Word of God – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:53:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png Word of God – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 Which Oil Are We To Use? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/which-oil-are-we-to-use/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=which-oil-are-we-to-use Tue, 17 Jan 2023 23:34:53 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=26983 Which Oil Are We To Use?
[Posted January 17, 2023]

Hi E​___​_,

Thank you for your question about the ‘oil’ of James 5:14-15:

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Jas 5:15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

You ask:

T​he subject box contains the question:

“Which ​o​il ​a​re ​w​e t​o ​u​se?”  (End Quote)

I appreciate this opportunity to tell you which ‘oil’ we should be using to anoint the sick in our time.

The short answer to the question in the subject box is​ -​ “the oil [of] the Word of God”:

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Here is what ‘oil’ signifies in scripture​:

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Zec 4:11  Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
Zec 4:12  And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
Zec 4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:14  Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

These are “the two olive trees” referred to in Revelation 11 where they are called “​m​y two witnesses”:

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 [of Zechariah 4], and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

The number ‘two’ in its positive application signifies ‘witness’. Here is a link to a study on the scriptural meaning of the number ‘two’:

Significance of the Number Two

The short answer to your question about which oil was used is that the only oil mentioned as being used to anoint anyone in scripture is olive oil. The land of Canaan is called “a land of oil olive, and honey.”

Deu 8:8  A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

When King David said…

Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

…He was speaking specifically of olive oil. It was common to anoint a special friend with olive oil to show respect to them in Christ’s day. Notice what Christ said to Simon, the Pharisee who had requested His presence at a dinner:

Luk 7:36  And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.
Luk 7:37  And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
Luk 7:38  And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Luk 7:39  Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.
Luk 7:40  And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
Luk 7:41  There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
Luk 7:42  And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
Luk 7:43  Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
Luk 7:44  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Luk 7:45  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
Luk 7:46  My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Luk 7:47  Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Let me take this opportunity to point out that those who insist that James 5:14-15 should be observed today never insist that Luke 6:46 should be observed to day. What minister do you know who anoints your head with oil when he meets you?

The point I am making is that the entire time the Lord was on this earth, as well as the entire time covered by the book of the Acts ​o​f t​he ​a​postles, ​they​ were living in “the time of reformation” to which Christ alluded when, on the night of His apprehension by the Jews, after three and a half years of His ministry with His twelve apostles, He told them this great Truth:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Many of these “many things [they could not yet] bear” were rituals like circumcision, baptisms, and anointing with physical oil. So this statement in James is made in “the time of reformation” of which the scriptures speak in:

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

We all experience our own “time of reformation” even today, as we ever so gradually come to see the “many things [the Lord has] to say unto [us which we] cannot bear… until the time of [our] reformation.” Christ could not yet tell His disciples that the physical rituals to which they were so attached would soon lose all their significance. Even the rituals of circumcision and  baptisms would, in time, become obsolete and totally unnecessary, as was eventually revealed:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

He could not yet tell them that water baptism, which was also “outward in the flesh” would be replaced with “the washing of water by the word“:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

These are the inspired words from the holy spirit via the pen of the apostle Paul concerning physical water baptism:

1Co 1:17  For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel [the “washing of water by the word”]: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

The circumcision that puts away and overcomes our flesh is not outward circumcision. It is the inward circumcision of our hearts that cuts  off and overcomes our flesh. In the same way outward water baptism does not cleanse us from our sins. It is “the washing of water by the Word which does “sanctify and cleanse” us.

It is not adding one word to the Word of God to realize that being outwardly anointed with oil in no way gives us the true anointing which heals us. This  is what heals us:

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Christ is t​he Word of God:

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

There were events in Christ’s ministry which pointed to this “time of reformation” including the time that He healed the centurion’s servant without even touching him, let alone anointing him with oil:

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Mat 8:7  And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only [Psa 107:20], and my servant shall be healed. [“The Word” is the ‘oil’ of the word of Zechariah 4:12.]
Mat 8:9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Mat 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. [This centurion saw no need for his servant to be physically ‘anointed with oil’ to be healed. All he wanted was for Christ to “send His word and heal” his servant ​(Psa 107:20).​]

Mat 8:13  And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

It is the same today. There are few in the church who are given the faith to relinquish all the rituals to which they are so attached by their upbringing and church traditions, which are nothing more that “traditions of men” even if they were kept by the early church which was still offering blood sacrifices. Remember the apostles themselves were not even converted until the day of Pentecost. Look at what Christ said to Peter the night of His apprehension of the Jews. These words were spoken to Peter and all the apostles after spending three and a half years ministering with Christ:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

This was the same night Christ told all His disciples:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

I will close with this… If we are going to insist that everything that was done in “the time of reformation,”  then we must resume offering blood sacrifices for our sins as the apostles themselves did in the book of Acts. It was the apostle James who asked the apostle Paul to pay for the offerings of four men who had a vow, and it was the apostle Paul who had agreed to the words of the letter to the Gentiles in Acts 15, who was more than willing to do so because he agreed ​(​for a​ time)​ to the conclusion of “us and the holy spirit” that the Gentiles did not need to keep the law of Moses, but the Jews were not yet able to bear that Truth:

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 [of Moses]:
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.

This is all before the revelations of Paul’s prison epistles in which the Lord finally decided it was time to begin to show us some of the “many things [we] cannot bear” until He decides that it is time to begin to open our eyes and ears to the spiritual meaning of His spiritual words:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [being ritually anointed] ​profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you [will anoint, cleanse and heal you spiritually], they are spirit, and they are life.

I pray you are given to bear these “many things” the Lord has said to us since the earliest days of the New Testament church.

YbiChrist,
Mike

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 1:11-19 I Will Utter my Judgments Against Them Touching all Their Wickedness https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-111-19-i-will-utter-my-judgments-against-them-touching-all-their-wickedness/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-111-19-i-will-utter-my-judgments-against-them-touching-all-their-wickedness Sat, 12 Dec 2020 21:08:02 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=21826

Jer 1:11-19 I Will Utter My Judgments Against Them Touching All Their Wickedness

[Study Aired December 13, 2020]

Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
Jer 1:13  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Jer 1:16  And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jer 1:18  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
Jer 1:19  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

As I have pointed out earlier, Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 both make it clear that each of us must inwardly personalize all the plural pronouns of scripture if we are to benefit from reading any of these prophecies:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man [G444: ‘anthropos’, mankind, (you and I)] shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Luke gives us our “second witness” to this Truth:

Luk 4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Living by every word does not mean performing every word of scripture. What it means is that we are to believe and obey every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We must accept with complete faith “that every imagination of the thoughts of [our natural] heart [is] only evil continually.” Therefore, “[we] are the man” who committed adultery and then murdered the woman’s husband to cover it up. If we believe that every sin of mankind is within our own flesh, then we will understand who Christ was talking to when He said:

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation [“let him that readeth understand” (Mat 24:15)];

The words of Jeremiah were given to him by “the Lord” to give to us. Therefore, these words have proceeded out of the mouth of God. These words are part of “every word of God” which we will do well to believe and act accordingly:

Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

“You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” (??) What, pray tell, does “a rod of an almond tree” have to do with “I will hasten my word to perform it?” That will become much easier to understand when we see the similarity between the Hebrew word for ‘almond’ and the Hebrew word of ‘hasten’. Here is the Hebrew word for ‘almond’:

The almond tree is the earliest blooming tree in any orchard. I have an almond tree, peach trees, apple trees, pear trees and one apricot tree. The almond blooms in January before any of the other fruit trees.

