to seek to know the scriptural significance of all the symbols used to inform us of our judgment, and the judgment of all men in the sixth trumpet.

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The rest of the men

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all our self-righteous, ungodliness, and His Wrath is an ongoing yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily” and being “crucified with Christ” daily. If we do not believe on Christ and do the things He says then we are not ‘dying daily’ and ‘His wrath abides on us’:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.  [I am “killed by these plagues… daily”]

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.

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [dying daily and being crucified with Christ daily]
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Yet repented not of the works of their hands

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the self-righteous “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle for so very long. All of this is leading up to the revelation and the judgment of self- righteous Babylon within us in chapters 17 and 18. It is we who are admonished to “read, hear, and keep the things written therein”:

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

We read and we actually understand those words and yet we struggle every day to apply the Lord’s words of admonition to ourselves instead of all those sinners somewhere ‘out there’

Jeremiah admonishes us:

Jer 2:30  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. [Our own words condemn us “like a destroying lion”]

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

Paul admonishes us:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: [All men, Eph 2:2, are by nature “the children of disobedience”].
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

We all ‘lose or first love’ (Rev 2:4) and “return to [our] own vomit [and our] wallowing in the mire”.

Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through self-righteous good works to “turning grace into lasciviousness”. These are all false doctrines called “idols of the heart.”

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity [self-righteousness, Eze 33:13] before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, [wherewith] I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and [thus] it was, saith the Lord GOD.

“The stumbling block of our iniquity” is our own self-righteousness, the most insidious of sins. Ezekiel defines this phrase for us in:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity [Believing his righteousness was “his own righteousnesses”] that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

When we fail to believe these following verses, at that moment we become self-righteous:

Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

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?
Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670, ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth [How much clearer can the Lord be?], nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

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:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these self-righteous idols of the heart which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s  steps and live as Christ lived.

Job 12:25  They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

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.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth

Neither repented they of their murders

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies both the hatred which is in our hearts for our fellow man, as well as the blasphemous doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being a physical soldier physically fighting for his country.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication,

13) Refusing to repent of “…their sorceries, [and] their fornication” signifies the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus” which cling to us even as we are being judged “in one day… the day of the Lord… the day of His wrath”, and as we are struggling to be free of them, and of the influences of “another Jesus”.

Isa 47:9  But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee (Pergamos), 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 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee (Thyatira), because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her.

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

14) The gold and silver implements of the temple signify the doctrines and thoughts of our Lord:

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

“Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and doctrines of gold and silver, and we have twisted them and have perverted them and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts and the doctrines of “another Jesus” signified by all those “idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood”.

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Joe 3:5  Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

These are not physical idols in either Ezekiel, or Joel, or Revelation. These are self-righteous idols of our hearts, made by twisting God’s gold and God’s silver, which signify His Words and His doctrines. These are self-righteous “idols of the heart… images of men” which we have “made to ourselves”, and we commit whoredoms and fornication against our Lord by believing in and living by those self-righteous “idols of the heart.”

Our ‘idols of our hearts’ are always accompanied by “the stumbling block of [our self-righteous] iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

‘Iniquity’ is defined as “trusting to our own righteousness”:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

That is exactly what every harlot does. Spiritual ‘harlots’ do not perceive themselves as harlots at all. This is what a spiritual harlot always does:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

A spiritual harlot cannot see that she is spiritually malnourished and naked. Instead, this is how she perceives herself:

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.

What this “adulterous woman” is eating is “[her] own bread” while she is dressed in [her] own apparel”, and she really believes that “I have done no wickedness” and she “has need of nothing”, while the spiritual truth is that “thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”.

The whole world is groaning and travailing with us as we are being judged. But there are far more of those men who continue in their self-righteous, rebellious ways and do not repent who will be judged at a later resurrection, the resurrection of the great white throne judgment:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920, ‘krisis’, judgment].

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.
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?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Summary

Here is what we have just seen in the demonstration of the spirit (the Word, Joh 6:63) and of power [the Word, 1Co 2:4).

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in [words of the] demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of [the words of] God.

God’s words are His power. It is our fidelity to His words which empowers us to overcome the adversary and all His lies.

Ecc 8:4  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

All these symbols signify what the Lord is doing with His power:

1) An army signifies ongoing spiritual warfare within us all.

2) Men on the horses signify the incredible power and influence of the testimony and doctrines of this vast army which is within us.

3) The number two, as in “two hundred thousand, thousand” tells us  that  that there are myriads of false witnesses to all those false doctrines.

4) The breastplates of fire and of jacinth, and brimstone on the horsemen tell us that we will be judged by the words of our own mouths and by the very doctrines we have been teaching to others.

5) The death of “the third part of men” tells us that we are dealing with the process of judgment upon “the inhabiters of the earth,” upon the house of God first (1Pe 4:17).

6) The fact that the power of these horses is in their mouths, which are “as the mouth of a lion,” instead of coming out of the mouth of the men on the horses, tells us that the horse and his rider are both one and the same beast speaking all the same lying doctrines of demons.

7) “Their power is in their mouth and in their tails” tells us that these are the false doctrines of false prophets with which doctrines we all have been hurt, and from which we are being delivered by the process of judgment which is at this very moment taking place in “the house of God.”

Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all ungodliness, and this is an ongoing, yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily,” and being “crucified with Christ” daily.

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle so very long.

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through good works, to “turning grace into lasciviousness.”

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these ‘idols of the heart’ which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s footsteps and live as Christ lived.

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies the false doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being blessed to be a physical soldier physically fighting for God and country, as well as failing to understand that hatred of one’s fellow man is spiritually the same as murder (1Jn 3:15).

13) “Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication” both signify the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus,” which cling to us, even as we struggle to be free of them, and of him.

14) “Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and have twisted them, and have perverted them, and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts, and the doctrines of “another Jesus.”

Next week, Lord willing, we will consider what is the little book in the hand of Christ, and why it is that we are not given the message contained in the voices of the seven thunders.

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,
Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Rev 10:5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The Book of Joel – Chapter 2:18-27, Part 3,Section B, verses 25-27

“Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” – Pro 5:18.

[Study Aired August 31 2024]

(Continued – Joel 2:25-27 Section B)

Last week in Joel Chapter 2, we discussed the spiritual symbolism of wheat, wine, and oil in understanding Christ’s word and how it enriches his Bride spiritually. It covertly points to the time after the cross when Joel and the other prophets hazily understood that there must come a time of spiritual tearing down, war and building up of a new man (Ecc 3:1-8 ). A glorious revelation that the yet-to-be-revealed holy spirit would bring, is peace in profound contrast between the Old Covenant with the New that equally clouded Solomon’s understanding of him visualising the “two armies” as seen in the Son 6:13 and his realising that it is impossible for a ‘woman’, obscurely, the Church (Eccl 7:27-29) to keep God’s commandments. Another outstanding revelation alone for the very few Elect is that the holy spirit will cause incredible elation for their chastisements when the mysterious and much anticipated “helper” is fully realised. Subsequently, and seen only by the Elect of God, a phenomenal ‘breach’ (discussed in the last study) utterly preventing God’s people from keeping any of the Old Covenant would be miraculously healed.

Deu 32:5  They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they [the Old Covenant generation, alive and well today in Babylon] are a perverse and crooked generation. 

Pro 15:4  A wholesome [spiritual] tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. 

This last Part B of Joel Chapter 2:25-27 is a very subtle spiritual transition: Christ becomes the Bride’s bright cloud of spiritual understanding and is only seen and understood by her into which she steadily ascends in growing harmonious unity with him, her Husband.

Mat 17:5  While he [Jesus] yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them [meaning, Jesus, Peter, James and John, the small group symbolising the Elect, and a vision manifestation of Moses and Elias]: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

The Elect of God in these apparent ‘end times’ are unutterably humbled by the understanding that the Bible’s chronicle of every sordid lust of man from Adam to the end of the Eighth Day is overwhelmingly for the Bride alone! Even though she experienced harrowing physical chastisements in the wilderness, the New Covenant Bride is given relatively light affliction and resulting chastisements. All because of her growing spiritual understanding of her Lord’s word, she sees undeniably harsh chastisement as a blessing received paradoxically with joy.

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.

2Co 9:15  Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 

2Co 12:4  How that he was caught up into paradise [clouds; heaven], and heard unspeakable words [Not for Babylon to understand in seven thousand years], which it is not lawful for a man [The Bride] to utter [to her 1,000 Babylonian sisters of Solomon’s harem and their understanding]. 

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [The Bride] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [Her sisters in Babylon, the world] in parables; that [blindly] seeing they might not see, and [deafly] hearing they might not understand.

Continuing from the previous study, verses of Joel Chapter 2…

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 
Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Before studying Joel 2:25-27 and its symbolism, it is important to note that the Bride alone has been given the keys to the kingdom. She understands the Lord’s meanings in scripture and can interpret the symbols, types, and shadows of names and terms. Her understanding is brightened by Christ’s great cloud of witnesses and juxtaposed with ‘terrible’ clarity, the subsequent great innumerable cloud of sister Babylonian witnesses leading the way in the heat of the day as the Bride’s understanding grows transparent.

Eze 1:22  And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal [fearfully understood word of God], stretched forth over their heads above [the blue sky by day and star-studded cobalt blue at night].

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [witnesses both good and evil designed specifically for her, alone], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
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.

Christ chose his Bride out of the field of the world to grow in beautiful spiritual femininity for his good pleasure to bestow on her kingship as his wife in subjection and co-rulership under him.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Mat 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.
Mat 16:18And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you. [The Elect only] And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven.

