I’m going to be talking this morning on the mechanics that are operating in the lake of fire, because it’s not one person in a thousand who even knows what the words lake of fire, what they mean. They think this is the eternal torment that Christendom has sold into, but to understand what judgment is, what the lake of fire is you’ve got to understand what judgment is. The lake of fire is the great white throne judgment. And what happens at the lake of fire is that death and hell are cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet are, so that everything, everything, look you’ve got the beast and the false prophet. What is the beast? That’s mankind! Ecc 3:18
I showed that to someone yesterday and they’d never seen it, and that’s fine; we see things when we see them. But Ecc 3:18 says

Ecc 3:18 I said to God concerning the estate of the sons of man that he would manifest to them that they themselves are beasts.

Man is the beast,

Rev 13:18 says Here is wisdom …, let him that hath wisdom count the number of the beast for it is the number of mankind …

There’s no article there. The ‘a’ is not there; it is not the number of a man; it is the number of mankind. What is mankind? He’s a beast! This is his number 666. So the beast is in the lake of fire along with the false prophet and what you’re essentially being told is that all of mankind who were not in the first resurrection are being brought up right here for judgment.
Now what is judgment? If we’re going to talk about the lake of fire, we’re going to have to know what were talking about.

1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves … [ i. e.: here now in the flesh] we would not be judged. [ in the lake of fire!] but when we are judged (continuing the quote) we are chastened of the Lord!

So what is the lake of fire? It’s a chastening of the Lord! And there it is you know right there in the scripture, judgment is chastening. For what purpose do you chasten anybody? For their good! To purify them, to help them to see the error of their ways! Do you beat your kids just for the pleasure of tormenting your kids? No! Do you think you love your kids more than God loves your kids? No! No, you know better. So God’s going to chasten the very last human being that was ever born no matter how wicked he was, and he’s going to purify that individual! So in Tit 2:11 we have that statement “For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men …” Did I misread that? “All men” teaching us [ i. e. The Greek is paideuo, pahee- dyoo’- o and everywhere else it’s translated chasten. It’s the same word translated chasten where I just quoted in 1Co 11. “We are chastened of the Lord…” it’s the same word. In Heb 12: “Who the Lord loves He chastens” [ again the same word paideuo] “and scourges every son whom He receives…” It’s every son! And this verse is going to say “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching [ paideuo]” chastening us.

See that’s what grace does. That’s something that will separate you from all of your Christian friends. They think they know what grace is because the word does mean favor, in Greek caris. I went by the other day to see my granddaughter six or so weeks ago and her name is Karis. And it’s the Greek word for grace. But most people don’t understand what that word does. They know that it means favor but they think God favors you just because, well you know, that even if they believe in God’s sovereignty, he just favored you, and now you can rest on your salvation being secured, and they don’t see what’s involved in that rest that you’ve been given. But what is involved in that rest is that you don’t have to worry about outstanding grace, because grace is going to super abound where sin abounds. But if grace abounds, super abounds, where sin abounds what does it do? It chastens you more than you can resist, that’s the gift of God! You don’t have to pay for it you can’t earn it! It’s free! You get a spanking every time you do something wrong. No charge! Come back for more!
But you are going to learn from your mistakes, and that’s a gift from God that He doesn’t give to just anybody, and so you need to rejoice in your suffering, and realize that not all of your suffering is external; some of them are brought on, some of them, rather 99.4 percent of your problems are coming from whom you’re looking at in the mirror every morning. It’s not ‘out there’; nothing from without a man defiles him. Your problem is not out there, it’s in your heart! And that’s true for Mike Vinson especially. It’s not somebody else that’s going to give you the chastening that you receive. You’re going to get it mainly because of your number one enemy, the beast! So those in the lake of fire are going to go through this very same chastening that we are going through. It’s not a different chastening; it’s just a latter chastening. It’s different in the sense that these people are generally or many of them, I’m not even going to say generally because in the lake of fire is going to be everything from aborted babies to Mao Zedong who killed sixty million of his own people.
So there are different layers, that may not be the word to use, but different levels of chastening going on in this lake of fire experience, and all flesh is sin, even an aborted baby is flesh and has to be brought through a maturing process, but he’s going to. The rule for that is ‘to whom much is given much will be required’, and if you know your Master’s will and do it not, you will be beaten with many stripes, but he that knew not his Masters will and did things worthy of stripes will be beaten with few stripes. Now this is the rule that extends in everything that God does in His dealings with mankind. God is a very dependably constant God. He doesn’t change! We’re assured of that time and again. “I change not…” “I change not…” “I change not…” ‘I’m the same yesterday, today and forever …” Forever right though the lake of fire.
So basically what you’re going to pick up from me this morning is that all the things that you’ve already heard and already know. You just need to extend it over into the lake of fire, and you’ll know what is going on. But we’re given an example, just an incredible example, of how this plays out in the book of Genesis. In Eph 2:8 we read “by grace are you saved by faith not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast for we are His workmanship.” This is Him doing all of this! “Created unto good works which he has before ordained that we should live and walk in them …”

