Rev 11:7-14, Part 1 – The Beast Overcomes And Kills The 2 Witnesses

[Study Aired Nov 3, 2024]

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

Introduction

The “beast… ascends out of the bottomless pit”, which is “the abussos”, G12, in the Greek. We have demonstrated that the bottomless pit signifies the abyss or the sea of flesh from which we are all drawn.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

This ‘abussos’ is the flesh and its desires which are within all men, including the flesh of the two witnesses. If that really is true, how then is it possible that the two witnesses can “ascend up out of the bottomless pit”, the ‘abussos’ and “rise up out of the sea… [G2281, ‘thalassa’], finish their testimony” and still be killed by “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit”? ‘Abussos’, and ‘thalassa’ are two Greek words for the same thing, the sea. We covered this subject of the bottomless pit in our study of Rev 9 and will not repeat that study here, except to reread that verse and to remind ourselves that the bottomless pit is in us all by nature, and the smoke from that pit darkens the sun and the air in every generation of mankind, including each of us in our own order.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

As we consider these verses here in Rev 11, we once again just naturally slip into the frame of mind of the natural man who can only see one event following another, chronologically, instead of seeing the words of God from a heavenly perspective as spiritual words, which are unchanging and always applicable in every generation of mankind.

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

What “I change not” means is that the words of God apply to every generation, so that “the beast [is] ascending out of the bottomless pit” in every generation of mankind. The bottomless pit within us is being destroyed by the brightness of the knowledge of Christ and His Words and doctrines coming into our hearts and minds. But as that ‘bottomless pit’ is destroyed within the two witnesses in every generation since Christ, it is also simultaneously being strengthened and perpetuated in the next generation of those who are even now rejecting that very same witness to the testimony of the words of Jesus Christ, as those words continue to proceed out of the mouth of the two witnesses of every generation. As an example of this, Christ was asked if Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah. Here is His answer:

Mat 17:10  And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Mat 17:11  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
Mat 17:12  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Mat 17:13  Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

What it all amounts to is the simple fact that we all live the life of the first Adam, with all that is within him, and then in God’s own “predestinated” time and mercy, we will also live the life of the Second Adam, the life of Christ, with all that is in Him. What is so little understood is the fact that this is all accomplished within us and is expressed in prophecy in types and shadows, in signs and symbols and in parables. What is so little understood is that God’s elect are not exempt from one single word of God. “All things are ours…, it is near…, even at the door…, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” is true in every man of God, in every generation of mankind (1Co 3:21-22; Mat 24:34-35), “each in his own order”:

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.

All men will die to their old man, but we will all experience that ‘death’… in [our] own order”.

Those who “die daily (1Co 15:31), offer [their] bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1), [and are] crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), die first and will not “be hurt of the second death” (Rev 2:11), and ‘the second death will have no power over them’ (Rev 20:6) because they have already fulfilled that experience “in this present time”. Those who have died to their old man and all of his desires in this present time do so because they are given to be judged in this present time:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves [in this present time], we should not be judged [at the great white throne judgment].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [now in this present time], we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [to the great white throne judgment of all the rest of mankind].

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? [They will be judged at the great white throne/ lake of fire/ second death, judgment.]

That is why Christ tells us:

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 [in the first resurrection at the beginning of the thousand year reign of “our Lord and His Christ”, Rev 11:15 and Rev 20:5-6]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920, ‘krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment of Rev 20:11].

These New Testament statements are based upon this revelation found throughout the Old Testament:

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.
Ecc 9:3  This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

The apostles of Christ remained faithful to the testimony of Jesus Christ to the end of their “course [Greek, aion – age] of this world”. But before they were made to be faithful, they too, “were by nature children of wrath, who denied him with an oath, and persecuted His disciples.”

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course [Greek, aion, age] 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.
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;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Mat 26:73  And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.
Mat 26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

“In time past you [and I] walked according to the age of this world”:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
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.

But Christ did not die just for those who were alive in His days. He died for all men of all time, and He prayed specifically for all those who would hear the words of those who believed on Him through the testimony of His disciples:

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

So Christ’s disciples endure from generation to generation, and in this manner the two witnesses endure from generation to generation.

But this “My Words shall not pass away” principle is also true for “the children of disobedience” who “are of their father the devil”, which is just another name for the beast that “ascends out of the bottomless pit”. In every generation he too, will ascend out of the bottomless pit and will be killing God’s two witnesses who are tormenting them that are upon the earth.

We must remember that those two witnesses are symbols of all who witness for Christ in every age of mankind. We need to remember that the great city wherein our Lord was crucified, is later in this book called “Babylon the great”, where the blood of all of the saints, meaning the blood of Christ, is found.

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

Rev 18:24  And in her [“Babylon the great, the mother of harlots”] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

“The blood of the prophets and saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” certainly includes Christ, and all those who are in Him. We are both those murderers first, and later we become those who are murdered and are killed by the harlot of chapters 17 and 18. So then “Babylon the great” is the type of God’s harlot church, and the symbols which explain all of this prophecy are all taken from the Old Testament scriptures concerning God’s own people as they turn themselves away from their own Lord.

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

In the same chapter, only 8 verses later, we read:

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Still speaking of “the vision… concerning Judah and Jerusalem”, in this same chapter we read this.

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

These are words proceeding from the mouth of God which we must live by (Mat 4:4, Luk 4:4). Our flesh, in turn, by the grace of God, will then be ‘killed daily’, and will die daily (1Co 15:50), by the fire of the mouth of the two witnesses. That fire is, of course, the spirit, which is “the words which Christ speaks to us” (Jer 5:14 and Joh 6:63). Here is the result of that fire:

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

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.

As we saw in our last study, the death of the ‘two witnesses’ was ‘read of, heard of, and kept’ by those who first read the sayings of the words of this prophecy in the day John put these words to paper and pen:

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

Rev 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.

This entire 11th chapter is just a part of “those things which are written therein” which we must be read, hear and keep. All who are given the grace to do so will “keep the words of this prophecy for the time is at hand” to do so (Rev 1:3). This entire prophecy does nothing less than expand upon the words of the Lord’s prophecy of Mat 24, which makes the same point.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: )

Only if God grants us “eyes that see, and ears which [can] hear” that we are that beast within “the holy place”, and we are that “man of sin” who sets himself up as God within that “temple of God”, will we ever know what is meant by the words “whoso reads let him understand… for the time is at hand”.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: )

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come [the day of Christ’s coming to His temple within us], 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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

None of the apostles changed their doctrine from church to church. What Paul taught these Thessalonians “when he was yet with them” was that “you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you”, which is what he had also taught the Corinthians (1Co 3:16-17). This inward ‘temple of God’ is the same ‘temple’ Paul had in mind when he said this to these Thessalonian Christians:

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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [That “ye are the temple of God”]

Therefore these Thessalonians knew exactly what Paul meant by these words:

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth [our crucifixion by this world with Christ, and our resurrection with Christ] that he [the man of sin] might be revealed in his time.

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. [When ‘the iniquity of our old man is full’ then Christ comes to destroy him]

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [Greek, withholds the coming of Christ] will let [will withhold the coming of Christ, as revealed in the next two verses], 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:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
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.

“They that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” is first our own ‘old man’. 2Th 2:6 is fulfilled in Rev 11, when the two witnesses are killed by “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit when their testimony is finished”. You and I have been that beast which is doing the killing of those witnesses, and you and I in turn become those two witnesses who will be killed by that beast.

In this case, our ‘death’ is not the “dying daily” death of our old man. In this story our death “in the street of the great city” is “the savor of death” which we are to “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit”. This is where you and I are at this very moment in the eyes and the nostrils of those in the great city of Babylon:

2Co 2:14 Now thanks be to God, Who always gives us a triumph in Christ, and is manifesting the odor of His knowledge through us in every place,
2Co 2:15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
2Co 2:16 to these [those “in the street of that great city”], indeed, [we are] an odor of death for death, yet to those [in Christ we are] an odor of life for life. And for this who is competent?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking. (CLV)

It is “all [who are] in Adam [who suffer the curse of] strong delusion [and who] believe a lie”. “All in Adam includes you and I who have “in times past” been sent that “strong delusion and [have] believed the lies” of Babylon, and have spiritually killed God’s witnesses and left their dead bodies unburied “in the street of the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

As we saw last week, we are “the earth”, and we are “those who dwell on the earth” and who rejoice and send gifts to one another to celebrate our liberty from having to hear the words of these men of God. But the rejoicing of our flesh over the man of the spirit is soon turned to sorrow when we witness our resurrection with Christ “in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound”.

Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Eph 2:6)
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Here is why we rejoice at the death of God’s elect. Here is how we are sent the “strong delusion” which causes us all to rejoice at the death of the true witnesses of Christ. This is how God sends His wrath upon us while we are “abiding in His wrath”. This is the reason why we never realize that we are deceived until we “look behind” ourselves to see this great revelation:

Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

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.

So when we read [with understanding] about all the plagues of God’s wrath which are cast upon the earth in the seals, trumpets and vials, we now know how that is being done. “He casts upon us the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels among them”.

But those evil angels do not appear to be evil angels:

2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

The symbols of these verses

So here are the symbols of verses 7-14:

1) The two witnesses finishing their testimony,
2) The beast ascending out of the bottomless pit making war against and
3) Killing Christ’s two witnesses,
4) Their dead bodies lying unburied,
5) In the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
6) Where also our Lord was crucified,
7) The people, kindreds, tongues and nations,
8) See their dead bodies,
9) Three days and an half, and do not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
10) Rather they rejoice over the death of Christ’s two witnesses, and send gifts one to another, celebrating the fact that these witnesses of Christ, who had been tormenting them, were at this time as good as dead, having no effect in the streets of the great city wherein also our Lord was crucified.
11) But after three and one half days, God’s witnesses are raised from their state of death,
12) Causing great fear to fall on those who see them.
13) At this point the two witnesses hear a voice from heaven telling them to “Come up here”, and so they
14) “Ascend up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies see that they have done so.
15) It is at this point that there is a great earthquake, and the entire event begins to be repeated again, as
16) A tenth part of the city falls and
17) Seven thousand men are killed in that earthquake, and the remnant are frightened, and give glory to the God of heaven.

Having established that these are words which are for those who are given to “understand what we read” (Mat 24:15), and having established that those who read and hear are to keep these words (Rev 1:3), we will now simply list each symbol and the scriptures which define how that symbol is to be understood and kept.

1) The two witnesses finishing their testimony, like all of these symbols and indeed all of God’s Word, is something which is always “near, even at the doors, and does not pass away”.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

So it is we who first, by believing the doctrines of “many false prophets”…

2) … ascend out of the bottomless pit, within us, to make spiritual warfare with the truths which proceed from the mouths of God’s witnesses.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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].