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;

(Mike Vinson. quote). “Those who have not been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven are those who cannot possibly accept the plain statement here in 1 Corinthians 3 that even “the world [and] death” are ours and that we must all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including “yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4) in each of us. Those who have taken away the key of knowledge of how to enter into the kingdom of heaven will never agree that “all things are yours” really means “all things… the world, death, things present and things to come”. And those who refuse this key to the kingdom of heaven also go as far as to hinder those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven. “…Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and they that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luk 11:52). Even those sad words are “in me, that is in my flesh” (Rom 7:18).”

The symbolism of the Bride’s former years of famine, mould, pestilence, and universal decay symbolised as locusts, cankerworms, caterpillars and palmerworms is spiritually seen in Aholah, particularly the younger Aholibah’s fornications, which directly symbolises our spiritual decay. And so, this study concludes with those two representative women it began, Aholah and Aholibah, depicting the two covenants of the Bride’s progression to becoming the spiritual Aholibah, Christ’s Wife. Our Lord’s “pity”, meaning his mercy, is first graphically understood by the Elect of God today, having seen those two formally beautiful virgin young women as herself, mirroring their ‘unspeakable’ humiliation for their former mortifying God-given lusts with their literal skirts up above their thighs. She is the Bride found in the field of the world characterised as Babylon in the bloody death of her Lord’s truth to be sheepishly arrayed in royal clothing. Our Lord vividly depicts our Aholibah-like physical lewdity to deliberately jolt our spiritual senses in pornographic contrast.

(Fornication: G4202 – Porneia – Phonetic: por-ni’-ah- Definition: 1. illicit sexual intercourse a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. G4203 – Porneuo

– Phonetic: porn-yoo’-o – Definition: 1. to prostitute one’s body to the lust of another 2. to give one’s self to unlawful sexual intercourse a. to commit fornication)

Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her [Aholibah – the Lord’s budding Elect] into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them [the Babylonians!]
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my [Christ’s] mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister [Aholah]. 
Eze 23:19  Yet she [Aholibah] multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [puzzlingly, concubines, usually females but exchangeably male], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Eze 23:21  Thus thou [Aholibah humiliatingly today, since the cross, especially] calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

It is deliberately heartbreaking for the Lord to write the events in himself that Aholibah’s (The incipient Bride’s) ‘mind was alienated from him’ more than she was from her Babylonian lovers. Every detail of her saga dreadfully highlights unsatiated lust for validating her beauty that required having ‘endless’ young male paramours gleefully using her body for their lust and, no doubt, treacherous ribald recounting among themselves (‘course jesting’ – Eph 5:3-4). Subsequently, her alienation from her lover’s is her subconscious turmoil that something is not right with her actions, pricking her conscience, yet her incontinence for validating her beauty overruled her conscience as she recounted the inexhaustible lusts the young men displayed for her in her youth. Consequently, the Lord was ‘alienated from her as He was from her sister’.

1Jn 3:20  For if our [Aholibah-like] heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their [Aholibah’s] conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

Lying within Aholibah’s lust for male paramours is the subtly hidden spiritual Queen Vashti-like lust to be glorified by her female ‘paramours’ typified in young women on social media today with millions of followers. For the Bride’s keen observation, they represent the 40,000-plus Christian denominations residing in Babylon today, impudently arousing the laity with her fornicating doctrines and, with equal contrast, the noting of our potential pride.

Aholibah remembered the immorality of her youth and, later, as an older woman, seemed to secretly express the sorrowful and humiliating heartbreak of her lack of self-control. This study in Joel reflects the Lord’s compassion for this God-given condition for Aholah, the world, and particularly Aholibah, who both died in their sins without knowing that in the distant future, the holy spirit would empower the spiritual sister, the Bride of Christ, to overcome what Aholibah never considered possible…

Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [in this case, heterosexual males inability to reproduce spiritual fruit, as can’t asses physically], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue [ejaculate] is like the issue [volume] of horses.

Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

First, let’s clarify what an ass is. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A horse has 64 chromosomes, and a donkey has 62. The mule ends up with 63. Mules can be either male or female, but because of the odd number of chromosomes. They can’t reproduce. However, a male mule should be gelded in order to make him a safe and sociable animal. The term “ass” is interchangeable with that of “mule”, effectively a “paramour”; however, a donkey is a separate breed, and the result of crossing a female horse with a male donkey produces an “ass/mule” who is incapable of producing offspring.

Here now is the understanding of the spiritual symbolism of our Lord’s seemingly offensive imagery of the outwardly, genuinely pretty girls’ unbridled lust. It was their incurable lust for the most excellent-looking men’s incontinent desire for them that wildly energised the girls to validate their desirability endlessly. They are likened to wild asses who cannot reproduce yet irrepressibly pursue a stallion to quench their biological urgency.

Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness [as opposed to a wife and keeper at home Tit 2:5], that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month [nothing will hold Ahola and Aholibah back from attestation to their beauty] they shall find her.

The young guys are depicted as having the flesh of asses, which spiritually means that they, too, cannot produce the fruit of righteousness that God desires as biologically can’t a female ass produce offspring.

The lusty young males’ comparatively minuscule “issue,” to match even one stallion’s issue, portrays the girl’s sheer number of ever-willing paramours, meaning the equivalence of espoused males equals endless adulteries. Apart from brutish passions, and because of the girl’s excessive breast stimulation, the naturally occurring melanin that causes skin darkening accumulates and can give the teats the appearance of bruising. Whilst ‘bruising’ can result from hormonal changes, lactation guarantees melanin darkening and, in Aholah and Aholibah’s case, is proof of sabotaged virginity.

Our Lord uses the offensive imagery of Aholah and Aholibah’s unquenchable sensual desires to emphasise our pursuit of their equivalent spiritual correlations to impact our conscience deeply. While in Babylonian Christianity, we received a prodigious’ issue’ of Satan’s seed to produce bastard spiritual offspring within and consequently greedily suckled the breast of the Great Whore to make strong our self-righteousness.

The following are verses reflecting the righteous use of a wife’s biological “towers”(Son 8:10), her breasts, which symbolise the Bride’s strength of fidelity and eternally delighting her Husband, children, and herself for their glorious God-given employments. Following are some supporting verses.

Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her closet.
Joe 2:17  Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar [for all the spilt blood of lies Eze 8:16. Rev 6:9], and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Pro 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed [of Satan], but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

When we painfully see that we are Aholibah, these ensuing verses are attributed to us.

Joh 8:9 And they [The immature Elect] which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest [For this cause, Aholah], even unto the last [the many called Aholibahs but not electd]: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman [Aholibah] standing in the midst.
Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Since the cross, Christianity’s finger-pointing defamation of Aholah and Aholibah will, in the Lake of Fire, be destructively short-lived, as every person ever to be conceived, meaning the world of Gog and Magog will wish for the rocks (the Christs), to fall on them to hide them from the face of Christ and ‘his Christs’. The world will see, like we did, that they contain the guilt of Aholah, the elder sister, to have her whoredoms burned out of her in the Lake of Fire to bring forth fine gold into the Lord’s treasury.

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The beautiful conclusion of the sordid saga of man’s existence since Adam is that our Lord has first “pity” on Aholibah, His portrayed Wife, by abolishing her Jezebel-like shame (Rev 2:18-29) through his spirit in this age since the cross, and secondarily, his glorious pity extends to Aholah, the world in the Resurrection to Judgement. Hence…

Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you [in seemingly torturous judgement in the Lake of Fire]: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye [Eventually every man] shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Those verses reflect our Husband, Christ’s immense “pity”; his mercy for the whoredoms he, through his deceitful servant Satan inflicted an endless ‘issue’ of fornication on the world to produce and redeem billions of bastard seed as numerous as the stars of heaven. In the following verse, Christ remembers his Bride and is today rejoicing with her as he puts the final touches on her righteousnesss in preparation to save the world in the Lake of Fire, the Resurrection to Judgement. As such, both Aholah and Aholibah’s shame shall never be sustained since their mortifying vulgarities mirror our parallelled spiritual impurities, for which we all are dreadfully grateful to these two girls.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities [in being awakened to our Alhoa and Aholibah-like spiritual depravity], that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 

We rigidly realise that we are spiritual Aholah and Aholibah and ashamed to be first to stoop and pick up stones in judgement; we no longer ogle, leer, hiss, nudge, wink or jeer Aholah and Aholibah since they are us, spiritually, designed to perform outrageously shameful acts for our benefit.

Aholaibah first, and then Aholoah’s immeasurable shame.

Eze 16:59  For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Eze 16:60  Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Eze 16:61  Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy [Free will] covenant.
Eze 16:62  And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
Eze 16:63  That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

The recurring verse for Part B of this study is, “Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” (Pro 5:18), that Aholibah nakedly expressed physically for her paramours she, as the Bride today in learned God-given virgin purity, righteously expresses to her Lord with equal spiritual ardour for his and her mutually immense rejoicing.

Next week in Part C, and always Lord willing, we will study the essence that gives the Bride her power to achieve in spirit what she, as Aholibah, couldn’t physically.

[Tony Cullen – June 10, 2019]

This study is based on the question posed in Isaiah 42:23 – “Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?”  We will see how this same question was being asked in the new covenant when it was posed to Christ this way: “Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife” (Luk 20:33).

None but Christ can restore “this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore” of Isaiah 42:22, and in our captivity and blindness of which God has caused the prophet to speak (Isa 63:17, Eze 14:9), we come to see by these stories that prophesy reveals to us (1Pe 1:12) how the Lord makes His strength perfect through our weakness and ultimately reveals to all of mankind how each man in his order will learn “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Isa 42:21).

Because I had not hearkened to God’s words, sent to me by His prophets, I had to go into Babylon and then, by the grace of God, be dragged out of ‘her my people’ through years of being reproved by my own iniquities which corrected me (Jer 29:19-32, Jer 2:19). God has been merciful to work with His bride to make her ready, and continues to sanctify us, giving us increase as we overcome the beasts of the field little and by little (Exo 23:30), believing and knowing Christ will make His bride ready, and we will go onto perfection on the third day, overcoming in this life by His power (Luk 13:32, Zec 4:6).