And of course we don’t always walk in them, and so when we, when the flesh flares up in us, God has to show us this is flesh, and so grace kicks in automatically and God is, I say automatically, God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. It’s not good to think of God as a computer that just kicks things in; you know garbage in, garbage out. God is a personal God, but He is so vastly superior to our very greatest computers that you know there’s no comparison. He is personal in His dealings, but nonetheless as sure as you do something that deserves stripes you’re going to get those stripes if you’re God’s elect, because ‘whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives!’ Heb 12:6 and there’s no exception; every son who He receives.
I was talking to Florine on the phone the other night and she thought that God dealt with her, “other people might get by with it, but when I do something wrong God just comes down on me.” Well, you’re not alone Florine. I think that’s just the way He deals with me! It seems like, if I do something wrong – I mean there are people who just go down the HOV lane day after day; if I were to cross the line they’d hit me just like that, that’s just the way it seems things work. But you know I don’t get in that HOV lane unless I’ve got somebody with me because I’ve learned that God wants us to do these things that He has shown us. He wants us to be the example that we should be for the world. We need to be conscious of who we are, always conscious of who you are and what you represent. Don’t be careless with the way you live your life. You are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, and if you, if the light that is in you, becomes darkness how great is that darkness.
Okay, in 1Pe 4:12 Peter asks the question, first he says. “Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you …” And then down a few verses to verse 17 he says, carrying on that same thought he says, “… because the time has come that judgment …” [ judgment that is chastening, paideuo, giving up the things of the flesh] “the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, do you wonder what it’s like on judgment day? Do you ever wonder what it’s like? Well, you’re there! This is it! This is judgment day! You’re living it if you’re God’s elect you’re living it! “And if it first begin at us what shall be the end of those who obey not the gospel of God …” You know the average preacher will say, “burn in hell forever …” no we’re talking about judgment, poor, poor Christians don’t even know what these words mean and yet they have degrees and they think to themselves “you know I’m rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing” and they don’t even know that they’re poor, wretched, miserable and blind and naked. Naked! They don’t have any clothes on.
Do you know what naked means? In scripture that means that you are full of sin! How did God create Adam and Eve? Naked! Created them that way! What did He make them out of? Dust, corruptible dust! And these poor people think that God made a perfect creation in His image! You know I say ‘these poor people’, but that’s you and me just yesterday, you know. We can’t look down on them. The only reason I say those kind of things is because I want you to realize what you’ve come out of and realize what you’re dealing with. You’re dealing with what you were yesterday, so have all the compassion and understanding in the world, and realize it’s all God’s work. But on the other hand don’t be weighed down with this thing, “I’m right and everyone else is wrong”! That’s the truth! You know, just stick with the truth, and don’t think about numbers, because it is almost discouraging sometimes, and it will tend to make you wonder about yourself, “Who do I think I am?” Don’t worry about it, you’re nothing, that’s who you are. You’re nothing, I’m nothing and none of us are anything you know of ourselves, but in Jesus Christ we’re somebody! We’re sons of God! He loves us! We’re special to Him, and He doesn’t want us going into this lake of fire that we’re going to be discussing.
Peter’s answer to his own question is that they’re going to end up in the lake of fire, and he talks about it later in the book about the elements melting with fervent heat. And of course you know there are brothers in the churches who think the earth is going to melt down, and you know what God does with the physical creation is absolutely of no consequence to the spirit realm, I mean that’s just not what it’s talking about number one. The elements that are going to melt are, that word elements there is the exact same word that is used in Gal 4 where it talks about the weaker and beggarly elements which you are living, it’s the same word. And it’s talking about your works, what’s in your mind and heart! That’s the elements that are going to melt and be burned out. So that’s the part that we need to be aware of, don’t worry about what happens to the physical creation in the long run, because it is of absolutely no consequence. Spirits do not need rock planets to live on.
Now I want to take you back to Genesis to the story of Joseph and his brothers to give you the demonstration for how this plays out in our lives now because it is no different, then how it plays out in the lake of fire itself, this judgment! Now if you can grasp the concept that Joseph’s brothers represent the church world, not the world but the church world, the called out, then you get more out of these stories of Joseph and his brothers than you’ve ever gotten out of it before, because that’s what’s being said in this story. It’s not just a historical account of something that happened; it is edification, exhortation and comfort to all those with eyes to see! You know the book of Genesis is fifty chapters long and almost half of the book concerns this story of Joseph and his brothers. Now that should tell you something about the significance of this story. This is an incredible event we are about cover here, and the reason it takes up so much of the book of Genesis is because it represents the experience of all mankind. It brings us to the climax of the eons, to the lake of fire!
Joseph is sold by his brother’s down into Egypt, and he’s sold for twenty pieces of silver, and he goes down into Egypt and is forced by circumstances to serve in Egypt. Now what does that mean? He’s sold and he’s down there under Potiphar and the jailor. He spent thirteen years, he goes down at the age of seventeen and he spent thirteen years under the rulership; rigorous rulership of Egypt. But what is Egypt? It is the world dominating us! That’s what Egypt is! Joseph was dominated by Egypt for thirteen years! And here he was – one day he is at home with his brothers. Let’s go back to the beginning in chapter 37 of Genesis verse one it says he was keeping his father’s flock. What are flocks in scripture? They’re God’s people. His brothers are the people that are tending the flocks. He and his brothers are tending his father’s flocks. But his brothers have an evil report we are told in Gen 37. They have an evil report. They’re doing something with dad’s flocks that they ought not to be doing, and Joseph brings this story to his father. Now Joseph just happened to have been his father’s favorite by virtue of where he came from. Joseph was born of the favored wife. You see there’s a concept in scripture that you can hardly mention in most circles because they miss the point completely, but it’s in Gal 4, and it tells us Abraham had two wives, one was a bondwoman and one was a free woman. Well, you’re going to see these stories repeated through the bible time and again and each time it’s repeated all you’re being told is that this is the later and more mature version of what was said before.
So Abraham had two wives; one was a bondwoman, and one was a free woman. We, he says are the children of the free woman and Israel that now is Jerusalem that now is, the church that now is, is in bondage with her children. But you are not of the bondwoman but of the free woman. Now is this a story telling us all that we aught to have two wives living with us? No, no, no! These physical things in the Old Testament are simply used to…; it’s like the story of the unjust steward you know! He ripped his master off, and Christ says you have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Is Christ saying rip your master off? No, no, no! He’s simply pointing out that you need to be wise and not be foolish.
So don’t miss the point; the point is that God has two sets of His people- His called and His chosen. It’s the same thing every time the whole bible that’s what it is, called and chosen, and the chosen come out of the called. And Joseph was born not of the bondwoman; no this is the later version he’s born of the favored wife. Jacob worked by his own efforts, he worked seven years for this woman he loved, you would think he would have forgotten what he was working for, but he didn’t! You know the story, Leah and Rachel. He worked seven years, and goes in after being drunk and spends the night with this woman thinking he had gotten what he had worked for and finds out that all of his efforts were for naught! He got Leah, he got Leah, and that’s what you have when you’re in the churches! You think you’re working for your salvation, you pay your tithes, you go to church every week and you end up with Leah, all these lies and hypocrisies! It’s not poor Leah’s fault, it’s what God has ordained. God wants us to go into Babylon, it’s just part of the plan! But He wants us to come out, and then when we come out, God gives us without even working for it – Rachel!
He gives us Rachel and then we work for her, so no works are going to keep you out of the lake of fire! This is all the work of God, and it’s all by grace, you can’t earn it! But you will work for her after you get her! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Now in the book of Matthew in the 13th chapter of the parable of the sower, it seems like we’ve really gone back to that parable a lot in this conference, and you know one time I think it would be very good if we just gave a talk on the parables. I think that would be very good because we’ve mentioned the fact that the parables are all saying the same thing, and I think if we went through them and just did a study on them that you would be amazed at how true that is. They’re all saying the same thing and all of them are saying many are called and few are chosen.
Let me go into Mat 13 the parable of the sower says, “The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who had sown seed in his field but while he slept an enemy came …” There are two of those parables; this is the second one! One right after the other, parables of the sower! “While he slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way, and when the blade was sprung up and brought fruit then appeared tares also. So the servants of the householder came to him and said, “Sir didn’t you sew good seed in your field, where did these tares come from? And he said to them an enemy has done this. The servant said to him! “Would you will that we go and gather them up?” Pull the tares up! Now let me point something out here in verse 26 which I just read which I don’t think you caught! “But when the blade was up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares …” You see this word tares is ‘darnel’, and if you don’t know what it is you’re going to miss an important point. Wheat and tares look just alike! They both just look like a blade of grass to begin with! And they both grow together, you know, and it takes a trained eye to tell the difference.
You know it’s just another way of saying sheep and wolves in sheep’s clothing! And appearing as an angel of light when you’re really a messenger of Satan! That’s what we’re reading about here! But they’re right amongst the people of God! And so when they bring forth fruit, then appeared the tares. In other words, the tares don’t bring forth fruit, and that’s how you know them! You know them by their fruit! So the servants say ‘should we pull them up’? And he says to them “no, lest when you get up the tares you root up the wheat with them …” Now if you stop and think about that just a little bit, you will realize that God has a purpose in evil, and that purpose is something that is necessary for your growth! You must grow among tares, you must experience Babylon, you must be graced, that is chastened, and you must do all this in order to accomplish what’s being done in you. If you don’t experience it, the growth won’t take place! If you are an Adam and Eve in the garden with no tempter you will not be an overcomer! If you’re a Job with a hedge about you all your life you will not be an over comer! And if you think like the ministers on TBN think that all you have to do is ask for something and God’s going to give it to you, and you’ll never have any prayers that aren’t answered. If you think that you don’t know what growing in grace and knowledge is, you don’t know what growing in grace in particular is because grace chastens us!
So all these things are necessary, let them grow with the tares lest you root up the wheat with them, let both grow together till the harvest and in the time of harvest, in the time of harvest, ‘is, was and will be’ each generation as it comes along toward the end of your life! Toward the end of your experience in Christ, right down to the very last generation, this principle will apply! “… let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers gather you together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them …, and then you gather the wheat into my barn!”
Now what does that do for the rapture theory? It just blows it out of the sky, because it says just the exact opposite! So the Kingdom of heaven is a field with some wheat, some wheat, that’s Joseph and in it with the wheat is this field full of tares, that’s all of his brothers, and the tares will always outnumber the wheat, God has a big weed field with a few stalks of wheat around in it, and this is the Kingdom of heaven! This is the Kingdom of heaven, right along with all the parables, it’s saying the same thing, the story of Joseph and his brothers is saying the same thing, and it’s saying the same thing. They sell him down into Egypt into the house of Potiphar he serves for seventeen years being ruled by Egypt; the passions of the flesh rule us for so many years. But then one day by the grace of God and that’s what this all is, is the grace of God, He just delivers us out from under Egypt, and all of those masters of Egypt that just yesterday were calling out the orders, and we would just jump when they spoke are now taking orders. So now Rom 6 kicks into action, sin shall no longer have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace!
Where were you yesterday? You were under the law, Egypt was telling you what to do. The law is for the lawless. You were lawless, you were in Egypt, and you were doing what the flesh told you to do! One day, it’s just like that; it’s a miracle God delivers you from that not because you did something but because he just gave you Rachel now you start working for Him! Now you yield yourself to Him, and all of a sudden those fleshly masters who were telling you what to do just yesterday are now under your command and your calling the shots because you are no longer you but Christ is living in you, and He is calling the shots and ruling the flesh! The flesh is not to hold dominion over you if you are going to be the lake of fire instead of in the lake of fire. You’re going to be Joseph so that when Joseph’s come down to Egypt because of this famine that has come upon the land they have to bow down. You see Joseph back in chapter 37 had brought His father an evil report. That’s us. We see what’s going on in the world and we, according to Ezekiel, cry and bewail the abominations that are going on in Jerusalem.
In Ezekiel chapter nine he says “I saw six men coming from the north each had a slaughter weapon in his hand and one of them had an ink horn, he was dressed in white and he says …” [ now this is an interpretation of the book of Revelation, because I think it is in chapter seven that he talks about the mark of God.] He says don’t hurt anyone until we mark God’s people! So these men come from the north with a slaughter weapon in their hands, and God says to the man in the white robe and an ink horn in his hand, he says “go around the city and mark everyone that has cried for the abominations that are being done in this city” and then he says I want you all to go out and kill everybody, man woman and child, everybody! This is spiritual death, except for those who have the mark in their foreheads! The mark of God!