The Hebrew word for ‘almond’ is ‘shaqed’ to which James Strong has assigned the number H8247. Notice that we are told this Hebrew word, number H8247, is “from H8245”, and when we look up that word, this is what we find:

Where do we find this word H8245 from which the word ‘almond’ comes? E-sword tells us it is in the Old Testament twelve times, and one of those twelve times is in the very next verse, verse 12, where this word H8245 ‘shaqad’ is translated as ‘hasten’:

Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten [H8245: ‘shaqad’] my word to perform it.

What the Lord is telling us through Jeremiah is the very same message He gives us in the New Testament via the agency of “the fig tree”:

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.

Here in Matthew 24:32-35 Christ is essentially saying… “I will hasten My Word to perform  it.”

He repeats the same message in:

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.

That is the significance of why the Lord showed Jeremiah an almond rod. The pouring out of His wrath upon His own people was imminent, typifying this spiritual Truth:

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?

Isaiah gives us the same timetable with the same sense of urgency:

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

If we fail to discern the order in which the Lord is judging His creatures, then we will fail to know Him, and we will not know His Son. We will fail to acknowledge that we are being judged in “this present time” and that we are therefore the first of all of mankind to be judged. If we believe this, then we are beginning to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. “Judgment must begin at the house of God” [and] “when the Lord has performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem [His elect then, and only then] will [He] punish the stout heart of the king of Assyria…”

Later in this same prophecy, the Lord, through Jeremiah, will repeat the message of Isaiah 10:12. In chapter 25 the Lord will again state that He has already determined He will judge His own people first, and then He will judge the rest of the nations of this world:

Jer 25:15  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer 25:16  And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:17  Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Jer 25:18  To wit, [“begin at”] Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

The Lord has determined to judge His own people first:

Jer 25:29  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

The Lord goes on to make it clear He is not speaking only of the judgment which is taking place at this very moment within His elect. He makes clear that after He pours out His wrath upon His saints, then He will also judge the rest of the kingdoms of this world, but always beginning with Jerusalem, His own people, His own “house” (1Pe 4:17):

The reason for starting with His own house is for the very reason of using His own house as His instrument to save all the rest of mankind. Those few who are first judged in this present age, will be sent by Christ “that the world through [their] mercy might receive mercy.”

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.

God sent His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved, and Christ says this of those few who are chosen in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) to endure hardship and tribulations to the end:

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

We are also sent by Christ to be the first to be judged so we can be “saviors” who will be the first to judge the world and then the angels:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

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

‘Saviors’ are righteous, just and merciful judges:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might [through His elect of this present time] have mercy upon all.

That is both the physical and the spiritual significance of showing Jeremiah an almond rod. It signifies both physically and spiritually the eminence of the “rod of [His] anger, and… indignation” which the Lord first brings upon His own house, His own people:

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

The Babylonians were the Assyrian people who typify and signify those whom the Lord has chosen to punish His own people. Like the Egyptians before them, the Assyrians, who are the same people as the Babylonians, are a very self-righteous religious people, who in type have a special hatred for “the Lord and His Christ” (Act 4:26). It is ‘Babylon’ whom the holy spirit has chosen to typify “the great city wherein our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8) It is the Lord’s own apostate people. It is those who claim to be the Lord’s people who hate the Lord and His Word even more than the nations around them do. These are those whom the Lord calls a spiritual “harlot”:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24  Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
Isa 1:25  And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

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.

“The faithful city” is the subject of this chapter, and it is the subject of this entire prophecy:

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.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

The prophecy of Isaiah revealing “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” to be “a harlot” gives these verses of Revelation much greater meaning within and outwardly than simply seeing “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth” as Judaism, the Anglican church or the Catholic church. “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots” rules over the kings of the earth. Inwardly she rules us with her doctrines. Outwardly she is all the religions of this world all of whom reject the Lordship of Christ.

John was “carried away in the spirit” and made to see this very same ‘harlot’ spoken of in Isaiah 1:21:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. [“…but now murders… lodge in it” (Isa 1:21)]

What exactly is the spiritual significance of this great harlot? This is who she signifies in both the Old and the New Testaments:

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The Lord has divorced and banished His harlot wife:

Isa 50:1  Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away [“banished”].

However, the Lord has devised means by which even His banished are reconciled to Him:

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

The Lord blots out the names of all who sin against Him:

Exo 32:33  And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Since we “have all sinned and come short of the glory of God” we are all at birth ‘blotted out’ of His book and are under His wrath:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life [“blotted out of His book” (Exo 32:33)]; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

That ‘wrath of God’ is obviously upon all flesh, but it is “[His own] house”, His elect, who are “chastened… and scourged” first:

Jer 1:13  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

“The north” in scripture typifies impending judgment upon the Lord’s chosen people. Ezekiel uses this same imagery:

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Eze 9:5  And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Eze 9:6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

“Begin at my sanctuary” is the foundation for Peter saying:

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

We suffer along with the rest of mankind, but knowing the purpose for our suffering grants us to be the first to be judged. Those who are not given the blessing to see and to hear the things of the spirit, groan in pain together with us in this present time, only to have to do it all over again in the lake of fire:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [“The redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14)]
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

These very words are “the mark” which is upon those who are spared. The only reason for which they are spared is that they, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, have judged themselves already, and they are now being used to judge others by remaining faithful to all these thundering judgments of the Lord.

Inwardly the “fiery… words, the hailstones the weight of a talent, the water of life and the light of the world” all come down on all the false doctrines of the great whore which reside within me. Outwardly and dispensationally, the nations of this world will be “dashed to pieces as the vessel of a potter”:

Jer 1:16  And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

The incense is “the prayers of the saints”:

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Rev 8:3  And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

When we are yet in rebellion in Babylon we are praying to “another Jesus… unto other gods”:

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

Rev 2:26  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.

This is what is taking place within each of us if we are predestinated to be those “who first trusted in Christ” and upon whom His judgments of this prophecy of Jeremiah are taking place in this present time:

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

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

We “who first trusted in Christ… have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will.” These words have no application to those who are not the first to trust in Christ. ‘Who first trusted in Christ’ is a phrase which qualifies this group as ‘the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb’:

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

“The voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, …as the voice of a great thunder: and… the voice of harpers harping with their harps” are one and all the words of the Lord in the mouths of His elect. The “many waters” are the Words of the Lord as a whole. The “great thunder” are His judgments in His Words throughout the law, the Psalms and the apostles and the prophets. What John was hearing were the judgments being pronounced upon the house of God by all of His prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and all the other Old Testament prophets are types and shadows of “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” who in the New Testament become “the voice of many waters… the voice of a great thunder”. John is hearing the words of God in the mouths of those who have been given the eyes that see and the ears that hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and who know that “the hour of His judgment” is the judgment which is now upon the house of God within each of us.