With these verses in mind, we can now look at whom it is God has ordained to “hearken and hear for the time to come” as seen through various parables found in Luke 20:33-38 and Matthew 22:27-33 and scriptures which reveal our Father has appointed a time for Christ to be married to one wife, who will be blessed to have ears to hear and eyes to see in this age (Luk 8:10), being made ready (Rev 19:7) as we “hearken and hear for the time to come” with “a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1Pe 3:4-7, Eph 5:22-30).

We will also look at the blindness in part which has come upon Israel [the world] for our sakes (2Co 4:15), “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” (2Pe 3:7) knowing that would be our state and lot except for the grace through faith our Father is mercifully showing to a few in this age, giving us the power through Christ to “receive not testimony from man” (Joh 5:34, 1Jn 4:17).

Christ said, “But I receive not testimony from man: [7 husbands of Matthew 22:28], but these things I say, that ye might be saved” in John 5:34, knowing that not all would be disciples indeed in this age who “receive not testimony from man [‘yet carnal men‘]” (Mat 24:13, 1Jn 4:17). It is those who are blessed to read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecy in this age who will be saved, and who, like Christ, can say, “But these things I say, that ye might be saved” (what did Christ say – Joh 12:49). It was in the context of marriage that Christ spoke these words, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God,” When we don’t know the power of God in the resurrection, we do err because we have not been raised in heavenly places where we are able to properly discern and divide the word of God (Eph 2:6, Joh 11:25-26, Joh 6:28).

Mat 22:28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 
Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Joh 5:34  But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 

Joh 11:25  Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 
Joh 11:26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 

Joh 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Starting with this parable in Luke 20:33-38, we will compare it with Matthew 22:27-33 and John 5:28-47 to show who it is Christ is talking about in Luke 20:34-35 when He says “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world” [Joh 1:27].

Luk 20:34  And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 
Luk 20:35  But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:[speaking of the 1st resurrection]

Joh 1:27  He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

John 5:28-47 reveals how God blinds us from not being able to enter into life and shows us the accompanying spirit that will always manifest amongst those who cannot live these words in this life (Mat 20:25-27). God’s elect have been ordained from the foundation of the world to “be accounted worthy to obtain that world” by grace through faith, and are now rejoicing in the earnest of the inheritance God has bestowed upon those who are called His sons today (Eph 1:14, 1Jn 3:1).

Luk 20:35  But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

Luk 20:33  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven [7 men complete Babylon – 7 nations – and they all had her to wife] had her to wife.
Luk 20:34  And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: [many wives, many churches]
Luk 20:35  But they which shall be accounted worthy [are called out of Babylon (many harlot wives) and are now the one bride and wife of Christ] to obtain that world^G165, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: [God’s elect do not go from church to church any longer and are not given to  marriage because from the foundation of the world we were ordained to be the one wife and bride of Christ who first came out of Babylon (Eph 1:4). Bringing forth much fruit is bringing forth correct doctrine that can be likened unto children, as opposed to the many lies in Babylon that are filled with false doctrine, many false children born of the harlot churches. (Rev 15:8, Rev 9:2)].
Luk 20:36  Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. [the first resurrection to LIFE we now experience in earnest and one day in the fulness (1Co 13:12)]

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.

Gen 4:1  And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 

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. 

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush [IN TYPE AND SHADOW 1Pe 1:12] when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. [a type of the elect who go through a process of judgment (3) in order to be made ready as the one wife or bride of Christ  (Rev 19:7)]
Luk 20:38    For he is not a God of the dead [those who have many wives in this life typifying churches with no stay of water or bread of life (Isa 3:1, Joh 6:48)], but of the living: for all live unto him. [We are all going to be saved each man in his order, and all do live unto him, unto God who is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11, Act 17:28)]

All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, in two separate resurrections as the sum of God’s word shows and these verses are witness (Luk 20:33-38).

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,  
Joh 5:29    And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.  

Joh 5:33  Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.  
Joh 5:34   But  I receive not testimony from man: [This was a people whom Christ declared “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” and Christ is the resurrection and the power of God to which John was bearing witness (Joh 11:25)] but these things I say, that ye might be saved.  
Joh 5:35    He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.  
Joh 5:36    But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish [Php 1:6], the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me [1Jn 4:17, Joh 20:21].
Joh 5:37   And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.  Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.  
Joh 5:38   And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not [Rom 8:9, 1Jn 4:6].
Joh 5:39  Search the scriptures;  for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  
Joh 5:40    And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.  
Joh 5:41  I receive not honour from men  [(3Jn 1:9) – I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Christ in us not being received by others (Mat 10:22)]  
Joh 5:42   But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.  
Joh 5:43   I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.  
Joh 5:44  How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?  [2Co 11:30]
Joh 5:45   Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is  one  that accuseth you,  even  Moses, in whom ye trust. [(Php 3:8-9)] 
Joh 5:46   For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.  (TYPE AND SHADOW wrote of Christ and His Body Luk 20:37-38, 1Pe 1:12)
Joh 5:47  But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?  

Luk 20:38   For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

1Pe 1:12   Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 

Now regarding who it is that does receive Christ and why some can and others can’t, is explained in this parable of a woman who had seven husbands:

Mat 22:27   And last of all the woman died also.  
Mat 22:28   Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.  
Mat 22:29   Jesus answered and said unto them,  Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. [Isa 3:1, Joh 6:48]
Mat 22:30  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.[We are those angels of God in earnest today, being raised in heavenly places by “the power of God” (Rev 22:8-9)]  
Mat 22:31  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,  
Mat 22:32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  [1Pe 1:12, Rom 4:17]
Mat 22:33  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.  

Luk 20:33   Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife.  
Luk 20:34   And Jesus answering said unto them,  The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:  [symbolically we were in our time given to marriage in Babylon to the many harlot churches, however God’s elect are called out of Babylon in this age as His elect bride who has one husband and are revealed as “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead” (Luk 20:35)]
Luk 20:35  But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:  
Luk 20:36  Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.  
Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  
Luk 20:38   For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. [1Pe 1:12, Rom 4:17] 

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Joh 5:29   And^G2532 shall come forth^{G1607 [G5695]}; they that have done^{G4160 [G5660]} good^G18, unto^G1519 the resurrection^G386 of life^G2222; and^G1161 they that have done^{G4238 [G5660]} evil^G5337, unto^G1519 the resurrection^G386 of damnation^G2920

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

1Th 4:15   For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive  and  remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent^{[G5348  precede]} them which are asleep [1st resurrection].

1Co 15:24   Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.  
1Co 15:25   For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.  
1Co 15:26  The last enemy  that  shall be destroyed  is death. [“The end” described in these verses (1Co 15:24) is also mirrored in this statement in the book of Revelation (Rev 11:15-19, 1Co 6:3) and represents the thousand year symbolic period when the saints shall rule and reign under Christ. This is the time when the nations will be judged with a rod of iron, a judgment which precedes the second resurrection lake of fire judgment (1Co 15:46, Rev 20:6-15)].

Rev 11:15   And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.  
Rev 11:16   And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,  
Rev 11:17   Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.  
Rev 11:18   And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged [this is the rod of iron judgment on the dead who are burying the dead in this life. We begin to bring a rod-of-iron judgment upon the world that precedes the lake of fire (1Co 15:46)], and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.  
Rev 11:19   And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. [a rod of iron judgement being described that is coming from the elect who represent those “great voices in heaven” of verse 15] 

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy  is  he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.  
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,  
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  
Rev 20:9   And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.  [the fire that comes down is real and symbollic of “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail“ that will occur in the lake of fire to wipe away the refuge of lies (Isa 28:17). That hail is like the rod of iron of (Rev 11:15) but this time the deadly wound that was healed in the beast will be once and for all destroyed (1Co 15:26, Rev 20:10)].
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet  are,  and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.  
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.  
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. 

This book (“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened”) is going to be judged by this book “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” [1Co 6:3, Mat 22:29-30].

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  
Rev 20:15   And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.  

The kings of the earth being spoken of in these verses (Rev 17:1-6) are represented by the seven men who have had this one wife (Luk 20:33, Mat 5:29) and the woman to whom our spiritually carnal flesh is drawn at first is “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev 17:5-6).

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 

Mat 5:30  And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 
Mat 5:31  It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 
Mat 5:32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. 

When our wife or the one whom we thought was of us (1Jn 2:19) is divorced “for the cause of fornication”, it is speaking of one who symbolically still has several husbands and is still given in marriage. If someone marries her, they are committing adultery because they are marrying her doctrinal position, which is the fornication we are called to put out of our midst by following the steps given to us in God’s word in (Mat 18:15-17).

Mat 18:9  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

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. 

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Isa 23:13-18 Her Merchandise…Shall Be for Them That Dwell Before The Lord

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Isa 23:13-18 Her Merchandise...Shall Be for Them That Dwell Before The Lord

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Isa 23:13-18 Her Merchandise...  Shall Be For Them That Dwell Before The LORD, To Eat Sufficiently, and For Durable Clothing.

Isa 23:13  Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
Isa 23:14  Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
Isa 23:15  And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Isa 23:16  Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
Isa 23:17  And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Isa 23:18  And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

We are continuing our study of the burden of Tyre, which is another way of saying Babylon, and 'Babylon' is Bible-speak for the religions of mankind which are all living in spiritual fornication and in opposition to the doctrines of Christ (Rev 17:-18).  All the religions of this world will be put down when the Lord's elect are given dominion over the kingdoms of this world immediately following the manifestation of the sons of God at the time of the resurrection of the dead in Christ. (Rom 8:18-23, Rev 11:15, Rev 20:1-4)

Isaiah 14 is "a parable against Babylon", and here again in Isaiah 23, in this burden of Tyre, we are again being assured "the LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth"['s religions].

