Rev 8:10-11 Part 2 – The Third Trumpet Upon The Rivers and Fountains

[Study Aired July 21, 2024]

Rev 8:10  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

The Hebrew word G3939, ‘Laahnah’ appears eight times in the Old Testament. The word ‘wormwood’ appears eight time in the scriptures. It appears once in the New Testament, then it appears another seven times in the Old Testament. It appears a ninth time as ‘hemlock’ in Amos 6:12. We paused our last study after examining the first four Old Testament entries of this word wormwood. We begin our study today with the fifth Old Testament entry of this two-edged word, ‘wormwood’:

5) Lam 3:15 with context.

Lam 3:15  He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
Lam 3:16  He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
Lam 3:17  And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
Lam 3:18  And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

Until we learn that we have no strength of our own “[our] hope is perished from the Lord.” As soon as we acknowledge that the bitterness and gall of wormwood is destroying the kingdom of our old  man then we begin to appreciate the Lord’s judgments and our new man begins to grow within us.

6) Lamentations 3:19 with the following two verses give us hope in the blessing produced by this bitter “experience of evil” which we must all endure before we can be humbled and used by the Lord to His glory.

Lam 3:19  Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Lam 3:20  My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
Lam 3:21  This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

Lamentations 3:20 proves that the goal and purpose necessitating that we all experience the evil of drinking wormwood is for a very good purpose… to humble us. Therefore it is our pride and iniquity which necessitates this “experience of evil” which we all must endure:

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

Put these verses together with the following verses, and we are given great hope that our Lord will finish the work He has begun:

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

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

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

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

7) Amo 5:7 – Fiery judgment begins at the house of God when we acknowledge the chastening function of wormwood. Only then will we begin to understand that “the grace of God… chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts” and we will continue to “turn judgment into wormwood.”

Amo 5:6  Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
Amo 5:7  Ye who turn judgment to wormwood [H3939: ‘Laanah’], and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [Greek: paideuo, G3811, ‘chastening’] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Our heavenly Father chastens “every son” He receives because He loves us:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811: paideuo], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

8)  Amo 6:12 – Here the translators chose to use the English word ‘hemlock’ to show how deadly to our old man this thing called wormwood is. The Hebrew word in all seven entries is H3939, ‘Laanah’].

Amo 6:12  Shall horses run upon the rock? will one] plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Amo 6:13  Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?
Amo 6:14  But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

So it is with all of these seven trumpets. They are all about fiery judgment upon the people of God, “the house of God first;” upon all, even His elect.

Let’s go back to Ezekiel 31 and see how these same waters of life can be made bitter and bring death.

Eze 31:1  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 31:2  Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
Eze 31:3  Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
Eze 31:4  The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Eze 31:5  Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.

Consider that the “multitude of waters” on which the great harlot sits are peoples and nations, but it is peoples and nations who subscribe to the words of God as they have been presented to our old man by that great harlot. That is what is meant when we are told that there is gold, silver and precious stones in great abundance in great Babylon. There are also rivers and fountains of waters in Babylon, but the ship masters and ministers of Babylon the great within us have deceived us. They have taken and used God’s gold and silver to cover the idols of their Babylonian hearts. They did not use God’s gold, His Word, to cover the various implements of the true house of God. They use God’s own words to deceive us, and we, too, through their tutelage, have used God’s gold to cover and to justify our own false lying doctrines and idols of our hearts, and in using God’s gold to cover our idols, we have also made the rivers and fountains of waters bitter as wormwood.

Eze 16:1  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 16:2  Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

We do exactly the same thing with the rivers and fountains of waters of God’s Word. We have all been guilty of turning them into lies that fit our doctrines and not the doctrines of Christ. It is a day of bitterness and dying within when we begin to see that all of our heart’s idols are being destroyed by the Truth that we have so long rejected in favor of the idols of our Babylonian hearts.

So what exactly does…

”The third part of the waters became wormwood” mean?

Rev 8:11  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

We do not see why our fountains of waters are become bitter all at once. It actually takes many years, and we continue to be confronted by the lies of Babylon all of our lives. So it is only “the third part of the waters” that become bitter at first. Our salvation is a little by little process.

Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Deu 7:22  And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

These Old Testament statements are mere shadows of these New Testament Truths.

Luk 21:17  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:18  But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

That again is the meaning of ” the third part of the waters became wormwood.” Like the first Adam himself, drinking and dying from drinking ‘wormwood’ is an essential evil which we all must experience before we can become ‘a new vessel of clay in the Potter’s hand’:

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.
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.

We must pay very close attention to the fact that our marred condition in which we first find ourselves was at ‘the hand of the Potter’ and not of our own free will.

Our final symbol is…

Many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Who are these “many men who die because of the waters being made bitter?”

We will never understand how we are to “keep the things written therein” until we can accept the fact that the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” is Christ. If ever our Lord opens our eyes to see that, then we will understand what Christ meant when He said that “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Here is God’s spirit showing us through the pen of Daniel what Christ is doing within us:

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Dan 2:36  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Dan 2:37  Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Dan 2:38  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art] this head of gold.
Dan 2:39  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
Dan 2:41  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
Dan 2:42  And [as] the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream [ is] certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

King Nebuchadnezzar signifies all of mankind in our original carnal conception. This is how the holy spirit perceives us in our original “marred” (Jer 18:4) condition:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen [in the Potter’s hand (Jer 18:4)] in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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.

All four of the kingdoms of Daniel 2 signify the whole of mankind in their original rebellious, carnal-minded, marred condition and composition. The same four kingdoms of Daniel 2 are signified as four beasts in Daniel 7:

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, [The same four beasts as those in the one composite beast of Revelation 13] diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly [the dragon of Revelation 13:2], and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it [the dragon] was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

These beasts and these kingdoms are all within us. The four elements that make up the great image of this 2^nd chapter of Daniel are the same kingdoms represented by the four beasts of the four kingdoms of Daniel 7. According to Revelation 13, those exact same four beasts are signified by one composite beast within us.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

We will not bother to demonstrate this fact at this point. We will do so when we come to Revelation 13. For now let us just observe that all the kingdoms which “fill the whole earth” are destroyed by “the stone that is cut out of the mountain without hands.” Both the stone and the rock, we are told, is Christ, and it is He who is “the kingdom of God within you.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Now if we can accept the fact that it is Christ who destroys all the nations of the earth, and if we can accept the truth that the earth signifies us as God’s own people (Jer 22:29), then it should be very clear that it is Christ in us who destroys all of “the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man” within us, as we “keep the things which are written therein” (Rev 1:3).

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

This seventh seal, which is these seven trumpets, is nothing less than the carrying out of that prophecy of the sixth seal. “Hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.” These seven trumpets are “the great day of [the wrath of The Lamb]” being poured out incrementally upon the throne of the beast which I am and which all of mankind is. They are “the wrath of the Lamb… [and] the great day of His wrath [which] is come,” and which no one will be “able to stand” or resist. It will be only a few who are given to even remember that we are commanded to “keep the things which are written therein for the time is at hand” to keep the words of this prophecy.

Summary

1) “A great star fell from heaven.”  We have seen that the scriptures reveal that this “great star” is a great angel of the Lord bringing us the Words of our Lord for the seven churches.

2) We have seen that this great star, which is an angel with God’s message to us, “burns as a lamp.”  We have taken note that this burning lamp again is the very same Words of God which are the burning words of the “fire mingled with blood” in the first trumpet and “a great mountain burning with fire” in the second trumpet.

3) This great message from this great angel falls upon a third part of the rivers and fountains of water because ‘the third’ signifies the process which the light of this ‘lamp’ begins to work within us. We saw that this star “burning as a lamp… falls upon the rivers and fountains of water,” and we saw many verses of God’s word which make clear that these rivers and fountains of waters are themselves another symbols of the Words of God.

4) “The name of the star is called wormwood” because we have perverted the Lord’s words, which are signified as “rivers and fountains of waters”, into lies and false doctrines. When those perverted lies and false doctrines pollute our rivers and fountains of waters, those waters become deadly. Those bitter and deadly doctrines are signified as ‘wormwood’ and ‘hemlock’. We saw all the many verses in the Old Testament which show that ‘wormwood’ signifies the judgment upon us if we are God’s people.

5) “The third part of the waters become wormwood.” We saw once again that all these things are done in thirds simply to tell us that this judgment is little by little, a life-long process which “begins first at the house of God.”

6) “Many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. We saw that the scriptures reveal that ‘many’ signifies all men, and that it is all men who must “each in his own order” (1Co 15:22-23) be “crucified with Christ” and that, as is always the case, all these things and all these events which sound so dire to the natural man are in reality our salvation, and it is only those who lose their lives for Christ who will find their lives in Christ.

Next week, Lord willing, we will continue looking behind us [Rev 1:12] at the incremental burning judgment in the Words of our Lord revealed to us in the fourth trumpet.

Rev 8:12  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Acts 15:22-41 It Seemed Good to the Holy Ghost and to Us

[Study Aired May 21, 2023]

Act 15:22  Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
Act 15:23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Act 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Act 15:30  So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
Act 15:31  Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.
Act 15:32  And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.
Act 15:33  And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.
Act 15:34  Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.
Act 15:35  Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
Act 15:36  And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
Act 15:37  And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
Act 15:38  But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
Act 15:39  And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
Act 15:40  And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
Act 15:41  And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

We ended our last study with the judgment of the apostles being to send a letter to the Gentiles which was intended to irradicate the heresy being taught by many believing Jews that the Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved. There had been “much disputing” about this question and everyone was given the opportunity to give their own convictions for consideration.

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Why was there “much disputing” about this question? The answer is that the heretics, as is always the case, appeared to have the scriptures on their side:

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

How do all heretics transform themselves into the apostles of Christ? They do so by taking the many blessings poured out upon themselves, His faith and His chastening grace, and using those gifts to cover the idols of their own hearts:

Eze 16:9  Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
Eze 16:10  I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
Eze 16:11  I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
Eze 16:12  And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

The Lord’s most successful heretics are those He blesses the most outwardly. They give God the credit for their outward blessings, while at the same time refusing to do the things He says we are to do to avoid schisms and heresies among ourselves. By “doing many good works” which really do appear to be selfless, and which do indeed appear to be “the righteousness of saints”, they are given to “deceive many”:

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Mat 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Luke puts it in these words:

Luk 21:8  And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

The most effective heretics have also been chastened by the Lord and have been through a baptism of fire:

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.

Then heretics take the Word of God and twist it by wrapping the Lord’s ‘gold’ and His ‘silver’ (His Words and His Doctrines) around the idols of their own hearts:

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images [doctrines] of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments [many good works which appeared to be “the righteousness of saints” (Rev 19:8)], and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil [the Lord’s words, which are spirit (Joh 6:63)] and mine incense before them [the idols of your heart].
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, [the Lord’s precious words] wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them [before the idols of your heart] for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.

Here is how all of this played out in this first recorded heresy which attempted to divide the apostles themselves. The Lord’s own words were used to cover the idol of their heart, which was physical circumcision is essential to salvation. Here are the Lord’s own words concerning the need for circumcision for anyone to read:

Gen 17:9  And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Gen 17:10  This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Gen 17:12  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Gen 17:13  He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Gen 17:14  And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Those are clear instructions, and those who were insisting that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved no doubt also pointed to these words of the Lord:

Deu 13:6  If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
Deu 13:7  Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
Deu 13:8  Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
Deu 13:9  But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

Those are the words for which Saul of Tarsus had been so very zealous. So Saul, whose name is now Paul, was very familiar with their doctrine, as were Peter and Barnabas. Deuteronomy 13 however, is not “the sum” of the Lord’s Words. There are also these words:

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Deu 18:16  According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deu 18:17  And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

The most striking way in which Christ is “like unto [Moses]” is that both are great reformers. Moses made many profound changes to the way things had been. Before Moses, there was no Aaronic priesthood, no tabernacle, no ark of the covenant, no tithing, and one could offer an offering to God at any time and in any place. Christ, like Moses, was a great reformer, and Moses Himself has prophesied:

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

“Unto Him ye shall hearken” is telling us that He will not be saying the same things Moses said. Both Peter and Paul had been made painfully aware of just how much difference there was between what Moses said and what ‘the prophet like unto Moses’ had said to them.

Peter was three times told to slay and eat unclean creatures which he was made to understand meant that he was no longer to call Gentiles common or unclean, contrary to the doctrine Moses taught which was:

Deu 7:2  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Paul had been struck down on the road to Damascus and made blind for three days. At the end of those three days, he willingly accepted that the Christ he was persecuting was that “prophet like unto [Moses]”, and that contrary to Moses’ doctrine, Christ was now sending Saul, soon to be ‘Paul’, to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

At this conference, which was called to consider whether Gentile converts were required to be physically circumcised, Peter, speaking for himself, and Paul and Barnabas, made it clear that the three of them believed that God “put no difference between us [Jews] and them [Gentiles] purifying their hearts by faith” and not by being physically circumcised nor by keeping the law of Moses.