By simply withstanding the testimony of the two witnesses, which we all do while believing and teaching the doctrines of Babylon, we are thereby guilty of:

3) … killing God’s two witnesses. We need not kill any one literally, and the two witnesses are not literally two in number, neither do they need to be literally killed to “keep the things which are written therein”. Here is all that must take place literally for these verses to be spiritually lived out and spiritually kept by us all:

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

4) If we hate the doctrine of the Lord’s witnesses then we have murdered them and their dead bodies lie unburied, because at this time in our lives, the word of God, which commands us to love our enemies (Mat 5:44), and bury our dead (Deu 21:23), and to bless and curse not (Rom 12:14), means nothing at all to us in our self-righteous, rebellious condition. God’s commandments are all ignored in favor of gloating over our physical dominance over the witnesses of God’s Word , while we are in great Babylon. The phrases “their dead bodies shall lie in the street of that great city” and “shall not suffer their bodies to be put in graves”, are both a type and a shadow of rebellion against the commandments of God which requires these things of us. Burying our dead is spiritually the sign and symbol of forgiving our enemies. We use the English phrase to this very day, “Let’s bury the hatchet”, and we simply cannot, at first, do so.

Deu 21:22  And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
Deu 21:23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

5) “In the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt” is the city of God within us which has spiritually rebelled against His rulership and His commandments and has become a harlot (Isa 1:21). Both ‘Sodom and Egypt’ typify each of us as we are smarting under the rulership of our first love.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. [Haters of The Truth, 1Jn 3:15, and those who bring us that Truth]

Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew and the son of Abraham’s own brother, typifies our own flesh before we become Abraham. Lot typifies us as we “pitch our tent toward Sodom” and eventually end up sitting in the gate of Sodom, judging Sodom, being grieved with the sins of Sodom, and attempting to save and improve a doomed city, which in the end we, having become Abraham, are forced to “come out of” and stand afar off and watch the smoke of spiritual Sodom arise from the fields of the plains. That is the spiritual significance of calling the city where our Lord was crucified, Sodom.

Gen 13:12  Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Gen 19:28  And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Isa 1:8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city. [“Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt”, Rev 11:8]

As Israel, God’s first born Son, we cry out to be delivered from Egypt, but just as Lot had come out of the land of the Chaldeans just to “pitch his tent towards Sodom,” so too, as God’s Israel, we must come out of Egypt, just to end up rebelling against God “ten times” and wanting to return to Egypt.

Num 14:3  And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

We are the ones described by these phrases: “Let us return to Egypt… and [you] have not listened to my voice… and burned incense to graven images”. That is the spiritual significance of God revealing to us that we are first “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt”. Here once again is what Isaiah said of Jerusalem in his day:

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

Notice that it does say… “the faithful city”, just as Christ says “They have received… the words you gave me” just before the apostles forsake Him and leave Him to suffer His fate on the cross:

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,

The point of all scripture is that all men are first unfaithful, before the Lord causes them to be faithful.

We will pause at this point and continue our study of these verses concerning the Lord’s faithful witnesses in our next scheduled meeting.

[Study Aired August 27, 2023]

Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
Act 21:27  And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Act 21:28  Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
Act 21:29  (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)
Act 21:30  And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.
Act 21:31  And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
Act 21:32  Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.
Act 21:33  Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.
Act 21:34  And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.
Act 21:35  And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.
Act 21:36  For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.
Act 21:37  And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?
Act 21:38  Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?
Act 21:39  But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
Act 21:40  And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

We will begin this study with the last three verses from our last study to give us some context:

Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, [from Caesarea] the brethren received us gladly.
Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

When James tells Paul, “The multitude must needs come together; for they will hear that you are come” it is obvious that James is not speaking of unbelieving Jews “coming together” with believing Jews. James is speaking here of the “Many thousands of Jews which believe, and they are all zealous of the law.” It was the believing Jews who had been the victims of all the lies being told by other believing Jews against Paul. Their zeal for the law of Moses made them willing to consider those lies which included the lie that Paul was not walking orderly himself, and that he was teaching the Jews who were among the Gentiles to forsake the law of Moses. It was all a lie, but it was Paul’s own ‘zeal for the law’ of Moses which led him to persecute the church. He understands this, and as we will see, he acknowledges this to his accusers:

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Being zealous for the law of Moses is the negative application of the word ‘zeal’, and even the Jewish Christians are still hearing Moses in the synagogues every sabbath day:

Act 15:19  Wherefore my sentence [G2919: ‘krino’, judgment] is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day [for the Jewish believers in Christ].

A reformation is under way. We have all experienced “the time of reformation” when the Lord begins to drag us out of the churches of Babylon.

Heb 9:10  Which [symbolism of the law of Moses] stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

We each live that experience as we are dragged out of the doctrines and customs of Babylon. Every reformation takes time, and the time required to “take down the middle wall of partition between” the Jews and the Gentiles has not yet arrived when Paul went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea here in Acts 21. The ‘taking down’ of that ‘wall of partition’ between the Jewish and Gentile believers will later be proclaimed in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, but it will require the destruction of the temple to make it stick with many Jewish believers.

Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Heb 9:8  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was [G2192: ‘echo’, has] yet standing:

Every verb in those two verses of Ephesians two is in the aorist tense except for the “so making peace”, which is the present tense. Taking down the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles typifies the wall of partition between the Lord’s elect and the churches of Babylon while they and their doctrines still ‘have standing’ in our lives with all their “carnal commandments [and] traditions of men.” It is very instructive that the Greek word translated as ‘was’ in Hebrews 9:8 is in the present tense, and is the word ‘echo’, which is most often translated as ‘have’ or ‘has’. The way into the holiest of all is not made known while the doctrines of “the synagogue of Satan”, the doctrines of “Babylon the great” still ‘have standing’ within our hearts and minds. Taking that wall down is a process which takes place in each individual life of the Lord’s elect in every generation of mankind since Christ. The Lord is ‘making both one.’ He is ‘breaking down the middle wall of partition between us, and He is abolishing in His flesh the enmity’ and He is making in Himself of twain one new man…” “The time of reformation” is a process we must all experience in every generation of those who come to know the Lord in ‘this present time’ (Rom 8:18).

That “wall of separation” was still firmly in place for even the believing Jews in Acts 21, including Paul, who must demonstrate that those accusing him of not “walking orderly and keeping the law” are liars, and James wants Paul to do just that in this way:

Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also [as a Jewish believer] walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Paul had no problem with this because that was what he had been doing all along. This “wall of partition” was “the decrees of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem” we read of in Acts 15. They were also the decrees of the holy ghost (Act 15:28). Those decrees agreed that the Jews were still under the law of Moses, and the Gentile churches gladly accepted the fact that it was so and that “they observe no such thing” (Act 21:25).

Paul had circumcised Timothy soon after the Jerusalem conference, and “as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders” who had decreed that the Jews were still under the law even while also decreeing that the Gentiles were not under the law.

Act 16:1  Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
Act 16:2  Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Act 16:3  Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
Act 16:4  And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.

At that time there was no question whether the Jews were expected to be circumcised and keep the law. The trial at that time was whether the Gentiles had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. The law of Moses had decreed that anyone seeking to attach himself to the promises made to Abraham had to be physically circumcised.

The decrees of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem changed and reformed that law by decreeing that the Gentiles need not be circumcised or keep the law of Moses. Those decrees united the Jews with the Gentiles at that moment in time as the very next verse indicates:

Act 16:5  And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Paul himself took a vow and shaved his own head just before going up to Jerusalem to “keep the feast” near the end of His second missionary journey:

Act 18:18  And Paul after this [the insurrection made by the Jews against Paul in Corinth, Act 18:12] tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.
Act 18:19  And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
Act 18:20  When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;
Act 18:21  But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

The Jewish apostles were keeping the law even as they delivered the decrees of the apostles and elders which stated that the Gentiles “observe no such thing” (Act 21:25).

Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Paul did not hesitate to prove that he was ‘walking orderly and keeping the law.’ It is at this point that the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem apprehend Paul with every intention of killing him.

Act 21:27  And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Act 21:28  Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
Act 21:29  (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

None of these accusations were true. Trophimus is one of the seven men who traveled back to Jerusalem with Paul and Luke, but Paul would never have taken a Gentile into the temple:

Act 20:4  And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.

This is the fellow laborer whom Paul had “left sick at Miletum”, indicating that the Lord was cutting back on the many miracles, signs, and wonders which accompanied the establishment of the early church. Contrast this verse about Paul leaving Trophimus sick at Miletum, with all the verses which follow it concerning all the miracles, and signs and wonders and healings which had taken place in Christ’s ministry and in the early ministries of the apostles:

2Ti 4:20  Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

Joh 2:23  Now when he [Christ] was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

Joh 7:31  And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?

Joh 11:47  Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.

Mat 8:16  When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

Mar 3:10  For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.

Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

Act 5:12  And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.

Act 6:8  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Act 21:30  And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.

“All the city” means that these are mostly unbelieving Jews who have never believed in Christ and who have never believed that the holy spirit sent Peter to the home of a Gentile Roman centurion to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. These Jews did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth struck Saul of Tarsus down and blinded him on the road to Damascus converting him to become a follower of Christ. All these Jews think they know is what the “Jews of Asia” have told them, and what those liars have told them are the lies of verses 27-29:

Act 21:27  And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Act 21:28  Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
Act 21:29  (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

Paul would not have even thought about bringing an uncircumcised Gentile into the temple. Paul was living by the decrees of the apostles and elders agreed to by those apostles and elders and the holy ghost in Acts 15:

Act 15:19  Wherefore my [James] sentence [Greek: ‘krino’, judgment] is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day [To the Jewish believers in Christ].

Act 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:

Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;

When James says, “For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him”, he is referring to the ministry to Jewish Christians. At this stage, the Jewish synagogues were not yet seen as ‘synagogues of Satan’ – the great harlot of Isaiah 1:21 and Revelation 17-18.

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

It is the very Jews to whom James referred as “of old time… in every city… in the synagogues… every sabbath day” who wanted the apostle Paul dead:

We now have a situation which demonstrates that even wicked men are “ordained of God [as] the minister of God to [us] for good…”

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation [Greek: ‘krino’, judgment].
Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Act 21:31  And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
Act 21:32  Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.
Act 21:33  Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.
Act 21:34  And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.
Act 21:35  And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.
Act 21:36  For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.

“Away with him” had a certain finality to it for those who were “going about to kill him.” The use of the phrase “the multitude” indicates that these were, for the most part, unbelieving Jews. Still the apostle Paul asks the chief captain permission to speak to the multitude who want him dead:

Act 21:37  And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?
Act 21:38  Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?

Any thinking person would notice that this chief captain’s mistaking Paul for an Egyptian demonstrates that the ethnic Jews of that day were outwardly indistinguishable from Egyptians. It can be conceded that the chief captain was referring to an Egyptian Jew, but the outward appearance of both native Jews and Egyptians is indistinguishable. Both are dark-complected middle easterners.

Act 21:39  But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Paul spoke to the chief captain in a very respectful and humble spirit, and the chief captain was persuaded to do as he asked.

Act 21:40  And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

This concludes the 21^st chapter of Acts. We will wait until next Sunday to hear Paul’s witness for Christ to the Jews who want to kill him. It is very instructive for us that Paul very much wants to witness for Christ, even to those who want him dead. Paul has learned from decades of experience that most of the Jews in every city he ever visited were not receptive of the gospel. Twice he resolved to “turn to the Gentiles”, first in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch and later in Corinth:

Act 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you [Jews]: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Act 18:6  And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

Just as Peter preached to the Samaritans, whom Christ had originally told the apostles to avoid, Paul also continued to witness to his own people because he loved his own:

Mat 10:5  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

Act 8:14  Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:

Act 8:25  And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

Rom 9:1  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

1Ki 6:8-12 “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel”

[Study Aired October 7, 2021]

1Ki 6:8  The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third. 
1Ki 6:9  So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
1Ki 6:10  And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
1Ki 6:11  And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
1Ki 6:12  Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:

When we look at the construction of the physical temple of Solomon, every part of it has some spiritual significance for God’s elect to draw wisdom from. The building of the temple, like Noah’s ark represents our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:12, Heb 11:7). God is preparing our hearts and warning us as Noah was warned, to be able to endure until the end (Amo 3:7), and we are learning together the strength that is ours when we operate together as one body, one ark, or one solid temple of God with Christ as our corner stone of support (Eph 2:19-20).