Isa 23:9  The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

I will read the next two verses to bring us to where we stopped in our last study:

Isa 23:10  Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
Isa 23:11  He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

So we should have absolutely no doubt that it is "the Lord of hosts" who has purposed the fall of Tyre (Babylon) "to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth". As always, we must apply these words proceeding out of the mouth of God to ourselves and the kingdom of our own old man, first and foremost, acknowledging that it is we ourselves, the man of sin, the son of perdition, whom we worship above all others:

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 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.

While the whole of Tyre and Babylon are looking outward toward the Middle East for a physical temple to be built and for the man of sin to set himself up in that outward temple, the few who know what Christ meant when He told us, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit" know where the true temple of God really is and where the 'man of sin' truly resides:

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 expulsion of this 'man of sin [from] the temple of God' is the 'laying waste' of Tyre in this chapter concerning "the burden of Tyre".

Isa 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Now notice who the Lord uses to destroy Tyre in the very next verse:

Isa 23:13  Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

Babylon is in "the land of the Chaldeans", and it is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, whom the Lord uses as His servant to destroy Tyre, a type of Babylon itself.  Notice what we are told of Babylon also: "and he brought it to ruin."

Isa 23:14  Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

Tyre is the 'strength' of Tarshish, and we find that Tyre within us will have "no house, no entering in" any longer. We are commanded to "come out of her that [we] partake not of her sins and that [we] receive not of her plagues" (Rev 18:4).  When we are given to see the Truth, Christ and His doctrines, at that point the strength of Tyre and Babylon and all of their daughters, like Zidon and Tarshish are very soon "laid waste" and burned up by the fire that is His words of Truth. That is the meaning of these words:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

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:

While we are in Babylon we are blinded by God to our own carnal-minded deceived condition. We think "[we] have seen the fire", when the Truth is that the Lord Himself has simply sent us "strong delusion".

Isa 44:16  He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
Isa 44:17  And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This "strong delusion" is described as the healing of a deadly wound which we are given "by a sword".

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

This "all the world" is the same as "the kings of the earth... and the inhabitants of the earth [who] have been made drunk with the wine of [the] fornication" [of the great whore].

Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

We actually come to Christ, listen to His Words, and then, through the influence of the idols of Tyre and Babylon, we tell Christ that His words simply are not necessary to achieve salvation. Peter did just that:

Mar 8:31  And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mar 8:32  And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
Mar 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Our "idols" today are "idols of [our] hearts" (Eze 14:1-9). We think they are comforting doctrines. They tell us we should never have to suffer because Christ suffered for us. They tell us we will be raptured away to heaven, and we will avoid all the trials which Christ endured. They tell us that because Christ suffered for us we do not need to suffer with Him. However, it is all a lie, and it serves only to heal the deadly wound which the sword of the word of God had inflicted upon our old man. When the spirit to which Peter succumbed comes to us, we, too, succumb to that spirit and return to being the spiritual harlot we once were. That is the message of our next few verses:

Isa 23:15  And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Isa 23:16  Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
Isa 23:17  And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

"Tyre shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth". Is this not exactly what we are told about "Babylon the great, the mother of  harlots" in the book of Revelation?

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Why does the Lord see fit to tell you and me about what He is doing and will do with Tyre and Babylon? How does the knowledge of what the Lord is doing with Tyre and Babylon edify His body? Did not Christ tells us:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life. (ASV)

"The flesh profits nothing" does not say, "The flesh has no function in the plan of God." Nothing is further from the Truth. It is the death of "the flesh", the death of our carnal-minded old man, which is the "corn of wheat" which serves as the catalyst which must "fall into the earth and die" before we can begin to be "transformed [and] conformed" into the new man with a new mind, "the mind of Christ":

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.

So the death of the "corn of wheat" is a necessary and an integral part of the birth of "the Christ... the new man" within us. But this "corn of wheat" is healed of a "deadly wound by a sword" before it dies to never again be raised up:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [Greek: thronos, throne], and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Tyre's return to her harlotry is just another way of telling us that we all return to our own vomit and our wallow in the mire. The book of Revelation calls this experience the healing of a deadly wound by a sword.

2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

This all sounds so dire and so foolish, and yet there is one event to all men (Ecc 9:2), and it is all predestined to be fulfilled in the life of every man. The details of each life differ, but the event is the same "one event to all":

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Christ tells us that we are all sinners in need of a Savior:

Luk 13:1  There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2  And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

What we are being told by Christ here in Luke, and in the burden of Tyre here in Isaiah 23, is that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" and must be destroyed before the new man can come up out of that destruction. We see this transformation take place in nature through the life cycle of a butterfly that begins as a worm getting about on its belly like a serpent, but through the death of that worm it's being transformed into a beautiful butterfly which is capable of rising up into the heavens. Truly "the invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made" (Rom 1:20).

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Returning to being a harlot is just a way of telling us that we come out of one church just to go into another harlot church, all the while serving God as we want to serve Him. Our actions are not because we mean to be carnal and rebellious, rather it is because we were gifted from birth with "the law of sin in [our] members" (Rom 7:17-23). After being subject to that law of sin in our members for the predestined time, we are, through Christ, delivered from that wretched body of death, and we are miraculously transformed into a "new man... by the renewing of [our] mind".

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Paul does not shy away from telling us that we have been "predestinate[d] (Eph 1:11) to be conformed to the image of His Son, that [we] might be the firstborn among many brothers."  If we are the predestined "firstborn among many brothers", then it follows that "many brothers" are predestined to be born in Christ after "the firstborn".

Just how many will, in the end, be "in Christ", and how will that later harvest of souls take place? Paul is also bold to answer those questions with these words:

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.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Those are really simple and straightforward words; "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive". The manner in which "all die", that is the same manner in which "all... shall be... made alive", and death will then be destroyed because no one will then be dead. This doctrine accords with these words of Christ which we just quoted to show the function flesh plays in the work He is doing with "all men":

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.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Joh 12:26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
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.
Joh 12:28  Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
Joh 12:29  The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.
Joh 12:30  Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
Joh 12:31  Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
Joh 12:33  This he said, signifying what death he should die.

Christ, the only man who has ever lived who never sinned, still had to "fall into the ground and die" before He could be perfected and "bring forth much fruit" in the form of life for "all men".

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

What we are learning is that our carnal-minded, rebellious flesh, is a first and very integral part of the making of mankind into "the image of His Son":

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We will understand the mind of the Lord only if we acknowledge that before we are "conformed to the image of His Son", we are first a "man of sin", made into "the image of jealousy", and we place ourselves "in the temple of God, setting [our]self forth as God".

That is the spiritual meaning of this prophecy of Ezekiel 8:

Eze 8:1  And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
Eze 8:2  Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
Eze 8:3  And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
Eze 8:4  And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
Eze 8:5  Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

Historically this "image of jealously' is believed to be the altar which King Ahaz had Urijah the priest to build to replace the altar which God had told Moses to be careful to build 'according to the pattern he had been given in the mount'.

Exo 25:40  And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

2Ki 16:10  And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
2Ki 16:11  And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.
2Ki 16:12  And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

King Ahaz and Urijah had so little fear of God that they were both willing to disobey His commandments to do what they wanted to do. Their own ways meant more to them than God's ways, and that spirit is expressed in these words in the New Testament:

2Th 2:4  he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. (ASV)

Ahaz threw his lot in with the king of Assyria. He had taken the Lord's gold out of the Lord's temple and had sent it to the king of Assyria as a bribe.

2Ki 16:7  So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
2Ki 16:8  And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

As a type of us, King Ahaz had chosen fornication with Babylon over dying to the flesh. It is all predestined and has to be experienced, and it must be repented of before we can reap the benefits of dying to our old man and His rebellious kingdom.

This experience of returning to our own ways was prophesied in these words concerning Tyre in the last verse of our study today:

Isa 23:18  And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Tyre and Babylon are types of the time we spend in service to all the fornication and false doctrines of the the great whore who is the harlot religions of this world. In time all those false doctrines become nothing more than "wood, hay, and stubble" to be burned up by the fiery truth of the Word of God. After being deceived and brought to repentance, all of that experience of evil becomes "bread for us", as we use that experience to wage spiritual warfare in our heavens, dying daily to the lies of Babylon and to the giants in our land. As Caleb and Joshua told the fearful nation of Israel:

Num 14:8  If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:9  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

As the apostle Paul tells us, in Christ we are not ignorant of the devices of the adversary, and we can now use his own devices against him. Instead of valuing the things of this life, we can now 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness' knowing the suffering of this age is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us'.

Christ gave us this parable to show us how the materialistic spirit of wealthy prosperous Tyre, appeals to the beast we all are:

Luk 12:16  And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
Luk 12:17  And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
Luk 12:18  And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
Luk 12:19  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
Luk 12:20  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
Luk 12:21  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

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 materialistic, immoral appeal of the temptations of Tyre and Babylon are the armor of the adversary, which serve the adversary in keeping us convinced we cannot do battle against him, just as the armor of God serves us in waging our wars against the adversary in the heavens.

These verses in Job describe the hopelessness of doing battle with the adversary in our own strength:

Job 41:24  His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
Job 41:25  When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
Job 41:26  The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
Job 41:27  He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
Job 41:28  The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
Job 41:29  Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
Job 41:30  Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

That is the power of Tyre and Babylon over the flesh and the carnal mind of our old man. It is spiritually impossible for any man, of himself to overcome the beast within us all:

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Paul's own personal experience caused him to echo this same refrain, but Paul supplies us with the answer of "who is able to make war with [the beast]":

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.

In the next chapter we are given these very positive, affirming words:

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Truly Tyre's hire will be turned to "holiness to the Lord... bread for us, and for durable clothing" for us.

Isa 23:18  And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will learn how the destruction of Tyre and Babylon, "the city of confusion", is actually the destruction of this entire earth and "the things that are seen". The destruction of Tyre and Babylon is the necessary step we all must take to bring us into the Lord's judgments in our 'earth':

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.