The rest of the apostles and elders agreed with Peter, Paul, and Barnabas that the Gentiles did not need to be physically circumcised, but they did not agree with them that the Jews did not need to continue to be circumcised and keep the law. They all felt that the Jews must continue to be circumcised and keep the law.  At this conference we must notice and follow the example of all the apostles who all submitted themselves and their convictions to the consensus of their leaders as we are all commanded to do:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.

Being persuaded of and deferring to your leaders is not checking your brain at the door. Rather, it is a simple matter of being obedient to the Lord’s commandment which is anything but checking your brain at the door. Faith in “the things that [He] says” (Luk 6:46) is very well founded and is essential to knowing Christ and His Father, and it will lead to life eternal.

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

Knowing Christ and His Father is a matter of knowing how They think and then acting accordingly. This letter to the Gentiles tells them that they need not be physically circumcised or keep the “carnal commandments” of the law of Moses… and at the same time it affirms that the Jews must do so. This decision was really nothing more than the holy spirit acknowledging that the Jewish Christians were still ‘weak in the faith’:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

At this point Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were spiritually more mature than the 11 other apostles. Nevertheless, they humbled themselves and submitted themselves to the consensus of the other apostles, and that decision was inspired of the holy spirit just as surely as these words are also inspired of the holy spirit explaining why the fullness of understanding at this Jerusalem conference is not yet known on this matter:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will [eventually] guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come [“Words which it is not (yet) lawful for a man to utter” (2Co 12:4)].

The judgment was made to send a letter to all the Gentile converts and the decision to do so was unanimous:

Act 15:22  Then pleased it [all] the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
Act 15:23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Act 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;

This decision was not just the decision of the apostles and elders. It was also sanctioned by “the holy spirit”. They all agreed that the Gentile converts did not need to keep all the law of Moses, including the law of circumcision. Here are the few things that were still expected of the Gentile converts:

Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

These are a mere four requirements which were expected to be observed by the new Gentile converts to the gospel of Christ. They were 1) abstain from meats offered to idols, 2) from fornication, 3) from things strangled, and 4) from blood. “Abstain from meats offer to idols” in verse 29 explains what is meant by “abstain from pollutions of idols” in verse 20.

Act 15:19  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

While I was a faithful member of the Worldwide Church of God from 1963 through 1973 we circumcised our males on the eighth day, we kept the weekly sabbath and all of the holy days except for the new moons… we tithed a tenth of our gross income, and we kept the laws which proscribed which meats were clean and unclean. Yet we somehow told ourselves that we were “not under the curse of the law.” Our reasoning was that the many laws not mentioned in the letter to the Gentiles here in Acts 15 were obviously meant to be kept because many of the Old Testament commandments not mentioned here are mentioned in Romans 13 as things which the Gentile Romans were expected to keep and observe:

Rom 13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Rom 13:9  For this, [1] Thou shalt not commit adultery, [2] Thou shalt not kill, [3] Thou shalt not steal, [4] Thou shalt not bear false witness, [5] Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

“Love is the fulfilling of the law” was explained to us as being the same as keeping the commandments of Moses. To make this clear we were shown:

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

“His commandments are not grievous” means they are not a yoke “which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” as Peter characterized the law of Moses:

Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

It is obvious that “His commandments [which] are not grievous” is not referring to the commandments of Moses but is referring the “but I say unto you…” commandments of Christ.

We who were in the Worldwide Church of God at the time I was a member of that church were in the same spiritual position as the eleven apostles who thought it was a very good thing that:

Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

At this early stage of the reforms which Christ came to make, the apostles could not yet conceive of this being the time for “worshiping God in spirit [and not] at Jerusalem”, which is exactly what Christ Himself had told the woman at the well would someday come:

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the [spiritual] Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

A reformation of the scope Christ brought to His people took time. No flesh, other than Adam and Eve, is given to be born in a mature physical body. It certainly is not given to be born spiritually mature, and that applies to Adam and Eve who were both made “marred in the Potter’s hand” (Jer 18:4). We all, including the original apostles, begin our spiritual lives as “carnal babes in Christ”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

It is natural for children to think of themselves as mature adults, long before they become mature adults. No one just naturally conceives of himself as a “carnal babe in Christ”. Yet that is exactly how Christ in us brings us to see ourselves before we can become spiritually mature:

Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

A humble child is a teachable child. Any child who is brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord reveres and respects his parents and believes what his parents teach him. Christ is not commanding us to become naïve or foolish. What He is commanding us to do is “humble [our]selves [and become teachable] as this little child” or we will “not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Children are not given charge of the Lord’s flock. That duty is placed only upon mature men who have their own spiritual house in order:

1Ti 3:1  This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
1Ti 3:2  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife […if he is married. Neither Christ nor Paul were married], vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
1Ti 3:3  Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
1Ti 3:4  One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
1Ti 3:5  (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
1Ti 3:6  Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
1Ti 3:7  Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

All the events leading up to this 15^th chapter of Acts, and all the events recorded in this chapter, are written for our admonition to teach us the need for heresies in our midst, and to teach us how to deal with those heresies when they rise up against the knowledge of God.

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

There were many in the church in Antioch, and in all the churches, who were familiar with the laws of God concerning the covenant of circumcision and all the other 612 laws of Moses. Those laws were concerned with everything from not plowing with different animals being yoked together, to tithing, to not weaving with different fabrics, to which meats could be eaten and of course the commandment for all males to be circumcised, all necessary for them to be considered the seed of Abraham. If the Lord had not given the Gentiles in Cornelius’s home the holy spirit without the benefit of circumcision (Act 10:44-45), and if Saul of Tarsus had not been zealous of destroying Christ before being struck down and converted to being zealous of preaching the gospel of Christ (Act 22:8) and sharing with us “words which were not [yet] lawful for men to utter” (2Co 12:4), then we Gentiles and Jewish Christians would still be under the law of Moses which Peter confessed ‘neither we nor our fathers could bear’:

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Act 15:8  And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Act 15:9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [Jews] shall be saved, even as they [the Gentiles].

Peter was speaking about what the Lord had revealed to him and Paul and Barnabas. These three apostles also knew that the Lord Himself also inspired the other apostles to teach that, for the present, the Jews were still obligated to keep the law of Moses. So, Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were persuaded of their leaders, and they deferred to them (Heb 13:17 CLV) and went back to Antioch and gave the church in Antioch the good news that all the apostles and elders agreed that the Gentiles were not required to keep the law of Moses, but the Jewish Christians were expected to do so.

Act 15:30  So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
Act 15:31  Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.
Act 15:32  And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them [confirmed the words of the epistle from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem].
Act 15:33  And after they had tarried there space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.
Act 15:34  Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.
Act 15:35  Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

In this very same chapter, we are given a story which confirms that agreeing on spiritual doctrines does not mean that we must also agree on which flavor of ice cream tastes the best. This story confirms that none of us has dominion over another’s faith. That is the significance of the story of how Paul and Barnabas went separate ways but preached the same gospel.

Act 15:36  And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
Act 15:37  And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
Act 15:38  But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
Act 15:39  And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
Act 15:40  And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

Let us not think that because we are told Paul and Silas were “recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God” that Barnabas and Mark were not also recommended by the brethren to the grace of God. Unless the scriptures qualify any point, it is never good to insert our own opinions into scripture. For example, when were are told that God is “the eonian God” (Rom 16:26 CLV), we are not being told that He was not God before the eons began, or that He will not be God after the consummation of the eons. When we are told that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exo 3:6), we are not being told that He is not also the God of the Gentiles (Acts 17:30). Also, when we are told He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psa 50:10), we are not being told that the cattle on hill one thousand and one are not His cattle also. There is no doubt that Barnabas and Mark were also “recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God” as well as Paul and Silas.

Act 15:41  And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

Paul and Silas did not sail to Cyprus as Paul had done with Barnabas on their first missionary journey. This time he went by land, and he and Silas first went to Derbe and Lystra, the last two cities Paul and Barnabas had visited on their first journey.

In our next study, before we continue with the chronological order of events in Paul’s missionary journeys, we will take time to analyze what brought about the complete apostasy of the church before the death of the apostles who had raised up those very same churches.

The apostle Paul tells us simply that “all the churches in Asia be turned away from me” (2Ti 1:5). Referring to the same churches, the apostle John calls them “the seven churches of Asia” (Rev 1:4, Rev 1:10). While the only two churches in Revelation 2-3 which are not admonished for their failings are Smyrna and Philadelphia, nevertheless Paul tells Timothy, “All they in Asia have forsaken me” (2Ti 1:15), and John tells all seven churches, “He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says to [all seven of] the churches” (Rev 2:7). That would include Smyrna and Philadelphia. We will see how the Lord worked matters to bring about the apostasy of His church and turn His own physical church into “the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Rev 17:4).

Before we continue following the chronology of Paul’s second journey, we will consider what would have happened if Peter, Paul, and Barnabas had rejected the counsel of their elders. The church will completely apostatize toward the end of Paul’s life when he tells Timothy:

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

“All they which are in Asia” refers to “the seven churches of Asia” to whom the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is addressed:

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

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

It is this same ‘John’ who also tells us that the apostasy of the church was so complete before his death that a “false apostle” named “Diotrephes… cast… out of the church” those whom John had sent to them:

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

‘Loving to have preeminence’ is just another way of saying “the pride of life”, the last and most insidious of the three categories which encapsulate “all that is in this [evil and wicked] world”:

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, [1] the lust of the flesh, and [2] the lust of the eyes, and [3] the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Doctrinal differences, as we have learned, should be settled within the body of Christ by seeking the counsel of the elders. That counsel is rejected only because of “the pride of life” which afflicts us all. When “all they which be in Asia” and when “the seven churches of Asia” apostatize, they do so because they were made to make the conscious decision to follow “false apostles” who ‘appear as angels of light’ and take away disciples after themselves. Paul had been made to know this would happen in his own lifetime. This is what he prophesied to the elders of Ephesus:

Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

There is nothing new under the sun, and there is no doubt that false apostles have been key to the scattering of the Lord’s flock in every generation. We ourselves have seen it happen. Men who had been appointed in our own fellowship and by our own leaders, were sent an evil spirit from the Lord which insisted that there is no natural element to the Lord’s words. After all, Christ did indeed say, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” As mentioned earlier in this study, just because Christ says His words are spirit does not mean there are no words which have a natural application. We are in fact told the exact opposite:

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.

As I made clear earlier in this study, there is no qualifying statement anywhere in scripture which states, “The words I speak unto you are only spirit.” In fact, the exact opposite it true:

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.

Every spiritual doctrine and the mind of God and His Godhead are “understood by the things that are made”, meaning things that are not spiritual.

Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [How has ‘God shown it unto them?]
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Next week we will see how not recognizing the truth of Romans 1:20 and 1 Corinthians 15:46 can and has led many to believe there will be no literal thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ over the kingdoms of this physical world:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Jer 18:1-12  The Vessel Made of Clay was Marred in the Hand of the Potter

[Study Aired September 19, 2021]

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.
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.
Jer 18:7  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Jer 18:8  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10  If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

The last chapter contained the oft quoted ninth verse:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Our study today reveals clearly why we have all been given a deceitful heart. As is always the case, the Lord makes us to know that we have nothing to do with what He is doing, other than doing the things He causes us to do. In our study today, Lord willing, He is going to cause us to understand that when we “Hear [His] words” we do so only because He “caused [us] to hear [His] words”.

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 Potter’s house” is the ‘house’ of the Master Potter. It is the Lord’s temple (1Co 3:16). The Master Potter makes no mistakes. As we just learned in our last study, “the first man Adam” was created on the sixth day, and the Lord deliberately made the first Adam of ‘clay’. Both the number ‘six’ and the composition of ‘clay’ cry out to all those who are “caused to hear” that we are incomplete and made of corruptible clay in the form of ‘corruptible… flesh and blood’, which was never intended to “inherit the kingdom of God”:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [“The vessel that He made of clay”] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

All the thousands of sermons by all the thousands of false prophets to the contrary will not make a creature which was formed on the sixth day anything more than a beast, a creature made of flesh and blood which can never inherit the kingdom of God. Repeatedly using the phrase “immortal soul” will not place that phrase anywhere in scripture. It simply is not there, but this is in scripture concerning what happens to us at the time of the resurrection and not before that time:

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

As the rules of Hebrew grammar demonstrate, the process of creating mankind in His image is not yet complete:

Gen 1:27  So God created [Hebrew Qal stem… ‘is creating’] man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

A “very good” tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a “very good… crooked serpent”, and a “very good… vessel of clay” in the form of “corruptible… flesh and blood”, are not, and were never intended by the Creator to be “the new man which after God is [being] created in righteousness and true holiness”.