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.

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

If we are God’s workmanship in this age (Eph 2:10) then we’ll know that Solomon’s temple and all of the measured and fitted materials represent the words of God that we laboured for over the years ‘proving all things and holding fast that which is good’ (1Th 5:21) so that our Father and Christ will make their abode with us (Joh 14:20-23). It is with us that the manifest knowledge of Christ is made known through the church via God’s holy spirit, as the comforter leads us into all truth (Joh 16:13).

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

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him [(Eph 3:10) becoming measured and fitted materials by God’s power and might explained (Rev 11:1)].
Joh 14:22  Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world [Heb 13:10, Eph 3:10]?
Joh 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him [This is how God manifests Himself to us through every joint that supplieth – “every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:16) which is the fruit that is brought forth if we are granted to continue to abide in Christ, keeping His words (Joh 14:25-26)].

Christ manifests Himself to His bride through the church, which is His body and temple that we are, which houses God’s spirit (Col 1:24, 1Co 3:16, Rom 8:9). The temple is where the gospel is being preached to all men (Col 1:28, 1Co 9:22) as the light of Christ shines forth from the temple where we worship God in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:23) and continue to stay unspotted from this world as we visit the fatherless and widows who represent the elect in their affliction; which affliction is central to our communion in Christ (Jas 1:27, 1Co 10:16).

Christ has promised to make his disciples fishers of men (Mat 4:19), who are learning to always be ready to give an answer for the hope of the gospel within them which is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (1Pe 3:15, Rom 1:16). As we near the end of this age, the witness of Christ will shine forth more and more to this dying world both within, and consequently outwardly, as He increases and we decrease (2Pe 1:19, Php 2:15).

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

John the baptist was a physical witness who represents our own fleshly minds that can’t decrease without Christ increasing in our heavens, and so John’s type-and-shadow comforting words tell us that we must decrease and Christ must increase as was the case physically in his life having been beheaded (Mar 6:27). The spiritual reality for God’s elect is that we must be granted to continue in the truth which will cause our flesh to be put off as Christ increases within us through our being buried with Him into His spiritual baptism (Col 1:24) as John was not (Joh 3:30, 1Co 3:6, Rom 6:3).

We must follow Christ in order to be overcomers and fulfill our role of being witnesses in this age, and so we are promised that if we follow Christ (“Follow me”), we will be more than conquerors through Him, and the truth will set us free (Joh 8:32-36). Following Christ means our first Adamic head, represented by John the baptist, must be put off. The least in the kingdom is greater than John because of the new creation we have become through Christ who is our new head. John also represents the keeping of the law, which will never justify anyone (Mat 11:11, Gal 3:11).

Mat 4:19  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men [Php 2:12-13].

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [“Follow me“] then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

The temple being built will be of little use unless its true function for the elect, of being the two witnesses within that temple, is accomplished, and once again we see that it has been prophesied to be accomplished not by might or power, but by God’s holy spirit which gives us the power to fulfill God’s will on earth as it is in heaven (Rev 11:3). If John was able to accomplish what he did in his flesh pointing to Christ, then it is certain that if we are Christ’s body, that we can be armed with the mind and suffering of Christ in order to overcome and witness to the world the life of Christ in us to which John was only pointing (Gal 2:20, Rom 5:10). John was pointing to the lamb of God Who would take away the sins of the world, but he was also unknowingly pointing to the saviours who would come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, the body of Christ (Col 1:24, Oba 1:21).

In this section of Kings there is a bright admonition that was given to Solomon “Concerning this house which thou art in building” which went this way: “if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father.”  This admonition to Solomon symbolizes our need to not only be hearers of the word who have built up our knowledge of God, represented by the temple, but doers of the word who now must lay a good foundation of predestined works against the day of evil that is to come upon this world (Mat 7:24, Eph 6:14-15, 1Ti 6:19, 2Ti 2:19).

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

1Ti 6:19  Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his [and I will make you fishers of men]. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity [We depart from iniquity by believing these words (Php 2:12-13)].

God is the only one who can permit (Heb 6:3) our hearts to be softened (Heb 12:6-7) in order to be received so we can lay up this foundation of good works, otherwise we will be found in the second resurrection having to have that hardened foundation softened through judgment at that time (Rom 2:5, Heb 6:1).

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

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,

Our future and present ability to overcome is accompanied with the promise that Christ will never leave or forsake us (Heb 13:5) as we go about our Father’s business of being fishers of men. A blueprint for God’s people regarding how His power will be used in the lives of those who have been called and chosen and remain faithful unto death as living sacrifices or witnesses with God’s power in their lives (Rom 12:1-2, Rev 11:7-8) can be found in these verses in Matthew 10:8-42, verses that represent the works and fruit that will manifest in us if our Father and Christ are abiding in us and we are continuing in the truth (Joh 15:5, Joh 5:30, Joh 8:31-32). Our life in Christ is one of witnessing to the kingdom of God, of which we are ambassadors, and how we pronounce that kingdom to the world is detailed in these verses (Mat 10:8-42). None of this is possible without Christ in us, but through Him we can be the light of the world that glorifies God in what we do and say in this life (Mat 5:14).

With such exceedingly great and precious promises in our lives, we can be assured that with the faith of Christ and the determined hand of our Father who is working all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11), we will be more than conquerors through Him who loved us, and the witness to which we have been called will be accomplished through the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ, who is the true and faithful witness (Rom 5:10, Mat 16:18, Heb 12:2, Php 1:6, Rev 3:14).

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

These verses (Mat 10:8-42) represent the witness that must come forth and will come forth through the body of Christ. It is a testimony of what Christ is going to do through the church, not what He might do, or that we in our flesh may prevent God from accomplishing, but rather it represents the fruit that is born out of the church that Christ is building (Mat 16:18). If it is Christ’s church, it will flourish and a witness will manifest and fruit will remain and be established and the tree will be known by its fruit (Joh 15:16).

We need wisdom to know how to walk in this age as we are led by the spirit of God with the knowledge He gives us to know how to discern spirits as we interact with the world today and minister to each other as we go through this life of much tribulation and judgment that is upon God’s house (1Pe 4:17). If we are in that blessed and holy first resurrection, these words of Christ will be no less applicable for the period of time when the true gospel will go out to all nations, with various degrees of acceptance and non-acceptance, always all unfolding according to the counsel of God’s own will (Mat 10:8-42, Mat 11:21).

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it [within me].

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 [to be fishers of men who know that the seed of God that we plant will not return void (Isa 55:11)].
Joh 15:17  These things I command you, that ye love one another.

In this section of the book of Kings, the temple that Solomon built was announced to be finished: “So he built the house, and finished it“. Christ’s physical life was also announced to be ready to do the work God had set before him in (Luke 2:52). Solomon’s temple was finished and made ready to serve its function, just as Christ’s life and the body of Christ represented by the temple (1Jn 4:17) will be made ready to fulfill our function in God’s plan (Col 2:17). The witness can now go forth through the body of Christ in power and might as we fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ, not by physical might or power but by God’s holy spirit that is the hope of glory that we have within making this possible (Act 1:8, Rev 11:3, Col 1:24, Col 1:27, Php 4:13).

1Ki 6:8  The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.

The middle chamber is the one which is six cubits (1Ki 6:6) which represents the number of man, so “winding stairs” that go up “and out of the middle into the third” are a witness to the process of judgment our carnal nature must go through in order to go on to perfection in the third chamber, which is seven cubits, the number for completion. It is found “in the right side of the house” as the “right” represents power, specifically the power of God which we will need to overcome. The stairs do not go straight up and down like an elevator, because God’s plan and our growth is not a linear event, but rather our Father gives us hope of what is ahead of us and a vision as such that sustains us through the body of Christ, through the angels of God that ascend and descend these stairs (Gen 28:12).

Gen 28:12  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Christ’s growth in us is predetermined and likened to Jacob’s ladder, where we ascend up and down that ladder which represents Christ. Christ’s purpose within us is never going to be thwarted seeing He is the One who is accomplishing this work within us as we are taught that it is through the chastening in this life that our ways are made straight as we learn to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts (Tit 2:12, Joh 1:23). There can be no ascending or descending of Christ in our life if grace and faith are not effectively a part of our day-to-day walk which, as we mentioned in last week’s study, is the reason why the first chamber is five cubits, which begins this process of being able to ascend into the third chamber as we die daily, being saved by the grace and faith of Christ (Joh 3:13, Eph 2:8).

The angels Jacob saw in his dream on that ladder represent the body of Christ and its various functions in Christ’s body found in Ephesians 4:9-13.

Eph 4:9  (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Eph 4:10  He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) [Eph 6:12, Eph 1:21]
Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

1Ki 6:9  So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

Building the house and finishing it is not the same as continuing in the truth in order to be saved, which is what is required to become fishers of men (Joh 8:31-32, 1Ti 4:16, 1Jn 4:6). In type and shadow, however, the stage has been set to continue in the truth: God’s servant Solomon was used to cover “the house with beams and boards of cedar”.

Those “beams and boards” are produced from cedar trees that are non fruit-bearing trees that represent the knowledge and experience of Christ we had in Babylon that needs to now be rightly divided by Christ and properly fitted into the temple of God. We can have a lot of understanding with no true conversion or comprehension in our hearts as Hebrews 6:1-6 teaches us, but if God will permit (Heb 6:3), those beams and boards, which now cover the house, will resonate with a new relationship of maturity in Christ where we worship our Father in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:23).

The beams represent the strength of Christ that is ours when we are obedient to our Lord (Act 5:32), and the boards of cedar represent the beauty of holiness (Psa 92:12, Psa 96:9) that comes about by rightly dividing the word of truth (2Ti 2:15).

The temple is also likened to a bride coming down from heaven who is adorned, and so all these elements that make up the physical temple represent that preparing or strengthening of the body of Christ taking place in our lives if God has ordained it (Rev 21:2, Rev 19:7).

1Ti 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

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.

Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews [Rom 2:28-29].
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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

1Ki 6:10  And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
1Ki 6:11  And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,

Again the mention of how they “built chambers against all the house, five cubits high:” accompanied with the thought “and they rested on the house with timber of cedar” tells us that we labour to enter into the rest of Christ represented by those “chambers” and that it is “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8, Php 2:12). The “five cubits” represent that grace through faith process whereby we are being saved when we find our rest in Christ which comes to us through the storms of this life God raises and through which we labour (Heb 4:11) and are delivered from (Psa 107:25-29).

It is through much tribulation that we enter into the rest of Christ (Act 14:22), and it is when we experience this communion of suffering found in our Lord’s body that the “word of the Lord” then comes to us (1Co 10:16, Luk 24:30-32).