If we are granted to hear and understand the Lord’s word, then this is what we will be found doing:

Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

When in the process of opening Job’s eyes and ears to His words, this is what the Lord twice told Job:

Job 38:3  Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

When Elisha sent his servant Gehazi or one of the children of the prophets to give the Lord’s words to others, He told them:

2Ki 4:29  Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

2Ki 9:1  And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramothgilead:

Now notice how Peter applies this phrase in the New Testament:

1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

The grace of God comes to us only through “the revelation of Jesus Christ”, therefore we are being told to “gird up the loins of your mind” [to] read, hear, and keep the “revelation of Jesus Christ”:

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.

Therefore, the Lord is telling us the same thing He told Jeremiah:

Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

Along with this commission comes these words which are designed to prepare our hearts for the thunderous judgments which are coming down upon the house of God within us:

Jer 1:18  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

The only way any of us will be “faithful to the end” is if “the Lord has made us [to be] a defenced city… an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings… the princes… the priests, and against the whole land.” Christ gave us this very same message:

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.

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

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

Here is the ultimate fulfillment of these words as lived out by “the captain of our salvation”:

Act 4:25  Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Act 4:29  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

When Jeremiah was put in the pit with no water and nothing but miry clay, like Joseph before him, he was typically put into his grave. These events both typify the death and resurrection of our Lord. Look at what the Lord has promised us using Jeremiah as a type of Christ and a type of us, ‘the Lord’s Christ’:

Gen 37:23  And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;
Gen 37:24  And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

Jer 38:6  Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

Both these men, as type of Christ and His Christ, prevailed over their enemies and over the power of the pit:

Jer 1:19  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

What the Lord’s own people did to Jeremiah was a type and a shadow of what they would do to their own Creator who also appeared to be a mere man. Indeed, He was man enough to be put to death through crucifixion on the cross. Just look at what that accomplished:

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;

Joseph came up out of the pit into life. Jeremiah came up out of the pit unto life, and Christ came up out of His grave alive.

I remember well when my carnal mind, with absolutely no appreciation of the things of the spirit, thought, “What do you mean, …and was heard in that He feared… He was crucified and He died.” What total spiritual blindness I was bound up in at that time. A physical body, like the body of Lazarus, still must die and return to dust. A resurrected body is no longer subject to death, and a physical body “cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” Christ’s prayer was not just, “Father, if you be willing remove this cup from me.” Rather, it was also… “nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done… and He was heard in that He feared… God rather than men.”

Luk 12:5  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Act 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Christ’s flesh identified with our flesh and cried out “Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me”, but His spirit submitted to His Father’s will, and He also prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will but thine be done… and He was heard in that He feared.” His gift of placing the things of the spirit ahead of the things of the things of the flesh produced life “through death” and gave us a Savior.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

If we are granted to do the same in this present time, then we, too, through Christ, will be made to be “saviors” of this world:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

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

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

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Jer 2:3  Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:4  Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Jer 2:5  Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
Jer 2:6  Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
Jer 2:7  And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
Jer 2:8  The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Jer 2:9  Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

]]> Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 55:1-6 I Will Make an Everlasting Covenant With You, Even the Sure Mercies of David https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-551-6-i-will-make-an-everlasting-covenant-with-you-even-the-sure-mercies-of-david/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-551-6-i-will-make-an-everlasting-covenant-with-you-even-the-sure-mercies-of-david Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:51:04 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=20357 Download Study

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I Will Make An Everlasting Covenant With You, Even The Sure Mercies of David

[Study Aired March 1, 2020]

Isa 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isa 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Isa 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Isa 55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Isa 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Isa 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

We have seen that the three chapters, 52, 53, and 54, were all about the sacrifice of Christ for the transgressions of His people (Isa 53:5). We also learned that “as He is so are we in this world” (1Jo 4:17). Therefore these chapters also have a personal application to all who are given to be crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20) in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). This 55th chapter changes the tone of our discussion from one of suffering with Christ and yet resting in His “exceeding great and precious promises, to exulting and rejoicing in “the redemption of the purchased possession”:

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

The Lord is very straightforward about the fact that our calling is a baptism of fire. He tells us right up front that if indeed we are called to be the manifested sons of God in this age, we will be hated of all men and even divided from our families:

Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Luk 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
Luk 12:52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
Luk 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

The Lord is the ultimate psychologist, and He knows just what is needed to incentivize those He has chosen to be His children for His work in this present time. I have been very pleasantly surprised to discover just how encouraging, uplifting and hopeful these studies in the prophecies of Isaiah are. This 55th chapter is another such an incentivizing example of the many “great and precious promises” we are given to encourage us to endure to the end:

2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Notice just how important these promises are to our salvation. It is “by these [that] you might be partakers of the divine nature…”

What that means is that if your birthright promises mean nothing more to you than a bowl of red pottage, you will be willing to sell it just to get some relief from the trials of life. If you believe that these promises are common to all men, then you will have no “respect unto the recompense” of all of these “exceeding great and precious promises”, and you will not be inspired or incentivized to “esteem suffering with the children of God” of greater value than being esteemed as a prince in this present world:

Gen 25:29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
Gen 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
Gen 25:31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
Gen 25:32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Salvation, which is common to all men (2Ti 2:4 and 4:10), is great and precious, but it is not “exceeding great and precious”, because its universality leaves no one to “exceed”.

Who would say “Thus Esau despised his birthright” simply because he sold it in a moment of weakness? The answer to that question is: the Lord Himself is the author of those words, and those words express exactly how the Lord views our lack of appreciation for the “great and precious promises” which we have in Christ in “this present time” (Rom 8:18):

2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It is “through the knowledge of Him [Christ, that]… we… are given [many] “great and precious promises”. Then it is through the knowledge of what is promised to us that we become “partakers of the divine nature”.

Today we are privileged to get to examine and learn how to appreciate the recompence of our reward if indeed we are granted by Christ to esteem the reproach of Christ and His doctrines greater riches than the treasures of this world:

Isa 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

As I said earlier, the Lord is the ultimate psychologist. He knows how to get us to want to be His children. He offers us both milk and wine for what sounds like no price. The fact is that, as we just read in Matthew 10, we must be willing to forsake our wives and husbands, mother and father, children and families before we are even counted worthy to become a disciple of Christ. Just like the chastening grace of God, there is no physical charge. The Lord does not charge us a single cent to spank and scourge us when we go astray from His ways (Heb 12:6).

Isa 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

The food we eat and the fatness we enjoy are actually ingested through our eyes and ears:

Isa 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Here are “the sure mercies of David”. This is what is also known as ‘the Davidic covenant chapter’:

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

Psa 89:1 Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
Psa 89:2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
Psa 89:3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
Psa 89:4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
Psa 89:5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.
Psa 89:6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?
Psa 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
Psa 89:8 O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
Psa 89:9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. [Mar 4:35-41]
Psa 89:10 Thou hast broken Rahab [pride] in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
Psa 89:11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
Psa 89:12 The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.
Psa 89:13 Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

Exo 15:6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

Psa 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Psa 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Psa 89:15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. [in His doctrines]
Psa 89:16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. [in His doctrines]
Psa 89:17 For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
Psa 89:18 For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
Psa 89:19 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Psa 89:20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil [the holy spirit] have I anointed him:

Isa 16:5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.