There is the mark of the beast and the mark of God, and you’ve got to know what both of them are, or you don’t get anything out of all these symbols. But the mark of God is the mind of God, and when you meet someone with the mind of God they are a different person! Physically they look just like human beings, and all human beings are flesh, just dying. If you meet a person with Jesus Christ in them and that person has passed from death unto life and his fleshly body is going to fall away too, but there is something in him that’s going to live forever, and that something identifies with you, and your spirit witnesses with his spirit because you are the sons of God! These are scriptures! But you know He’s not going to end his talk with ‘step on that guy like he’s a roach’. I mean it’s something that takes time, but it really is quite simple to judge these things.
So Joseph tells his father what’s going on. His brothers hate him right off the bat! I tell you what, if you think you’re called to be loved by everybody, you know, you need to go to another church, because we are called to be hated of all men. That’s our calling, and there’s no way around it. It’s just our calling! That you shall be hated of all men is just a statement. It’s a fact. So Joseph is giving his father their evil report, and all his brothers hate him just to begin with because, his father then, watch out, his father gives him a coat of many colors right in front of his brothers, and Joseph is just automatically separated from his brothers. In Deu 29, Moses is blessing the different tribes and he comes to Joseph, and he loads all these blessings on Joseph that the rest of the tribes didn’t get! He just loaded them on, he’s going to get this, the blessings of heaven and the blessings of the earth, and the blessings of the deep, and the blessings of the moon and the blessings of the sun, all of these things are going to come on the head of him that was separated from his brothers.
Now do you think that you can just blend in, with the rest of the world, and not be separated from your brothers? You go for it, but you just gave up your inheritance! You gave up your inheritance because you are going to be hated of your brothers to receive all these blessings! It’s not something that greasy grace is going to give you; you’ve got to endure until the end! It didn’t say that’s the word you use when you’re just enjoying things, relish till the end! No, no, you endure until the end! So after he receives the coat of many colors, right on the heel of this, he gets these dreams from God himself. What are these dreams about? ‘We were out in the field together, boys, and we had our sheaves together and we put them all down and all of a sudden they all stood up and you guys all bowed down to me, your sheaves bowed down to my sheaves.’ These were his older brothers you know, and here he is wearing this coat of many colors that dad just gave him telling them this dream. He’s seventeen years old! Reuben, you know has already lain with his father’s wife! He’s a grown man and doing deeds which fit in with abusing your fathers flock. It’s what his brothers are doing. Simeon and Reuben they were the two who killed all the men in Shekam just a few years before. These are tough guys, they’re rough men, and we’re going to bow down to you? Huh? Who do you think you are, who do you think you are?
And then the next night he has another dream, not a whole lot unlike the first one, the sun moon and the stars, eleven stars, twelve stars and the sun and the moon, they all bowed down to Joseph! They all bow down to Joseph! And of course they all saw the significance of it that your father and your mother and all your brothers will bow down to you. Now Joseph’s mother had been dead years before. Rachel died in the birth of Benjamin his younger brother and she’s going to bow down to him? Does this bring any scripture in Revelation to mind? “I will make them who are of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not to come and worship at your feet!” When will these things happen? It will happen in the great white throne judgement! You are that lake of fire!
Are you all familiar with Isa 33:14-15? I saw this scripture just a few years ago, I just couldn’t believe what I read!

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion [ Zion is God’s people, I hate to have to keep saying this except that it’s what’s in the little book: lamentation, mourning and woe. That’s what’s in the little book. That’s what I’m commissioned to say. This is all the ministers of Christendom who are leading God’s people astray in fleecing the flocks like Josephs brothers are doing, there’s no doubt in their mind sinners are going to burn in hell forever but read verse 15.] are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;

Why is this so? Because our God is a consuming fire! When he appears we will be like Him, these are scriptures! We will be devouring fires! What comes out of our mouths? Fire, and it devours our enemies. We read that in Jer 5 verse 14 just yesterday! So the lake of fire is the few, that’s why it’s a lake instead of an ocean! It’s the few chosen that will be used of God to purge the sins of the world that through your mercy they might obtain mercy! All the scriptures of God fall into place, all these lies begin to fall away, and the light shines forth, it’s the story of Gideon. So many people are called and out of those 32,000 with the weeding down process he ends up with 300, less than one percent. He ends up with 300 men and by those 300 the rest were saved!