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Luk 24:30  And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31  And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight [Joh 20:29].
Luk 24:32  And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

1Ki 6:12  Concerning this house which thou art in building^{H1129 [H8802]}, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:

Solomon, who is a type of the elect, is now given the house rules so to speak of this marvellous temple “Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them“, and was told if he did these things “then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father“.  We are being told, in type and shadow, that if Solomon/we will continue in being a doer of the word, then God will “perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father“.

God’s word being ‘performed with David’ symbolizes the life of Christ that is faithful and well pleasing to God. David’s life typified Christ as a man who was after God’s own heart (1Sa 13:14, Joh 8:29), and with Christ in our ‘built and finished temple as our hope of glory’ (Col 1:27), we can fulfill the spiritual function of this temple which we are, as God gives us that increase making this possible (1Co 3:6). It is that love and care the body of Christ has for each other which is a gift from God typified by David’s love of the Lord (Eph 4:16) which Solomon was admonished to show by walking “in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments” (Joh 14:15).

1Sa 13:14  But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

Joh 8:29  And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Without God giving us the increase which comes from him, we can water and plant all day long, or build glorious churches in the name of the Lord, or temples as Solomon did, but the only one through whom God is going to give us increase is the one who is our mediator (1Ti 2:5) and the one through whom we are accepted (Joh 15:5, Eph 1:6).

The lesson for God’s elect today is that we must be given to keep dying daily and give God all the glory and honour in every aspect of everything we do, confidently rejoicing that our names are written in heaven (Php 1:6, Php 4:4, Rev 19:7-8, Luk 10:20) making it possible for us to go through a process of maturing in the Lord that will make us “meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (1Co 10:31-32, 1Ch 29:14, 2Ti 2:21).

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1Co 10:32  Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

1Ch 29:14  But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

These verses mentioned earlier in the study in Matthew 10:8-42 explain the life of witnessing that will happen in our lives when these type and shadow words which applied to Solomon apply to God’s children today who are now able to accomplish and fulfill God’s will, not by might or power, but by God’s holy spirit “then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father“.

God will perform his word with us, if we keep His commandments, and if we keep His commandments our Father and Christ will abide with us and make Their abode with us (Joh 14:23) as we have been promised (Joh 14:13-17, Joh 15:10-11, Joh 14:13). Our desire with Christ in us as our hope of glory will be to preach the gospel to all nations as a witness, which Christ is doing through us everyday as we die daily and are ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us as His workmanship who need not be ashamed (2Ti 2:15, Rom 1:16-17, Mat 10:32).

Joh 14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Joh 14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1Jn 5:15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

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

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Rom 1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith [Gal 2:20].

Mat 10:32  Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Christ will not deny Himself in this process of turning us into fishers of men as He witnesses to all the world through us of God’s power and might working boldly within us (2Ti 2:13). That is the promise God’s elect have been given which was typified in the promise made to Israel on behalf, or for the sake of, the elect who are the Israel of God (Gal 6:16): “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel“

Psa 78:39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
Psa 78:40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
Psa 78:41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psa 78:42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
Psa 78:43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
Psa 78:44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psa 78:46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
Psa 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
Psa 78:48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
Psa 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
Psa 78:51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
Psa 78:52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
Psa 78:53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Psa 78:54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

Our subtitle for this week’s study is “God’s disregard of flesh” as this part of the Psalm demonstrates that point very clearly. The Lord is showing us again and again if are given eyes to see (Christ’s eyes not ours Mat 6:22-23) how our growth in Christ comes at the destruction of the old man, or putting off of the carnal side of our thinking that leans on it’s own understanding.

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Pro 3:8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Pro 3:9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

It can be said many different ways, but at the end of the day we cannot call ourselves a body unless we are all being directed by the same head ‘Jesus Christ’ and following each other as we follow Christ (1Co 11:1), and so we see what it means to have bowels of mercy in God’s mind.

Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Php 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Php 2:2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

With these verses in mind we come to understand the positive use of flesh in the bible where the word of God instructs us to not hide our flesh from one another, and that no man ever yet hated his own flesh.

Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

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:

These are both true statements that must be understood from the context that the flesh is the veil and the veil is the body of Christ (Exo 26:31), and spiritually is talking about our care for one another and the singleness of mind that God has given us as His kind of first fruits. That singleness comes by being of the same one mind as the body of Christ having the same single light entering into the body of Christ which you are.

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.

Mat 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Christ prophesied that there would be many great earthquakes in diverse places as we have experienced spiritually this past week, and when these earthquakes happen to Christ’s body, they shake us and bring us to look more closely at our foundations which is the flesh or word of God.

Luk 21:7 And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Luk 21:8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
Luk 21:9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
Luk 21:10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
Luk 21:11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

At the same time we are fasting the fast that God has ordained for us, spoken of in Isa 58:6, we are blessed to break every yoke and “deal thy bread to the hungry”, which God makes possible by bringing us to no longer slumber and sleep but rather ‘wake up’ and examine more carefully through these trials what the condition is of our hearts (2Co 13:5).

These trials motivate us to cry out to our Lord with strong tears that He would show mercy to us and keep us awake and alert with every breath of our life, as we grow in being able to bring every thought into subjection unto Christ learning to not think above what is written.

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

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

Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
Mat 25:3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
Mat 25:4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Mat 25:5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
Mat 25:6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Mat 25:7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
Mat 25:8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
Mat 25:9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

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.

Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

1Co 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Without haughtiness of spirit or any conceit of heart (Rom 11:25), God’s elect are called to witness in this age that we are the redeemed of the Lord who ought to say we are (Psa 107:2), and that we are Jesus Christ (Act 9:5). Therefore to deny that Christ’s spirit was in Paul is nothing short of a spirit of anti-Christ (2Jn 1:7). We are supported by each other today in this day of the Lord by the root in each of us, which is Christ, even as others are not given to discern the Lord’s body and as such are cut off because they are not nor cannot be nourished by the root within each of us (1Co 11:29).

Rom 11:18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Rom 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Rom 11:20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Rom 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

God’s elect are that light of the world (Mat 5:14), because we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Co 4:7), this hope of glory (Col 1:27), that is being purified through the fiery trials (1Pe 1:7); trials that keep us humble so that when those greater earthquakes come (Rev 11:13) they bring us to examine ourselves, as all these things happen within us to the glory of God “the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory [obedience – Heb 5:8] to the God of heaven.”

God’s elect know that we are only where we are by the grace of God, and need to therefore beseech God to continue to give us eyes to see, and the right spirit to discern we are what we are solely by the grace and faith of Christ and therefore boasting is excluded by that faith given.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Rom 11:18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Our walk, if not accompanied with “much tribulation” (Act 14:22) or a “thorn in the flesh” (2Co 12:7) or being “hated of all for [His] name’s sake” (Mat 10:22), would just serve to demonstrate that God is not working with us in this age. Even still, there is a counterfeit of even this suffering as well and our suffering must be for His name’s sake or that suffering will be in vain, unless the Lord build the house (1Co 13:3, Psa 127:1). Christ and His body will learn obedience by the things we suffer for His name’s sake, and it is precious in His sight because He has called and chosen us to be His workmanship that is being built up and prepared as a living sacrifice that will nourish all the world in due time.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
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.

What does this all have to do with our sub title: “God’s disregard of flesh”? Everything!

When we present ourselves a living sacrifice it is an act of mercy that is leading to the completion of this body of Christ, this bride of Christ who is going to not have any spot or wrinkle, or fleshly thinking, but rather the bowels of mercy that we looked at earlier that pour forth from those who are of ‘one mind in Christ‘.

The Lord shows us over and over that He has no regard for the flesh of man, and yet he nourishes us and our families as a shadow of how He will nourish and take care of our spiritual family both today and for all eternity. Regardless, the time will come when all flesh will be put off, and that demonstrates the mercy of God to do this, because where there is flesh, there is unrest and sin.

Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Isa 43:16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

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

Psa 78:39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
Psa 78:40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
Psa 78:41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

We have done all of this in our appointed time: “limited the Holy One of Israel” and even gloried in that which was given to us, and not properly discerned the body of Christ in doing this, making ourselves weak and ineffectual in our prayers and in our love and service to the body of Christ.

What we learn in these verses is that God wants us to know that our life is a vapour to Him, and passing and “cometh not again” and so we pray that we do not “provoke in the wilderness” any longer or “grieve him in the desert” which are places of testing (Mat 4:1-4). This was Christ’s buying of gold and having it tried in the fire, as he was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” and to be victorious because he was not leaning on his own understanding but telling us all “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God“.

Mat 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
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.

Here we see our Lord demonstrating to us the right priority supernaturally given from our Father to desire His word above all else and not the bread of this world. Christ and His body will be enabled through that word to endure the tribulations we must go through symbolized by the forty days fasting that brought Christ to this point of being tempted of the devil.

Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Joh 6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Joh 6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Psa 78:42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
Psa 78:43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
Psa 78:44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

This part of scripture, like last week’ scriptures, says the same thing: that God creates this fertile ground of deception in our hearts when we don’t remember “the day when he delivered them from the enemy” within us.

2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you (2Pe 1:4-7), and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Christ has wrought all these “signs in Egypt” for our sakes and these “wonders in the field of Zoan”, which means within the foolish flesh that we all possess.

Even after having been brought to repentance by God’s goodness that led us there we are prone to despise God’s goodness after time, even having seeing rivers turned into blood and floods that we could not drink. When we can’t drink, we die, and that dying to the flesh is a good thing if we are being baptized into Christ’s death, through that process of being weakened and seeing the need to die daily, to put off our bread and water and receive his stay of bread and water. (For more on this, see Steven’s study Awesome Hands, Part 48 – The Magicians of Egypt)

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

1Co 15:30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
1Co 15:32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psa 78:46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
Psa 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
Psa 78:48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

“He sent”, “he gave”, “he destroyed”, “he gave up”, “he cast upon” – all these actions talk about what God does to our flesh for which He has no regard!

In fact the flesh is the wilderness, the world within us, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life that God clearly sees within all men’s hearts and knows cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The only way to create a new vessel of honour is to bring in these plagues, these “divers sorts of flies among them, which devour them” and “frogs, which destroyed them”.

Joh 2:24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

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

He also allows the caterpillar to eat our increase, which represents what we think we have done by our own efforts and therefore the Lord destroys this in love. Both the caterpillar and the locust are used to accomplish this.

Steven has a great section on the purpose of the locust and caterpillar in his Awesome Hands study: Awesome Hands, Part 53 – Not Able To See The Earth

When God destroys our vines with hail, He is in fact wiping away the refuge of lies, and a parallel thought to this destruction is the destruction of the “sycamore trees with frost”. Those trees would be harder to destroy than the vines and should therefore represent idols of our hearts that have grown and matured over the years.

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.

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?

The theme continues as God shows us that everything we do in our flesh is corrupt and our thoughts only continually evil until he chastens and scourges us as sons who are being received through that process. The cattle represent that which we bring to the altar of God but without a pure heart and so they have to be destroyed as well by hail which represents God’s undefiled word. The flocks are destroyed by “hot thunderbolts” demonstrating that it takes great power to burn these idols out of our hearts.

Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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

Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Finally, the scriptures talk at this progressive point about “the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble” against our carnal self willed minds which are being destroyed “by sending evil angels” who we will either stand up against or not depending on where the Lord has purposed us to be in our walk.

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

Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Psa 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
Psa 78:51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

God gives our lives “over to the pestilence” and once again shows us His intention all along was to eventually not have to deal with flesh any longer, and to graphically show us how we must not take sin (leaven) lightly. This whole verse is talking about what God is going to do with the negative seed of the serpent who we all are at first.