Amo 9:11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
Amo 9:12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

Act 15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
Act 15:17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

Psa 89:21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
Psa 89:22 The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
Psa 89:23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
Psa 89:24 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
Psa 89:25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
Psa 89:26 He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
Psa 89:27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
Psa 89:28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
Psa 89:29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
Psa 89:30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
Psa 89:31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Psa 89:32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

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

Psa 89:33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. [There will be no Hebrews 6:4-8… “impossible… to renew to repentance”]
Psa 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Psa 89:35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Psa 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. [1Jo 4:17]
Psa 89:37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
Psa 89:38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
Psa 89:39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
Psa 89:40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
Psa 89:41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.
Psa 89:42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
Psa 89:43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
Psa 89:44 Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
Psa 89:45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
Psa 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

Isa 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Psa 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Psa 89:49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.

Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

This is the sure covenant with David:

Psa 89:35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Psa 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psa 89:37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

Add to these words this prophecy in Jeremiah:

Jer 33:17 For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Jer 33:18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

I spent ten years of my life in the World Wide Church of God believing these words were meant to be understood outwardly only:

Psa 89:35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Psa 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psa 89:37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

We actually believed that someone, somewhere, was sitting on the physical throne of David or else the Lord was a liar. I had never heard the words of Jeremiah 33:17-18 because the Lord had blinded my eyes and the eyes of my highly esteemed leaders from seeing or understanding what all these verses are actually saying. The false doctrine of the WWCG was that at the time of the Babylonian captivity, the daughters of King Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had placed on the throne, were taken by Jeremiah to Egypt, and from there to Ireland, and from Ireland to Scotland, and from Scotland to England. It is all hogwash, but it sounded so appealing to an ear which had no idea that:

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

This prophecy has nothing to do with David’s physical descendants, any more than “Jerusalem above” has anything to do with physical Jerusalem. If there were any truth to that false doctrine, then Christ would be a pretender to the throne, which at His time would have been in Ireland or Scotland or England, according to that false doctrine.

But Christ is on His throne, and He is not a ‘pretender’. It is Christ to whom our next verse applies:

Isa 55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

David typifies and is a figure of Christ and His anointed, His Christ. It is only the Jews who believe on Christ and the Gentiles who believe on Him who are now the True Jew and the True “Israel of God”:

Isa 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

The Truth is that the Lord has never been impressed with any man’s physical pedigree. Not in the least. Being physically descended from Abraham or King David in no way at all impresses the Lord. These are His own inspired words on the subject of anyone’s physical pedigree:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Physical descent from an Old Testament patriarch does not equate to spiritual righteousness. There is no connection there at all. Our physical pedigree is not of our doing and neither is our righteousness nor our lack thereof. This instead is The Truth:

Gal 6:15 Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16 Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GWV)

Whatever we are is a work of the hand of the Potter. These words are addressed primarily to “the Israel of God”:

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

Our very thoughts are directed by the Lord, and lest we miss that point, we are told this, just three verses later:

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

In every way we are truly “the work of His hands”, even in these “flesh and blood [bodies of] corruption”:

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

God wants us to know that we are the work of His hands and that our will has nothing to do with what He has determined to accomplish within us:

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

Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
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.

“The vessel that He made of clay” is Adam and all who are in him, including physical Israel. As we just saw, all those who claim the name of Christ are also ‘Israel’ whether faithful to His doctrine or not faithful.

This is what Christ has to say about the vessel He made of clay, and His power over that vessel:

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.

The Lord’s sovereignty and His ability to do with His clay what He has planned for that vessel, does not exclude Him admonishing us to “work out our own salvation”:

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.

He does the same here in Isaiah:

Isa 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

We have been taught that there will never be a time when the Lord is not near, and in an outward sense that is true, because as Paul pointed out to the pagan Athenians:

Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Act 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
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 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.
Act 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

So, yes, “[God] is not far from every one of us” in the sense that He is omnipresent:

Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Psa 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Psa 139:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Psa 139:11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psa 139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Psa 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

However, spiritually speaking “there is a great gulf between” us and our Creator, and that gulf cannot be passed over without going through the fiery sword which guards the way of the tree of life:

Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Luk 16:26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

That fiery sword which guards the way of the tree of life will try every man’s work of what sort it is, and only then will any man be purified and made worthy to pass from death unto life:

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.

The “loss” suffered by those who “suffer loss [in] this present time” (Rom 8:18), will be their “crown of life” (Rev 2:10-11), and the honor of being “Kings and priests… to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years” (Rev 20:1-6).

Having sovereignly determined “the times before appointed” to be the case gives our Lord the occasion needed to tell us to “work out our own salvation” as we read in Phlippians 2:12. Look at the very next verse which explains how and why we can “work out [our] own salvation”:

Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure

As the Lord tells us through Job:

Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

What does the Lord desire? The Lord is not bashful when it comes to telling us what He desires:

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.

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

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

That is today’s study. I hope we are all encouraged to know that the Lord has given us “an everlasting covenant [of] exceeding great and precious promises… the sure mercies of David”. We should all have great respect and appreciation for the fact that both our spiritual food and drink and our scourging grace are the most satisfying nourishment available to mankind, and it is all free of charge, and it is of a merciful and endless supply, as we were told at the beginning of this study:

Isa 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isa 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Isa 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

These are next week’s verses revealing that our natural mind is simply not able to think as the Lord thinks, and we must be given His mind as the free gift spoken of in today’s study:

Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isa 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
Isa 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Isa 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Isa 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

]]> Studies in Psalms – Psa 139:1-24 “Thine Eyes Did See Mine Unformed Substance; and in thy Book They were All Written” – Part 2 (Verses 7-13) https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/studies-in-psalms-psa-1391-24-thine-eyes-did-see-mine-unformed-substance-and-in-thy-book-they-were-all-written-part-2-verses-7-13/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=studies-in-psalms-psa-1391-24-thine-eyes-did-see-mine-unformed-substance-and-in-thy-book-they-were-all-written-part-2-verses-7-13 Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:18:25 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=19877 Psa 139:1-24 “Thine Eyes Did See Mine Unformed Substance; and in thy Book They were All Written” – Part 2 (verses 7-13)

“And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight” Heb 4:13

Psa 139:7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psa 139:8  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Psa 139:9  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Psa 139:10  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Psa 139:11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Psa 139:13  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

As we mentioned in our last study, there are four distinct parts to this Psalm 139:  the first describing God’s omnipotence, the second section, which we will look at tonight, which gives us insight as to how God sees all of His creation, the third section more specifically how he sees the church, the body of Christ, the workmanship of His hands, and the fourth describing how God brings light out of darkness through the judgment upon the church (1Pe 4:17).