Why, why so few? Because God has called many and chosen few! Same story going through the entire bible! But, boy, is this story hated by those called. They despise it, and they will cast you out of their synagogues for repeating the things I’m telling you this morning, because they want to believe in the sinners prayer! It’s so easy to get saved; it’s as easy to get healed as it is to get saved is what they say! I was raised a Pentecostal, and we always made a big deal about how easy it is to get saved, and it’s the biggest lie in Christendom one of them, next to this eternal hell thing, and it will get you in the lake of fire when you could know, if you would only see the truth, if God will give you eyes to see the truth, you can avoid this lake of fire.
He says the sinners are afraid, the hypocrites are afraid, but the devouring fire has the righteous in it! They are that devouring fire! They are like their God! When the Hebrew children were cast into the fire it didn’t faze them but the people who cast them in were devoured. Not a hair on their head was scorched and nothing on their clothes, they didn’t even have the smell of smoke, because they were right at home. This is all a parable for us! And sure as the next day they did not go back to the fiery furnace to walk in, this was all a historical event which literally happened to tell us where we’re going! We’re going to be at home in the fire!
All right now, if you’ve got that principle in mind, if you’ve got hold of that and you go back to Joseph and his brothers and you see that everything that he does brings him hatred from his brothers. Everything actually that God is doing with Joseph, that’s a better way to put it, because Joseph is just like all of us. He’s just a vessel that’s been chosen, and God is using him just like he wants to use him and what he’s doing with Joseph is He’s saying you’re going to be hated of all men for my name’s sake, and I’m going to have you to rule all these people that hate you so much! So here Joseph is, he realizes ‘I’m going to rule over my brothers’, but from the very moment that he is given this understanding it seems like the exact opposite happens! The brothers hate him, they sell him into slavery, he spends thirteen years down there and as he’s down there it gets even worse while he’s down there, he serves Potiphar for a while, everything seems to be going well, you know, and then Potiphar’s wife comes onto him and because he does the right thing again things get even worse! So ever since he’s got these dreams he’s been going down hill! Now he goes into prison, down into the depths of the prison, and he’s stuck there for years! It was two years after he gave the dream, the interpretation of the baker’s and the butler’s dream before he got out of there. I don’t know exactly because it just doesn’t tell us how long it was before that he was in there. So, we don’t know exactly how long he spent in prison as opposed to serving Potiphar, but we do know that from the time that he went down in there at the age of seventeen until the time that he appeared before Pharaoh, when he appeared before Pharaoh to interpret the dream he was thirty years old, it tells us that!
So he spent thirteen years serving in Egypt, and I just noticed the other day … I don’t know if there is any great significance to it. That’s the same amount of time that Paul used, spent preparing for his missionary journeys. Thirteen years! So we need to realize that this is a process, the souls under the alter cry out and say ‘how long oh Lord do you not avenge us on our enemies’. This is in the book of Revelation, “how long will you not avenge us…” and God does not say I’m not going to avenge you; I’m not that kind of God, no! God is a just God, he will avenge us, not that he’s going to torment anybody for eternity, but the point that I’m trying to make you heard this morning is that God is just! And all this talk about grace just wiping the slate clean is going to disappoint a whole lot of people, because this story of Joseph is telling us what’s going to happen in the lake of fire.
So Joseph comes before Pharaoh and he interprets his dream and he’s given knowledge that there’s going to be a famine, and this famine is going to drive his brothers down to his feet. Joseph comes out of prison and he’s put on the throne of Egypt and there’s a very revealing truth there, because on the throne of Egypt, the Pharaoh, who is representing God the Father at this point, says ‘I’m going to give you all power in everything but the throne’. Just exactly what it says in 1Co 15 about Christ! When it’s all said and done, Christ will submit Himself unto His Father again, but the Father gives all power in heaven and in earth to the Son to accomplish the mission of bringing the whole world to Himself!
So Joseph represents Christ, and if we are in Christ, he represents us. And in that position as the ruler of the world, Joseph is now going to rule his brothers. So what are we being told here now, we are being told that the lake of fire is about to begin, that judgment day is about to come and they who are of the synagogue of Satan are about to come and bow down at our feet through this famine of the word that has come on the land. And that’s what it is as we’re explained in one of the prophets – I don’t remember which one – that there will be a famine not of water and not of bread but of the word. And that is where the church is. They are not aware of it; they don’t know that they are being brought to worship at our feet. But that’s what this deceit and deception of Babylon is working in them. It’s working conditions to bring them to your feet. Why? Because Christ is in you! It’s not you, it’s Christ in you that they are going to bow down to, but they’re going to bow before you.
Christ works through his Christ: ‘as my Father has sent me so send I you’! So you are Joseph here, and here comes your brothers, here they come you know, you are in your royal garb and you are at the throne of Egypt and they think that you are probably dead by now. I mean that’s what they say! But they come down and there they are. You see them, you recognize old Reuben and Issachar, and Simeon and Levi, the two that were always the instigators of things. You recognize all your brothers, you know. Of course, Benjamin is not there. Benjamin didn’t do this to you. Now Benjamin is another type. He receives five coats at the table, five changes of garments. He receives five times the food, not that he can eat it, just to give it to him to let him know that he’s something special.
Benjamin represents the elect, but in Christ we are all the elect. But we are also not just Benjamin, we’re also Joseph, because we are in Christ. We are going to judge the world, and we are going to judge angels. But the judgment of the world has taken place when we saved Egypt first. We saved Egypt first, we prepared, we had oil in our lamps and we prepared. We put food into the garners, you know, in preparation for this famine. We saw it coming, we knew what was happening, and we were prepared. When the call came – the bridegroom comes and we were ready. We had plenty of everything that it took, because we put first things first. We put the things of the spirit ahead of the things of the flesh. And now God has put us in position because we put the things of the spirit first, to rule over those who come to us!

Who are we? We are nobody! But Jesus Christ is working His purpose, and He’s in us. He is somebody, He’s really somebody. And He’s working all these things after the counsel of His own will. And here comes your brothers, all these Christians. There’s D. James Kennedy, there’s John Hagee, R. C. Sproll all of them coming down, but what are you going to say to them? What’s going to happen on this day? Are you just going to say ‘well, boys you were dead wrong and you took a lot of old women’s houses away from them and they pretty well went on welfare and some of them ended up out on the streets but Christ died for your sins and you didn’t really know it. He kind of hardened your hearts, let’s just wipe the slate clean!’
Is that the way God works? No! No! What does Joseph do? What does he do? He torments his brother’s right in his own presence. They come down and they take their turn and ask ‘can we buy some wheat we’re starving in Canaan!’ ‘I don’t know, you look like a spy to me!’ And this is real stuff! God is going to judge you according to the multitude of your idols! ‘You think I’m a hard man reaping where I haven’t sown’, and this is judgment day, this is the lake of fire that Christ is talking about. You didn’t realize that before, but that’s the lake of fire and what he’s saying to that foolish slothful servant who hid his talent, hung his coat up. Rather than to offend his brothers, he put his coat in the closet. I don’t want to be seen with this, I think I’m something special, I’m not going to let anybody think that I think that! He’s going to say ‘you wicked and slothful servant you look like a spy to me. You think that I’m going to torment people for all eternity, you’ve taught that for years. Well, now you see who’s in charge!’ And he’s going to tell them, ‘alright, you just think whatever your idol of the heart, that’s what your going to be given by Joseph, by Jesus Christ.’ You will be giving this to those who will go and bow down at your feet, and God’s got billions of people in this world and He’s got a job for you, these few chosen to do! And He will bring it about, and it will be just exactly what you see between Joseph and his brothers.
Joseph’s brothers are tormented for months on end at his hand, deliberately. Their very life is at stake, just like they had so many people thinking for so many years with their eternal hell doctrine. You just can’t imagine the terror this has wreaked upon people for so many decades. A lady comes to my house for our bible study – she would have loved to have been here – her father died just a few years ago, and she thought he was burning in hell forever and he was a wonderful man. ‘I admired my father more than anybody I have ever known, but he never accepted Christ and he thought that Christianity was made up of a bunch of hypocrites.’ And she said, ‘I came to know Christ and started going to church, and I did my best to get to dad, but he died before I could not get to him, and I know he was in hell burning forever. And I went home after the funeral and I fell down on the floor’ and she says ‘I just begged God’, (think of the torment this lady is in, it’s the torment that God is going to dish out to these people who are feeding this kind of stuff simply because they need it. What you sow is what you reap, and it’s for your good, and this is all for a good purpose.)
Realize what I’m saying about all these terrible things that God is going to do because He knows that this is for good. It’s what the bible says, and we’re going to get to that after the break! While she was there, she said a voice just came to her. You know she said it was not audible but it was just like someone spoke to her and said ‘do you think you love your father more than I do?’ and, she says, ‘I got up off the floor’ – she was just bawling her eyes out – ‘and went to the computer and typed in the word hell’. I mean things like that just do me a lot of good! I mean, you can think what you want to this little bitty old thing is going on here but there are people’s lives who are being changed and who are being delivered from the bondage of all these lies, and you have a part in it, you had better be being faithful to the things that you know, or you will not be able to effect the lives of people like that! And, of course, she said she spent days on end just reading that site. She just couldn’t do anything else day and night – getting up, going to bed, getting up and reading the site until she had to start shaking her head to keep her eyes open, take a nap get up and read some more until she read the whole site, every letter you posted, she said she read every bit of it, and was just overwhelmed with it, and thankful to God. You know, these truths, when God opens your eyes to them, you read them and you just know that what your reading is true. The spirit just tells you this. ‘This is the truth here, this is what it really is. All this other stuff that I’ve been hearing, all these questions I’ve had, here are the answers. There right in God’s word.’
You know Isa 43:14,15 has been there for thousands of years, it’s been right there. You are that fire, through your mercy they are going to receive mercy, and that gave her the peace of mind that she needed for her situation with her father, and everybody needs that. We shouldn’t mourn as other people, because we have hope, we have peace of mind. This sister was talking right here about peace of mind that her husband doesn’t have, and it’s only because she knows Jesus Christ. She knows that God’s in charge! So, when we do have this opportunity that God is going to lavish on us to judge the world, that will be done, in the millennium, but the judging of angels is the lake of fire! Christ said they would be cast into Gehenna prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now, we learned yesterday – I hope what these angels are, they are Satan’s messengers and they appear as angels of light, they appear as sheep but there really wolves, and they appear as angels of light but there really messengers of Satan, angels of Satan. And this is not talking about spirit beings that are up in heaven or somewhere down in hell, this is talking about spirits that are in men. The men that stand up on television and radio and write magazines telling you all of these two hundred thousand thousand lies that darken the sun and sting you and rob you of your knowledge of the truth. Blot out the sun with the darkness of this cloud of locust. And when you come to see and understand all of these things you are being delivered from that.
You know there’s a doctrine in the churches called the substitutionary atonement. I’ve referred to it where, you know, Christ’s sacrifice took care of everything and you don’t have to have the sin purged out of you because Christ died for your sins. Therefore, he was substituted for you, and you can just now receive this first resurrection rulership experience without having to get these things burnt out of you, because Christ’s death took care of that. That’s the teaching of substitutionary atonement.
We ended our talk with Joseph’s brothers coming down to him and being given the scare of their lives. But, you need to understand where this event is in the spiritual progression of things. This is after Egypt has been saved, Sodom in other words has been resurrected. Are you all familiar with Eze 16:55? I mentioned it yesterday. Let’s take a look at that to set the tone and the timing for this story here. I’ve read this verse for years when I was attending the concordant conferences. We’d quote it to people to prove to them the truth of universal reconciliation and right here, in front of my eyes, was the explanation for the 11th chapter of Romans. But, I along with them, couldn’t see it! Well, I’m going to show it to you today. When is the fullness of the gentiles? When will Israel be grafted back into the tree? When will that happen? You’re going to see it right here!