What does he do to the first Adam, to Pharaoh whom He created to show His power and purpose? “He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;” It is God showing His disregard for flesh and demonstrating to us that He will put off this seed.

He “smote all the firstborn in Egypt” and this section of scripture – “the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham” – reminds us that the major portion of His wrath is preserved for our religious beast who sits in the temple or tabernacle claiming himself to be God with free will and no need for Christ as a head.

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.
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:

Psa 78:52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
Psa 78:53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Psa 78:54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

Finally, some good news, right? Well, we know that without the first part comprised mostly of how God judges our flesh, that this second part would never manifest, so it is all just a matter of God’s timing and direction that He is leading his elect fold and the other fold also.

Joh 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

This Psalm goes on to show God’s purpose for the elect to make “his own people to go forth like sheep” and to guide them in the wilderness.

When God leads us, we are blessed to be yielded unto His purpose for us where we will have no fear because of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts, but the sea “overwhelmed their enemies”.

Rom 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Just because God has no regard for flesh and is not a respecter of persons does not mean that He will leave us comfortless, because we know that he won’t. We all must experience this prodigal son experience along with the profound sadness of being betrayed by the man of perdition both within and without. God shows us who we are by our denial of him, or by us trying to save ourselves without the aid of the body of Christ, and if it were not for His power working in us giving us the power to die daily and be on that cross with our Lord, we would cave in to our desire to coddle Ishmael along for the journey.

Deu 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Mar 14:50 And they all forsook him, and fled.

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

Mat 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

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.

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

It is these events spoken of throughout this section of Psalm 78 that everyone that God is bringing unto perfection in this age must live as he brings us to clearly see and be convinced that there is no good thing within us and that flesh which is to be laid down at the altar, which is the cross, is the place where this testimony unto God is established by His power and might. God will convince all men in time that He has no regard for corruptible flesh and that only Christ can be Christ, and only Christ can put off the sinful nature and cause us to cease from sinning.

Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Mike,

I confessed Christ as lord and savior at a very young age in our church, I believe 4th grade. I would tell people in my 20’s and 30’s I believed in the bible, but I wouldn’t call myself a Christian. I didn’t want people to look at Christianity through my life; a bit self-righteous I suppose, but I believed I was doing right. I forgot about Christian life needless to say, and grew into a life of indulging flesh and every sin I can think of.

Probably 2 years ago, I was reading the bible again and had a moment where I cried out to God. I felt I was on the right track in my walk with the Lord. Before long though, I’m right back where I was as a sinner. Then about 3 months ago on a Sunday, I have an urge to start reading Bible again, and all these sinful urges just stopped in me.

I’m also reminded of Peter talking about a dog returning to its vomit, second state worse than first, and it would have been better for that person to have not known the truth than to forsake the Holy commandment given him. I had things happen I’m not going to go into that I tie into all this. Did I commit apostasy? Am I the dog that returned to its vomit and is doomed? I have a fear of God in me and a view of sin that was missing my whole life.

Anyhow, I feel like I’m seeing the gospel really clear as being much watered down, but I’m hoping I’m seeing it wrong out of arrogance. Since my ordeal recently, like a hypocrite, I see people who have no fear of God, only view a God of abundant grace. I read in scripture about a Holy God that eventually stops listening to the prayers of people who don’t live in obedience, and destroys them. I realize God is a God of love, mercy and grace who abundantly pardons. But based on the order of events and how they’ve been presented to me, I wonder if I crossed the line of Hebrews 10:26. And please don’t tell me that it only applies to Hebrew Christians at the time going back to Judaism. I believe scripture says “if we” continue sinning willfully, if you assume Paul wrote Hebrews, then that would include himself as a believer in the statement. This isn’t a comfortable passage, but it’s one I wish somebody would have preached to me over and over as a new believer. One minister said God might be warning me. Why would God warn me at a time when my life is as clean as it’s ever been? Anyhow, this is my story, so please tell me what you think.

Thanks,

M____

Hi M____,

You ask me to “tell me what you think” of your story, so I will do that. What I think is that “man [that includes you and me], shall… live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). Your story demonstrates the truth of those words, as do the stories of all whom God drags to Himself:

Joh 6:44  No man [you, me or anyone else] can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuō, ‘drag’ against his will] 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 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth 
Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 
Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

What I think of your testimony is that God is demonstrating to you the truth of these words:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

If God gives you the eyes to see, you will know that “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” includes the verse you so fear:

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

You would also know that there is not a man in the world, other than Christ, who has not “sinned willfully after having received the knowledge of the Truth”. Peter and all the apostles denied Christ by forsaking Him after saying they would never do so, and Paul tells us this about all of us:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: [We are “marred in the Potter’s hand”  (Jer 18:4)] for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

I think this is exactly what you are experiencing, just as I and all other humans experience being “marred in the hand of the Potter”. We sin because of how God created us – “naked… of the dust… sinful flesh and blood… no good thing… in me.”

You will also come to know that “when we are judged in the “judgment and fiery indignation” of Hebrews 10:26-27, that judgment will accomplish what all judgment is intended to accomplish, which is:

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

While there is indeed a judgment, which is “fiery indignation”, it is still “judgment”, and someday you will know that it is that “fiery judgment… the lake of fire”, God’s elect, who will be used by God to save all men of all time:

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

Who is it among us who dwells comfortably in the devouring fire of Hebrews 10:26-27? Who among us will dwell with the everlasting burnings of that “devouring fire”? Here is the answer, and it is not what you have be told in the church of you were in. Here is who dwells comfortably in the devouring fire and the everlasting burnings:

Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

The “fire” of scripture is not literal flames. When Christ spoke of entering into life with one foot, one eye or one hand, He was not speaking of having literally crippled spiritual bodies, and neither was He speaking of literal physical flames of fire. This is the fire of all scripture when it speaks of judgment and the chastening of all judgment:

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.

That is exactly what Christ told us will be the fire that will judge all men, now and in the lake of fire:

Joh 12:48  He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the [fiery] word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

What you need to know is that every time you see the words ‘for ever, for ever and ever, everlasting, eternal, or eternity” in the scriptures, the Greek word behind those English words is either the Greek noun ‘aion‘ (an age) or the Greek adjective form of ‘aion‘ which is ‘aionios‘. What that means is that “everlasting punishment” and “eternal torment” are just God’s aionian “fiery indignation” which will burn up all that can be burned up and will at the same time purify and cleanse every man, just as the apostle Paul tells us concerning all the “wood, hay and stubble” of your life.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
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 [Either the “fire” of 1Peter 4:12-17 or the fire of Revelation 20:14].
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.

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 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14  If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
1Pe 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
1Pe 4:16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
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? [God’s fiery judgment will continue in the lake of fire upon those who are not the first to be judged]
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? [They will appear in a later, less desirable judgment, the judgment of the great white throne (Rev 20:11) where the righteous of Isaiah 33:14-15 will use the fire in their mouths to judge all men of all time].

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.
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 [Isa 33:14-15]. 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 [Jer 5:14].

For a much more in-depth study of Heb 10:26-27 please read this link:

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/Judgment_Follows_The_Impossible.php

I am not certain you meant to send this to me, but I know God meant for you to send this to me.

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:

You asked what I thought of your testimony, and I must say that it sounds like God’s fiery word is performing its intended function of burning out all the wood, hay and stubble, in your life just as it has in my own life. I have suffered the loss of all my old man ever wanted, and through the fiery death of my old man I myself am being saved.

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

Your brother in the Christ who is working all things after the counsel of His own will,

Mike

Audio Links

The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God – Part 3

The Instrument of His Power

Introduction

Review of first study – God does have a plan for all mankind

In the first study in this series on the Biblical overview of the plan of God we saw all the scriptures witnessing to the fact that God does indeed have a plan and a purpose for effectuating the salvation of all men of all time. What we saw was that His immutable intention is to head up all of His creation, in heaven and in earth, in the Christ:

Eph 1:10 For an administration of the fulness of the seasons, to reunite for himself (under one head) the all things in the Christ, the things upon the heavens, and the things upon the earth, in him: (REV)

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Everything the Father is doing is being done “by [Christ] and for [Christ]”. God is the author of this plan, and He does not beat around the bush in explaining why He has given Christ the preeminence in all things. He is a God of love, so all He does is out of His love for us, but the reason He gives for placing Christ at the head of His creation is simply this:

Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

So God has revealed to us that He has a purpose and a plan in all He is doing and Christ has been chosen of His Father to be the head of all things, and through Christ the Father is in the process of redeeming to Himself “all things in heaven and in the earth” (Eph 1:10).

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

That was the essence of our first study.

Second study – The sequence of events in the plan of God

In our second study we saw the sequence of the main events of that plan and purpose. Though we did not include the holy days given to ancient Israel in that study, I want to include them in this study because they have hidden within them the revelation of those who will be in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”, who we are later informed will be the instrument by which Christ will accomplish all His Father sent Him to do. That is the subject of our study today, so I will go back through the Biblical sequence of events, which lead to the salvation of all men of all time, and we will take special note of the revelation of a dual firstfruits, which are later revealed to be that for which all the creation waits in great anticipation.

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

These holy day festivals reveal the necessary sequence of events in the plan of God. These holy days, which Christ Himself gave to Israel, were actually given “Not unto themselves but… for our admonition” as spiritual shadows of the plan and purpose which God the Father is working out through Christ and for Christ.

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.

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.

There we are. We are informed that the law of Moses, of which the holy days and their sacrifices and rituals are an integral part, was given to Israel “for our admonition… having a [mere] shadow of good things to come”, and yet most people have no idea what they were really all about, least of all the masses of the Jews and Christians of this world.

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

The holy day festivals given to Israel, “with those sacrifices they offered”, typified “good things [which were] to come” to Christ and His anointed, His Christ. They were not in reality, at that time ministering to the people of the Old Testament, because the faith of Christ was not yet available to any of that era. They were all, at the time those holy day festivals were instituted, still under the “law… for the lawless… [the mere] shadow of good things to come… to whom the promise was [in spiritual reality] made”:

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

The promise appears to the natural man to have been made only to Abraham and his physical seed, but the festival of Pentecost is also called “the feast… of firstfruits”, and it was on that particular feast that the New Testament church was founded:

Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruit of thy labours, [The feast of Pentecost] which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering [The feast of tabernacles], which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Exo 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest [Pentecost], and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

The reason the holy spirit came on the feast of Pentecost was because those who are in Christ, are also “a kind of firstfruits”:

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

This is interesting considering that Christ Himself is called “the firstfruits of them that slept”, and His resurrection is typified by the offering of the wave sheaf of the barley harvest fifty days prior to “the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of [the summer] wheat harvest”.

Lev 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your [barley] harvest unto the priest:
Lev 23:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish [typifying Christ] of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

The scriptures reveal that the firstfruits of the wheat harvest of the festival of Pentecost typify those in Christ who are now the spiritual ‘firstfruit’ seed of Abraham:

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

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

It is believed by most Christians that because Abraham and all the Old Testament saints of Hebrews 11 are said to have had faith, therefore they will all be in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”. Is that really what the scriptures teach? The answer is absolutely not! That is the equivalent of using Exodus 16:4 to prove that manna was the true bread from heaven while ignoring the fact that Christ tells us that the “bread from heaven”, which Israel called ‘manna’, was nothing more than a type and shadow of Himself as the true bread from heaven.