Wow! What a radical and blasphemous doctrine from the perspective of spiritual Tyre and Babylon! Those words fly in the face of the false doctrine of eternal torment which tells us that God's judgments will confine the vast majority of His creation to endless flames of merciless torment.

Here are our verses for next week's study of the judgment of the whole earth:

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
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.

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Job 25:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

Job 25:2 Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.

Job 25:3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Job 25:5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

Job 25:6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

Introduction

This 25th chapter is Bildad’s third round in his self- righteous attempt to help Job to see just how evil a man Job is. Job’s self- righteousness is apparently more than sufficient to soak up Bildad’s false accusations. What you and I need to keep in mind as we come to see all these men in the scriptures, is that Job and Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar are all to be found in our own Adamic flesh, and their words and actions are within all flesh, including our flesh, and not just in any one generation past, present or future.

Ecc 3:14 I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God does it so that they fear before Him.

Ecc 3:15 That which has been is now; and that which is to be has already been; and God requires that which is past.

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.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours,

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

“Whatever God does… every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God… the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours”. This must surely include the prosperity of the wicked which so perplexes Job and his accusers.

Bildad makes no attempt at all to deal with the question Job puts before him when he asks why God blesses the wicked while chastening His own people. So, just as we all do, Bildad simply ignores what he cannot answer and goes on to other things.

Job himself ignores all the crushing trials God has placed upon him and continues declaring his own righteousness as if he were above reproach.

Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

We have seen that the story of how God blesses Ishmael and causes both him and Esau to become “great nations” explains what God is doing with Job. We saw how God caused Israel’s enemies to prosper and become great kingdoms long before He begins to prosper His elect, even though they are both archenemies of Isaac, who is the type of His very elect.

Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

We saw this principle of God first blessing the natural wicked old man within us, while chastening the new man within us, to be God’s own signature in dealing with His elect, and we saw that this principle was revealed to us in these verses of Genesis:

Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

What the symbolism of these verses tell us is that our sins and self- righteousness prosper and are blessed first in our lives. This explains why God blesses the evil, self- righteous, carnal- minded man within us before He blesses our new man. We saw that the wicked flourish first for the very purpose of being destroyed first within us:

Psa 92:7 When the wicked [ man within] spring[ s up] as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

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.

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

2Th 2:4 Who [ our self- righteous, carnal- minded old man] 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.

2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

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:

We cannot change this order because it is ordained by God and is “written in His book” for all men of all time.

This is the principle our Lord revealed to us in “the parable of the tares”. In that parable the Lord of the field would not permit His laborers to gather the tares or to take them out from among the wheat “until the harvest”. At the time of the harvest the workers are instructed “gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

A brother who is friends with wheat farmers told me that a farmer explained to him that in the time of the harvest, the fruit of the wheat causes the wheat to bow down with the weight of the fruit it has brought forth, but the tares have no such burden and like self- righteous Job, they stand up straight and tall, reproving, contending with and condemning their own husbandman, or in Job and in our case, our own Creator. The Lord’s true servants have no trouble discerning who has the fruit and who doesn’t:

Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Paul knew all about this principle of God’s working in the lives of all men. Here is how Paul expresses the principle of Gen 17:20:

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 [ Ishmael in type] which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual [ Isaac in type].

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

We are one and all “earthy” before any of us will “bear the image of the heavenly”. The order cannot be reversed. The “earthy” will be first, and the earthy elect will be the first to be judged.

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:

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?

Solomon tells us that the way God works is always the same and cannot be changed. Let’s look at it again:

Ecc 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever [ Hebrew, olawm, age]: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

But neither Job nor his accusers understand what God is doing. They all think they know God, but at the same time they all admit that they do not know God or His ways. In his last exchange with Job, Bildad asked Job:

Job 18:3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

Now in this chapter, He asks a different question which makes it appear that he now agrees with Job that he is indeed vile, and that men are all vile by nature:

Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

What this demonstrates is the confusion that is Babylon within us all. Bildad does not see the contradiction which he and his friends are. Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar and Job are all the the Old Testament type of you and me while we are in the confusion and contradictions which are “the mother of harlot”, Babylon (Rev 17:5). We are still in Babylon when our judgment begins. While unfaithful Babylon is still within us, we are self- righteously disobeying and condemning our heavenly husband even as we commit spiritual fornication against Him.

This is a pivotal point in our walk:

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Jer 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

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 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Like an unfaithful wife who refuses to be ashamed, we defend the self- righteous beast we are with our own dying breath:

Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Job’s and our own self- righteousness is the most insidious of all forms of spiritual fornication. Like a whore who refuses to be ashamed, we don’t even acknowledge our own spiritual fornication.

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.

We actually think in our self- righteousness that we are somehow better than other men. But just as a harlot cannot know peace of mind even as she denies her own obvious condemnation, this is the quandary in which we as the church at Laodicea finds ourselves, and that is why Bildad has so little to say here in his last opportunity to condemn his friend, Job.

Bildad is also forced to acknowledge, as Job himself later confesses, that all men are vile by nature. This chapter is only six verses long and is summarized by Bildad’s admission of God’s sovereign dominion and his question “How… can a man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?”

Job 25:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

Job 25:2 Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.

Having no answer for Job’s question which confronts God’s ways in blessing the wicked while chastening his elect, Bildad chooses instead to dwell upon the obvious fact that God does indeed have dominion, and that we need to fear Him.

What exactly is the extent of that “dominion”? How far does God’s dominion extend? Does it extend to all of His creation? Here is what Job Himself tells us:

Job 9:5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.

Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

Job 9:7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.

Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

Does it extend to the very thoughts of men before those thoughts are even conceived? What do the scriptures tell us?

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.

Those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear know that “the mountains… the earth… the sun” and all things physical, carry with them an inward, spiritual significance. The earth and all the things upon the earth, are symbols of our physical lives, while the sun, the moon, and the stars, are all symbols of those things which inhabit the powers and principalities of our hearts and our minds. It is here in our heavens that the great battles of scripture are all waged, and that is exactly what the scriptures tell us:

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [ Greek, the heavens].

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So yes, God is sovereign over all things in heaven and in earth. He is sovereign over both our thoughts and our actions. It is He who tells us:

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

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

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

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

So just how far does God’s sovereignty extend? Here is Christ’s own answer:

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Does Joh 15:5 tell us that if we do not “abide in Him” that we are therefore free to do as we please? Is that what that verse said? Hardly! This is the truth of the extent of God’s sovereignty:

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!

Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

In other 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:

That is the extent of God’s sovereignty. It is total and complete, with no exceptions, good or evil:

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

Even the wicked are made by God, not of themselves. God makes the evil in all of us “for the day of evil” within us all.

Job 25:3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

Here is the scripture that comes closest to placing a number upon God’s spiritual hosts:

Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

So if there is a number to be placed upon the heavenly hosts, God is keeping it a secret from us. This phrase “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of thousands” just serves to indicate that the answer to Bildad’s question is that there is no one upon whom his light does not shine. His Sun “rises on the evil and on the good”:

Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

All of this being so:

Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Bildad is asking the same question Job himself has already asked, in the same ninth chapter which we have quoted above:

Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

Job 9:3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

Bildad points out the fact that even the stars, “the heavens themselves… Are not pure in His sight”.

Job 25:5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

Again the heavens, and all in the heavens, are the Biblical type of our hearts and minds:

Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [ the blood of calves and goats, verse 19]; but the heavenly things themselves [ The hearts and minds of mankind] 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, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

“The heavens themselves” are indeed in need of being purified. “The stars are not pure in his sight”.

The fact that Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Job, can see that “man… is a worm”, and yet they can, with the same breath, mouth and tongue utter words which demonstrate that they consider themselves to be above such a lowly condition, demonstrates the self- righteous confusion within us which is the hallmark of the confusion which is Babylon. But such is the depth of our own inward self- righteousness. We are so convinced of our own righteousness that even as we confess that we are but worms, at the same time we are capable of looking down on our fellow worms and condemning them for thinking that man can be justified before God.

Job 25:6 How much less [ than the stars of heaven] man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

If man in a body of carnal flesh is a worm, what becomes of him in that condition? We have been told that God hates sin, but He loves the sinner. Nowhere in scripture are we told that God loves sinners. We are told that He loves the world and will give life to all who are in Adam, “the vessel of clay” who is the ultimate type of the sinners we all are.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

What the scriptures actually teach, and what we are told, is that the sinner himself is our carnal- minded old man who, in such a state, is condemned and will be destroyed and that it is through his death and his destruction that God’s love of the world is proven, and a new man will be created and saved.

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

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.

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

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

So that is what happens to the sinner we all are by nature. That is what happens to the “worm” we all are by nature. Our “old man… the first man Adam” must die in Adam, and via that dying process, be changed into “the new man… the last Adam”.

Here is how Christ expresses what He is in the process of doing with His creatures:

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.

Like the worm that becomes a beautiful butterfly, we must give up the life of our old man and through a resurrection from the dead, “be transformed into the image of… the last Adam”.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We live by all of these words (Mat 4:4). The “loss” of 1Co 3:15, which we all suffer is the destruction of the old man who has “defiled the temple of God” as we all, by our very nature, have done.

What it all means is that our old sinful bodies of flesh were, by God’s own design, created in a marred condition while yet in the Potter’s hand, and that “marred”, old sinful man was never intended to inherit the kingdom of God, but has, from the beginning, been slated for destruction and death out of which a new transformed man is to be born.

It is all explained in this same epistle to the church at Corinth:

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

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

1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

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 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam [ the sinner, our old man] was made a living soul; the last Adam [ Christ in us the hope of glory] 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.

1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

1Co 15:49 A nd as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall [ through the destruction of the earthy] also bear the image of the heavenly.