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created [Greek: aorist tense… ‘is being created] in righteousness and true holiness.

This is what “the vessel that He made of clay” is designed to show us of ourselves in our present unfinished condition:

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

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

Sadly, for most nominal ‘Christians’ church doctrine will always trump scripture, and most ‘Christians’ will continue to believe that man was given an “immortal soul”, a phrase found nowhere in all of scripture because that doctrine is a lying spirit which has ‘gone out into the world to deceive many’:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits [doctrines] whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

When we try that spirit which teaches us that the phrase “very good” means spiritually perfected, we discover that Hebrew and Greek tenses are completely ignored in most of our English translations so false church doctrines can continue to be foisted off on all those who have not yet been given “eyes that see nor ears that hear” (Mat 13:9-15):

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [Hebrew reads ‘creates He them’, the Qal stem]

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

The two verbs in Genesis 1:31, the verbs ‘saw’ and ‘made’, are both in the Qal Stem, which equates to the Greek aorist tense. What this tells us is that the process of ‘seeing’ and ‘making’ is ongoing and unfinished. Six “is the number of mankind” (Rev 13:18) because mankind is unfinished, as his creation on the sixth day indicates. Mankind must “enter into His rest” to be completed, and Christ is our ‘rest’:

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest [into Christ], as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in [“Entered not” into Christ] because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest [Christ, our rest, our sabbath] to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief [in Christ].

Hebrews 4:1-11 is the completion of the process of the creation of mankind. No one is complete until he has entered into Christ and confesses that he can do nothing of himself:

Here are those two verses in Genesis 1 in a much more accurate translation:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them. (CLV)

Gen 1:31 And seeing is the Elohim all that He had made [Same Qal stem as the verb ‘seeing’ and should read ‘is making’], and, behold, it is very good. And coming is it to be evening and coming to be morning, the sixth day. (CLV)

The Concordant version renders ‘seeing’ in the Qal stem, but it misses the fact that the phrase “had made” is also in the Qal stem and should have been translated as ‘all that He is making’. In other words, the creation is at this very moment an ongoing process which requires this “experience of evil” in this “vessel that He made of clay” before we can enter into Christ, “enter into His rest” on the seventh day, the day of completion and perfection, the day of rest from  our works:

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, [our rest, our sabbath] and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Notice that the Concordant translators who miss the Qal stem in translating ‘had made’ in Gen 1:31 catch the Qal stem in translating:

Jer 18:4 and marred is the vessel that he is making, as clay in the hand of the potter, and he has turned and he makes it another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make. (CLV)

We should begin to get the message of the book of Job and all the rest of scripture. The message of all scripture is about two men – the old man and the new man. However, it is about how the old man must begin to die before the new man can begin to enter into Christ, our “sabbath”, our “rest”. When we are being brought into that rest, we begin to see and understand that even our “experience of evil” is of the Lord, and that we have no more to do with our sins than we have with our good works.

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

That is right! If there is “evil in the city… the Lord hath done it” (Isa 45:7)

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.
Jer 18:7  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

“Clay… in The Potter’s hand” is as basic as the Lord’s work with mankind can be explained. The clay has no say at all about what the Potter will make of it. The hand of a puppeteer can be concealed, but the hand of a potter must be seen as He shapes the clay “after the counsel of His own will”. “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand…” is not an endorsement of the lie of ‘free will’. Rather it is the exact opposite. “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it” is not an endorsement of free will. It is the exact opposite. To clarify this fact, and to make the Potter’s hand even more apparent, we are very plainly told:

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

The Biblical definition of a ‘hardened heart’ is a heart which cannot obey the words of the Lord.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Does the Lord’s use of the word ‘if’ indicate that you and I have been given a will that is free from His influence?

Jer 18:8  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10  If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

In our innate desire to be the captain of our own fate we latch on to verses like these and tell ourselves that these verses prove that we have the ability, through our own fabled ‘free will’, to change the Lord’s mind. We must never forget that ‘key to the kingdom’ which teaches us that Truth is never to be found in just one verse or one section of scripture, rather:

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

Therefore, it behooves us to read on, and come to see that even though the Lord offers us the opportunity to repent, He already knows that we will at first reject Him and His offer to accept our repentance. If anyone doubts that the Lord already knows what mankind will do just read the next couple of verses:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

Does that sound as if the Lord has any doubt about what we will do? These two verses confirm the message of verse 4:

Jer 18:4  And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Yes, indeed, the Lord admonishes us to “return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good”, and with the same breath He tells us “Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you”, followed by a description of that “evil device” He has devised against our old man. That device is to prepare the heart of our old man to say, “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”

Where does the heart of our old man get such a thought:

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

Then the Lord goes on to tell us plainly that His sovereignty extends to our own wicked man:

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

When you and I, or anyone else, sin and do wickedly, why do we do so? If God is sovereign over all things, then He must inform us that it is He who facilitates the most wicked of all acts, including the death of His own Son, and that is exactly what He does. It simply cannot be made more clear:

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

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.

He even admits to being the “one lawgiver” which includes giving us “the law of sin… which is in [our] members”:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Whence comes this “sin that dwells within [our] members”?

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

How did that happen? How did this “law of sin” come to be in our members? Let us “let God be true and every man a liar” and believe these words of God:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

That is exactly what the Sovereign God is in the process of doing. He is in the process of destroying our old man, who by His design is first “marred in [His] hand”, and through that dissolution of our old man He is saving our new man, just as the worm of a caterpillar is dissolved and comes out of the death of a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly no longer bound to crawl on its belly. It can now mount up to the heavens on beautiful wings, confirming that:

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

What we are being told is that “the law of sin and death” is part and parcel an integral part of being made of the dust of the ground, being “the… marred… vessel made of clay… in the Potter’s hand”:

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.

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

What we are being told is that the new vessel… “another vessel”, the Potter is making, is dominated by “another law” other than “the law of sin”. That new law, “the law of my mind”, in that new man is “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus”:

What is the meaning of the word ‘marred’? Exactly what is it about ‘the vessel of clay’ that makes it “marred” and unacceptable to the Potter?

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated as “marred”:

H7843
שָׁחַת
shâchath
shaw-khath’
A primitive root; to decay, that is, (causatively) ruin (literally or figuratively): – batter, cast off, corrupt (-er, thing), destroy (-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, X utterly, waste (-r).

‘Shachath’ is the same word translated as ‘corrupt’ when it first appears in:

Gen 6:11  The earth also was corrupt [H7843: ‘shachath’] before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

It appears twice in the next verse:

Gen 6:12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt [‘shachath’]; for all flesh had corrupted  [‘shachath’] his way upon the earth.

Notice how the translators have rendered this same word in the very next verse:

Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy [‘shachath’] them with the earth.

Here is how this word is variously translated in the King James Version:

H7843
שׁחת
shâchath
Total KJV Occurrences: 146
destroy, 68
Gen_6:13, Gen_6:17, Gen_9:11, Gen_9:15, Gen_18:28 (2), Gen_18:31-32 (2), Num_32:13-15 (4), Deu_4:31, Deu_9:26, Deu_10:10,
Deu_20:19-20 (2), Jos_22:33, Jdg_6:5, 1Sa_23:10, 1Sa_26:9, 1Sa_26:15, 2Sa_1:14,
2Sa_14:11, 2Sa_20:20, 2Sa_24:16,
2Ki_8:19, 2Ki_13:23, 2Ki_18:25 (2),
1Ch_21:15, 2Ch_12:7, 2Ch_12:12,
2Ch_21:7, 2Ch_25:16, 2Ch_35:21,
Psa_106:23, Isa_36:9-10 (3), Isa_51:13, Isa_65:8 (2),
Isa_65:25, Jer_5:10, Jer_6:5,
Jer_11:19, Jer_13:14, Jer_15:3,
Jer_15:6, Jer_36:29, Jer_48:18,
Jer_49:9, Jer_51:11, Jer_51:20,
Lam_2:8, Eze_5:16, Eze_9:8,
Eze_22:30, Eze_26:4, Eze_30:11,
Eze_43:3, Dan_9:24-26 (4), Hos_11:9, Mal_3:11
destroyed, 22
Gen_13:10, Gen_19:29, Jdg_6:4,
Jdg_20:21, Jdg_20:25, Jdg_20:35,
Jdg_20:42, 2Sa_11:1,
2Sa_24:16, 2Ki_19:12, 1Ch_21:15,
2Ch_24:23,
2Ch_34:11, 2Ch_36:19, Psa_78:38,
Psa_78:45, Isa_14:20, Isa_37:12,
Jer_12:10, Lam_2:5-6 (2), Hos_13:9
corrupt, 11
Gen_6:11-12 (2), Deu_4:16, Deu_4:25, Deu_31:29,
Psa_53:1 (2), Pro_25:26, Eze_20:44,
Eze_23:11, Mal_1:14
corrupted, 11
Gen_6:12, Exo_8:24, Exo_32:7,
Deu_9:12, Deu_32:5, Jdg_2:19,
Eze_16:47, Eze_28:17, Hos_9:9,
Mal_2:7-8 (2)
destroying, 5
1Ch_21:12, 1Ch_21:15, Jer_2:30,
Jer_51:1, Eze_20:17
mar, 4
Lev_19:27, Rth_4:6, 1Sa_6:5,
Jer_13:9
destroyer, 3
Pro_28:23-24 (2), Jer_4:7
marred, 3
Jer_13:7 (2), Jer_18:4, Nah_2:2
corrupters, 2
Isa_1:4, Jer_6:28
destroyeth, 2
Pro_6:32, Pro_11:9
spoilers, 2
1Sa_13:17, 1Sa_14:15
waster, 2
Pro_18:9, Isa_54:16
battered, 1
2Sa_20:15
cast, 1
Amo_1:11
corrupting, 1
Dan_11:17
corruptly, 1
2Ch_27:2
destroyers, 1
Jer_22:7
destroyest, 1
Jer_51:25
destruction, 1
2Ch_26:16
lose, 1
Pro_23:8
perish, 1
Exo_21:26
spilled, 1
Gen_38:9
wasted, 1
1Ch_20:1

This is the same word used back in chapter 13 in reference to the linen girdle which Jeremiah buried in the banks of the Euphrates River:

Jer 13:6  And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
Jer 13:7  Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred [‘shachath’], it was profitable for nothing.

The linen girdle was ‘ruined and destroyed’ because it was made of a corruptible composition. Destruction, corruption, and ruin are the thought behind this Hebrew word ‘shachath’.

Why would the Lord first make man of such a corruptible composition? If “the first man Adam”, ‘the vessel of clay’, (1Co 15:45) was marred (‘shachath’) in the Potter’s hand, then he was made of a corrupting composition which was deliberately designed to lead him into his own destruction “in the Potter’s hand”, just as the scriptures reveal:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
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.

All the great sermons to the contrary, “the first man Adam” was not spiritual first. Rather:

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 [“The first man Adam… of the dust of the ground… the vessel that He made of clay…”], such are they also that are earthy [“flesh and blood… corruption”]: 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; [Pray tell, why cannot flesh and blood inherit the kingdom of God?] …neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

What the Lord says must be “first” will be ‘first’. That which the Lord declares is “not first” will not be first. If we cannot accept those qualifying words, then we simply do not yet know Christ or His Father (Joh 17:3).

If we fail to see the order in which the Lord is completing and perfecting His creation, we can and we will miss the spiritual message in all those verses of scripture which qualify that order in which the Lord is working to bring about the salvation of all.

The previous chapter of Jeremiah, chapter 17, revealed to us that we are cursed with a deceitful heart which we should never, ever trust:

Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat [or “thief”] cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Chapter 18 confirms that a “deceitful heart” is simply a natural heart which is “marred… in the hand of the Potter”, and that this “marred” corruptible composition is the device which the Lord has devised against the kingdom of our old man to destroy it.

All these words of God are simply the fire which tries and burns up the wood, hay, and stubble of the works of our old man. These words are the judgment which begins when our “first man Adam” begins to die and begins to be judged. It is all designed to take place “first”, and it is all integral to the salvation of all men. This is the sequence of events which the Lord desires, and what the Lord desires He is doing:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is  appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man‘s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
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.

The word ‘appointed’ is in the present tense. The judgment which begins after we begin to “die” is in the aorist tense, and is now on the house of God:

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

The works of our old man are being burned up yet we ourselves, our “new man… shall be saved”. Being given a deceitful heart (Jer 17:9), and being “marred in the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:4) are just the necessary corruptible beginnings of the Lord’s process of salvation for “every man” (1Co 3:13-15).

That completes our study for today. These are our verses for our next study:

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

Isa 24:1-12 The Lord Makes The Earth Empty

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

The first four verses of this chapter contain within them the purpose for which the Lord first created mankind in a “marred, dying”, condition, which operates upon ‘the law of sin and death’ (Rom 7:17-23):

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 “marred… vessel… of clay” is not a slip-up on the part of our Creator. It is a deliberate, premeditated action which will require the sacrifice of Christ to “make it another vessel” which will then “seem good to the Potter”. We know this is all true because we are also told:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

It was “according to His own purpose and grace” that He first created a “marred vessel of clay”, which He already knew “before the world began” would require a Savior “which was given us in Christ Jesus”.