We have been granted to know and believe and hope (Col 1:27) in the answer to the question “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?”  The answer is nowhere; not for God’s elect and not for any part of God’s creation. Not everyone knows now just how all-encompassing the answer to the question, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” really is!

The “any creature” spoken of in Hebrews 4:13 is speaking of all the inward creatures of the sea and on the earth and in the heavens representing everything within the first Adam and everything God’s omnipotent hand is leading and holding (Gen 2:19), stated this way: “there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Psa 139:10), reminding those who have eyes to see that God is working all things “after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11).

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

When we look at the verses surrounding Hebrews 4:13, along with the surrounding verses of Colossians 1:17, which tell us “he is before all things, and by him all things consist”, a very parallel message is given to tell us how the “manifold wisdom of God” is made known “by the church”. It is through the destruction of the first man Adam, the “creature” or beast we need be shown we are through the experience of evil we are given, that we are humbled (Eph 3:10, Joh 3:30, Ecc 3:18, Ecc 1:13).

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight [Num 14:9, 2Co 4:15]: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Heb 4:14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

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.

All things are for the elect’s sake, and that truth becomes apparent through the destruction of “every living creature” (Gen 2:19) in the sea and in the earth and in the heavens whose soulishness is destroyed by the brightness of His coming as they become bread for us little by little, being brought into subjection to Christ. The only thing which can accomplish this miraculous event of becoming a new creation is having the “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” word of God not depart from our house so that it can be “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

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

2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

In tonight’s study we will look at how blessed we are in not having that sword depart from our house, which represents God’s word being used to do this miraculous work of grace through faith in the lives of His children in this age who are receiving this “gift of God” of being His kind of first fruits and workmanship of His hands in this age.

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.

Psa 139:7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

Another example of how it is impossible for us to “go from thy spirit” or “flee from thy presence” is found in the story of the two thieves on the cross with Christ (Luk 23:39-46).

Please see this article written by Steven Crook:

“http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-thing-i-fear/”

…that explains how “at our appointed time we are all thieves and robbers, but there is One who has the solution to this “death sentence”.

All three men were bound to the altar which is represented by the cross, but only Christ at this point was able to eat at that altar and lay down His life for these two men who were being witnessed to by Christ showing them, and us, what it means to truly present your body a living sacrifice, and how it would only be through Christ that we could come to the Father.

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.

Joh 16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you.

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

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day.

If we look at all three men on the cross as one man representing who we were, who we’re becoming, and how we can go unto perfection (Gal 2:20), and if we believe God is writing all three books at the same time (Psa 139:16) to teach us something today about the process through which our flesh must go, then surely we are being shown through this living parable whether our soul is converted as Christ was, or is in rebellion, or the process of moving away from that rebellion, as demonstrated with the two thieves. In every instance we can ask the question for all three men, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” or “whither shall I flee from thy presence?” God’s elect are blessed to be saved by this hope, “I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee.” That is only possible because of the comforter He has sent to help us and lead us into all truth in this age, to set us free as these scriptures demonstrate (Heb 13:5, Joh 16:13, Joh 6:63, Mat 10:19).

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.

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

Heb 13:5  Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have: for himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

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

Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak.

Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heavenH8064, thou art there: if I make my bed in hellH7585, behold, thou art there.

The word heavenH8064 is very often associated with the fowl of the air (Gen 1:26, Gen 1:28, Gen 1:30, Gen 2:1, Gen 2:4, Gen 2:19, Gen 2:20) which we know can represent evil spirits (Mat 13:4), and the graveH7585 is very often associated with sorrow and death in scripture (Gen 37:35, Gen 42:38, Gen 44:29).

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the airH8064, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the airH8064, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 1:30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the airH8064, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Gen 2:1  Thus the heavensH8064 and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Gen 2:4  These are the generations of the heavensH8064 and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavensH8064,

Gen 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the airH8064; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Gen 2:20  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the airH8064, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Gen 37:35  And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the graveH7585 unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

Gen 42:38  And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the graveH7585.

Gen 44:29  And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the graveH7585.

Both heaven and hell are to be understood as being within us, and when we are given to see this, the true meaning of what is being said in the context of these words becomes very instructive. Babylon insists these are places outside of ourselves and not the heaven and grave within us that Christ has dominion over as He ascends and descends in our lives working all things in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure where He is sovereign over the light and darkness, in the heavens and in the grave. The physical heavens themselves can be darkened or be filled with light which in itself tells us what God can do and is doing on earth as it is done in heaven within us (Php 2:13, Eph 4:9-10, Gen 28:10-19, Isa 45:7, Mat 6:10).

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.
Gen 28:13  And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
Gen 28:14  And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Gen 28:15  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Please see this article written by Mike Vinson:

“https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-and-where-heaven-2009

…that explains why God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning (Gen_1:1) and this will further help us understand why “If I ascend up into heavenH8064, thou art there: [and] “if I make my bed in hellH7585, behold, thou art there.”

Psa 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Psa 139:10  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

When we “take the wings of the morning” at first in our life, we have no idea that we are going to give an accounting for all the actions God has caused as we “dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea” (Ecc 11:9, Rom 14:12, Joh 12:48). Neither do we see or understand, as Joseph’s brothers did not, that God is the one making a way in that sea, and working all things according to the counsel of His own will so that many or all of God’s creation can be saved (Isa 43:16, Eph 1:11, Gen 45:5).

When we pray not to be led into sore trials or temptations (Mat 6:13), it is by God’s power that we will come to learn that He can “hold me” and direct me with His spirit which will deliver us (Joh 16:13, 2Co 3:17) from the shadow of the valley of death that we are in while we are in these marred earthen vessels (Psa 23:4-6, Rom 8:14-17).

We come to see, through falling seven [complete] times, that God has always been there in the midst of the entire process, His “right hand” holding us, that hand of power. We are also told “there shall thy hand lead me” in advance of being told “thy right hand shall hold me” as a type of the reality Christ is seeking as an occasion against our flesh, and if He is working with us in this age, He is leading us unto repentance (Rom 2:4) by His spirit, by the comforter leading  us into all truth, including the truth that we will be caused to fall a symbolic complete seven times in this life (Pro 24:16).

Psa 139:11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

What is very little understood is that the night and day, light and dark, are the same to God in the sense that He sees through it all and is glorified in being able to control the good and evil within us to bring us to maturity in an appointed time (2Pe 3:18, Php 3:14, Eph 4:13).

Christ explained to Peter, “You will deny me” or “Surely the darkness shall cover me“. Christ also prophesied to Peter and others that they would drink the cup: “even the night shall be light about me” clearly showing God’s sovereign hand in the affairs of the good and evil of the disciples’ lives.

Christ also made a clear statement to Pilate that he [Pilate] personally had no power over Him demonstrating once again “the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psa 139:12, Mat 26:34, Mat 20:23, Joh 19:10-11).

Psa 139:13  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

The word ‘rein’ is the French word for kidney, an indispensable, uncomely organ (1Co 12:22) that is needful to do the most essential and life-giving job of filtering our blood. It is when we are in our “mother’s womb” that we are being sanctified by the word of God (Joh 17:17) where our Adamic blood is being cleansed by the life of Christ and being brought into subjection unto the one who “hast possessed my reins” and is in control of every aspect of my life, every breath, every moment, every jot and tittle as we are being saved by being “covered” by the blood of Christ “in my mother’s womb“.