Ezekial 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them.

Who is he talking to, at the beginning of the chapter it says, The word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. So this is talking to God’s people! God’s people, the church that is running the show today, that you may bear your own shame that you may be confounded in all you have done, in that you were a comfort to them. Joseph’s brothers, the church, are going to be a comfort to the uncalled Sodom and Samaria. Samaria is now the head of an earlier version of the church world. Samaria is the capital of Israel, but Israel parted its company with Jerusalem years ahead of Jerusalem. All of these things are a progression, a downhill progression, thinking your climbing a mountain to the highest revelations of God, the whole time you’re going into a deep pit.

Ezekial 16:55 When thy 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. For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by mouth in the day of your pride.

God says that the Christian world is nothing but a sister to Sodom, and that’s why we have Rev 11 talking about the churches of Rev 2 and 3 and it says their dead bodies, that’s us right now, cast out of the synagogues, their dead bodies, the two witnesses’ dead bodies, lie in the street of that great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. Well, Joseph’s brothers are in Egypt, spiritual Egypt, and they are being brought before the judgement seat of Christ along with Sodom because Egypt is Sodom, and when Israel is saved then, then after the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, then Israel God’s people will be brought back to Him! Not during the millennium. The millennium is already passed, the millennium is another thing, I’m not going to go into the millennium today but it’s another thing, which is not what you think it is!
So this is after the millennium, this is the white throne judgement and all these people are here before Joseph to be judged. And the first principle that kicks in is in Luk 12:42.

Luk 12:42 And the Lord said who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

You see that’s what the lake of fire is! It’s feeding people what they need! It’s giving them their meat in due season. That’s what we are being given right now! Every time we are chastened of the Lord, it’s giving us our meat in due season!

Luk 12:43-45 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and be drunken;

In other words if this servant is a dispensationalist, he puts everything ‘out there’, the Lord is not going to come today. Listen the Lord is here, how about that! The Lord is here, now! The Kingdom is here now, in our hearts! It’s within you! The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who went into a far country and had been gone for a long time and gave all of his goods to his husbandmen! That’s the Kingdom of God here now! But only, like I said before in earnest, not in the fullness of the inheritance. “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him and an hour when he is not aware and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”
And that servant – here’s the principle, the lake of fire principle, “and that servant which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will shall be beaten with many stripes” but the one who knew not and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes, for unto whom much is given of him much will be required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more.”
Now, God has committed much into the hands of the leaders of Christianity. Carlton Pearson pulled out of TBN and believed in universal reconciliation. He was one of the big draws on TBN and he pulled out, and it cost him thousands of followers, but what did he start teaching then? Greasy grace along with most people who believe in universal reconciliation! You go from the frying pan into the fire, with that way of receiving this truth. Christ died for everybody! You can be a Buddhist or anything Carlton says now, it’s all taken care of, and you’re still going to be saved! They don’t realize the process, they see the end but they don’t see the process! They understand that God is love, they’ve got a hold on that, but they turn that love into a license to do evil. So I wrote and explained to him Tit 2:11 and 12 and never heard back! I just asked him what he thought that meant, and I never heard back!
But the word of God does not return to Him void. Once these things have been given to these people God is going to hold them accountable, so don’t think that these big name ministers are just without any knowledge of things, they been told these things. They know that there’s a doctrine out there that contradicts everything that they teach, but they’ve rejected it! They hold back the truth of God in unrighteousness, that’s in Romans one! They hold back the truth, and Christ said the same thing to the Pharisees, He said, “You don’t enter into the Kingdom of God and them you would you hinder …” So believe those words, these men are not above reproach. They’re not just simply deceived! They are holding back the truth because they know what’s at stake, and what’s at stake is billions of dollars and a real cushy lifestyle. Christ summarizes this rule that I’ve just given you He says:

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it already be kindled …”

This means that judgement has begun at the house of God. “I am come to send fire on the earth …” You’ll do yourself a favour if, every time you see that word earth you think church, every time you see it. In the book of Genesis when you see the word earth think God’s called not chosen but called, and you’ll get so much more out of the bible than you have ever gotten out of it before! The earth has been pushed up out of the sea, and it is not in heavenly places. And how does Christ, you know, put this into effect? Well, He begins at the house of God: “for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” So here are Joseph’s brothers, they are those who have rejected everything which was put before them in Joseph’s dreams, they heard it all, they had a witness, and they rejected the witness. God judged Joseph first, that’s what that Egyptian experience was! The more truth he saw the harder it became on him. That was his judgment day. Joseph was judged! Egypt was Joseph’s judgment, we are in the world being judged, were in Egypt being judged! It’s a perfect parallel to everything which goes on in the Christian experience, from those who are chosen to those who are called. It’s all in the story of Joseph and his brothers.
And when Joseph’s brothers come down – you have Sodom and Samaria in the great white throne judgment occurring right before your eyes, and instead of patting them on the back he actually accuses them of being spies, and this principle that we just read about is beginning to work it’s purpose in them. Christ says to the wicked and slothful servant, he says, “out of your own mouth I will judge you …” because the wicked and slothful servant had said I knew that you were a hard man reaping where you hadn’t sewn and gathering where you had not strawed …” Two of the men had been given – one, five and one, two and one, one! They didn’t say that, they knew that God had invested in them; he had given them these talents, just given them to them. He says, here do what you can with these and occupy yourselves with these talents, these truths, these words of mine until I come back. And so they used those words, they weren’t ashamed of them, they used them and they increased them, and they shared them with others, and when the master came back they had something to show for it. One was more than the other. That’s fine, you know. I don’t care where God has decided that I will be in the line up; I just want to do what I can with what he has given me.
Why can’t we do that and not be worried about ‘this person is getting so much more done than I am’? That’s what’s going on in the world, these different ministers literally look at each other and say, ‘man, he’s got a big church. I need to do that. I need to get a bigger church. I need to get more people coming to my church and watching my show and contributing more to me!’