We are even told specifically that in the mind of the Father Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world”:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world [Greek: kosmos G2889, the physical creation].

The sacrifice of Christ was not ‘Plan B’. The sacrifice of Christ for the sins of His marred vessel was “promised before the world began”, and He is working all that occurs “according to His own purpose and grace”.

The inescapable conclusion to all of this information is that in order to accomplish “His own purpose” of calling us in Christ before the world began, all mankind must first become sinners in dire need of a Savior. For that very purpose, our Creator, from the beginning while “the vessel of clay was … [yet] in the hand of The Potter”, deliberately “marred… that… vessel of clay” by placing within its members the law of sin and death. Indeed that is exactly why we are all “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” before we are even born.

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

The New Testament accords with King David’s revelation of the nature of the Lord’s “marred… vessel of clay”. As we are plainly told:

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

Here we have the holy spirit telling us that we are all governed by “a law, [which], when [we] would do good, [makes] evil [to be] present with [us]. Then we are clearly told this “law of sin” was placed within our members by the “one lawgiver”:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

It should now be obvious that “the first man Adam” was never intended to “inherit the kingdom of God” simply because:

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

It is because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” that we are made to err from the Lord’s ways. It is because of “the law of sin… in [our] members” that we are made by the Lord to live out these first six verses of this 24th chapter of Isaiah.

Place your own name, or the words ‘My old man’, every time you see the words ‘earth’ and ‘the land’ in these six verses. If you can do that from your heart you will get more out of these words than the most learned of all the mighty men of ‘Tyre [and] Babylon’:

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

“The curse devours the earth… the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left”, is primarily to be taken in its spiritual sense, by us as the Lord’s firstfruits. But dispensationally it accords with what Christ tells us about His appearing at the time of the first resurrection, which occurs at the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ and His Christ.

Here are Christ’s words relating to that time:

Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the floodthey were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Utilizing our “line upon line and precept upon precept” principle (Isa 28:10-13) let’s see what else we are told about the days of Noah:

Gen 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violencethrough them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Yes, men have been violent since the days of Cain, but there is no denying that today also “the earth [is] filled with violence” [and has] corrupted His way upon the earth”. For this reason, in its dispensational application, we are told “the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men [are] left.” (Isa 24:6)

The ‘fire’ here is the same “fire” in this story:

Jdg 9:19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
Jdg 9:20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

Here is this “fire [which came out from the men of Shechem… and devoured Abimelech”:

Jdg 9:22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,
Jdg 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

This “fire” was civil unrest which turned every man against his brother, and destroyed Abimelech in the process. That is exactly what we see in the earth today, just as Christ said it would be before He sets His kingdom up on this earth.

Inwardly, “the earth” in these verses in Isaiah 24 and in Genesis 6, symbolizes our rebellious, deceived, old man with all of his false Babylonian doctrines, which he has received from his youth via the great whore who has deceived him (Jer 22:29). This great whore who is called ‘Babylon the Great the mother of harlots’ (Rev 17:1-4), is symbolized in scripture by ‘Tyre and Babylon’, and in Revelation 13 she is symbolized by a “beast [which comes] up out of the earth”:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

As impossible as it seems at this moment, while the religions of this world still have an incredible hold upon the people of this world, that hold will be taken away, and that harlot will be hated by all men. We are speaking of a very painful death both spiritually within each of us and outwardly in its dispensational, end time application. It will be a very painful experience in the Babylonian religions of the various societies of this world, and it will take place at the appointed time:

Isa 14:21  Prepare slaughter for [Babylon’s] children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Isa 14:22  For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
Isa 14:23  I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom [Hebrew: maṭ’ăṭê’ – broom] of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

That dying process within us reveals the truth of the leveling effect of the grave upon all men as we read earlier in this same 14th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Isa 14:6  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8  Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Isa 14:9  Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isa 14:10  All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Isa 14:11  Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

This was the fate of the physical king of Babylon, and this will be the fate of the great whore of Revelation 17-18, who symbolizes the religions of this world.

Physical death is no respecter of persons. Over 6,000 years of history have demonstrated that the strongest, richest, most powerful men have all died and returned to the dust. Our experience of dying daily in Christ is the same. The first and most important application of the process of dying to our flesh is for each of us, regardless of our social standing, rich or poor, esteemed or despised in this world, is that we must all come to see that it is the kingdom of our own old man being utterly destroyed which brings life at the appearing of Christ and His Truth. As that truth slowly sinks into our hearts and minds, our old man, the beast, the man of sin sitting on the throne of God within our hearts and minds, is systematically dying daily, and we are daily being crucified with Christ.

This daily process is what is called “suffering with [Christ]” the painful, fiery death of our old man. Prophetically it is described to us in our next verses.

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

If indeed we are to live by these words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4), how do we do so? We do so, and we experience these very words, by being brought by the hand of God in our lives to see just how hollow is our life as we continue turning our backs to His words and His commandments. When the Lord begins to judge us, all those things which once seemed so important to us begin to be revealed to us as destructive to our well-being, and are uncovered and shown to be nothing more than an insidious deception, and at that time they begin to be taken away from us. ‘The new wine mourns and the vine which produces it begins to wither away’, and all the things that once made us merry suddenly become an unbearable burden from which we now can see our own crying need for deliverance from the self-serving, materialistic beast we can now see within us.

When judgment begins at the house of God within us, an angel from the Lord intervenes in our life, and our life suddenly becomes very troubled and unsettled. All the things which once brought us “pleasure for a season” now cease to do so. The message of these words is repeated when Babylon is being judged and destroyed within our lives, as is also prophesied in Revelation 18:

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

That ‘sea’ into which “a stone like a great millstone” is cast is the flesh out of which arises our own lives.

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

These three verses here in Revelation 18 are the New Testament repetition of Isa 24:7-9. Both are telling us that the life of our first man Adam must be revealed for the hollow, empty, hopeless and miserable and vain experience which it, in reality, is:

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

It is very important that we understand that this all comes upon us while we are in Babylon, while we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. These judgments come upon us while we are ‘proud of  heart’ and while we are prospering in the lies of Babylon, where we think we are God’s chosen people, when in reality we are His enemies.

Isaiah 24:7-9 are a repetition of:

Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
Isa 9:10  The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Isa 9:11  Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
Isa 9:12  The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:13  For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

We, who think of ourselves as God’s chosen people, discover we are really nothing more or less than spiritual Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This “vessel of clay” is a work of the Lord Himself, but it is “marred in [His] hand” by His design, and it was never intended to be saved from destruction. It was created as the larvae of a butterfly. This “vessel of clay” is typified by the caterpillar stage of a butterfly. In this stage all we do is eat and devour to satisfy our bellies upon which we crawl. But when His judgments are in our earth, everything we once enjoyed no longer satisfies, and it is “cut off from [our] mouth”:

Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

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

But this ravenous caterpillar must first become a chrysalis, where the larvae will die. It is through this dying process that we will become a new man made to conform to the image of Christ, able now to mount up to and to dwell in the heavens. But to get to that stage we must first live out these words:

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

Only then will our predestinated change come upon us:

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

The end is a good end, but there is so much work that must first be accomplished by the Lord’s “great army”. That is what we will see in our next study where, Lord willing, we will learn that all these prophecies about the death of our old man are really very good news. We certainly do not at first consider our daily dying trials to be ‘good news’, but in His time the Lord brings us to be able to “glorify the Lord in the fires”, which we are at this very time enduring:

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

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 44 Discussion

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Isa 9:14-17 The Lord Will Cut Off From Israel The Head And Tail

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

We are continuing our study of God's judgments upon His people. In this study we will learn that God is intent upon the destruction of His first "marred... vessel of clay":

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.

If we are aware of the sovereignty of God when reading all of His admonitions, then we will not continue to ask what Paul said we would ask:

Rom 9:19  But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?" (GNB)

This statement is based upon these words in 2Chronicles 20 where we read:

2Ch 20:5  And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2Ch 20:6  And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

The Truth is that mankind cannot resist the will of God. It is for that very reason we all wonder why God did not just make us all perfected spirits and why He did not just skip all the sufferings this flesh just naturally produces. However, our flesh refuses to believe that God is that powerful and that we are that weak.

Which brings us to our first verse in today's study:

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

The word 'therefore' refers back to "the pride and stoutness of heart" of verse 9:

Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

The ignorance of mankind concerning the total sovereignty of God doesn't make God any less sovereign, as the apostle Paul points out:

Rom 9:10  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of [our] works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

It is given to our nature to rebel against the very idea of God hating any of us before we are even born and raising us up for the specific purpose of destroying us as He did Pharaoh. Paul knew how natural it was to resent such a powerful God whose plan is justified only by the loving outcome of His sovereign will, and he was given to anticipate the reaction of our own carnal minds to a statement which naturally seems completely unfair and unjust to the kingdom of our rebellious old man. So he poses the question he knows we will all ask:

Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? ...

Which is the same as asking:

Rom 9:19  But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will"? (GNB)

It has always struck me how blunt the holy spirit is in answering that question:

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

The truth is that at everything happening at this very moment, the very little good as well as the much evil taking place in this world, is fulfilling and doing what He has preordained to be done. It is only by knowing that God Himself creates evil (Isa 45:7) and 'makes us to err from His ways' (Isa 63:17), makes 'wicked men for the day of evil' (Pro 16:4) and is 'working all things after the counsel of His own will' (Eph 1:11), that we can know and appreciate the Truth that even the first-man Adam typifies Christ (Rom 5:14), and that even today that rebellious first-man Adam is an integral part of bringing the kingdoms of this world under the sovereign rod of iron which He is about to give to His saints.

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.

The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ begins with this promise of rulership for those in whom Christ dwells, and it ends with this promise being fulfilled:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The further we go in our studies of this prophecy of Isaiah, the more emphatic our Lord becomes in declaring that He, as our Creator, has every right to do with His creation as He sees fit and that we as His creatures have no right to even question Him. We are all very familiar with what He declares to us in:

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

Then immediately He admonishes us:

Isa 45:9  Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Isa 45:10  Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

But the reason we are warned against striving with our Maker is that we were created to do so, and our Creator knew that was exactly what we would just naturally do. That is the very meaning of these words:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

We were made "marred in the hand of the Potter" for the very purpose of giving God "an occasion" (Jdg 14:4) to destroy our old man and all that pertains to him. Mankind is a beast:

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

But Ecc 3:18 is not the sum of God's word on this subject of what is our "marred vessel of clay".

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Is there another verse of scripture which tells us God made our old man for the specific purpose of taking him and destroying him? Yes, there are many such verses for the man who has been given eyes to see and ears to hear that "mankind shall... live... by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Mat 4:4). I will just repeat the two we have already covered in this study:

Rom 9:10  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of [our] works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Esau and Pharaoh are both types of the flesh of all men and the old man within us all who "cannot inherit the kingdom of God":

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

However, our flesh does not want to hear that Truth. Our flesh recoils to hear that God made our bodies of flesh for the very purpose of destroying them, and to nullify the Truth of 1Corinthians 15:50, mankind has developed the false doctrine of a physical bodily resurrection.  Those who teach this false doctrine, when confronted with the plain language of 1Corinthians 15:50, resort to yet another false doctrine which they call 'spiritual flesh', apparently oblivious of the words of Christ Himself when explaining this subject to Nicodemus:

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Yes, it is true, Christ's physical body did not see corruption. However, it did not inherit the kingdom of God either. Rather it was "changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye [into] a spiritual body" (1Co 15:52). As such it was possible for Christ to appear to His disciples in a body of "flesh and bone" immediately following His resurrection, but that is because spirit can appear as flesh. The fact is that everything that is physically seen and can be physically touched is not "made of things which do appear":

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

All of this is "the pride and stoutness of heart" which is just naturally within God's own people. It is this pride-filled marred condition with which He is working, and which He is in the process of purging out of His people":

Eze 20:38  And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

Because of this pride and stoutness of heart:

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

What are the "head and tail, branch and rush [which will be] cut off... in one day" as God judges His people and destroys the kingdom of our old man and the kingdoms of this world? We don't need to speculate who or what this "head and the tail" is. The very next verse tells us:

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

This verse gives us the interpretation of the symbolism of the tails of the locusts in these verses of Revelation 9.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. ["The sun and the air" are the light and the spiritual truths which are the Word of God]
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Locust devour everything in their path. Christ indicts the shepherds of His flock for doing just that:

Eze 34:8  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

The "power of a scorpion" is in the tails of these locusts, and look at what the tails of these locusts are given to do with that power:

Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

These locusts are as powerful as a horse, they appear as royalty wearing crowns of gold, they have the faces of men, the hair of women and they have the teeth of lions. What do these stinging, powerful, lion-like locusts symbolize? The scriptures come right out and tell us what these locusts symbolize:

Zec 11:3  There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
Zec 11:4  Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
Zec 11:5  Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

The tails of these scorpions are defined right here in Isaiah as "the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail" of the stinging, scorpion, lion-like locusts.