He is the propitiation for my Adamic sins (1Jn 2:2), but not only for mine, but also for the whole world (1Co 15:22), and it is for this reason we labor and suffer reproach (1Ti 4:10), knowing that this labor is not in vain (1Co 15:58), but that the One who created all things and through whom all things consists brings us to see that “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written“, and that it is in the “unperfect” weak, marred existence, that He is making His strength perfect through to the glory and honour of God (1Co 1:26, Jer 18:4).

]]> What Does You Are Ever With Me Mean? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-does-you-are-ever-with-me-mean/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-does-you-are-ever-with-me-mean Tue, 09 Jul 2013 21:10:33 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5331

Greetings Mike,

If the law of circularity is false, then what does the parable of the prodigal son signify?
Secondly, what happens when a person receives Christ considering that man was created in iniquity?

Regards, M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your questions:
The significance of the story of the prodigal son is that the firstfruits are hated by those who are not firstfruits. In other words, the elder son signifies those who are still in Babylon.
“The first will be last” is the lesson of the the story of the prodigal son. It certainly is not ‘the first shall be first’ as the so called ‘law of circularity’ teaches.
Here is the parable of the prodigal son:

Luk 15:1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
Luk 15:2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
Luk 15:3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
Luk 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luk 15:6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luk 15:8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
Luk 15:9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
Luk 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Luk 15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
Luk 15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
Luk 15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
Luk 15:14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
Luk 15:15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Luk 15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Luk 15:17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luk 15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Luk 15:19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
Luk 15:20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luk 15:21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Luk 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
Luk 15:23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
Luk 15:24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Luk 15:25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.
Luk 15:26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
Luk 15:27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
Luk 15:28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
Luk 15:29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
Luk 15:30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
Luk 15:31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
Luk 15:32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

“You are ever with me” in no way tells us ‘You have always been with me”. That doctrine of circularity, according to these verses, is a lie:

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

According to the so- called “law of circularity”, Paul is lying to us when he tells us that the first man is of the earth. But Paul is not lying, and the spirit of that doctrine of circularity is the lying spirit in the mouths of all who subscribe to that doctrine.
I hope all these verses of scripture give you Biblical eyes to see the Truth of this matter.
If you still have a question, then please feel free to get back to me.
Your second question was:

The answer to this question is found in 1Pe 4 where we are told that we begin to have fiery trials which begin the judgment and destruction of the first man Adam within us all. From that point on the old Adam in you and me begins to decrease while the new man begins to increase:

Joh 3:30 He [ Christ] must increase, but I must decrease.
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?

Our “fiery trials” are our “judgment” which “begins at us. That “judgment is the keeping of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God:

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

That judgment is the dying daily, being crucified with Christ, daily, filling up in our flesh what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ, in our bodies for His bodies sake which is 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:

All is this is the burning of the first judgment which is lived by all who are blessed to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The first man Adam in all of us has “defiled the temple of God” and will be destroyed by the fire that is the Word of God:

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.

We have got to understand that “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” means that we are all the wood first before we become those who have the fire of God in their mouth:

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.

It means that we are all those who “hurt” God’s witnesses before we become those who have that fire coming from their mouths destroying the old man within us all.
So once again, the Truth is that “All things come alike to all” and there is “one event” to all. That “one event” is this “judgment [ which] begins at the house of God” and tries the works of those who are are destined to be in the blessed and holy first resurrection.

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.

Just realize that this “one event” judgment is a daily dying and a daily presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice to be crucified with Christ and to fill up what is behind of His afflictions in my flesh for His bodies sake which is the church (Col 1:24) until the day we, along with our Lord, draw our last breath in these vessels of clay.
I hope this has answered your question and that you have a much better understanding of what Christ meant when He old Nicodemus “You must be born again”.

Joh 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
Joh 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

We all “bear the image of the earth” first before we “bear the image of the heavenly”. But we will all do both “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 of this is “what happens when a person receives Christ considering that man was created in iniquity.”
Your brother in Christ,

Mike

]]> Made Known by the Breaking of Bread https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/made-known-by-the-breaking-of-bread/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=made-known-by-the-breaking-of-bread Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:28:54 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3385

Mike,

So how would you respond to Christ’s command, Do this in remembrance of me?

Thanks,
W____

Hi again W____,
You asked me:

“This do” is quoted from this section of scripture:

Luk 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Luk 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

This is the same “my body” and “my blood” Christ refers to in these verses:

Joh 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Joh 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Washing the feet of His disciples is just as much a spiritual symbol as the fish and honey He ate after His resurrection, symbolizing ” the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you”.

Notice, He sits down to dine twice in the same evening, not because He is hungry, but simply to make the point that His Word is our food.

Luk 24:13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
Luk 24:14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
Luk 24:15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luk 24:16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Luk 24:17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Luk 24:18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
Luk 24:19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luk 24:20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Luk 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Luk 24:22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Luk 24:23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
Luk 24:24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
Luk 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Luk 24:26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luk 24:28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
Luk 24:29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
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.
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?
Luk 24:33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
Luk 24:34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
Luk 24:35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Luk 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Later that same evening it all happens again:

Luk 24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luk 24:42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
Luk 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

It is “as [we] speak” of Christ, that He is ‘standing in our midst’. It is in “the breaking of bread… fish and honeycomb” that Christ is “made known” to us all, because those things all symbolize “the words I spake unto you”. It is according to Christ Himself, that “the breaking of bread” is “the words I spake unto you”. It is the same with the breaking of bread at the so-called ‘Lord’s supper’. Christ did not wash their feet just to create a new ritual to replace an old ritual. Everything Christ did, even the healings and miracles He performed, were types and shadows of “greater works than these”.

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

It is a much greater act of love to give a person spiritual insight than it is to give him physical sight. It is much better to have Christ healing us of our lame walk in this life of service to sin and giving us the strength to walk as Christ walked than it is to physically heal any man’s physically lame legs.

It is also a much greater act of love and obedience to our Lord to “break bread” in the way Christ meant us to do so. What Christ was telling His disciples and is telling us, is to live our lives as He lived His life. It was a life of service to all men. That is the only way we can share Christ’s body and blood with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is incomparably more beneficial than physically washing their already clean feet, as a dead ritual practiced by millions of Christians whose lives show no sign of being of service to their brothers. If we give to our brothers and sisters the knowledge of how Christ lives His life within us, then we have truly ‘washed their feet’, and we will then have truly ‘eaten His body and then we will have drunken of His blood’.

Joh 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Joh 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
Joh 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

“Dwelling in Christ” and “living by Christ” is “eating His flesh and drinking His blood”. Those are Christ’s Words. Outward rituals accomplish nothing according to our Lord. Living lives of service one to another is what Christ meant by “My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed”. “Do this as oft as you do it in remembrance of Me” has everything to do with what is within each of us, and it has nothing at all to do with dead outward rituals, which may appear to be spiritual but are nothing more than an opportunity to glory in appearances and not in changed hearts.