Exo 16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Was that Old Testament manna the real “bread from heaven” or was it just a shadow of this Truth?

Joh 6:31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Joh 6:34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

The “bread from heaven” of the Old Testament was “not… the true bread from heaven”. It was nothing more than a spiritual type and shadow of the true bread from heaven, which “true bread” was Christ. Likewise the faith of Abraham was not the true saving faith of Christ, but was a mere type and shadow of that true faith:

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.

Did Abraham’s faith secure for Him the promises? What do the scriptures teach us?

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.

If they obtained a good report “through faith”, why did they “receive not the promise”? The answer is that their Old Testament ‘faith’ was not “the true” faith any more than “the bread from heaven” of the Old Testament” was “the true bread from heaven”. Both were mere spiritual types of the True, which is Christ, and which was available to no one “till the seed [Christ] should come, to whom the promise was made”. Until that time “We were kept under the law shut up onto the faith which should afterwards be revealed”:

Joh 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

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

Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Abraham did not have “the faith which should afterward be revealed”. The faith of Christ teaches us to ‘love our enemies, and if they take your goods ask them not again’, while the faith of Abraham told him to destroy the kings who had taken Lot and the plunder of Sodom and take the plundered goods back.

Gen 14:14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Gen 14:15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
Gen 14:16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

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;

Luk 6:30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

The holy spirit revealed this same Truth to the apostle Peter who goes so far as to tell us that the Old Testament saints “ministered… not unto themselves, but unto us…”

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.

Did the Old Testament saints receive saving grace? Absolutely not! They “prophesied of the grace that should come unto [us]… not unto themselves, but unto us…” Did the glory that comes with obedience to the faith of Christ come to the Old Testament saints? No, it did not! Rather it was “the glory that should follow… the sufferings of Christ”. Did all those things that happened to the Old Testament saints happen to them for their own admonition? No, absolutely not! “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister“.

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.

With all of this in mind, let’s go back and consider what is revealed to us about the purpose and plan of God in the annual holy day festivals that were given to Israel “for our admonition”.

The passover

Those festivals begin with the passover, symbolizing the sacrifice of Christ as our sacrificial passover Lamb. That ‘passover’ sacrifice was foreshadowed in the Garden of Eden when Christ Himself killed an animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve after they were made aware of their nakedness by their predestined disobedience to Christ’s commandment that they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1Co 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

The days of unleavened bread

The passover festival is followed immediately with the days of unleavened bread, showing us that when we are granted to accept the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood for our sins the consequential affect is that we begin immediately to put sin out of our lives. The days of unleavened bread symbolize the same thing the flood of Noah symbolized. They both foreshadow the doctrine of baptisms, the doctrine of having sin burned out of our lives and being washed clean of our sins by the blood of the Lamb:

Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

The sacrifice of the life of our Savior and the purging of sin from our lives are the first two steps of the plan of God for the lives of all men of all time. Whether our judgment is now or in the great white throne judgment, the lake of fire, the same steps must be taken in the same order as it is laid out in the holy day festivals God gave to ancient Israel.

The feast of Pentecost

What the holy day festivals reveal, and what the New Testament also reveals, is that our initial acceptance of Christ as our Savior at the passover festival, and the purging of sin from our lives which the days of unleavened bread signify at that point are an early baptism which is youthful, immature and outward in nature. Our passover and days of unleavened bread conversion precedes the trials of the wilderness where we all rebel against the trials of obeying our Lord’s commandments. We may well have witnessed all the miracles God has performed on our behalf against our enemies while still in Egypt. We have witnessed the death of the firstborn of Egypt for our sakes. We may have ‘come out of Egypt’, we may even have witnessed the power of God to part the Red Sea on our behalf, but all of those miracles are outward gifts which cannot yet change our hearts to the point that the holy spirit can take up its residence within us.

The fact that our knowledge of God is through His outward works on our behalf and not through the trials of the wilderness, which try our faith, is the significance of the “seven sabbaths until the morrow after the seventh sabbath”, before the festival of Pentecost at which holy day the holy spirit was given to the church.

Lev 23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

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?

Fifty is a multiple of five and indicates the work of chastening grace and faith which begins upon the arrival of the holy spirit within us when we are brought to the day of Pentecost. Until we have been brought to Christ in a more mature stage, having repented of being “carnal… babes in Christ”, we cannot be given the indwelling of the holy spirit. In other words, babes in Christ are indeed “yet carnal” and without the holy spirit dwelling within in a way that begins the chastening and scourging which is experienced by a more mature child who is no longer an immature babe, but has progressed to the point of being capable of receiving the chastening, scourging and tribulations which must be endured by “every [mature] son who [is] received [of the] Lord”.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son [G5207, uihos, maturing son] whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons [uihos]; for what son [uihos] is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards [“carnal… babe[s] in Christ”], and not sons [uihos].

No parent chastens a baby, but any good parent does chasten children who are mature enough to benefit from the pain of a scourging which will make them think twice about disobeying their loving parent. It is of utmost importance for us to know that the Greek word for ‘babes’ in 1Co 3:1-4 is nepios, while the word for ‘son’ and ‘sons’ in Heb 12:6-8 is uihos, meaning a son who is now much more mature and is in need of being chastened and scourged for the purpose of giving him loving rebuking and correction.

This is the Pentecost stage of the plan of God within our lives, and within the plan of God for all men. It is the beginning of the day of judgment in the lives of all who will be part of that “firstfuits of [His] harvest”:

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.

“Christ the firstfruits” is the resurrected Christ, the anti-type of that wave sheaf of the barley harvest during the days of unleavened bread. Christ’s resurrection immediately followed the passover sacrifice of Himself.

Christ’s resurrection was on the morrow after the sabbath during the days of unleavened bread.

“They that are Christ’s at His coming” is speaking of those who have the kingdom of God “within [them]” (Luk 17:19-20), and who have “died in Christ” since His death and resurrection, continuing up to the time of His coming to establish His kingdom over the kingdoms of this world for the symbolic “thousand years”.

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.

The feast of trumpets

The events which lead up to the rulership of “this world” by the elect of God are pictured within and without by the feast of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, in the Fall.

Lev 23:23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Every holy day symbolizes a great work of God within each of us. Outwardly and dispensationally these holy days symbolize a step forward in the plan of God for all men, and yet every holy day is a sabbath because God wants us to know that He is working all things after the counsel of His own plan, purpose, and will, and not because of anything that we do:

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:

Every step of God’s plan for mankind is to be taken only with “a sacrifice made with fire unto the Lord”. The fire of God’s chastening and scourging does indeed entail torment, but it is a ‘fire’ which burns up and consumes all that can be destroyed by that fire. That which is not consumed and destroyed is purified in that fire. The torment, like the fire itself, has a purpose and an end, and that purpose and end is the cleansing and purifying “every man”. ‘Every man… shall suffer [the] loss” of all the wood, hay and stubble, in his life, “but he himself shall [in the end] be saved, yet so as by fire” (1Co 3:15).

Joseph is a type of Christ, our judge, and the way he dealt with his brothers, who sold him into slavery in Egypt, demonstrates how the fire of the Word of God works in our own lives. It demonstrates how we are judged by the Words of our own mouth and how we reap what we have sown:

Gen 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Gen 42:24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

It is an emotional thing to have to witness our own brothers and sisters being brought to true and deep repentance through the torment which their own words bring upon them. But we, too, must endure this very same “godly repentance” in our own lives before we will be granted to cause our brothers and sisters to be brought to that same place and time in their lives. Joseph could easily have said, “Hi boys, it’s me, Joseph, your little brother who you sold into slavery. Hey, don’t worry about anything, I have died for you in a sense by spending thirteen years as a slave in Egypt, and now all you have to do is to accept my generous sacrifice for all you did to me.” But that is not what Joseph did, that is not what Christ did for you and me, and that is not what we will do for those in the lake of fire. That fire is the word of God, and this is what that word teaches us about who we are and what we will do:

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;

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:

That is exactly what Joseph’s brothers thought of Him, and it tormented them for many long years. They really believed that when Jacob died, Joseph would get his revenge upon them all for what they had done to him:

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

It was their own unforgiving heart that caused them to suffer in fear all those years, and so the scriptures were fulfilled which said:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
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.

Contrary to the smooth teaching of the false doctrine of “the substitutionary death of Christ”, Christ is not in the process of saving us with “coffee and doughnuts”. Rather “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire”. It is much easier to be forgiven and at the same time refuse to forgive those who have trespassed and sinned against us. It would also have been much easier for Joseph to have revealed Himself to his brothers to begin with than for him to have restrained himself from doing so while he tormented them as he did. But these things happened to them, and they are written for our admonition upon whom these very same “ends of the world have come”. That is right, these events are the events that come upon us all in “the ends of the age”, both inwardly and dispensationally and outwardly.

As the apostle warned us, and as our Lord Himself taught us, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap [by] the tormentors… till the debt is paid”:

Mat 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

All of these lessons are learned first by those who are pictured as the firstfruits of the feast of Pentecost. From Pentecost to the feast of trumpets is the time from the summer to the fall. It is during this extended time that we are being matured through fiery judgments which “begin at the house of God”. Those fiery words apply to us first, and we are the first to be judged out of our own mouths, according to the idols of our own hearts” (Eze 14:1-9).

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?

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked [the first man Adam, the beast, the man of sin within all of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“That wicked… shall [be] consume[d] with the spirit of His mouth”. In other words, “that wicked” is consumed by the fiery words of Christ in the mouths of His firstfruit witnesses.

Exo 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

“The feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest” is the feast of Pentecost, and “the feast of ingathering at the year’s end” is the double festival of tabernacles and the last great day.

This festival, “the blowing of trumpets”, is only nine days before the day of atonement, indicating that these two festivals are closely associated with each other. That association is the fact that our sins cannot be covered without first drinking the cup Christ drank and being baptized with the baptism He was baptized with, which are both typified by the trumpet judgments of Revelation 16 within our lives. This judgment is even now taking place within the lives of those who are “the house of God” and are acknowledged as such at the feast of trumpets (1Pe 4:17).

As the seven priests with the seven trumpets circling Jericho demonstrate, the festival of trumpets acknowledges that the day of judgment “begins at the house of God”, and has been taking place since that house was established within us. But judgment is accomplished in all men “each in his own order”. In time God’s trumpet judgments will include “all [who are] in Adam”, but at this time judgment is being administered by the “seven priests” who are also called the seven angels of the seven churches, which angels we are also told blow the seven trumpets and pour out the seven vials of the wrath of God which are essential to “consume [the man of sin} with the spirit of [their] mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming”.

Jos 6:13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked [the first man Adam, the beast, the man of sin within all of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

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 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 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Who is this angel and this beast? Here is the angel’s own answer to that question:

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him [the angel of Rev 17:1]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

It is through the blowing of the seven trumpets by the seven priests that Jericho’s walls, typifying the walls and fortifications of the kingdom of the beast within us, are destroyed. As we showed earlier it all “begins at 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?