If there’s any of that in any of us it will be burned out, it will be burned out! It will be burned out if it has to be done in the lake of fire, and you will serve God in direct proportion to how much of that is burned out of you! That’s how much you will be used of God, that’s how effective you will be depending on how much you realize that you have nothing to do with it! But now you need to realize that, when you do come to that point and you realize that you have nothing to offer God and God does begin to use you, then the people right around you are going to accuse you of thinking you’re somebody. It’s a catch twenty- two situation! You are going to be hated of all men, and it’s going to take a rare person who can say this. This is a servant of God!
There must be heresies among you so that – what’s the reason for heresies? So that they that are approved may be made manifest. So that they that are approved may be made manifest. That’s the purpose for heresies, that’s the purpose for it! That’s the purpose for all these false doctrines, so that the real Jesus Christ, in you, will be made manifest to all these people who are denying these truths of God’s word. If there weren’t lies, you wouldn’t know what the truths were! They wouldn’t be anything special. But if you have come to see the lies then the truths are a pearl of great price. They are a treasure hidden in the field. What did Christ say the field was? It’s the world, the church world! Not the uncalled world. It’s the called world that hated Christ! ‘If the world hated you, know that it hated me first.’ What, the Romans? No, Pilate would have let Christ go. The church world, the earth is the church, the called church!
Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to the earth, and Joseph saw his brothers and he knew them, and he made himself strange to them and spoke roughly to them and he said to them. “Whence come you?” and they said from the land of Canaan to buy food, and Joseph knew his brothers but they knew him not. Oh, how true it is, Christ knows the hearts and minds of these men but they don’t know him! The called do not know God! They think they do but don’t! They actually thought they were Abraham’s sons, sons of Abraham, sons of Jacob, they were going to inherit the land. They had gotten rid of this guy who was going to take it away from them. He’s out of the picture, just like the adversary thought when Cain killed Abel, ‘he’s out of the picture’, but God gave them – Adam and Eve – Seth. The word ‘Seth’ means ‘instead of’. He gave them Seth instead of Abel, and Seth is the father of Noah, who is the father of all men after the flood! So the seed of the woman, you see, was carried on in spite of the adversary’s efforts, God is not going to be thwarted. Even if someone dies along the way, God is not going to be thwarted. If some of us are required to give up our lives, God’s purpose is going to carry on! “And Joseph remembered the dreams, which he had dreamed of them and said to them …” You know, he could have patted them on the back and said “forget it all boys, it’s all been taken care of. God sent me down here through you guys and now it’s all taken care of.” But that would not be justice, and God is a just God. So he says “you’re spies to see the nakedness of the land you are come …” That’s just another way of saying “the same shall drink of the wine of wrath of God which is poured out without measure into the cup of His indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.” That’s what’s going on here.
So Joseph’s brothers, Reuben gets over to the side you know and says, “you idiots I told you not to sell him, and to not do any evil unto your brothers, but you did, and look at us, here we are!” Joseph is listening in right in their presence, presence of the lamb, and the are being tormented right here in the book of Genesis. They don’t get kicked out Scot- free, there’s no get out of jail free card in the plan of God. That’s monopoly isn’t it, one of those games?

Rev 14:10,11 And the smoke of there torment ascends up for the ages of the ages and they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

The ages of the ages is when all mankind is raised. Sodom is here, Sodom has already been delivered, the fullness of the gentiles has come in, and now God’s people are going to be judged! Now, in Rom 8:29 we’re told, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” There are going to be many but there is a firstborn. I mean, you wonder when you read scriptures like this, where was I when I read that before? There’s a latter harvest! Benny Hinn says, ‘oh, no, it’s all one harvest.’ God showed it to him. “The former and latter rain is going to come all at once!” Upon the elect sure, not upon the uncalled. He’s not going to do away with the latter harvest, but that’s what Benny Hinn gets out of that scripture! Jer 18:4 I’ve repeated it several times during this conference, “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.” That’s Joseph, that’s all mankind in the long run, but here in this white throne judgment it’s Joseph and the judgment he is inflicting upon his brothers. It is an infliction because there is wrath, and its justice.
Now, we’re told later on that. We’re told the age of Jacob when he comes down into Egypt and he stands before the Pharaoh. Joseph takes him in and introduces his father to Pharaoh. ‘This is my dad, this is the father of all these brothers of mine’, and we’re told Jacob’s age, I don’t remember exactly what it was. Anyway, it gives us his age when he dies, and it says it was seventeen years before he died, so you just do the math. Now, in those seventeen years, what’s going on with Joseph’s brothers? What is taking place here during these seventeen years? You know, Joseph had told them when they came down, he says “I’m going to nourish you” and when he finally broke down after tormenting them for so long. You really need to go home and read the story of Joseph because he goes to great lengths to torment his brothers. They come down and he accuses them of being spies, and he lets them go back, but he keeps Simeon. Now, there’s a reason for keeping Simeon. It’s probably Simeon who came up with the idea of killing him, and he knew it was Simeon and Levi who had killed all those people in Shechem. They had killed men of the whole city! They had agreed to become part of the family of Israel, they were circumcised and after giving them their word they just went in there on the third day and the poor men could not do anything and they killed them all, rather than to honor their word.
See our deeds, things like that, there’s a price to pay for that sort of thing. So Joseph keeps Simeon in prison, he didn’t go down there and talk to Simeon all the time there. He’s down there in prison with the rest of the prisoners, thinking that he could die tomorrow. He sure hopes his brothers come back, he hopes that they bring Benjamin back because the man had said don’t appear, don’t come before me without your brother, you will not see me unless you bring your brother with you. Well, Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother, is all that Jacob has left from Rachel, the wife that he loved. Jacob’s life is tied up in Benjamin. He’s lost Joseph and thinks that he’s dead, and their brothers haven’t told their father the truth yet. They’ll never tell him the truth until it’s made manifest. Jacob has never been told the truth, and they will never tell him the truth until the truth is forced upon them. When Jacob finally sees Joseph, it’s because Joseph sent for his father. They never confessed, they were going live this lie out right till the end. But he does end up seeing his father and the way he does it is he puts his cup in Benjamin’s sack when he’s sending them the back the second time after all these months of torment, mental anguish, wondering what are we going to do, there’s no food anywhere in the world we’ve got to go back down to that guy and we’ve got to take Benjamin with us and dad is going to be worried sick and the whole family is just torn up and in torment you’ve got to think about that for a little bit to realize the anguish these guys were going through. He gets down there and Joseph sticks the cup in Benjamin’s sack because all of this is exactly what his brothers would have done to him, only worse they would have killed him. But he’s got to bring them to see themselves. He’s got to bring them to see themselves; they’ve got to have this burned out of them. So here’s this cup in Benjamin’s sack, and they say – they all tell their dad, you know, he’s got to go with us, and his dad says no he’s not going, but he’s got to we can’t get any food. His dad is being forced, he’s tormenting his father, he’s being forced to let his only son who he loved so much to go back down there and when he goes down he’s accused of stealing the man’s cup. And everybody told their father, look, if we don’t bring him back you can kill my two sons. Judas said hold me personally responsible if we don’t bring him back. Reuben said slay my two sons if I bring him not to you. They’ve committed themselves!
They are beginning to see that they’ve sinned. They just can’t bring themselves to repent! I mean, evil people know they’re evil. They know it, but they can’t do anything about it. They’re tormented, they don’t have the peace of mind that we have that passes and surpasses all understanding, excels all understanding. This is something that cannot have a price put on it. You’ve got if you’re in Christ. You’ve got something that a millionaire and a billionaire do not have! You have something much more valuable, peace of mind, you can sleep at night, and not worry about what you’ve done to someone that you know your going to have to pay for! So Joseph’s brothers knew that they were paying for there sins but they couldn’t change. It had to be burned out of them with a long drawn out process, and this putting the cup in Benjamin’s bag was part of that process. So they are brought back down to Egypt, he sends the men after them, he catches them, and he says somebody has stolen my master’s cup! It wasn’t any of us. Whose sack you find it in, he can go back and be your servant, or whatever, and it just so happen to be in Benjamin’s wouldn’t you know it, and so he said I’ll just take this guy. Joseph knew exactly what he was doing, he knew what he was doing, there isn’t anyone of us who is going back to dad without him, and so we’ll all go down and be your servants. So they had to go back and they come before Joseph, and I don’t know why but this story almost always brings me to tears but I think I have a handle on it this time. They come before Joseph and they have to, they absolutely have to do something about this situation. They are desperate, and Joseph is a mean man, he’s a hard man reaping where he hasn’t sewn and gathering where he hasn’t strawed, because that’s what they are. You see God is not that way but when you perceive him that way the principle is to the froward he will show himself froward and to the pure He will show Himself pure.
Are you the kind that forgives people? Can you love your enemies? If you can do that, then that’s what you’re going to reap. If you can’t do that, John Hagee, D. James Kennedy, they’re going to lead you to believe that they’re going to be tormented in hell for all eternity, God will lead them to believe that, and they’ll believe that even after he tells them I’m going to save all men. That’s right, he’s going to tell them that all men are going to be saved because you’re right there and you’ve been saying this. Here’s Ray Smith with his exposing those who contradict, there is no hell papers and he’s going to be in the rulership position and you’re going to be in a rulership position with all the people that you have talked to and they’re going to see that you were right and they were wrong but they won’t believe it, because they didn’t believe Joseph when he told them I’m going to nourish you! They didn’t believe him. They thought for seventeen long years – that’s how long it was from the time that Jacob came down from Israel to Egypt to the time that he died! From the time that Jacob came up until the time he died was seventeen years, four years longer than Joseph spent in prison, a longer time. The lake of fire and the fiery experience of the lake of fire is going to be worse than what you would have gone through had you been judged while you were in the flesh. You’re going to be raised a spiritual body, we’re not going to go into that right now but the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians tells us “It is sewn a natural body it is raised a spiritual body.” Satan and his angels are all spirits, the whole lake of fire is a spiritual experience and you’re going to be given a purifying while you are in the spirit, and that will be a longer and harder experience than if you had gone through it and judged yourself back in the flesh. And the way it’s going to be done is through feeding you the very doctrines that you were passing out to others; according to the multitude of your idols you will be judged. That’s in the 14th chapter of Ezekiel!
So Mat 25:19-23 “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoned with them.” Like I said, it was thirteen years since Joseph had been in Egypt, but reckoning day came. “And so he that had received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou delivered unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou delivered unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter you into the joy of your father.”
The Lord had sown with them and they were partaking in His reaping, and they were being given control over Egypt, for the eons of the eons, and that’s exactly what’s taking place with Joseph and his brothers. In 1Co 15:25, we read, “For he (Christ, Joseph, those who are in Christ, the Elect) must reign, till He (The Father) hath put all enemies under his feet.” This is a statement of the last judgement, the white throne judgement. It’s a statement of us right now but it’s also a statement including the will be. “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For he (The Father) has put all things under his (Christ) feet, but when He (The Father) says all things are put under him (Christ) it’s manifest that He (The Father) is accepted which did put all things under Him (Christ). And when all things are subdued to Christ then the son himself will be subject to the Father (Who put all things under Christ) that God may be all in all.”
That’s the goal, God to be all in all! And Pharaoh told Joseph in Gen 41:40 “You will be over my house, and according unto your word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than you.” I mean the parallels between this story and the doctrines of the New Testament are all the way down the line, all the way down the line! 43rd verse, “And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. 44th verse, “And the Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” Now that was especially true for Joseph’s brothers.
Now there’s a second principle at work in this lake of fire and it is revealed to us in Mat 25:26. “His lord answered and said unto him, you wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: …” He doesn’t argue with him, He shows himself that way, just leads him to believe that yeah everything you believe is the way I am, that’s the way it is, you’re spies, He’s just like Joseph, your spies. Why? Because they had to be lead to believe that He was going to kill them just any minute it had to be because that’s what they had done to him. You reap what you sew in the lake of fire. You reap what you sew right now! There’s no change God is the same yesterday today and forever, and these principles are going to carry through all the way to the end.

Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

That’s what’s going on in the world as we speak; there is not a truth to be found.

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

You really need to take home and write down and look at this verse, and say, ‘boy, that’s the truth!’ That’s a profound statement, the whole stay that means there’s nothing left. All of the truths of God have been taken away from the church, and they don’t have one doctrine right! Not even Christ dying for our sins, they all think we have that in common but they don’t believe that.
There’s a third principal at work, the Lord will answer us all according to the multitude of our idols. That’s Eze 14:4:

Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, thus says the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity [ The stumbling block of his iniquity are all of the false doctrines that are being spewed for everyone to listen to, that are just so deceptive] before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that comes according to the multitude of his idols;

Well, what was the idol of the heart that Joseph’s brothers had? Jealousy! This is reaping the rewards of jealousy, but they were vengeful, they hated Joseph. Now, Joseph doesn’t hate his brothers, he loves them more than they can comprehend, but he’s got to show them what’s in them. They’ve got to have that burned out. They can’t just get a get out of jail free card, it’s not the way God operates, God really is just! Justice demands reaping what you sew! So Joseph has to be an austere man to them! But he tells them up front after this period of tormenting at the hands of Joseph. He breaks down, you know, he gets to the point where its more than he can bear! He breaks down when they come to him and beg for the life of there brother. They say, dad’s going to die. We told you we have an old father. They told him that when they first came down, we have an old father and he has one son that he loves more than all of us and he’s all he has and we’ve got to go back or they’ll starve to death. He sends them back with grain but he keeps Simeon, and says you better bring that brother down here and then I’ll know that your not spies.

They bring him down and lo and behold he gets the cup in his sack and he has to stay. So they all refuse to go back. The man tells him, (you know this is representative of Pharaoh, he’s got all these reinforcements with him, he’s got an army with him, and they can’t just over power the man. You know they’re in a bad spot, in their mind they’re about to die! So they come before their brother Joseph. They don’t know it’s their brother. They think he’s the Pharaoh only to them, and they have to tell him, ‘look, take us all and let this boy go back! We’re not spies honest!’ The strain, and the misery and the mental anguish that they are under is just unbelievable! And they’re reaping just exactly what they sowed when they put Joseph in that pit, and were up there saying ‘let’s just drop a rock down on him and kill him right here and see what becomes of his dreams.’ He had to listen to this, and he hears them up there arguing; Reuben trying to talk him out of it, and he hears the whole thing. He’s in the pit screaming for his life, and they pay no attention.
And Joseph actually comes out and breaks down and tells them who he is, and they come up and beg for mercy, and he says ‘look, this is all of God, don’t be hard on yourselves. This is God who sent me down here so that everything would work out as it is now, so that much people would be saved alive!’ Do his brothers believe what he’s saying? No! They don’t believe it, they know, good and well, that if they were in his shoes they’d just take him straight to the gallows and hang him up. That’s what they would do even now, even now, in this judgment after being resurrected. Listen, the invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made, and in this flesh. We are beasts who will do beastly things.