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

1Co 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

This is the fate of “the earthy”, and this is the fate of “they also that are heavenly”. Yes, God loved us “while we were yet in sin”.

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ( by grace ye are saved

Are the words “for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins”, actually telling us that “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin”? No, nowhere are we told that God loves sinners. What we are told is that our old sinful man will be destroyed.

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.

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:

If He loved sinners, He would keep them as sinners. What God does love is what He is in the process of doing with sinners, in “transforming” them into perfected images of His Son, “by the renewing of [ our] mind”.

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy [ the sinner], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [ the righteous man]

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Neither Bildad nor Job yet know or understand anything at all of this process God is working within us. All they can see at this point is that “the son of man… is a worm”.

This is the last we will be hearing from any of these three “miserable comforters”. Job now has the stage for the next six chapters, chapters 26-31. As we will see, his pride and self- righteousness are completely intact, and he is now free to proclaim his own righteousness and to condemn his Creator for the way he is being treated.

Here are our verses for next week’s study:

Job 26:1 But Job answered and said,

Job 26:2 How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

Job 26:3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

Job 26:4 To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

Job 26:5 Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Job 26:8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.

Job 26:9 He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.

Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.

Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.

Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Job 26:14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

 

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Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
Job 14:16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Job 14:17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Job 14:20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
Job 14:22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

Introduction

With each study we learn more of the understanding, or lack thereof, of Job and his friends. As we do so, the fact that Job’s friends falsely accuse him and hold him responsible for the sins they have imagined he has done, and the fact that Job accuses them and holds them responsible for their sin of falsely accusing him, demonstrates that these men really are the type and shadow of who we are as the sons and daughters of Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and of abominations of the earth.

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Spiritual ‘fornication’ is listening to and believing all the lies against our true husband and all the false doctrines, which are all contrary to His Word. We are confused into thinking we can take on the name of our true husband, but refuse His food He wants us to eat and refuse the clothes He wants us to wear. At this time in our walk, we are like Job. We want to tell God what we will eat and what we will wear for clothing. We want our own doctrines, but we want to call them His doctrines.

Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

The one thing that distinguishes Babylon is confusion, the very meaning of that name:

ba bel
baw- bel’
From H1101; confusion; Babel (that is, Babylon), including Babylonia and the Babylonian empire: – Babel, Babylon.

Job is who we are before we are granted to see and hear “the things of the spirit”. It is only in our judgment that we finally admit:

Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

But until our judgment comes upon us we feel sure we know God and that we are well qualified to be a teacher of God’s Word and be the savior of our own children. We have overcome many of the giants in our land, and like Job, we have done “many wonderful works”. Read Job 29 and this verse in Mat 7:

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Yet we are completely unaware of who Babylon is or who her daughters are. She is some other church with whom we have never, ever been affiliated.

Rom 2:17 Behold, thou art called a [ spiritual] Jew [ a Christian], and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
Rom 2:18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
Rom 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
Rom 2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

But the truth is we have been in bed with a harlot for many years, and it is for this reason we speak things of which, in truth, we know very little or nothing at all. In Babylon we speak of God’s sovereignty as if we knew God to be sovereign, when in fact we deny that God created evil and that He has created the wicked for the day of evil. We accuse such a God of being wicked, all the while worshiping a God who either destroys all men without the hope of a resurrection, or even worse, He keeps them alive for all eternity in literal flames of a literal fire.
We speak of the love of God, and out of the same mouth we tell those in our charge to physically fight and war for God, family and country.
We say we “believe in Christ”, but we will not “do the things that [ He] says”.
When confronted with believing that God’s sovereignty extends to all things, the [ evil world, [ an evil] life, [ the evil of] death, [ evil] things present and [ evil] things to come, we deny any such belief and self- righteously defend our God as being above creating and sustaining “the law of sin and death”.
But what do the scriptures reveal God’s sovereignty covers?

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.
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;
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.

What do the scriptures reveal is the true love of God?

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

How can we know we believe on Christ as a disciple indeed?

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. [1Jn 5:2]

The Jews of Joh 8 are the very Jews who believed on Christ, and yet they also wanted to kill Him. The spiritual meaning of that apparent contradiction is that we want to skip over judgment and still be saved from death.
When we, like Job, want God to kill us, we too, are guilty of wanting to kill Christ. How can I say that? I can say that because Christ tells us this:

Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Job’s desire to physically die, with no understanding of the need for being judged and dying to his flesh, makes him, as a type of us, guilty of believing on Christ and yet wanting Him and His doctrine dead.
It is with that same tired, confused, yet proud and self- righteous spirit, that Job continues to plead with and contend with His Maker concerning his situation:

Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

Our “old man” comes to his Zenith while he is in Babylon. It is there that he does “many wonderful works” in the name of Christ. So this is what Job speaks of here in verses 11-12. It is only after Job is physically prosperous that he, as the type of us, is brought down low. That is the meaning of “the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays [ Hebrew, wastes] and is dried up”. Physically speaking 75% of the earth’s surface is covered with oceans, and while the rains come mostly from the waters of the sea, the winds, the location of mountain ranges, and other factors cause those waters to often dry up and cause droughts which can last for years and waste the lands which are dried up for lack of rain.
But spiritually Job is speaking of himself as us and as the type of self- righteous Babylon within us. Here is this same message as it is delivered by Jeremiah concerning Job within us, as the self- righteous ” idol of our heart” (Eze 14:1-9) while we are in Babylon:

Jer 50:38 A drought is upon her [ Babylon’s] waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images [“idols of the heart”, Eze 14:1-9], and they are mad upon their idols.

Babylon’s “waters” are the lies and false doctrines which she teaches and which are believed by the whole Christian world. Those lies begin to be proven to be just that. Seeing Babylon’s doctrines for the lies they are, is the “waters failing from the sea… [ and] “her waters… [ upon which Babylon sits] be[ ing] dried up” within us.

Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. [ What is the result of the drying up of the waters of Babylon?]
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [ What is result of Christ coming and drying up the waters of Babylon?]
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

The beast and his armies will be destroyed, as they are predestined to experience:

Psa 59:12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
Psa 59:13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.

The gathering of the forces of Babylon within us to do battle with Christ and His word is devastating for our ‘old man’ and his Babylonian lies. Our “old man” is fighting a losing battle when he goes up against Christ and His Words.

Rev 17:14 These [ the ten horns of our old man] shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

This is the sixth vial, and it simply introduces us to the seventh vial, which is the consuming and the destruction of Babylon the Great within us:

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

“It is done”. This is the ‘plague’, the ‘stripe’ which finally brings us to say:

Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

When we condemn, contend with, and reprove our own Maker and Creator, we are blaspheming God. It is contended by the whole Christian world that these seven last plagues are designed to harden the hearts of those who will be cast into the lake of fire. In truth these plagues are God’s judgment which brings us to repentance and teaches us righteousness. It is this ” great hail” of this last plague of God’s judgment upon the kingdom of our old man, which ‘wipes away the refuge of lies’, which Job, as the type of us, is enduring. “The refuge of lies’ includes all of our self- righteousnesses, the false doctrine of free will and all of the other false doctrines with which we are afflicted for so long. This book of Job is the practical type and shadow of our judgment, which teaches us of the true righteousness whose only source is “Christ in us, the hope of glory”.

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.
Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

When the ‘waters [ of Babylon] are dried up, our old man will “lie down and rise not, nor be raised out of sleep”. But a “new man” will be raised up out of the sleep of death into the light of life.

Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

“Till the heavens be no more” may actually have an outward application. After all, they had an outward application at the time of their creation:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

What will becomes of “the heavens and the earth”?

Psa 102:25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
Psa 102:26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

Isa 51:5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
Isa 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
Heb 1:12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

So the fate of the physical realm is not the concern of the spiritually minded. Here is that with which we are to be concerned:

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.
2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

This very same apostle has just informed us that he is not writing of some far distant future judgment. Rather he is speaking of the judgment whose “time is come”, and which is now upon “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?

We simply cannot avoid or skip any of these words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God. But as the type of each of us, that is what Job, the whole world and we would do:

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

God’s scourging destructive wrath upon the kingdom of our old rebellious Adam would be of no benefit to us if God granted Job’s request to be in the grave “until thy wrath be past”. God’s wrath must be fulfilled upon the works of our old man or we will not be given to enter into God’s temple.

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.

Just as the type he portrays, Job anticipates a resurrection which is devoid of any spiritual insights. It is especially devoid of God’s chastening judgment.

Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

Since Job just told us in verse 12: “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep “, and since the very next verse is his wish: “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!”, it is clear that Job, and all the Old Testament men of faith, knew to some extent that they were “strangers and pilgrims” on this earth and in these “vessels of clay”. They knew there was something more and that these clay vessels would have to be remade, but they were not ministering to themselves but to us, and they did not fully comprehend what that ministry was or the depth of the change of these clay vessels.

Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

When Peter says “Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister…” he also is speaking in terms of the order in which men are being brought to God. He is not saying “the prophets” would never know “of the grace that would come unto you”. What he is saying is the same thing we read in Heb 11, “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
It is clear that both Job and Abraham considered themselves to be “strangers and pilgrims” here on this earth.

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 11:14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
Heb 11:15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

“Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister…” means that the “better thing that is for us” is the fact that the mercy shown to them will come through us “who first trusted in Christ”.

Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
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.

So Job and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and “many prophets and righteous men” were not the first to trust in Christ. But “unto [ them] it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister”, and they were given to know that “they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”.
But knowing all of that gave them absolutely no appreciation for spiritual matters. So when Job and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the “prophets and righteous men” of the Old Testament are resurrected into the fire of Christ’s New Covenant words, those words will come to them through those “who first trusted in Christ”. That ‘fire’ into which they will be resurrected is the very same fiery truth which have tried all of us. At that time they will be more than happy, at God’s own appointed time, to repent of their carnal understanding of who is a true child of Abraham, of what is the meaning of loving God and our fellow man, and of their own righteousnesses which stink in the nostrils of our God and of their hatred of their enemies. We know this is so because this is what Christ Himself told the Jews who “believed on Him”, yet wanted Him dead:

Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

But like Job, the type of all of us, Abraham, who is also a type of our relationship with Christ, had to be dragged out of Ur of the Chaldees, a type of Babylon, and into the land of promise, the type of our standing with God at this time.