The political head of a nation leads even the prophets. King David led all Israel. He worked with the Lord's prophets, and the later kings like Uzziah over Judah, and Ahab and his wife Jezebel were "the ancient and the honorable...heads" of God's people. Aha was the head over his own lying prophets.

Here is a very clear example of the fruits of listening to "the ancient and honorable 'head' and his "prophets that [taught] lies":

1Ki 22:5  And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day.
1Ki 22:6  Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

As we are about to discover, God had already decided that all these prophets were "tails... prophets that teach lies". So let's continue on with our story:

1Ki 22:7  And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him?
1Ki 22:8  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
1Ki 22:9  Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.
1Ki 22:10  And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.
1Ki 22:11  And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them.
1Ki 22:12  And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the king's hand.

These are four hundred 'tails', four  hundred false prophets who are prophesying lies to "the head[s]... the ancient and the honorable" kings of Israel and Judah. Ahab is "the head" of Israel, so he says: "Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah". Even the Lord's true prophets are subject to the powers that be (Rom 13:1) as long as those powers are not demanding that God's true prophets disobey God (Act 5:29). So when summoned by the king, the Lord's prophet appeared before the king, "the ancient and honorable... head" of the nation of Israel.

Now let's pay close attention to the difference between "the prophet that teaches lies" and a true prophet of God:

1Ki 22:13  And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.
1Ki 22:14  And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.
1Ki 22:15  So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
1Ki 22:16  And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?
1Ki 22:17  And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. [Israel was about to lose its "head... the ancient and the honorable". Israel was about to lose its leader].
1Ki 22:18  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?
1Ki 22:19  And he [Micaiah] said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
1Ki 22:20  And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.
1Ki 22:24  But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee?
1Ki 22:25  And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.
1Ki 22:26  And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son;
1Ki 22:27  And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
1Ki 22:28  And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you.
1Ki 22:29  So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.
1Ki 22:30  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle.
1Ki 22:31  But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.
1Ki 22:32  And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out.
1Ki 22:33  And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.
1Ki 22:34  And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.
1Ki 22:35  And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot.
1Ki 22:36  And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.
1Ki 22:37  So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.
1Ki 22:38  And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake.

Here is what Micaiah knew to be true, and for which he was willing to eat the bread of affliction and to drink the water of affliction. It is our next verse:

Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

The people of a nation are led both by their political leaders and by their religious leaders, and both lead those who follow them into destruction. This is what we are told about the prophets who teach lies:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11  That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.

Just as the Kings Jehoshaphat and Ahab called the prophets to inquire of the Lord, these "elders of Israel" had also come before the prophet Ezekiel to "inquire of the Lord". So "the leaders of this people [who] cause them to err" are both the political and religious leaders, and as demonstrated by the story of King Ahab's destruction for listening to his lying prophets, and by this prophecy of Ezekiel, "the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;". Which brings us to our last verse in today's study:

Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

While "His anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still", Christ has given Himself a reason for all this fiery purging judgment. In the words of Isaiah:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Ezekiel confirms this fruit of the Lord's judgments when he concludes:

Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11  That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.

Lord willing, next week we will examine the admonition the Lord gives us concerning His judgments in these last verses of chapter nine.

Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

[Questions or comments can be directed to the author at vinsmike@gmail.com]

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 39 Discussion

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Isa 8:11-15 He Shall Be For A Rock o​f Offence To Both The Houses ​of Israel

Isa 8:11  For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Isa 8:12  Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Isa 8:13  Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Isa 8:14  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isa 8:15  And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

The one thing we should have seen by now is that everything done by every evil king of Israel or any of the kings of Judah is that everything any of them did, they did it simply because that was what the Lord Himself had written in their book "before the world began (Psa 139:16, Pro 16:4; Isa 63:17, Eph 1:11).

Daniel 4 and Matthew 24 tell us that Christ has been given all power in heaven and in earth and Ephesians 1:11 confirms that at this very moment He is working all that is taking place in the kingdoms of men "after the counsel of His own will".

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

If that is true, then we really need to cast our lot in with the man who has been given "all power... in heaven and in earth" regardless of the appearances of power and influence which appear to be in the hands of the kingdoms of men. That was what Ahaz, a type of who we just naturally are, could not do. All Ahaz or any of us can typically see are the approaching armies of Egypt on the one side and the deep Red Sea on the other side. All we just naturally see in times of crisis are the waters that are just about to sink our ship, and we naturally think the Lord has forsaken us and does not care that we are about to be submerged in the very waves which we know He controls:

Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Ancient Israel typifies us (1Co 10:11) as do Christ's carnal apostles:

Luk 8:23  But as they sailed he [Christ] fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.
Luk 8:24  And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.

It is in these very circumstances that Ahaz, typifying each of us, was told by the Lord:

Isa 7:4  And say unto him [Ahaz], Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

Typifying our old man, all Ahaz could see though was the threatening, stormy waves, and he had no faith in the God whom he knew had always delivered his ancestors from Pharaoh and from every oppressor who had ever oppressed Israel, throughout the years of the judges. Ahaz knew, or should have known, that God had always preserved his own predecessor, King David, and had always preserved those who were obedient to Him and to His laws. It is written in our book, and it must be lived out in our own way just as it happened unto King Ahaz for our admonition (1Co 10:11):

2Ch 28:16 At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.
2Ch 28:17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
2Ch 28:18 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
2Ch 28:19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.

"For he made Judah naked" is translated like this in the LITV:

2Ch 28:19  For Jehovah had humbled Judah because of Ahaz the king of Israel, for he loosed immorality in Judah, and deceiving, they betrayed Jehovah.

At the very point where it should be the most obvious to us that we need the supernatural help of our heavenly Father to bring us to repentance, we instead reach out to the world and continue to dig in our heels and "transgress sore against the Lord". We do so simply because we fear men and what we physically see more than we fear God whom we cannot see with our physical eyes.

These circumstances have confronted us all, and they will do so again at the appointed time.

When our own judgment begins, our own family and friends who are not given to discern the voice of Christ sometimes disown us, just as Christ's own family and friends did not believe in Him. Such experiences are "the stormy waves" which the Lord Himself lifts up against us to show us what is still within us, or how little faith we really have.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

This is what happened to Christ when His heavenly Father sent him to "receive the fruit" of His vineyard from His husbandmen (Luk 20:9-16). This is Matthew's account of how we can expect to be treated by our own friends who know us best:

Mat 13:54  And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
Mat 13:55  Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 
Mat 13:56  And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
Mat 13:57  And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

Luke tells us more specifically just how "offended in Him" they were, and in telling us this, He is also telling us what we must expect of our own friends who know us best:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

Unlike Ahaz and us, when all this happened here is this same fourth chapter, Christ had just been tempted by the adversary and had not succumbed to the pressures of this life. He had even been offered the very real promise of honor and riches in this age if only he would renounce the pain and shame of the cross (Luke 4:1-13).

Luk 4:5  And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Luk 4:7  If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
Luk 4:8  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Christ's own family did not believe in Him as the Son of God, the Lamb of God. They certainly did not, at this time, consider their brother to be the sacrifice for their sins:

Joh 7:1  And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Joh 7:2  Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was near.
Joh 7:3  His brothers therefore said to him, Depart from here, and go into Judea so that thy disciples also may see thy works that thou do.
Joh 7:4  For no man does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be in public. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world.
Joh 7:5 For not even his brothers believed in him. (ACV)

Our calling is not for the faint of heart. It is of Christ's own family that we are told: "not even his brothers believed on Him... If you do these things, show yourself to the world". Such pressure from those who are our closest associates and family members is enough to dissuade most, and that is why we are told:

Isa 8:11  For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Isa 8:12  Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Isa 8:13  Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 

The Lord speaks to us 'with a strong hand and instructs us' not to cave in to the pressures that come from our families, our friends and from the societies in which we live. This does not mean that He turns up the volume and shouts at us. What "with a strong hand" means is that He turns up the fire, and brings us to understand clearly that disobedience simply does not pay. Christ felt the exact same pressure from His own family to deny His calling and to fit in with the religion of His family and the society of His day, to which you and I are subjected, "each in his own order" (1Co 15:23). All He would have had to have done was to quit breaking the sabbath and stop telling the people whom He healed to break the sabbath and stop saying God was His Father, and just fit in with the Jewish religion into which He was born.

Like most of us, Christ was born into a religious family and into a religious society. It is our family, our friends and our societies which are confederated against Christ and His doctrines. It is our families, friends and the society into which we are born, whom we just naturally tend to fear and whom we want to please, far more than we fear or want to please Christ. That is why we must be admonished "...neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid".

The whole fearful and terrified life of Ahaz and Judah "happened to them as types of us and for our admonition". If Ahaz had just remained faithful and had put his trust in the God of his fathers, when the Philistines, the Edomites, the Syrians and Israel invaded Judah, he would never have been conquered by the king of Assyria. But that kind of faith only comes with a life of righteousness, and neither Ahaz nor Judah, nor any of us, are righteous to begin with. That is why we are plainly told:

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

This is not hidden from us. We are told that we will first 'stumble and be offended' at Christ:

Isa 8:14  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isa 8:15  And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

Concerning these two verses, it is our Savior Himself who informs us:

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

Judah and Jerusalem, Israel and Samaria, Syria and Damascus, as well as all of mankind, must first  come to see themselves as the "marred vessel" which we all first are, before we will ever even begin to "know the day of [our] visitation", which is the beginning of our judgment and the fiery trials  which are that 'judgment'. (Jer 18:4; 1Pe 4:17)

Luk 19:44  And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Those who are blessed to know the time of their visitation are those who being judged at this time. It is few indeed who even know the Truth of these verses of scripture:

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 4:16  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?

The 'fire' of verse 12 is the same 'fire' that burns up the tares in this verse:

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

This 'fire' burns up the tares "in the time of harvest". "The time of  harvest" is the harvest of souls, and the fire is what torments Christ's enemies and destroys all the wood, hay and stubble, and all the briars and thorns which symbolize the lies, the false doctrines and the sinful fruits of all those lies. It is the same fire at work in these verses:

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 
1Co 3:14  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.

This 'fire' is not literal 'fire'. We are twice told that it has never entered God's mind to burn anyone forever in literal physical flames of fire:

Jer 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

Jer 32:35  And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

In every case, the 'fire' of the Lord is exactly what the Word of God tells us it is.

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.

"The fire [of God] will try every man's works" (1Co 3:13), and we are also told:

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

The Word of God is the fire which will judge all men of all time.

These verses prophesied of the process which is that judgment which come upon 'every man, each in his own order'.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. 
Hos 11:3  I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. 
Hos 11:4  I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Hos 11:5  He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
Hos 11:6  And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
Hos 11:7  And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

Just as Job's three miserable comforters were all fellow Edomites, so, too, "Ephraim", who is also referred to as "Israel", those closest to Judah, was a thorn in the side of Judah and vice versa. So it is with us. Christ has been very up front with us in informing us of what we are to expect if we are granted to be His disciples, to rule with Him here in this age and to judge angels for Him in the coming 'lake of fire' after the thousand-year reign (1Co 6:2-3, Rev 20:11-15). Here is how we begin to experience the Lord's judgment which is now upon the house of God (1Pe 4:17). This is the exact same message given to Isaiah.

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. ["Perilous times" - 2Ti 3:1]
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. [Eph 3:10 - Through the church]
Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23  But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

As in Isaiah and throughout scripture, Christ again tells us not to fear men:

Mat 10:26  Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
Mat 10:27  What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 
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. 
Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Mat 10:30  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Mat 10:32  Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Contrary to what our captors in Babylon tell us, this is the truth of what Christ came to do within our lives:

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. 

Matthew 10 speaks of the judgment which must begin at the house of God as spoken by apostle Peter above. (1Pe 4:17)

Now we know who the Lord included when He tells us:

Isa 8:12  Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 
Isa 8:13  Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 
Isa 8:14  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isa 8:15  And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

Isaiah is quoting a prophecy of Christ in the book of Psalms:

Psa 118:22  The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Head of the Corner.
Psa 118:23  This is from Jehovah, it is marvelous in our eyes.