Satan is not in the flesh, but he has a carnal mind that is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be, which must be burned out of him and all of his angels. So you come up with this lying spirit still with you, even though now you are an immortal spirit being not subject to death, sewn a natural body raised a spiritual body, sewn in corruption, raised in incorruption, but with glory that is no more than terrestrial. Verses 15 through 35 are just discussing – in 1Co 15 – are just discussing what amount of glory is in this resurrected body. It’s not saying it’s raised a terrestrial body, it’s raised with the glory of the terrestrial which has no light in it at all, just reflecting a little from the light of the sun maybe, but no glory of its own! Resurrected that way, but, when you come out of the lake of fire, that’s changed, because that terrestrial will be burnt out of even Satan himself. It’s just that some people are going to be in there a whole lot longer than others, but they will all reap exactly what they have sown! And it will be their own doctrines that will torment to the needed amount and God knows what is the needed amount for each individual. And those who need many stripes will receive it and those who don’t receive many stripes will not receive many!
But Joseph goes on to tell them these two years the famine has been in the land and there are yet five years in the which there shall neither be rain nor harvest, and God sent me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So, now, it was not you, (This is in Gen 45:6,7,8) but God, and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and the lord of all his house and ruler throughout all Egypt. (That’s throughout the entire world) Now in Gen 50:15 we’re told this, Jacob has died at this point, “Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil we did to him!” Seventeen years of believing this, not being able to sleep a peaceful night wondering if this just might be the day that Joseph is going to extract this eternal hell fire that we’ve been preaching for so long. To the pure He will show Himself pure and to the austere He will show Himself austere. In Mat 7:20, this is talking about the lake of fire. The word of God is, was and will be. This is not just a statement of here and now, this is the way it always will be, and this is the third principle that I’ve got numbered for the lake of fire.
“For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” So that every false doctrine that you have tormented people with will be brought back upon your head and even though you’re resurrected and told that you’re going to be saved, you won’t believe it. God is able to do that, he’s able to tell you the truth, and you will not believe it. Is that not what the whole world is doing right now? This is a reflection of what will be happening in the spirit world! They will be told the truth and they will reject it, as spirit beings, and they will be tormented in the presence of the lamb for a season, and then they will be tormented for a longer season than you ever spent in the flesh being tormented. Rom 2:6 Who will render to everyman according to his deeds. Do you think this is not going to carry on over into the lake of fire? It will! And according to his doctrines! “To those who by patient continuance in well doing (“well doing” is the same word that is translated good works elsewhere) seek for glory and honour and immortality. Eternal life) but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, (who cannot give up on all this money that’s coming in for the truth. You know, you’ve got to make the decision: Am I going to continue in plush lifestyle I have here with all these false doctrines and this fear of hell that I’ve got going here or am I going to give up this lifestyle for the truth? Well, how hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom of God!
The only difference between those who are in the lake of fire and those who are being judged now is that we will not be given the extent, in this life now. The fiery trials that we go through, hard as it may be, is not what will be given to us at a later date. There really is an incentive to judge yourself now, because God uses – I mean, it’s all God’s work, we’ve been through this so many times, it’s all of God. But being of God he has used the foolishness of preaching to teach us that we have got to participate in this thing, and work out our own salvation. That’s the words that are used, you know? You’ve got to get in there and tell those people don’t get off the boat or we’ll all drown even though you’ve been told just the night before everyone on the boat is going to be saved. So what, you go take a nap in the hall and just wait for God to work it out? No! You’ve got to participate. I’m talking about Paul’s journey, you know, going to Rome. I mean that was just a revelation to me. This is the work of grace, this is how grace works, and sure you’ve been told you’re going to be saved. Now what? You just sit back and do nothing? No! You are vigilant, that’s part of God’s providence, and you tell everybody, ‘look you can’t get off the boat or you’re going to be lost. We’re all going to be lost.’ Because God has said I’m going to give you everybody doesn’t mean you go take a nap, you go to work at that point!
So with patient continuance in well doing and many good works we seek for this gold that we know is inevitable yet we’ve got to be vigilant. Be not deceived Gal 6:7 “Be not deceived God is not mocked, whatever a man sows that will he reap, he that sows to the flesh shall reap of the flesh corruption, and he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting (eonian). The difference between that judgement and Isa 1Pe 4:17 “The time has come that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what will be the end of them who obey not the truth.” Well, the fire that Christ talked about is kindled in us now. Now, this is already played out, it has already started. It has been going on ever since His life. The judgment has been taking place in each individual as they come along and there’s being gathered out of each generation that comes along, ever since Christ – since Christ – a small, few people out of each generation, who will be used at the time of the end in the lake of fire to judge the angelic world. Don’t you know that you will judge angels? That comes after judging the world. Both of those statements are in 1Co 6:1-3. These three verses you will judge the world, so you should be able to judge things which are among yourselves right now, you’re not going to judge the world as a whole just yourselves. The day will come when you will judge the world, so you should judge things amongst yourself. Don’t let a man who is living with his father’s wife just live amongst you. Judge these things, purge them, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Do all this now, then you will be able to judge the world later!
There is a coming judgment in which you will be given the power outwardly over the Kingdoms of the physical earth, and I do hope to go into the purpose of the millennium sometime, that’s just not our subject today. But the millennium is not the white throne judgment, and the white throne judgment is not the millennium. After the thousand years are fulfilled, then fire comes down from heaven and burns up all these worldly elements and then we have a white throne. Then there’s a judgment. There is a chronology to the events of the book of Revelation, even though it’s not the primary purpose of the book. The primary purpose it to do it! There’s a lesson to be learned for all of us in these principles that operate in the lake of fire, and that lesson is, is that what we sow is what we reap. There’s no getting away with anything with God, no one gets away with anything!
There’s a parable of a man who owed his master an insurmountable debt. It was ten thousand talents, which we looked up just recently which amounts to fifteen million dollars. He owed his master fifteen million dollars. That’s just a huge amount of money that you would never pay off in a lifetime. You’ve got to feed your family as you’re going along, and you owe this fifteen million dollars. And this was back in Christ’s day fifteen million dollars. So you’re hopelessly in debt, there’s no way out and you say to your master ‘I acknowledge the debt. Just be patient with me and I’ll pay it all.’ The masters already decreed ‘sell all the land, sell your wife, sell everything you have and pay the debt’, and you beg him for mercy and he forgives you. Well, you go out and you grab somebody that owes you one day’s wage by the throat and demand to be paid right here and now! That is these people that were in the last gun lap saying mortgage your house if you have to and give it to me. That’s who we’re talking about here, so that I can spread the gospel, and then you go buy yourself a jet, or whatever it is you want or whatever it is you can afford with the money you have coming in from your followers.

People who are in this work for money are not kidding God at all. He sees the thoughts and the intents of the heart of every man who has ever lived. He knows what you are, He knows your frame, He knows what you’re made up of, and you aren’t kidding anybody but yourself. So realize that because, when that man does that to his servant God says should you not have forgiven him as I forgave you? That’s just saying the same thing, as you judged you will be judged, and what you measure out you will receive! The story comes back to him that he has done this to his servant and didn’t show that mercy that was shown to him to the other man, and he’s made to sell everything he has. He’s cast into prison, and is told you will not come out of there until you have paid the utmost farthing. You’re going to pay for that, and the whole world will be dealt with justly, because God is love, and God is also justice and He will use what you think of Him to bring that justice upon you.

After seventeen years, Jacob dies, and Jacob is the old man in us. The old man in us has to die before we are delivered from this bondage that we have ourselves under. And then when Jacob dies, they finally see that Joseph really isn’t going to kill them. So all men are brought out of the lake of fire, finally. When the old man dies and they are all brought back to God and God is all in all, and that’s what it’s all about.
The whole thing is going to be justified by the mercy and the judgement of God. But God’s mercy is in spite of all that He has put us through and placed upon us, and all the hardening that He has done in our hearts. Because these men are all the work of God’s hand. Marred vessels each with a purpose and a reason for being what they are, and all of those marred vessels, you and all other marred vessels are marred for the purpose of producing, right now, the first fruits. Those big fat first fruits which are so special to God that come in first and they’re going to be used, and are first fruits for one reason and one reason only, and that is to glorify God through the bringing in of all mankind. Because God is going to receive more glory through the redemption of His called. Then, if He had just stopped at the first harvest – He wants it all and He’s going to have it all, and it’s a wonderful message to take to the world, and it should give us all peace of mind!