2Co 5:12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

Mar 7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

As certainly as ‘nothing from without a man can defile him’, it is equally true that nothing from outside of a man can cleanse him spiritually:

Mat 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee [You, me, or anyone who depends on outward rituals], cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

If our hearts are clean, our feet will also be clean.

I hope this helps you to see that “as oft as we do this we do it in remembrance of Christ” has much more to do with how we live our lives as servants to our brothers and sisters than it has to do with instituting a new outward ritual that makes a man feel good and clean outwardly, while, like water baptism, changing nothing within that man. Here is what cleanses both our ‘feet’ and our way of life. Here is what the bread, the wine and Christ washing His disciples feet symbolized:

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

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

P. S. Here is a URL to an e-mail I wrote several years ago on this subject of the spiritual significance of the Lord’s supper:
http://www. iswasandwillbe.com/lordssupper.php

]]> What Do We Fall Away From? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-do-we-fall-away-from/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-do-we-fall-away-from Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:36:42 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5309

Mike,

Can we prove from God’s word that the falling away is from the truths of the bible? Also, if you would, please explain when does faith come – Gal 3:25.

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your questions.

Your first question is “Can we prove that falling away is from the truths of the Bible?”

I simply have to confess that I am not able to even conceive what else we could fall away from. Here is a scripture which may be of some help concerning apostasy, that is, ‘falling away.’

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Everything mentioned in verses 4-5 are “the truths of God’s Word.” ” Once enlightened… tasted the heavenly gift… made partakers of the holy spirit… tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,” is all “the truths of God’s Word.”

What is the sure result of this falling away?

Heb 6:7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

“The rain” is “the truths of God’s Word.” The “thorns and briers” are lies which contradict God’s Word. The whole world believes those lies and cannot see the Truth:

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

We all live these verses. When Satan is cast out of our earth, we also cast out all of his messengers. This, of course, upsets him and his messengers, and they turn on us with a vengeance. That is why we are told that the ten horns on the beast hate the whore and burn her with fire. As immature Christians, we hate those with whom we disagree, and we “burn” them with the fire of God’s word. But that fire, the Word of God, is not being used with the right spirit.

Luk 9:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
Luk 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Luk 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

God’s Word must be handled with the right “manner of spirit.” Until we receive that spirit we are all guilty of “holding truth in unrighteousness.” After we have “had the testimony of Christ confirmed in [us]’ (1Co 16:6) we all “leave our first love” (Rev 2:4) and believe the lies of Babylon and “bring forth briers and thorns,” and “hold truth in unrighteousness.”

James and John had already been told to “love thine enemy”, and yet their first response upon being rejected by the Samaritan villagers, was to desire to “call down fire from heaven, and consume them.” They too, were “Holding truth in unrighteousness.”

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;

As long as we are of that spirit and are holding truth in unrighteousness, we have nothing to look forward to but “judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

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.

Christ’s sacrifice for our sins entails repentance. As long as we are unrepentant, it is impossible to be renewed to repentance, until judgment and fiery indignation has consumed the lies of the briers and thorns and until that same fiery indignation has devoured the false spirits, doctrines and adversaries within us. It is only through our destruction that we will be 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.
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.

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

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

Your second question was “When does faith come?”

Faith comes to us twice. It comes when we come to our “first love”, and it comes again when Christ appears a second time, without sin unto salvation.”

Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Faith first comes to us a “babes in Christ” who cannot be fed “strong meat.” We then fall prey to all the lies of Babylon, and we leave our first love for those lies. Then we must repent, and Christ comes to us a second time.

I hope this all helps you to see that what we fall away from is the truths of God’s Word. But I also hope that you see that the only thing that is impossible is to be renewed to God without repentance. It is impossible to renew an unrepentant heart. Those thorns and briers all face a fiery judgment which will devour those adversaries and false doctrines. But God can and will bring repentance to all men, specially, not exclusively, to those who now believe:

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 of those that believe.

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.

That is truly worthy of the title, the gospel. That is truly good news for all men.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

]]> We owe allegiance to no man Mean? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/we-owe-allegiance-to-no-man-mean/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=we-owe-allegiance-to-no-man-mean Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:20:29 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5235

I happened upon your page as I was searching for some insight on a particular topic.
Then I found myself browsing through your list of articles, many of which sound extremely interesting and I’d be excited to read.
But then, I came to your “About Us” page. What do you mean when you say:

“We owe allegiance to no man or church group”

On one hand, I’m thinking thats just a low- tolerance for schismatics and a disregard for denominationalism or your comfort with necessarily difficult things the word has to say in relationship to others. That’s Cool.
On the other hand, it just struck me “some- kind- of- way”…
I’m assuming you all are connected to a pastor and fellowship regularly with a body of believers and that’s not just some carte blanche statement.
Forgive me if this question comes off condescendingly, it certainly isn’t meant to be. And pardon me if I just didn’t look closely enough at the site to find the info related to the question. I’ve just had to learn the hard way, in the past, to concern myself with authors, as much as what they write.
God Bless,
C____

Hi C____,

Thank you for taking the time to write.
You said you were reading the ‘About Us’ page, and you ask this question:

Like you, I am just where the Lord, “who is working all things after the counsel of His own will”, has me (Eph 1:11). Where He has brought me is to become aware of the fact that not one single denomination has remained faithful to His word. If they were faithful then their ‘statement of beliefs’ would be the entire Bible, and no one would dare attach themselves to any denomination of men.

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
1Co 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

Paul asks the rhetorical question “Is Christ divided?”, to which the answer is an obvious and absolute, no! Christ is not divided, but Christian denominations are. So while I am not quite sure what you mean by “some carte blanche statement” I can assure you it is a statement of fact. We put the Word of God ahead of all man- made creeds which leave off the “every word” part of Christ’s “statement of beliefs” to the adversary in Mat 4:4.

You say:

Yes, we do have regular weekly Bible studies via ustream, and we have fellowship almost every night of the week by phone conference calls. But we are a very widely scattered flock as the Lord said that any who followed Him would be:

Mat 26:31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

There are local studies which are listed on the right side of the home page, but they are very few, and they are “scattered”. Christ’s words “Where two or three are gathered together in My name I will be in the midst” is just as true today as it was the day He first uttered those words.

Mat 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

The words of Stephen are just as true today as they were the day he was stoned by the church of his day.

Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

Both of those are true statements we will do well to believe. But when you do, then rest assured that these words will also be true:

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

“For My name’s sake” means ‘Because you obey me’, and you simply cannot obey Christ while proclaiming that Christ is divided into 30,000 plus denominations of men with conflicting ‘statements of beliefs’.
The argument ‘So you think you are right and everyone else is wrong” simply is not constructive. If you see where anything is wrong on this website, please point that out and we will go from there. The very fact that Christianity is the largest religion on planet earth, is simply a witness to the fact that “many are called but few are chosen”.