Christ knew that Psa 118:22-23, and Isa 8:14 was a prophecy of His coming to His own people and the hateful rejection with which He would be received and with which He and His Christ are received to this very day:

Mat 21:42  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Peter repeats both of these prophecies to those in His charge:

1Pe 2:7  Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, [Psa 118:22-23]
1Pe 2:8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. [Isa 8:14]

Christ, Paul, Peter and John all knew that what we do to Christ's body is being done to Christ Himself:

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

Act 22:8  And I [Paul] answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

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

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

Christ is His Word (Joh 1:1), and it is His words, including His words here in Matthew 10, which cause us all to first stumble and fall and be broken. How many in this age are willing to be hated by their closest family members and friends for the sake of remaining faithful to the words of Christ? It takes Christ Himself living His life within us to bring us to repent of the slavery to our flesh and of the fear of men, and to live a life worthy of His name. Fortunately for us that is exactly what we have been given.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [Christ, verse 6] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Yet even God's elect must stumble and fall and be broken and snared and taken, before they rise again in victory over all the giants in their land.

Next week, Lord willing, we will be admonished to be very careful to speak only what is written and to understand that all those who speak beyond what is written have "no light in them".

Isa 8:16  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Isa 8:17  And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Isa 8:18  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
Isa 8:19  And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Isa 8:21  And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Isa 8:22  And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

Hi Mike,

I have been thinking deeply about the creation of Adam. I have come to believe that Adam was created MORTAL and not IMMORTAL. I don’t know what your position is on the subject, but here is why I believe what I do… perhaps you can straighten me out if I am wrong:

God placed TWO trees in the Garden of Eden: The “Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil” plus the “Tree of Life“. God gave Adam ONE command, and that was to “ not eat of the Tree of Knowledge.”

If Adam DID eat of the Tree of Knowledge, God warned that “ dying, ye shall DIE“, or “ye shall SURELY (certainly) die“). This, to me, is saying that Adam was already dying, even before He ate of the Tree of Knowledge. His death wasn’t yet “CERTAIN”, since he still had full access to the Tree of Life! (But of course, we know that he did not partake of it.)

All Adam had to do, was to eat of the Tree of Life, so that he would BECOME “immortal”! Isn’t this why God says that after He ate of the Tree of Knowledge, that He then guarded the Tree of Life, lest he eat of it and live for ever?

I look forward to your response!

God Bless,

J____

Hi J____,

It is good to hear from you again. You are right on about Adam’s original condition while yet in the hand of the Potter:

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.
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.

All of God’s “clay vessels” are “marred in the hand of the Potter” while still in His hand. That is because God has not yet finished ‘making man in His image.’ What that verse should read is “Let us be making man in our image.” The first step in that process is to make a “marred vessel of clay”. It was the result of being in this sad, “marred”, naked dusty condition, while yet “in the hand of the Potter”, that caused Adam and Eve to succumb to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the heart and the pride of life before they ever ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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

Flesh itself misses the mark of the Christ we are now to know after the spirit. So Adam, by virtue of being flesh, is sin and needs a sacrifice for what he IS, before he ever does anything. As soon as Adam does something, he is then also in need of another sacrifice for what he did. So God has given us a sin offering for the flesh that we are. He has also provided a “trespass” offering for what we do in “the body of this death.” Adam sinned because he was in a “body of this death”. He sinned because he was dying. He did not begin dying because he sinned. The lie of the serpent “thou shalt not surely die” has man thinking the opposite of the Word of God to this very day. Adam was dying when he drew his first breath:

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

“Flesh and blood” are synonymous in scripture with “corruption”. Adam was “corruptible and in corruption” from the time he drew his first breath. That is why he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was created with a fleshly mind. Adam was created of the dust. He was created with an earthly carnal mind. He was “a vessel of clay marred in the hand Of the Potter.”

I have written all this years ago in the paper on The Law of Moses Versus The Law of the Spirit.

Go to that paper on the web site. Scroll down about three quarters of the paper to the section entitled ‘Phrase # 7- Under The Law.’ The remainder of this paper discusses the original condition in which Adam was created while yet a “vessel of clay in the Potter’s hand.”

I think you will find that it confirms what you have asked me about in this letter. I would only add that the ‘flaming sword guarded the WAY of the tree of life.” This symbolizes the fact that it is only by going through that flaming fire of the Word Of God that we can partake of the ‘Tree of Life that is in the paradise of God.” The ‘Tree of Life is of course, Christ. And His word burns out of us everything that separates us from Him.

Mike

Part 2

Hi Mike,

Thank you for clarifying this issue regarding the nature of Adam! I loved the bit on us being “marred in the hand of the potter“. Thank you!

I have a couple “concerns” however. I understand that Gen 1:26 says…

“And God said, Let us make [Heb: ” Asah” – “be making?”] man in our image, after our likeness”

Perhaps this is saying “let us be making“…

But how about Gen 1:27…

“So God creatED [Heb: ” Bara“] man in his own image, in the image of God creatED [Heb: ” Bara“] he him; male and female creatED [Heb: ” Bara” – not “is making”] he them”

Doesn’t Gen 1:27 confirm that man was CREATED (past- tense) in God’s image? God CREATED (past- tense) Male and Female… God isn’t still “MAKING/ MOLDING” a male version and a female version of man. It was done at the moment of creation, was it not?

Also, Paul seems to completely confirm that man IS (past- tense) the image of God in 1Co 11:7…

“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he [man] IS the IMAGE and glory OF GOD.“

This doesn’t say that man is BEING MADE in God’s image; Paul says [or does he?] that man IS [NOW] the image of God.

Any thoughts on this one?

Thank again Mike!

J____

Hi J____,

The truth is that both the ‘making’ and the ‘creating’ are Hebrew and Greek verbs which are most commonly in the Qal Stem in the Old Testament and in the Aorist tense in the New Testament.’. Greek and Hebrew do not speak as we speak. They speak in what we would call the present progressive. They do not use or have a present perfect as we do in English. So God is making man in His image, and a marred vessel of clay is the first step in that process. God is also in the process of creating man and “conforming him to the [spiritual ] image of his Son. The first step in that process is to make man a marred vessel of clay.

1Co 11:7 is written to Christians who are supposed to be being conformed to that spiritual image. It is stated to those who can receive it in those terms. If we are indeed “seated with Him in heavenly places,” then we are indeed “conformed to the image of his Son. All physical types in the old testament are only true as shadows and types; they are never true in spiritual reality. The ‘bread from heaven’ of Exodus 16:4 was not the true bread from heaven even though the Old Testament says that it is.

Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

The reason Christ can contradict the old Testament is that He knew that all of the law was only a “form” and a shadow of good things to come:

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

Do you see that “not the very image”? That should read “Not the true image.” The “first Adam is a figure of Him that was to come.”

Christ is the true image of God to which we are to be conformed.

Speaking to the Jews, Paul had this to say of all things in the law:

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

The “form” is not the reality. It is but a shadow of the reality. It must never be taken as the fullness of the truth.

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

What does that verse say for the law. What does it say about the statement in that law that God made man in His image?

I hope this helps you see that all the truths of the Old Testament are true only as shadows of the spiritual realities. They are never to be taken as the fullness of knowledge, the ‘epignosis of Christ.’ That epignosis is only to be found in Christ.

Mike

I will go line by line through this letter and give God’s Word and contrast God’s Word with the carnal minded reasoning of your friend. Your friend, as I myself once did and all carnal minds do, fails to see the difference between the ability to choose based upon the causes he himself admits to in this letter, and ‘free’ will, without the influence of any outside cause. No one in his right mind would deny that your friend can choose to drink either orange drink or Pepsi. But for your friend to deny that God is the cause of that choice and already knows what that choice is before he ever makes that choice is blasphemous. God does know, because God is the great Causer of all things which you, or I or your friend will ever do. The same is true for every other person who lives, has lived or who ever will live.

If any of us has an uncaused ‘free’ will then why are we told:

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

According to the carnal reasoning of your friend, this scripture is a lie. According to the false teaching of your friend, which also happens to also be the same doctrine of all orthodox Christian denominations, the truth is that “The preparations of the heart and the answer of the tongue is [ actually from our free will].”

Again consider the Truth contrasted with the teaching of your friend and orthodox Christian teaching:

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

Your friend and all orthodox Christianity denies this truth. Here is how they would rewrite God’s Word. “The Lord has created all things good and man’s free will has created evil men forcing upon God a ‘day of evil.'” This lie of the Dragon and the beast which is within your friend and within all orthodox Christianity, denies the Truth of this next scripture also:

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me [ where is anything about man’s fabled ‘free’ will in these verses?]:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else [ Where is this ‘free’ will?].
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

In other words:

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 [“first,” not ‘only’] trusted in Christ.

Orthodox Christianity teaches us just the opposite. ‘Evil,’ we are lied to, ‘is the result of your own choices.’

In the National Cathedral, immediately following the bombing of the World Trade Towers, Dr. Billy Graham, a man many Christians consider to be one of the most prominent spiritual men of our day, proclaimed before all the world that Isa 45:7 was a lie. “God does not create evil!” proclaimed Dr. Graham. I for one choose to believe God’s Word over the words of Dr. Graham and over the words of all orthodox Christian ministers. But I choose so for the same reason they choose not to believe those words of God. You and your friend and I and all of orthodox Christianity, believe what we believe because “the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” It is definitely not from some unscriptural ‘free’ human will. Man’s will is so easily influenced because we were created so weak and carnal. Yes, that is how we were created “in the Potter’s hand.”

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen [“In the Potter’s hand] in iniquity; and in sin did my mother [ Creator] conceive me.
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.
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.

Your friend and all of orthodox Christianity would answer, ‘Absolutely not!’ to the Great Potter. ‘What are you saying? Are you saying we are nothing but a puppet on a string?’ is their constant retort to this question by a Potter who informs them that they are deliberately marred in His hand. But what says the Great Potter to man’s beastly claim to some fabled ‘free will?’ Is man indeed a ‘puppet on a string?’ No, the Great Potter gives man no such dignity as a puppet: “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”

Dr. Billy Graham, Hank Hanagraff, Pastor Adrian Rogers, Pat Roberston, Paul Crouch and all of God’s widely acclaimed ‘great men of God’ need to get with God and inform Him of their ‘free will,’ which God just seems to have forgotten about in all these and all other scriptures that appear in His Word on this subject.

Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Again orthodox Christianity argues with their own Creator that ‘It IS in man himself to choose what steps he will take. It IS in man to freely decide whether to obey God.’ What happened to that orthodox Christian teaching of man’s ‘free will’ here in this verse? Where is the scripture for such a doctrine? Is it to be found in these Words of Truth?

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Pro 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

No, it is not in those verses either. So where is the scripture for the doctrine of the free will of man? Surely here is a verse which proves beyond any doubt that God has given man a free will:

Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

And what are we told the people “chose” to do?

Jos 24:16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;

Is this not surely a Biblical example of the exercise of man’s ‘free will?’ The entire orthodox Christian world point to this verse and proclaims that that is exactly what it proves. But what do the scriptures say about Israel’s choice?; “God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods.” Here is the Truth once again straight from the Word of God concerning this subject of man’s will to do good and to obey God:

Jos 24:19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

Why can they not serve the Lord? The answer is always consistently the same:

Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Why is it that man cannot choose to serve God? Did not Israel just do so? It surely appears that Israel chose to serve the Lord. But what really happened? What was the Truth of Israel’s choice to serve God? Here is the truth from the Word of God:

Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
Deu 31:28 Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
Deu 31:29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

“You will do evil… after my death you will corrupt yourselves?” What became of Israel’s self proclaimed ‘free will choice,’ “God forbid that we should forsake the LORD…?”

Though orthodox Christianity is unaware of this truth, our Creator is well aware that He has not given them “such a heart, that they would fear me.” “To them it is not given…”:

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

How can God say “It is not given to them to understand,” when in reality, according to orthodox Christianity, that choice is not God’s choice to be making. “Not given to them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven?” Where is room for so much as the thought of ‘free will’ in a statement such as that?

Getting back to your friend’s “free will” to drink orange juice instead of Pepsi, let’s look at some others who, like your friend, thought that their thoughts were their own free, uncaused thoughts. These men certainly did not think that their thoughts that were caused by the Great Cause of all things. Yes, even our choices of what we will eat and drink, just as the ideas of these men, are caused thoughts. “He works all things after the counsel of His Own will.”

The men I refer to are the brothers of Joseph. The thoughts they entertained were these:

Gen 37:19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
Gen 37:20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Joseph’s brothers would never have admitted at this point that their evil thoughts and desire to slay their brother was “of the Lord.” This is not a discussion about whether to drink some sheep’s milk or some grape juice. This is a discussion about whether to take the life of their own brother. Ruben and Judah finally convince the other nine brothers to make some money on the sale of Joseph instead of killing him. Thus they spared his life. But whose idea really is this entire scenario? Your friend and the entire orthodox Christian World, along with its icon, the great Dr. Billy Graham, have a beast sitting on the throne of God. God’s throne is in the hearts and minds of His people. But as their rhetoric belies, a beastly ‘man of sin,’ who “receives his power and great authority from the Dragon,” sits on God’s throne in “God’s temple, whose temple ye are” and denies that God “works all things after the counsel of His Own will.” Nevertheless, the Word of “God is true and every man is a liar.”