“Begin” does not mean that this is the end of God’s judgments. It is just the beginning, and it begins within His own “house”, His firstfruits, His “body which is His church”. This is how Paul describes this judgment which “begins at the house of God”:

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:

This verse reveals a great truth which many who have been deceived by the false doctrine of a “substitutionary death”, will and do consider to be blasphemy. Nevertheless Paul very clearly states here that his own sufferings are for “[Christ’s] body’s sake, which is the church”. He even states that this suffering in his body is “the afflictions of Christ in my body… which are behind [Greek: lacking] of the afflictions of Christ”. It is all a work of God and not of us, but it is being done through us “for His body’s sake, which is the church” as we will discuss in our study next week, if the Lord wills.

The next holy day is the day of atonement, only nine days after the feast of trumpets. It is followed five days later by the feast of tabernacles and the last great day, which we will get to next week, Lord willing.

[Click here to go to the next chapter.]

Keep praying saints, on the fifteen steps of the temple we ascend.
Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing.
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing.
Bringing his sheaves. (Psa 126:5-6)
Keep praying saints of God Most High, on the fifteen steps of the temple we ascend.
Jerusalem is built
As a city that is compact together
Where the tribes go up.
The tribes of the LORD,
To the Testimony of Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the LORD,
For thrones are set there for judgement. The throne of the house of David. (Psa 122:3-5)
Keep praying saints, on the fifteen steps of the temple we ascend.
If You LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You,
That you may be feared. (Psa 130:3-4)
UNTO You I lift up my eyes
O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the
hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look the LORD our God,
Until He has mercy on us. (Psa 123:1-2)
Keep praying saints of God most high, on the fifteen steps of the temple we ascend.
“Many a times they have afflicted me from my youth”
Let Israel now say-
“Many a times they have afflicted me from my youth;
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
The powers plowed on my back;
They made their furrows long.” (Psa 129:1-3)
Keep praying saints, on the fifteen steps of the temple we ascend.
I will praise you with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to you.
I will worship toward your holy temple,
And praise Your name.
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For you have magnified your word above all Your name.
In the day that I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul. (Psa 138:1-3)
Rejoice always,
Pray without ceasing,
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you.(1Th 5:16-18)
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8)

Dear Mike,

It was news to me that the Greek word for “witness” is “martus” from which we get the English word, “martyr”. Thank you so much for sharing this!
The positive and negative application of the word witness boils down to be being either a true witness or a false witness.

Pro 14:5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
Pro 14:25 A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.

Positive application: true witness- to bear testimony of life
G3140
martureō

From G3144; to be a witness, that is, testify (literally or figuratively): – charge, give [ evidence], bear record, have (obtain, of) good (honest) report, be well reported of, testify, give (have) testimony, (be, bear, give, obtain) witness.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness G3144, the beginning of the creation of God;

The willingness to remain a faithful witness unto death is the deepest application of this Greek word:

Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, G3144, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

G3144
martus
Total KJV Occurrences: 34
witnesses, 21
Mat_18:16, Mat_26:65, Mar_14:63, Luk_24:48, Act_1:8, Act_2:32, Act_3:15, Act_5:32, Act_6:13, Act_7:58, Act_10:39, Act_10:41, Act_13:31, 2Co_13:1, 1Th_2:10, 1Ti_5:19, 1Ti_6:12, 2Ti_2:2, Heb_10:28, Heb_12:1, Rev_11:3
witness, 8
Act_1:22, Act_26:15-16 (2), Rom_1:9, 1Th_2:5, 1Pe_5:1, Rev_1:5, Rev_3:14
martyr, 2
Act_22:20, Rev_2:13
Negative application: false witness; to bear testimony of lies
G5576
pseudomartureō

From G5575; to be an untrue testifier, that is, offer falsehood in evidence: – be a false witness.
G5575 pseudomartur From G5571 and a kindred form of G3144; a spurious witness, that is, bearer of untrue testimony: – false witness.

Pro 25:18 A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.
Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Another quality of the true witness is unity and agreement bearing witness to the one Truth.

Deu 4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness H5749 against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

Looking at the Hebrew definition of witness one can see the basis of the “one mind” of true Christian witness:

H5749
עו
ood

A primitive root; to duplicate or repeat; by implication to protest, testify (as by reiteration); intensively to encompass, restore (as a sort of reduplication): – admonish, charge, earnestly, lift up, protest, call (take) to record, relieve, rob, solemnly, stand upright, testify, give warning, (bear, call to, give, take to) witness.
In contrast to the disunity and disagreement among false witnesses.

Mar 14:56 For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

Source: http:// iswasandwillbe. com/Rev_3_14__18_ Laodicea_ Part_1. php

Your sister in Christ,
M____

Thank you M____,

I appreciate how thoroughly you have treated this word. As new as this thought is to you, it will be an equal blessing to any others who are sent by our Lord to read about this word.
I am copying this to Sandi to post.

Thank you so much.
Mike

Video Links

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Introduction

It is by divine design that this book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, opens with the instructions to “keep the things which are written therein…” and it closes with the same message, “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book”.

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

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

Both emphasize the imminent nature of this prophecy. It was never intended to be taken dispensationally. This book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is just Matthew 24 with many more details provided. It was always meant to be understood that “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” in every generation which ‘reads and understands’ the need for “keeping the things written therein”.

Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

“Who reads, let him understand” tells us that the Word of God is not to be understood by but a few. How very few believe we are intended to keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book?

Is it really true that the person who keeps the things written in this prophecy is blessed? If that is so, then just how much of what is written in this prophecy must be kept? Are the conditions afflicting the seven churches of chapters two and three, part of our blessed experience? Only two of the seven are not reprimanded and admonished for very serious sins. Nevertheless we are told:

Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto [all] the churches.

Are all seven addresses for each of us, or are the kind words for the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia the only words for you and me? Do the first four horses of the first four seals have any personal application for each of us? The first is the white horse who comes conquering and to conquer. The second is the red horse which takes peace from the earth causing its inhabitants to kill one another. The third is the black horse, which makes the oil and the wine in short supply. Do the souls under the altar of the fifth seal or the great earthquake of the sixth seal play any part in our lives.

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

When we deny that we are to keep any part of the things written therein, we are doing nothing less than “contending with the Almighty”.

Today’s verses have a very stern warning concerning this Truth.

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

What does “I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches” mean? We have seen that Christ’s angel is His own body. His ‘angel’ is all those who in every generation “have the testimony of Jesus Christ”, and that ‘testimony’ declares that these things are “in the churches”, just as chapters 2-3 demonstrate. This entire revelation of Jesus Christ is addressed “to the seven churches”, which is but Bible- speak for all churches of all time.

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

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him [Christ’s angel]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Christ, the Father’s anointed, has sent His Christ, His anointed, as His angel to testify these things in the churches. In this prophecy, John is the figure of all of us, if we are indeed his “fellowservants and of his brothers who have the testimony of Jesus”.

Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

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

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

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 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

One of “these things” is the Truth that is very little understood by even those who confess to it. That Truth is the fact that while Christ was indeed conceived in the womb of His mother Mary by the holy spirit, He was still, by virtue of being “made of a woman, made under the law”, at the same time both “the root and the offspring of David”.

In the natural realm it is not possible to be both the root and the offspring of anyone, yet Christ claims to be both the root of David, as well as the offspring of King David. He goes even further by claiming to be both the first and the last, the beginning and the end. This seems to be contrary to all that Babylon teaches, simply because in effect, it is saying that Christ creates the evil as well as the good. How can that possibly be? Here is the answer to that question for all who are given to accept it:

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

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

The beginning and end of what? The first and the last of what? Here is that of which Christ is both the first and last, the beginning and the end.

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.

But is the first Adam really ‘of Christ’? What say the scriptures?

Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Are both the first and the last Adam really sons of God? How is that possible? The Biblical answer to that question is, Yes, Christ is both the first and the last, and both are “in Him”.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Act 17:29 Forasmuch then as we [including these Pagan Athenians] are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

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

Christ is truly “the beginning and the end, the first and the last”.

At the end of this verse Christ informs us that He is also “the bright and morning star”. The bright and morning star, is the reward which is promised to all “overcomers”. What greater gift can be given. Christ gives us Himself, just as His Father gave His spirit to Christ.

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.
Joh 16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Joh 16:15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

All things Christ has are ours. As He with His Father, “Only in the throne” is He greater than we are in Him, and we too, are given to rule all ‘Egypt’ within us “with a rod of iron” simply because ours is “the Morning Star”!

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

“The bride” and “him that hears” are one and the same. They both are granted to say to all who thirst, “Come… take of the water of life freely”. All men of all time will come to God through the gates of the bride, and through the pillars of the temple. The gates of the city, are the gates of the bride, who is that city.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

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

All men of all time will be made to know God “by the church”, through the pillars of the temple, through the gates of the New Jerusalem, both in this age and in the aions “to come”.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

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

Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

“All men… by the church… through the gates into the city”. The gates, the pearls, the angels, and the holy city New Jerusalem, are one and all, symbols of the same great spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ Himself, via the spirit of His Father, in all those who are to be His bride, “the holy Jerusalem”. It is given to us, if we are granted to be that virgin bride, to be the channel through which God will save all men. Here is what it means to be “a pillar in the temple of our God”.

Exo 26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
Exo 26:31 And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:
Exo 26:32 And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
Exo 26:33 And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.
Exo 26:34 And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.
Exo 26:35 And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.
Exo 26:36 And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.
Exo 26:37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

To be “made a pillar in the temple of my God” is to be made the very instrument through which all men will be brought to God.

That “eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ” is this revelation of Jesus Christ within “all men… each in his own order” (1Co 15:23).

Now let all those who would be those pillars, gates, pearls, and angels, through whom all men of all time will be brought to Christ; let us take careful note of how this revelation of Jesus Christ closes with this solemn warning:

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

If we “speak above what is written”, we are ‘adding to these things… which are written therein’ (Rev 1:3). If we do such a rash and foolish thing, “God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book”. Notice that we are not told that God will plague those who add to the things which are written therein. We will all keep the things written therein, and the seven last plagues are already written therein. That is why we are told “I testify to every man that hears the words of this prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

Since we have all “come out of” Babylon, we have all “added unto these things”, and we will all have these plagues added to us in accord to our stubborn, rebellious, and blinded ways. Yes, it is all the work of the Lord, and our lack of appreciation of Him having us to give an accounting of all He has caused us to do, does not change this work of our Creator in our lives.

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.

Who among us is not, by nature, wicked? Who among us has not erred from our heavenly Father’s ways? So what part of this prophecy is not to be applied to “every man”?

Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Col 1:29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

This prophecy is all of “the things written therein”. If we take out all the seven fiery trumpet judgments, or if we place the seven last plagues written therein upon someone else, we are taking out our part in the things which are written therein”. What will be done to any who attempt to do such a foolish thing?

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

It is argued by all those who are considered to be “great men of God” in the churches of Babylon, that to believe that the plagues written in this prophecy and labeled “the wrath of God”, have any personal application to, or upon God’s very elect, is to nullify the promise of 1Th 5:9.

1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

It is argued that we simply cannot “keep” and “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” and Christ in this prophecy because of this promise:

Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

It is asked, how is it possible to be “not appointed… to wrath” and yet endure the wrath of the seven last plagues? How is it possible to be “kept from the hour of temptation” and live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God telling us that there is an hour of temptation which will come upon all the world?

These are certainly not illogical questions. We have all had them. So let’s just ask and answer how it is possible to “enter into the temple of God after the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled,’ and at the same time be able to say “God has not appointed us to wrath”? While we are told we “are not appointed to wrath”, we are also told this:

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.