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

I hope that helps to clear up what I meant by “We owe allegiance to no man or church group”. You will find that every paragraph of every letter or article on the iswasandwillbe. com website is followed by the scriptures to bolster the statements of the preceding paragraph, just as in this exchange. Your question did not “come off as condescending” and I too, like to know who is the author of anything I am reading.
I also hope you will be granted to continue reading our site and asking questions as needed.
Your brother in the rejected Christ,
Mike

]]> What is the Doctrine of Christ? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-is-the-doctrine-of-christ/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-the-doctrine-of-christ Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:47:00 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5371

Mike,

This may seem like a dumb question, but what is the doctrine of Christ?

Thanks,
S____

Hi S____,
Thanks for your question.
You ask:

That is not a dumb question at all. It is one that deserves an answer, but before I give you Christ’s own answer to that question, let’s notice what it is not.
One thing for certain is that “the doctrine of Christ” is not to be found in the “statement of beliefs” of any denomination known to man. If any of us have a “statement of beliefs” which is anything less than “the sum of thy word”, then that denomination has no idea what is “the doctrine of Christ”, because the doctrine of Christ is the Truth, and the Truth is “the sum of God’s Word” and not just ‘some of God’s Word’, which is at best, what any “statement of beliefs” is. That being the case, this is “the doctrine of Christ.”

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

Add to that these words of our Lord Himself, and you have the short answer to your question:

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.

So when you tell the whole world that your statement of beliefs is thus and such, and you leave out any single word that Christ spoke, or you twist His words to make them conform to your “statement of beliefs,” as does each and every man- made denomination, then “out of your own mouth” you have acknowledged that you do not believe the doctrine of Christ. Instead you have your own “statement of beliefs” which leaves out many of “the words that proceed out of the mouth of God.”
Just a few examples will suffice to make clear this point. For example, how many churches who publish a “statement of beliefs” agree with Christ and so states in their statement of beliefs, that we are expected to “love our enemies?”

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy:
Mat 5:44 but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you;
Mat 5:45 that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?

I suppose that there are a few who do make that point in their statement of beliefs, but they would be few indeed in these days of “the war on terror”.
But how many of those who would agree that we are not to kill our fellow man under any circumstances, would agree with Christ that His children “know the truth?” How many of those whose statements of beliefs state that we are to love our enemies, will agree with Christ that His followers know what is not true and are therefore of one doctrine?

Joh 8:31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples;
Joh 8:32 and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Let no man ever tell you otherwise. “You shall know the Truth.” Any one who ever says otherwise is a liar.

Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

The last example which will prove that those who have a published “statement of beliefs” cannot be familiar with “the doctrine of Christ,” is that no such church knows what is “the love of God.” There is not one Christian in a thousand who knows that the love of God is the keeping of His commandments, and that the only way to know that you love your brothers is to obey God and keep His commandments.

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

“Hereby we know that we love the children of God…” Nothing less than obedience to God’s commandments makes clear that we love the children of God. If we ignore one word that proceeds out of the mouth of God via his prophets and apostles, then we do not love the children of God. While many claim to “keep his commandments”, in reality they most often actually despise His commandments, and would not keep them under any circumstance. The manifest truth is that if Jesus were here teaching the same doctrine He taught 2000 years ago, it would be “those Jews which believed in Him,” who would again crucify Him and nail Him to the cross to keep from having to listen to “the doctrine of Christ.”

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of [ your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Those who have “the doctrine of Christ” believe His doctrine, and to this very day are “hated of all men.”

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Christ is His doctrine, and “His name’s sake” is being faithful to that doctrine.
There is much, much more that can be said to demonstrate that those who publish a “statement of beliefs,” and those who teach “agreement in the essentials and tolerance in the nonessentials,” don’t have a clue what is “the doctrine of Christ.”
What, pray tell, is “nonessential” in these words which truly are “the doctrine of Christ.”

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.

I hope this helps you to see that we all need to be in our Bibles and getting to know the Truth. Christ assures us “we shall,” if we are to be made free from all the false doctrines of men, because the doctrine of Christ is not any man’s limited statement of beliefs, but is rather “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” There is not one “nonessential” word that ever came out of the mouth of Christ or any of those who He has inspired to write His Words. Christ is The Truth, and all of His words are His doctrine:

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

Know God’s Word, and you will know the doctrine of Christ:

2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your [ spiritual] house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

]]> How the Physically Blind Can Try the Spirits? https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/how-the-physically-blind-can-try-the-spirits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-the-physically-blind-can-try-the-spirits Sat, 14 May 2011 04:32:14 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=2854

Greetings Mike,

I have a question: If a person is PHYSICALLY blind, how do they “search the scriptures” or “study to show thyself approved”? I know that His Word is spirit, so basically I guess I’m asking how are scriptures applied spiritually? Now, if they are to search the scriptures in the spiritual sense only, because they cannot do it naturally due to blindness, then are we also to search the scriptures only spiritually as well. I was asked this question and it would appear that way but if so, what is the point of having the natural book of scripture?

Thanks for your love and labor,
M____

Hi M____,
Thank you for your question. You ask:

As you know, physical blindness in no way keeps a physically blind person from “hearing the voice of the Shepherd.”

Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

So physically blind people can, and always have been capable of hearing the word. In today’s society they can read with braille or listen to CDs or cassettes of the entire Bible. In that sense a physically blind person is blessed with not being tempted and tried by all this world offers us via television or computers with images which tend for the most part to distract those with healthy natural vision. The Truth is that all men are by nature, born spiritually blind, and must be brought to acknowledge that fact before they can be blessed with spiritual vision.

Joh 9:38  And he [ a man who, as a type of us all, was healed of being born blind] said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

This whole story is a physical type of a spiritual Truth. We are all born spiritually blind.
Another Biblical type given us of spiritual blindness always preceding spiritual vision is the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus before he was converted and given spiritual vision.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Act 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Act 9:8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Act 9:9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

The message in both stories is that as long as we see ourselves as spiritually “in need of nothing”, we are in fact spiritually blind.

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.

But it is obvious that there would be no spiritual vision to be given if we were not first in physical bodies which need to be given spiritual vision. It is equally clear that there would be no way to “study to show ourselves approved” if we did not have the written word. We could not “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” without having the written Word to try them against. We would be unable to “search the scriptures daily to see whether these things are so” without the written Word.
In short we would be unable to know the spirit without knowing the written word. The written word is so very important that we are given this sober warning concerning how to handle God’s written Word.

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.

The words ‘of men’ are not in the Greek. We are simply not to think above what is written.
Two chapters earlier we read these very revealing words:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

What are these “spiritual things”? They are the written words of scripture.

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:)

You ask “What is the point of having the natural book of scripture… if they are to search the scriptures in the spiritual sense only?”
I was reared a Pentecostal, and it was common for a brother to “prophesy in the spirit” in our church. The brothers and sisters often took these prophecies to be as good as scripture, when the truth was that those prophecies often completely contradicted the Word of God.
I hope all these verses have shown you that it is the written word that is to be used to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God”. The physically blind can still hear the written word, and they too, can then “try the spirits” to see if there is anything being said which is “above what is written”.
God bless you as you seek to know the mind of God and His Son through His written Word.

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

Your brother in Christ.
Mike>

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