Here now is that word for all who can receive it:

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

This revelation followed many months of tormenting his own brothers for their own good. Joseph’s brothers were compelled to “worship at his feet” and were “tormented in the presence of the Lamb:”

Gen 42:6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
Gen 42:7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
Gen 42:8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.
Gen 42:9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
Gen 42:10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
Gen 42:11 We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.
Gen 42:12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
Gen 42:13 And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.
Gen 42:14 And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies:
Gen 42:15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
Gen 42:16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
Gen 42:17 And he put them all together into ward three days.
Gen 42:18 And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
Gen 42:19 If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Gen 42:20 But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
Gen 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

Joseph’s brothers typify today’s orthodox Christians, who to this day despise those who are favored by the Father because they bring to their Father the evil report of their brothers who are taking advantage of their Father’s flock:

Gen 37:2 Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Their “evil report” had to do with something that occurred while they were “feeding the flock.” The word translated ‘report’ denotes ‘slander’. Joseph’s brothers were no doubt slandering their father. So it is today. Those given the charge of the welfare of God’s flock have “an evil report.” It falls the lot of today’s Josephs to bring to their Father their evil report. When this is accomplished, the Father sets his elect apart from all of His other sons with a “coat of many colors.” This coat is required clothing for all those who “come out from among” their Babylonish brothers with their bad report concerning the keeping of the Father’s flock.

This coat represents the fact that God favors those who are faithful to His word. These are those who admit that “God is the savior of all men [ even those who wanted to slay Him, but] specially [ at this time] of those who believe [ and are faithful to His Word- I Tim. 4:10]. These are those who give freely the word to others and do not abuse the flock of their Father. And these are those who, regardless of the consequences, bring to their Father the evil report of their brothers who are abusing the Father’s flock. If we refuse to wear this garment and endure the hatred of those who have not been given this garment, then we are denying Christ and He will also deny us before the Father. It was Joseph’s garments that made him so despised by his own brothers. But it was more than that. Those garments represent the fact that God Himself favors His elect and intends for His elect to rule over their brothers who are “called but are not chosen.”

Gen 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Gen 37:4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. [ The more revelation God gives His elect, the more they are hated by their brothers who see no need for an elect to be chosen from among the called]
Gen 37:6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7 For, behold, we [ the called and the chosen] were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

Christ relates this same story and condenses it all to one short verse:

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

Joseph’s brothers represent the many called but not chosen Christians. Like the Corinthians they are more into the gifts than the Giver.

1Co 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes [ our] brother,
1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called [ not chosen] to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
1Co 1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Yet what does Paul confess to these “sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints” Corinthians?

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

These “Carnal… babes in Christ.. neither yet now are able to bear…” the Truth that “many are called but [ only] a few are chosen.” They believe that salvation lies in denominational affiliation:

1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul [ Protestant]; and another, I am of Apollos [ Catholic]; are ye not carnal?

The very thought of a God who “works all things after the counsel of His own will” is especially offensive to these carnal Christians who think that it is their free will that will decide whether they follow Paul or Apollos. The Truth of course is that even if they do join a denomination and decide to “kill you thinking they do God a service,” they do so only because “It was not you but God who sent me here,” as Joseph reveals to us all.

O. K. Now for your friend’s letter.

J____ wrote:

Hello,

I am having a debate with a fellow that sent me this email. Hoping you can help me out by writing something in response. I greatly appreciate it! Here it is.

Hos 6:7 (NASB) But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.

According to God, Adam broke the Covenant.

Which God knew in advance Adam would do because He “made him subject to vanity, not willingl y [ on Adam’s part] but by reason of Him [ God], who subjected the same in hope [ of a resurrection in which “all will confess that Jesus is Christ to the glory of God”].

Jesus brought a new one.

What is evident from Scripture is that God lives NOT in our restrictive chronological timeline, but He lives outside of time and can see my birth and life and death at a glance.

Adam did not surprise God by sinning, I accept that.

So you admit that God knew in advance exactly what Adam would do and was in reality “working all things after the counsel of His Own will?”

Remember, sin is not an invention of God or man. Sin as we know is an ancient word describing how we miss the mark as it were. Sin is nothing more than a failure to obey. Sin is not choosing to obey and follow after righteousness. Adam chose not to obey. Because he could.

Adam, as with all who are in him could choose nothing else. The very meaning of the “first man Adam… is of the earth earthy,” meaning that Adam was marred in the Potter’s hand with an earthy, carnal corruptible mind. He and Eve committed every sin known to man before they ever touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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

It was Eve’s natural carnal mind that she had been given by her Creator, that caused her to listen to the lies of the serpent and to exercise the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” before she ever touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They did not become naked after that. Eating of that tree simply made them aware of their already, from the hand of their Creator, naked sinful condition:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I [ the first Adam] was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother [ Creator] conceive me.

Can’t you accept, that your incredible statement about us having no free will is just wrong? It is totally wrong. If we had no free will then we are not responsible for sin and God would need to apologize to the people of Soddom and Gommorah and re- instate those destroyed cities. He would need to apologize to those who never entered Noah’s ark.

And what do you make of this scripture? Has God given you the eyes to see this verse of scripture?

Eze 16:55 When thy [ Jerusalem] sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

You do not believe that Sodom will be “returned to her former estate” along with Jerusalem and her daughters? Do you? So who now should your friend believe? Should he believe your carnal, unscriptural reasonings, or should he believe God’s plain statements of truth that Sodom and Her daughters will be returned to their former estate when Jerusalem and her daughters are returned to their former estate? Who do these verses say was the greatest sinner? Was it Sodom or was it Jerusalem? Are you still so sure that “God needs to apologize to Sodom?” Could J____ possibly be right and could John have a better solution than your idea of God apologizing to Sodom? Could it possibly be true that Christ…

1Jn 2:2 … Is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world [ including the sins of Sodom and her much more evil sister Jerusalem?].

Could it be that you are right and we, as Joseph’s brothers, are not responsible for our sins? Could it be that God sent us into sin, that “many people might be saved alive” as you will see in the resurrection of Sodom and Samaria along with their much more wicked sister Jerusalem? Could it be that God is true and every man is a liar?

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [ NOT exclusively] of those that believe.
1Ti 4:11 These things command and teach.

Do you “command and teach that “God is the savior of all men?”

If we have no free- will then we need to empty every prison and apologize to the prisoners as they leave. We need to exhume all those who have been executed for crimes and give them a pretty funeral. If we have no freewill, then Hitler was just a poor unfortunate soul.

You obviously see no personal reason for Paul’s telling us:

Rom 9:11 (For the children [ Jacob and Esau] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated [“While he was in his mother’s womb, having done neither good nor evil”].

You don’t believe that do you? You think that Esau was evil because of his own decisions. You believe that both Esau and Joseph’s brothers and Pharaoh, and King Saul and King Ahab and Judas and Hitler could somehow have chosen of their own free will to thwart the predestination of Him “who works all things after the counsel of His Own will?”

We all have a free will. If we had no free- will we wouldn’t be having this debate. Everything you say, I would agree with and vise versa. There would be no war, no strange political notions, no splits in marriage and no splits in the church. Even a game of chess would be desperately boring with inevitable outcomes.

So then you don’t believe this verse of scripture either do you?

Pro 16:33 The lot [ Or chess game] is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

You just do not like Bible verses like that do you? Why don’t you show J____ a verse which says that the outcome of such things as “lots cast into the lap” and the outcome of chess games are beyond the scope of God’s concerns? Where exactly now is that verse of scripture? There seem to be a plethora of Bible verses which tell us that God works all things after the counsel of His own will, that He is aware of every sparrow that falls to the ground, that the very hairs of our heads are numbered by God, but you want us to believe that He cannot or else has chosen not to know what I will choose to do tomorrow because that would be an infringement upon my fabled “free will.”

You confuse God’s ability to see the beginning from the end – and His foreknowledge of everything!

And with our ability to choose and take various paths within the timeline we inhabit.

It is not J____ who is confused. It is you, who refuses to kick the beast of your fabled free will off of the throne of God in your heart. So long as you can continue to convince yourself that God’s ability to see the beginning from the end, and everything in between, is something less than Him “working all things [ good and evil] after the counsel of His own will,” that beastly ‘man of sin rests comfortably where Christ should be as the sovereign in the affairs of men. But you refuse to give up that idol of your heart. To you God just sort of works around our ‘free will.’ It wasn’t really God who sent Joseph as a slave into Egypt. It was really Joseph’s brothers’ ‘free will.’ But God was able to somehow work around their evil free will. Why is it that if indeed we have this ‘free uncaused and uninfluenced will’ that not one person out of all the billions who have ever lived on earth, has ever freely chosen to serve and obey God?

Why is it, that there are many people I know, who were once addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, criminals; all coming from the sewer who are now praising God and are the pillars of their church and community? They had the free will to attend a meeting. They had the free- will to sit through the preaching. They had the free- will to stick their hand up when the call for salvation came at the end of the night. They had the free- will to choose to follow Jesus.

I have also been at meetings where a person is reduced to tears, but still won’t accept the Saviour.

So then you don’t believe these words of our Savior do you? You believe that He was lying when He made these statements don’t you?

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [ Greek- drag] him…
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

You don’t agree with Christ do you? The only reason we are saved is really because of our own free will choice to accept Christ as our Savior. So in reality Christ did not choose us we chose Him. Christ has it all backwards doesn’t He? The truth be known Christ can do nothing with out the assistance of our own free will? Is that right? Is that really the way it is accomplished? We choose Christ He does not choose us, unless we first choose Him with our own free will?

A very old friend of mine used to be a miner. He was also the local secretary for the Communist Party. If you think eastern block people can be staunch communists, then you want to meet the old commies from Scotland. They are brutally loyal to the cause.

Anyway, he got saved. Started preaching eventually and became quite an evangelist. He had for years been asking his own old dad if he would accept Jesus as saviour and Lord. His dad always said no. One day, Dan was walking up the street with his dad. God spoke to Dan. He told Dan to ask his dad again if he would accept Jesus as saviour.

Dan obeyed the Lord’s request. He said, Dad, The Lord has asked me just now to ask you, if you will accept Jesus as Lord and saviour?”

His dad replied, emphatically, “NO.”

Immediately, his dad dropped down dead on the spot.

Dan used to always tell that story and the moral of it was, “you can ignore my requests, but you can’t ignore God’s”

God had willed that Dan’s old dad should go to heaven and be with the saviour, but Dan’s old dad refused God, and will now be paying the price for that refusal.

I’m having trouble finding one verse of scripture for which you do not have a carnal anecdote and reason to refuse to believe. This story tells me that you have virtually no use for this verse of God’s word:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die [ did you freely choose to be “in Adam?”], even so in Christ shall all [ including Dan’s old dad] be made alive.
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [ not exclusively] of those that believe.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

I guess that story about Dan’s dad just nullifies all these verses of scripture. I guess that in reality Christ’s propitiatory death only covers our sins if we of our own free will choose Christ in this life. J___ will have to decide whether to believe you or all these plain statements of God’s Word.

The point is, he had the choice. He had the choice! God has given us the freedom to choose.

How does your assertion here stack up against these words of our Lord?

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

God’s spirit “drags us to him.” Where is ‘free will’ in that verse of God’s Word?
So, if as you assert so emphatically “God has given us the freedom to choose,” then it really was Joseph’s brothers who came up with the idea and executed the plan of sending Joseph into Egypt. They had a choice? And that choice was free of any outside influence? Is that what you are asking J____ and me to believe? Should we believe you or should we believe this:

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God:

and again:

Gen 50:20 But as for you [ Joseph’s brothers], ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [ the very evil that Joseph’s brothers thought was their idea] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Right now I choose to submit this reply to you. Then I’m going to stand up and go to the kitchen. Then to the fridge. Then I will pour myself and my son a drink of orange juice. I might change my mind when I get there and have Pepsi instead. I just can’t say, because my freedom to choose might be swayed by whatever looks the best when I get there.

“Your freedom might be swayed by whatever looks the best when you get there?” That sounds a whole lot like Joseph’s brothers to me. This is quite an admission on your part. “My freedom might be swayed by whatever looks the best when I get there.” You don’t sound all that ‘free’ to me. You admit that you can be “swayed by whatever looks good when you get there?” Could God possibly be involved in any of that swaying? Is He even capable of such a thing? Take a look at this verse:

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

It is what is in heaven that sways the will of every man who has ever lived. But you don’t believe that simply because “to you it is not given to see the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” God himself has deceived you into believing the false doctrine of “free will.”

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

You don’t believe that, do you? So then of course you won’t believe this verse either:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Did Saul choose these moves of God? Or was Saul, like Pharaoh, “raised up for this very reason?”

Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Where was Pharaoh’s ‘free will?’ What could king Saul have done to resist the will of God?

Then I might watch the highlights of the Formula 1 in Melbourne on TV.

Psa 119:45 (King James Version) And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
1Pe 2:16 (New American Standard Bible) Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.

So true freedom is being a “bondslave of God.” How does this verse stack up to freely deciding to “watching the highlights of Formula 1 in Melbourne?”

We have the right to be bondslaves of God, if we choose.

I have a free will!

I’m just going to have to decide; will I believe you, or will I believe Christ?

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me drag him…
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.

It’s a clear choice. I will indeed make a choice. But my choice will be no more of “flesh and blood” than will yours. No, though it appears otherwise, just as it did to Joseph’s brothers who thought their evil thoughts were of their own free will, the truth remains:

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

You need to read After The Counsel of His Own Will. It may open your blinded eyes to the way God actually “works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). It is obvious that the beast is securely on the throne of your heart at the time of the writing of this e- mail. God’s word tells me that this lie you believe is just that:

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

I hope that all these verses of scripture of which you are obviously unaware will give you pause and cause you to understand that the “vessel of clay [ Adam and all who are in him] that was in the Potter’s hand was marred.” It didn’t choose to be marred. It was marred while “in the Potter’s hand.”
I hope this is of some value to you and that you come to see that the multitudes who came to hear Christ thought they were getting the truth from Christ, when in reality He was speaking to them in parables to keep them from ever, in this age, being able to see and understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

That is just one more verse shooting down the ability of these people to resist the will of God which was “I speak to them in parables because it is not given to them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.”

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest [ not] thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand [ is there not] power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

I pray that God will give you eyes to see and ears to hear his Word. Many who believe they are hearing God’s voice are blinded by His parables. While that is my prayer on your behalf the Truth remains:

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

That ‘destruction,’ will endure until “Thy sisters Sodom and Samaria are restored to their former estate.”
I believe those words. Do you?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I have been thinking deeply about the creation of Adam. I have come to believe that Adam was created MORTAL and not IMMORTAL. I don’t know what your position is on the subject, but here is why I believe what I do… perhaps you can straighten me out if I am wrong:

God placed TWO trees in the Garden of Eden: The “Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil” plus the “Tree of Life“. God gave Adam ONE command, and that was to “not eat of the Tree of Knowledge.”

If Adam DID eat of the Tree of Knowledge, God warned that “dying, ye shall DIE“, or “ye shall SURELY (certainly) die“). This, to me, is saying that Adam was already dying, even before He ate of the Tree of Knowledge. His death wasn’t yet “CERTAIN” since he still had full access to the Tree of Life! (But of course, we know that he did not partake of it)

All Adam had to do, was to eat of the Tree of Life, so that he would BECOME “immortal”! Isn’t this why God says that after He ate of the Tree of Knowledge, that He then guarded the Tree of Life, lest he eat of it and live for ever?

I look forward to your response!

God Bless,

J____

Hi J____,

It is good to hear from you again. You are right on about Adam’s original condition while yet “in the hand of the Potter:”

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

All of God’s “clay vessels” are “marred [ while yet] in the hand of the Potter.” That is because God has not yet finished “making man in His image.” What that verse should read is “Let us be making man in our image.” The first step in that process is to make a “marred vessel of clay.” It was the result of being in this sad, “marred, naked, dusty” condition, while yet “in the hand of the Potter” that caused Adam and Eve to succumb to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the heart and the pride of life before they ever ate of the tree of life.

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

Flesh itself misses the mark of the Christ we are now to know after the spirit. So Adam, by virtue of being flesh, is sin and needs a sacrifice for what he IS, before he ever does anything. As soon as Adam does something, he is then also in need of another sacrifice for what he DID. So God has given us a “sin offering,” for the flesh that we are. But He has also provided a “trespass offering,” for what we do in “the body of this death.” Adam sinned because he was in a “body of this death.” He sinned because he was dying. He did not begin dying because he sinned. The lie of the serpent “thou shalt not surly die,” has man thinking the opposite of the Word of God to this very day. Adam was dying when he drew his first breath:

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

“Flesh and blood” are synonymous in scripture with “corruption.” Adam was “corruptible and in corruption” from the time he drew his first breath. That is why he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was created with a fleshly mind. Adam was created of the dust. He was created with an earthly carnal mind. He was “a vessel of clay marred in the hand Of the Potter.”

I have written all this years ago in the paper on The Law of Moses Versus The Law of the Spirit.

Go to that paper on the web site. If you read down about three quarters of the paper to the section entitled ‘Phrase # 7- Under The Law.’ The remainder of this paper discusses the original condition in which Adam was created while yet a “vessel of clay, in the Potters hand.”

I think you will find that it confirms what you have asked me about in this letter. I would only add that the ‘flaming sword, guarded the WAY of the tree of life.” This symbolizes the fact that it is only by going through that flaming fire of the Word Of God that we can partake of the ‘Tree of Life, that is in the paradise of God.” The ‘Tree of Life of course, is Christ. And His word burns out of us everything that separates us from Him.

There was no chance that Adam and Eve would ever have eaten of the tree of life first. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was placed right in the middle of the garden. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which had been made to look so appealing to the natural, clay, dusty, naked, carnal mind. We have every scriptural reason to believe that the tree of life on the other had “had no form or comeliness that we should desire it.” Here is the only way the carnal mind could possibly have thought of the tree of life:

Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Mike

Brothers and Sisters,

During a recent study I found this:

In due time… the spiritual Gentiles, who are the uncalled and the many called but yet unchosen, that currently do not know God (1Th 4:5) will also be partakers of Christ. All will partake; not one crumb in Adam will be forsaken, eternally banished or expelled from partaking of every jot and tittle of the good news of Jesus Christ.

1Th 4:5 Not^G3361 in^G1722 the lust^G3806 of concupiscence,^G1939 even^G2532 as ^G2509 the^G3588 Gentiles^G1484 which know^G1492 not^G3361 God:^G2316

I did not understand this… probably still don’t, but when I took a closer look at that verse and the original Greek words behind it, I found the following:

G3806 παθος pathos path’- os From the alternate of G3958; properly suffering (“pathos”), that is, (subjectively) a passion (especially concupiscence): – (inordinate) affection, lust. G1939 επιθυμια epithumia ep- ee- thoo- mee’- ah From G1937; a longing (especially for what is forbidden): – concupiscence, desire, lust (after).

The word translated ‘lust’ when properly translated is ‘suffering’. Concupiscence is a longing (especially for what is forbidden):

From this I conclude that longing for forbidden things is equal to suffering. Now, when I examine myself, I know that at this point in my walk I am far from being free of this “longing for forbidden things”, and I also suffer from this longing. It’s there, I fall, and I hate it. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death” is a verse which regularly crosses my mind.

What I can’t grasp are the words “which know not God”. I suffer these lusts even as the Gentiles, and know not God, or I suffer these lusts in a way other than the Gentiles, but I do suffer these lusts.

I’m wondering if I am the only one who suffers these lusts or as one matures in the knowledge of God, do these sufferings, these forbidden lusts, go away?

This makes my head spin.

Your brother in Christ,

R____

Hi R____,

Thank you for your question, and thank you for this very informative bit of information you have given us about the root meaning of the word ‘lust’. This is a very instructive opportunity you have given us with your honest and open question concerning your own struggles against “the lust of the flesh”.

You ask:

… as one matures in the knowledge of God, do these sufferings, these forbidden lusts, go away?

Being of advanced years and having been a slave to my own lusts for the better part of these years, I am happy to be able to inform you that I have been exactly where you are, and that I, too, came to my “wits’ end” (Psa 119:21-31) before being granted domination over those ‘suffering’ lusts.

You ask, “Do they go away?” The short answer is that as long as you and I are in bodies of “corruptible flesh [which] cannot inherit the kingdom of God” those lusts will be ever present. However, I can honestly and joyfully report to you that the spirit of Christ is growing within you, and that spirit will continue to grow until the very thought of succumbing to those lusts and committing those “trespasses and sins” will literally nauseate you to the point of rejecting that evil spirit before it can bring forth evil fruit.

I must be as honest with you as you have been with me, and I tell you that ‘falling seven times’ and coming to see our own helplessness against our inward beast is a life-long process that is all necessary and essential to bring us to cry out to our Lord:

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

It is obvious that Paul had the same passions and lusts with which you and I suffer. For this very reason our Lord tells us this:

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

This is a life-long struggle, but is not unique to you or me. It is “common to [all] men.”

Act 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We [Paul and Barnabas] also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Jas 5:17 Elias [Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

While we are crying out “O wretched man that I am!”, Christ is still faithful and is still there within those in whom He has placed a desire to please Him over all other desires. We will fail “seven times” until we realize that we have nothing to do with our deliverance. Nevertheless, we have this incredible promise to those who are granted to understand that they are but “common” men called out of this world by a very uncommon and loving heavenly Father:

1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

“That ye may be able to bear it” does not say ‘that you may be able to avoid it’. As you have heard me say so many times, that “way of escape” is not through a ‘rapture’ away from God’s wrath upon that suffering “old man… [that] first man Adam”, but it is rather through his destruction, through the Red Sea, through the fiery furnace, through the lion’s den, through the death of the cross and through being “crucified with Christ” that we escape “the body of this death” (Rom 7:24).

As hard as it is for us to believe, Christ identifies with us ‘while we are yet in our sins’ to the point that He comes into us in these bodies of sinful flesh, and ‘while we were yet in sins’ He died for us, so that we, with Him in our flesh, can fill up what is behind of His afflictions as the trespass offering which He, as our “without sin… sin offering” could not fulfill until He came into our sinful flesh. That is why we are told that we are now “of His flesh, and of His bones”. Now He is dying in us and “filling up what was behind of His afflictions”.

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:

A savior ‘suffers for’ and ‘dies for’ those He loves. You and I are to be ‘saviors’ so we, too, must ‘suffer in our flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church.

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.

We cannot deny that He is living within us even as we are “dying daily” to our passions and lusts. It is through Him living within us that we are able to “die daily” (1Co 15:31). “We are of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph 5:30):

1Jn 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

The orthodox Christian world denies that Christ came in a body of sinful flesh “the same… as the children” of Abraham.

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of [sinful] 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;

Christ came in a body of sinful flesh, yet He never sinned. He never committed a single trespass. Now, as “His body… the church”, He has come in the flesh of that body, and it is through these bodies of sinful flesh that we fill up His afflictions as the trespass offering of “Jesus of Nazareth” which we are.

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

Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

“We are… His flesh”. Yes, of course Christ came in a body of flesh which was “the same [as] the children” but He has also come “a second time without [a body of] sin, unto salvation” into these bodies of sinful flesh, which are you and me, as “Jesus of Nazareth”, now able to be a ‘trespass offering” as well as a ‘sin offering’ “which knew no sin.”

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.

If Christ’s second appearing is “without sin” and “to them that look for Him”, then how did He come the first time but in a body which was “the same [as] the children, corruptible flesh”, which did not see corruption only because it was raised from the dead before it could decay?

The work Christ is performing is a two-stage work involving His literal death on the cross as well as our ‘dying daily’ death in these bodies of sinful flesh and blood. This two-stage work is twice revealed to us in the offering of the scapegoat and in the offering of the two birds for the cleansing of the leper.

Lev 14:50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel [Christ in an earthly, Adamic body of flesh] over running water:
Lev 14:51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, [you and me, if we are “in Christ”] and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:
Lev 14:52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:

Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats;  one lot for the LORD [Christ], and the other lot for the scapegoat “His Christ].
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. [We, too, as the trespass offering, must die. But as Christ’s scapegoat, we must “die daily, [and] fill up in our bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ, for His body’s sake which is the church” (Col 1:24).

The cleansing and the atonement are not made with only one bird or one goat, but both “the living bird” and the scapegoat “make an atonement with” our Lord, as “His Christ”.

Romans 4 makes this clear when we know that the word translated as ‘for’ in this verse is the Greek word ‘dia‘ meaning ‘through’. Christ and His Father work by and through His body which is the church.

Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for [Greek: dia, ‘through’] our offences [our trespasses], and was raised again for [Greek: dia, ‘through’] our justification.

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

I will close with Paul’s own answer to the question he posed earlier. Here is how you will overcome lust and all the sins in your life. You, yourself will first be brought to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you cannot “make war with the beast”. After that lesson is learned by experience, then you, too, can say with the apostle Paul:

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

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

It is “through Jesus Christ our Lord” that you will one day be make physically sick at the very thought of giving in to the lusts and passions that once gave your flesh such momentary and deadly pleasures, and “through” Him “sin shall no longer have dominion over you”, but you will have dominion over that sin.

Be patient, that day is coming. When it gets here, you will know peace of mind like you have never known before:

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

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

Those two verses work together for our good.

Your brother in your struggles,

Mike