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,

It is the dragging by the spirit of God which moves us all to do what we do, be it good or bad. It is God Himself who made Job and each of us the sinners we are, to need the savior He has provided for us. Not yet knowing who Christ is Job continues to bemoan being brought to his wits’ end.

Job 14:16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Job 14:17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

It is true. Our steps are numbered, God does indeed “watch over our sin”, and our transgression is sealed up in a bag. We are familiar with the verses which say as much:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
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.
Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Job, as the type of Babylon within us, does not know these things. It is the experience of Job which reveals these truths, and it is only after we have known the sufferings of Job that we are brought to our wits’ end and are then given to know and to understand the mind of Christ and His Father (Joh 17:3).
Here is the extent of Job’s understanding of the sovereignty of God: This is the understanding we all have while believing the false Babylonian doctrine of mankind’s “free moral agency”.

Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Job 14:20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

But there is a reason why ‘You prevail for ever against him’. It is that reason which was not given to be ‘seen or heard’ by the prophets and righteous men of the Old Testament. As the type of who we are while we are living under the false Babylonian doctrine of “free moral agency”, Job is granted to acknowledge that God is sovereign over ‘the mountains coming to nothing, and the rock being removed out of his place’. He is willing to acknowledge that just as ‘the waters wear the stones, so does God wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth.’ Job is even willing to acknowledge that God can and does “destroy the hope of man prevails against him… change his countenance and send him away”.
What Job does not acknowledge is that God is the cause of all of what he does. He certainly does not understand that he, Job, is not righteous of himself. When it comes to his own righteousness and His own integrity, he says:

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

So with all the lip service about the omnipotence and the sovereignty of God, in the final analysis Job actually believes that he can and he is of himself “maintain[ ing] his own ways… his own integrity… [ and his own] righteousness”, and though God may bring mountains to naught and He may “wash away things that grow out of the dust of the earth, and… destroy the hope of man”, nothing can change the idea Job has that he is ‘righteous and full of integrity of himself’. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”
Surely that is just who we are while we are in the wilderness that is Babylon. The false doctrine of our own will, free from God’s will is nothing less than the beast, who is that “man of sin” sitting on the throne of our hearts and minds.

Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman [ Babylon The Great, the mother of harlots, vrs 5] sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
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.
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 [“our old man… the body of sin”] be revealed, the son of perdition;

Job’s conclusion at this point is inescapable.

Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
Job 14:22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

Our old man’s future is very dark, but it is out of that darkness and through his death that life and light are being called out.

Mat 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The destruction of “him that had the power of death” will be the destruction of death itself. Only then can God be “all in all”, which is His ultimate goal.

1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
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.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will continue in the revelation of who we are as revealed to us in Eliphaz.

Job 15:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Job 15:2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Job 15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
Job 15:4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
Job 15:5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Job 15:6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Job 15:7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
Job 15:11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
Job 15:12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
Job 15:13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/spiritual-child-molestation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spiritual-child-molestation Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:31:25 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=4289

Hi Mike,

The recent question on Child Molestation in FAQ’s is one that I have also battled with a lot. However, I just wanted to share with this lady (to whom my heart goes out) the following thought regarding the molestation of her sister by their dad: Since God uses the physical to illustrate spiritual truth, our absolute horror and disgust at what adults do to those unable to protect themselves and placed under their care can give us insight into what God feels when a “babe in Christ” is seduced into spiritual fornication by the very ones that are supposed to help them grow and “keep” them to be a “chaste virgin” until such time as they are ready and mature for intimacy with their true Husband.
We can then better understand the abomination that Babylon is to God.
I know this won’t necessarily console this lady’s heart, but I do know that God will heal her in His time from this which causes her to doubt His goodness.

Your sister in Christ,
U____

Hi U____,

What a wonderful lesson the Lord has given you to share with us all! I simply never saw that before, but you are exactly right. Babylon seduces and tricks us away from our true love, and like Jacob, we wake up one day to realize that we have worked so hard for so long, and all we have is Leah, the unwanted wife, who will naturally have all her children before the beloved wife has her first child.

Gen 30:19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son.
Gen 30:20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.
Gen 30:21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
Gen 30:22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
Gen 30:23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
Gen 30:24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.
Gen 46:15 These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padanaram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
Gen 46:19 The sons of Rachel Jacob’s wife; Joseph, and Benjamin.

The deceit of Laban is the same as the seduction of Babylon, and just as Jacob had to come out from Haran and his uncle Laban’s house, so must we come out of Babylon, the great harlot who has seduced and deceived us for so long.
Joseph was not born until after all of Leah’s children. We do not bring forth God’s elect within ourselves until after we have brought forth all the children of our first wife, in Babylon. Then, only after we have begotten those who will later turn on us, Joseph, the type of Christ, is begotten, and Jacob determined to leave Laban who was in the land of Babylon.
Christ spoke of the molestation and abuse of trust by the Babylon of His day in these words:

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell [ Greek, gehenna] than yourselves.

Child molestation is an abuse of trust. Laban abused Jacob’s trust, Joseph’s brothers abused his trust, and Judas abused Christ’s trust. We have all abused our Lord’s trust, while we were in Babylon, and Babylon abuses our trust while we are under her spell.
There are a thousand different ways of betraying our Lord. Whether it is being an unfaithful wife, betraying and denying our own Lord, or betraying the trust of our own innocent children. In the end we are doing it all unto our Lord Himself.

Mat 25:44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike>

Hi Mike,

I am reading Strong Delusion again, and there is this issue on the unpardonable sin which I don’t understand.
As I understand from it, the unpardonable sin is committed by babes in Christ. However carnal babes in Christ are not ‘once enlightened’. Carnal babes are the called and not chosen. Isn’t it so that the unpardonable sin is a warning for the mature sons? The mature sons receive light and Spiritual insight. Also, like Peter when he was walking with Christ in the flesh, carnal babes are not brought to repentance. The maturing are brought to repentance. It is only possible for them to to renew them again to repentance, but we are admonished that it will never happen if any fall away, because it is impossible. This also come to my mind as a warning for the maturing sons; 1Co 10:12 So that, let him who is supposing he stands beware that he should not be falling.
I am struggling with these things, Mike. I have no doubt in my mind that it is God who is working in me all that has happened in my life. I also see why things in my life went the way they went. However, I never can be sure that I am chosen by God to be in the first resurrection; that I am chosen to rule with Christ. Judas walked with Christ for years, but he was chosen to be the person who betrayed the Lord. To be honest, knowing what I know that there is nothing that I have in any kind of way, good or bad, which is not of God, and I picture myself as chosen to judge the world, I cannot imagine punishing people for blindness that they received from God himself. Christ is our advocate in the heavenly, right? I feel like I would also advocate for everybody with God. I really ask myself how I can punish if the only reason I’m not punished is because I received grace, and I’m aware grace chastens (getting my lusts, desires and worldly thoughts burned out is hard sometimes).
This thought just came to my mind, and it has nothing to do with punishing – the sons who rule with Christ will chasten the rest of humanity with love in their hearts to bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is not with the thought like “you bad, bad people” it is much more like we being cleansed while in the flesh, so we know, so we have knowledge, so we can help them which are in the second resurrection get clean, which is necessary before God becomes all in all.
Sometimes my head is like a pile of ants (sometimes it also is very peacefully and quiet). The knowledge that all is of God and that there is not a single thing which is out of His control brings peace in my heart, Mike. Whatever God decides to do (or better, had already decided before the foundation of the earth), He made me at peace with it, for which I’m very grateful.

Your brother in Christ,
R____

Hi R____,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, and believe me when I tell you that I have had all the same doubts and struggles you express here. I have many people like you who ask me questions on a daily basis, and the very thought of misleading anyone is a terrible burden if God  were to send the Adversary to lay that burden upon me. But God is merciful and has given me the peace of mind you speak of here. Every letter I write is exactly what He has me to write. Sometimes He has me to misinform others. When that happens, as it has on several occasions over the years, it is a very humiliating experience that burns severely, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

In other words there is no “peaceable fruit of righteousness” without the errors that demand chastening in our lives. So when the error is detected, the need to get aligned with God’s mind and His Word should be paramount. When that is done everyone involved benefits. Especially me when I am the one eating the crow and confessing to my error before all.
So this exchange is as much a part of that process as all the rest of what God is working after the counsel of His own will.
Having said all of that, let us consider what you have said here. The only thing in this whole letter with which I can take issue is this paragraph:

As I understand from it, the unpardonable sin is committed by babes in Christ. However carnal babes in Christ are not ‘once enlightened’. Carnal babes are the called and not chosen. Isn’t it so that the unpardonable sin is a warning for the mature sons? The mature sons receive light and Spiritual insight. Also, like Peter when he was walking with Christ in the flesh, carnal babes are not brought to repentance. The maturing are brought to repentance. It is only possible for them to to renew them again to repentance, but we are admonished that it will never happen if any fall away, because it is impossible. This also come to my mind as a warning for the maturing sons; 1Co 10:12 So that, let him who is supposing he stands beware that he should not be falling.

Now look at the very verses under discussion here:

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
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.

It is “by reason of use” that those who are maturing, “have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Now what are these “first principles of the oracles of God… such as have need of milk” doctrines? You say they do not include repentance because, “carnal babes in Christ are not once enlightened. Carnal babes are the called and not chosen. Carnal babes are not brought to repentance.”
If any of that is true then how could Judas, who was both called and chosen, have denied our Lord? Yet neither Judas, nor any of the apostles were even yet “converted.”