Are these words of this prophecy not for you? Do you believe that 1Th 5:9 is for you, but the words of Rev 15:8, are not “things written therein” to be kept by you?

If that is your mindset, then you have no concept of what “the sum of thy word is truth” means.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.

If you think that 1Th 5:9 is true, but Rev Mat 4:4, Rev 1:3, Rev 22: 6-7 and Rev 15:8 have no application for you, then you have turned the word “sum” into ‘some’, and you now believe that you can pick and choose which “words written therein” have any personal application to you.

So how does this Biblical principle of “the sum of God’s Word” work? How is it possible to be delivered from the wrath of God in our lives, and still have the seven plagues of the seven angels fulfilled in our lives?

This is accomplished in the exact same way we are delivered from being blind:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment came I into this world, that they that see not may see; and that they that see may become blind.
Joh 9:40 Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said unto him, Are we also blind?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see: your sin remaineth.

“If you were blind you would have no sin”, means simply that as long as these Pharisees cannot acknowledge their own blindness, their blindness remains. So it is with the wrath of God. “We are not appointed to wrath” only if we acknowledge that we ourselves have been “by nature the children of wrath, even as others”.

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.

Now we are adding scripture to scripture, while adding nothing to the things written therein. Now we are able to accept “the sum of God’s word” instead of pitting scripture against scripture, and taking away from the things written therein.

How is it possible to believe on Christ in this life and never die, and Christ promised Martha?

Joh 11:23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother [ Lazarus] shall rise again.
Joh 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
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?

Now just how does one go about believing on Christ so as to “never die”? Yes, once again, as contradictory as 1Th 5:9 seems to be to Eph 2:3 and Rev 15:8, this is the only way to “believe on Christ and never die”. This is how we can live forever and not be appointed to death. It is the same principle by which “we are not appointed to wrath”:

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

So let us ask, Do you want to see the things of the spirit? If so you simply must first acknowledge your spiritual blindness. Do you want to live and never die? If so all you need do is “lose your life [in this world] for Christ’s sake” and you will find how you “will never die”. Would you be found of God? You simply must acknowledge that you are spiritually lost. Would you not be appointed to wrath? All you need do is to acknowledge that you have been “by nature a child of wrath even as others”, that ‘the seven plagues of the seven angels have been fulfilled’ in your life, and then “you are not appointed to wrath but to salvation” as are all men of all time.

There are two more verses which bookend this subject of God’s wrath, as indeed they bookend and wrap up how we are to approach every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Here are those two very revealing 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.

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

Should Ecc 9:2 read ‘All things come alike to all but God’s elect, who never experience His wrath upon their unrighteousnesses’? Is that what the sum of God’s Word teaches?

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Should Rom 1:18 read ‘The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, except for those who accept Christ?’

Should 1Co 3:21-22 be made to read ‘Most things are yours, most things present and most things to come, but not the seven last plagues of God’s wrath upon my ungodliness and my unrighteousness?’

We who have the mind of Christ know that is not the case, and we are careful to neither add to nor take away from the words of this prophecy, knowing we will reap what we sow, and knowing that the grace of God will chasten us to live godly lives in this age.

That is how this great revelation which ends with the promise that death and all that are dead in Hades and in the sea, will be delivered up to those who are the lake of fire, to be cleansed of all that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and His Christ.

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Those among us who are at ease in, and are able to dwell in the devouring fire and everlasting burnings of God’s Word, are those who “speak uprightly” those fiery words. They are the gates of that city, the pillars in the temple of God, the bride of Christ which is New Jerusalem. It is by those twelve gates of a single pearl each, that all the dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murders, and idolaters who love and make a lie, will one day be redeemed of all their sins and be made and reformed into a new vessel as seems good to the Potter to make it.

Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

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

Such is the revelation of Jesus Christ in every man. Every word that has proceeded out of the mouth of God will be acknowledged as being within the same Adamic flesh with which we are all “by nature” born. This process of judgment will in the end be accomplished in every man who has ever lived, as the scriptures so clearly make known.

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.

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

1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [ not exclusively] of those that believe.

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.

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

It is all accomplished by our Lord Himself working in every man His chastening work of grace. That is why we all ask for that chastening grace to always be with us, at all times.

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Tit 2:12 Teaching [ Greek, paidueo, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

(Read The Purpose And Function of Grace Tit 2:12 A1245.0 The Difference Between What Grace Is And What Grace Does

http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ The_ Difference_ Between_ What_ Grace_ Is_ And_ What_ Grace_ Does. php).

So ends this revelation of Jesus Christ in His own body the church (Col 1:24).

Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

It is by Christ’s chastening grace, as our ‘everlasting Father’ (Isa 9:6), through His faith working in us, that all men will be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. It is from the beginning to the end, His work within us, and we bring nothing at all to the table.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Conclusion

This study concludes our studies in the book of Revelation. Next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin a series of studies in the book of Job, where we will see most conclusively the relationship between Christ and Satan, and we will also see that Job and his trials is each of us in our own appointed time, and God’s chastening grace works to reveal our self-righteous selves to us.

Here are the verses we hope to cover in our next study.

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

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Rev 15:5  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
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.

Introduction

In these last four verses of this chapter, we will learn the meaning of the word ‘opened’. In doing so we will find that when there is an “open heaven” there is an exponential increase in our understanding of spiritual or heavenly matters.
We will also learn that ‘clothing’ in scripture always alludes to our way of life, be it a life of obedience to God and the love and righteousness of Christ, which is that obedience, or a life of rebellion against God and His doctrines and the hatred and rebellion against the doctrines of Christ and His Father, which is that life.
We will also discover that there is a very strong connection between the four beasts which are said to be in and around the throne of God and the seven angels of this revelation of Jesus Christ.
Finally we will be reminded of the meaning of the word ‘glory’ as it relates to “the glory of God, and we will be reminded why we are told that “no man was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled”.

Rev 15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

This “tabernacle of testimony” is mentioned three times in the Old Testament in the King James Version, and it always refers to what is far more commonly called “the tabernacle of the congregation”. Here are those references:

Exo 38:21  This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.
Num 1:50  But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.
Num 1:53  But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.

Now here is one example of the far more common phrase, “the tabernacle of the congregation”, speaking of the same tabernacle”.

Exo 27:21  In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

“Aaron and his sons” is Bible- speak for God’s elect who “have an altar whereof they that serve the tabernacle have no right to eat”.

Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

It is the stark contrast between the Levites who are the priests, the sons of Aaron, as opposed to the Levites, who are not priests, but who are commanded to “keep the charge of the tabernacle”, which demonstrates the spiritual meaning of “Many are called but few are chosen”.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Only the priests, the sons of Aaron are able to enter into the tabernacle to do the service “within the vail” of the tabernacle.

Num 18:1  And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
Num 18:2  And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee [ shall minister] before the tabernacle of witness.
Num 18:3  And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.
Num 18:4  And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.
Num 18:5  And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
Num 18:6  And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you [ they are] given [ as] a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Num 18:7  Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

“You and your sons” is Biblical symbolism for Christ our high priest and His elect. So when we read, ” the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened”, what we are being told is that it is now being shown to us what Christ is doing in His temple to prepare it for His residence.
It is given only to Christ’s elect “as a service of gift”, to minister within the vail” of the tabernacle. That is why these seven angels who have the seven vials, or bowls which “fill up the wrath of God”, are said to come out of the temple”:

Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

The Levites who are not the sons of Aaron were never to even so much as touch “the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar”. If the priest permitted that to happen, it would cost the lives of both the Levite who was not Aaron’s son and the priest who permitted it. The fact these seven angels “come out of the temple”, tells us that these angels are symbols of those who are given the service of the priests. These seven angels are the symbols of the sons of Aaron, Christ’s elect, who alone are given the priesthood “as a service of gift… to minister before God… within the vail” of the temple.

Num 18:3  And they [ the Levites who were not the sons of Aaron] shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.]

What these verses of Num 18 tell us is that only the chosen elect of Christ are given to handle the word and doctrines of God, which are symbolized by “the vessels of the sanctuary”. The Truth in the hands of anyone else becomes a curse upon them, because they are not equipped or authorized or worthy to be the stewards of the Word of God.
Here is an example of how that works:

1Sa 5:1  And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
1Sa 5:2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
1Sa 5:3  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
1Sa 5:4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
1Sa 5:5  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
1Sa 5:6  But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
1Sa 5:7  And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

As we saw in last week’s study, it is the priests and the priests only who were ever to be cleansed in the molten sea between the brazen altar and the temple. It is upon that sea, which here is called “a sea of glass mingled with fire”, that God’s elect who overcome the mark, name, number and image of the beast, stand with golden harps, singing the victorious song of Moses.

What does “clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles” mean?

As we have seen earlier, “the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints”.

Rev 19:8  And to her [ Christ’s elect, His bride] was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Again, it is affirmed to us that these seven angels are Christ’s own bride, who are “clothed in pure and white linen…”
What does “golden girdle” signify? It signifies Christ and those who are in Him:

Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

Here is what we are told of those who are Christ’s at this time:

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.

In our study of chapter 16, we will see that these seven angels identify themselves as God’s own elect, “our fellowservants, and of those who keep the sayings of this prophecy…” Because Christ’s offices are so numerous, many types and shadows and symbols are employed, both to help to hide and at the same time to reveal, all those various offices. “As He is, so are we in this world”. If Christ is girded with a golden girdle and we are “in Him”, then we too, are “girded with golden girdles”.

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.

Many symbols are employed to reveal all the various offices we, as Christ’s Christ, must fulfill. Here in chapters 15-16 we are called “seven angels”. But here in verse 7 we are called “one of the four beasts”. In our study of chapter 5 we saw how these four beasts tell us that they too, are symbols of those who are “redeemed from among men and “will rule on earth”. How can “one of the four beasts” as a symbol of God’s elect be giving the seven vials to another symbol of God’s elect?
That is no more of a mystery than asking how can God’s elect, who are the temple of God, become seven angels who come out of the temple of God? That apparent mystery is explained with these words:

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

“Ye in me, and I in you”. The spirit world is far more fluid than the physical world. “At that day” is this very day which we are now studying. It is “the great day of God’s wrath” (Rev 6:17), when “the mystery of God should be finished” within us. That mystery is “Christ in you the hope of glory… Ye in me and I in you”.

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.
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

This is not “made manifest” to just anyone. It is only “made manifest to his saints”. If Christ is in us and we are “as He is in this world”, then these “golden girdles” on these seven angels tie us inexorably to Christ, because, as we will see later, these seven angels tell us they are symbols of us (Rev 19:10 and 22:8-9). It is Christ in us giving these vials to us and pouring out the wrath of God upon the sins, false doctrines and rebellions within us.

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.

We have covered this verse thoroughly as we dealt with the first four verses of this chapter. “The glory of God” is not just a bright glow. “The glory of God” is the bright light that is His fiery words and doctrines which fly in the face of everything that appeals to our flesh. The smoke from that glory is the by- product of the burning up of all “the wood, hay and stubble” that is the false doctrines and pulls of our flesh which dominate our lives “till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” within us.
What we must see is that “no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled” is specifically addressed to you and me.
We will now see how this is made to apply to us in the pouring out of these seven plagues of these seven angels within us, here in Chapter 16.