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Peter considered himself to be called and chosen, and indeed Peter was chosen, just as was Judas. Nevertheless look at the very next words of our Lord to Peter, who is a type of you and me.

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.

Being called and chosen simply does not guarantee salvation. We all are required to “endure to the end” before we can even hope to possibly be “perfected on the third day.”

Luk 6:13  And when it was day, he called unto him] his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
Joh 6:70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
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.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Paul told the Corinthians that they were “yet carnal.” Had the Corinthians been chosen? Had the Corinthians repented? Sure they had.

2Co 7:9  Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
1Co 1:1  Paul, called [ to be] an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes [ our] brother,
1Co 1:2  Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
1Co 1:3  Grace [ be] unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and [ from] the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 1:4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1Co 1:5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and [ in] all knowledge;
1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Co 1:8  Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where were they after they were called to be saints and the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them, and they came behind in no gift? Well, in spite of having “repented from dead works, they were yet carnal… babes in Christ… needing one to teach them again what are the first principles of the doctrine of Christ.”

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [ to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [ am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
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.

What happens now? This is the next step, “if God permits.” It is all His call, but it is the same for all when He makes that call:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

“Eternal judgment is nothing more than the doctrine of universal salvation because:

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.

But what can you or I do if a brother or sister will not go beyond the position of these carnal, babes in Christ Corinthians? The answer is:

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

We are the ‘earth’ and the rain of God’s Word comes oft upon all whether “just or unjust.” It is through that rain that we “bring forth herbs, and are blessed of God.”

Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

So for whom is it impossible to renew such a person to Christ? Is it impossible for God? Of course it is not. It is only with men that it is impossible.

Mar 10:23  And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
Mar 10:24  And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
Mar 10:25  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Mar 10:26  And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
Mar 10:27  And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

So what then happens to those of whom we are told “it is impossible to renew to repentance?” Here is what Paul did to such a brother:

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3  For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, [ concerning] him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

This fornicator happens to have taken “his father’s wife.” It could have been his brother’s wife, but it was His Father’s wife, because that is exactly what we do whenever we refuse to go beyond the milk, when we are “unskillful in the word of righteousness” and fall prey to the Adversaries false doctrines “at his will.” Being “unskillful in the word of righteousness” because we are babes, we become guilty of taking “our Father’s wife,” the church, away from our Father’s truth and into the error of spiritual fornication and false doctrines.

2Ti 2:24  And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

“Those that oppose themselves” are those who have already “repented from dead works,” but have now fallen prey to “the snare of the devil, [ and] are taken captive by him at his will.” Only God can “give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” It is “impossible for men, but with God all things are possible.” Men are told:

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Or as Paul rephrases this situation in Hebrews:

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [ him] to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers [ is] rejected, and [ is] nigh unto cursing; whose end [ is] to be burned.

“It is impossible… if they fall away to renew them to… repentance… whose end is to be burned, [ so] turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Are any of these words inapplicable to you and to me?
What happened to the Corinthian fornicator who had fallen prey to “the snare of the devil and was taken captive of him at his will”? What was the result of being “delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord”? To what did this man have to look forward when he was “delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh”? Here is all there is to expect when we are in that position. It is right here in this very chapter of Hebrews six:

Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

“Thorns and briers” are false doctrines, which false doctrines we have all been guilty of spreading at one time.

Eze 2:6  And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

Those false doctrines and words will be rejected and, “their end is to be burned.”
By nature we all read those words and put them off on someone else, and we all just naturally forget these plain verses of scripture:

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

We all just naturally forget this verse:

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.

We all just naturally overlook these verses:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s
work of what sort it is.
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;

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

So here is what it is impossible for men to do but which is not impossible for God to do to all thorns and briers and all fornicators, who have all “crucified the Lord afresh and put Him to an open shame.”

2Co 2:3  And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2Co 2:4  For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2Co 2:5  But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
2Co 2:6  S ufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
2Co 2:7  So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
2Co 2:8  Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
2Co 2:9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
2Co 2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;

So while it is impossible for men to renew to repentance those who are turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, yet it is “to this end” that we “no not to eat” with those who bring false doctrines of briers and thorns into our spiritual house and cause us to take our Father’s wife, spiritually:

1Co 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into [ your] house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Why are we told that it is impossible for us to change the mind of a man who has “tasted the power of the coming age” and then returns to fornication, both physical and spiritual? Here is the reason we have these verses in Heb 6:

2Co 2:9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.

It is much easier to practice “agreement on the essentials and tolerance in the nonessentials” than it is to turn a brother or sister over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That just sounds so unloving and elitist and the actions of a know- it- all who has no tolerance for others. But what do the scriptures teach?

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
1Jn 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

How is it that we “know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error?” The answer is “he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us.”
Who is “us?” ‘Us’ is all who have “tried the spirits to see whether they are of God.” ‘Us’ is those who do not deny that Christ came in the same sinful flesh and blood that we are in, and ‘us’ is those who do not deny that Christ “is come in [ our sinful] flesh” even today.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

‘Us’ is those who truly believe that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4).
‘Us’ is only those who “love their brothers.” But ‘us’ is also those who know what is the “love of the children of God.” This “love of the children of God” is what separates the ‘love’ of Babylon from the “love of God.” This “love of God” what clarifies and separates the “we” from the “he” in this verse:

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

What then is this love whereby we know that we love our brothers? What then is the love of God? Is that ‘love’ expressed in agreeing in the essentials and tolerating the non essentials? What part of “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” is “non essential?” The answer, of course is that there is no such thing as “non essential” words or doctrines. All the doctrines of Christ; all of His Words; “every word” is absolutely essential to His doctrine and they “will never pass away” (Mat 24:34-35).
Here is how we know we love our brothers. Here is how we know that we truly love God. Anything less or anything different is not love at all, but is rather a “snare of the Devil.”

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

“Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error,” and “by this we know that we love the children of God.” Both are based of “loving God and keeping His commandments.” Neither are based on a false love that teaches us to be so afraid of “thinking we stand,” and being so afraid of falling that we no longer believe these words of our Lord:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

When we are afraid to confess that we “know the Truth”, we are afraid to confess that we “know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” because Christ is the Truth.”

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Christ did not say ‘I know the truth,’ He said “I am the Truth.” When we are fearful of confessing that we too “know the Truth” then we will be judged out of our own mouths:

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

So don’t allow the Adversary to cause you to fear to stand for the Truth and to deny the Babylonian mantra of “Unity in the essentials and tolerance in the nonessentials,” while they decide what is essential and what is nonessential. Every word of God is essential, and we will all live by “the things written therein,” including having all of our briers and thorns burned out of us when it is impossible for men to “renew us to repentance,” when we all “crucify the Lord afresh and put Him to an open shame.”
When such a thing happens, know that you love the brethren by obeying God and keep His commandment to turn that brother over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh… [ so that his] briers and thorns he has brought forth can be burned and he himself can be save, yet so as by fire… in the day of the Lord.”

2Co 2:9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Do we really believe that the “briers and thorns” of Heb 6 are somehow different from our briers and thorns? Do we really believe that the “all things” of 1Co 3:22-23, does not apply to the “crucifying our Lord afresh” of Heb 6? Do we really believe that there is not “one event to all”? Do we really think that there are some words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God by which we will not live?
I think you know better than any of that. I hope this helps you to see that ‘the unpardonable sin’ is a doctrine of men, and that we are all guilty of “all things,” and that “all things are ours… the world… life, death, things present and things to come,” and that there really is “one event to all men.”
I hope you can see that…

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

… like all of God’s Words, “never passes away” and is good advice for both carnal babes and those who are called and chosen, but have not yet been faithful to the end.

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.

Being called and chosen are not all there is to salvation. We must all be faithful to the end, to the third day, the day of resurrection, in order to be perfected in Christ.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Your brother in Christ.
Mike

Hi, Mike,

God bless you for everything you are doing. I just have one more question about being ‘unequally yoked’. I understand the part about marriage, but what about going out with her; is that also wrong?

Thanks,
T____

Good morning T____,
There is nothing wrong with speaking with those who are of this church world. Christ said:

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (KJV)

Most all of the translations realize that the article before the word evil necessitates the word ‘one’ afterward. The New American Standard Bible is typical of the many better translations of this verse.

Joh 17:15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. (NASB)

Christ does not want us to be physically removed from the men of this world. We are called “the salt of the earth.”

Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

That is what makes monasteries and convents so very evil. They “take us out of the world,” and keep those who claim to be God’s salt inside the salt shaker, instead of allowing it to “salt the earth.”
But Christ did ask His Father to “keep us from the evil one,” and the apostle Paul says “we are not ignorant of his devices.”

2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Those words are written in the context of just such a situation inasmuch as it concerned the relations between a man and a woman who were claiming to be brothers and sisters in Christ but were ignoring the very words of Christ. Read 1Co 5: and 2Co 2.

1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1Co 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1Co 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

“Do not you judge them that are within?” The answer is “yes, we do”, and if they are fornicators “with such an one no not to eat.”
So, to answer your question directly, if your female interest is truly seeking to know the mind of God, then by all means spend time with her and introduce her to the True Shepherd of the flock. But if you know for a fact that she is not interested in coming to know the words of the True Shepherd, and she is comfortable with all the fornications and abominations that are the doctrines of Babylon, then you are kidding no one but yourself when you try to justify spending time with a young lady who is living in spiritual fornication and believing in and being satisfied with spiritual “idols of the heart.”
My prayers are with you. I pray that God will make you aware that you are struggling with much more than just your flesh.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [ places].

The flesh is there, but there is much more than the flesh involved. There is spiritual warfare being waged in your own heart and mind. It is called “spiritual wickedness in the heavens,” and the Adversary has been given our flesh for lunch:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [ art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

“You are not ignorant of his devices.”
Your brother in Christ,
Mike