Proverbs' Wisdom as she progresses through Christ's ministry

Jesus Christ says in Matthew 12: [34] O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

He says in Matthew 24: [34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

"That generation talked about in Matthew 12 and 24, and in Luke 7 and 11, is the one in Proverbs 30 that epitomizes everything that God is going to destroy. Proverbs is where Wisdom speaks to Israel when that generation takes over," explains Jordan.

"When wisdom shows up in Israel, here's how wisdom's going to speak to the nation. First thing she does is she goes out into the streets of Israel crying to the leaders of the nation to repentance.

"Proverbs 1: [20] Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

[21] She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
[22] How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

[23] Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 

"You see, they're not Believers; they're rebels. 'Turn you at my reproof.' That's, 'Repent, turn around.'

"The passage goes on:

[24] Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
[25] But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
[26] I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
[27] When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

"Look at the terminology there. In verse 26 there's calamity, fear. In verse 27 is desolation, a whirlwind, distress, anguish. What do those words remind you of? Those are descriptions of the day of the Lord, the day of His wrath.

"In Zephaniah 1 the same terms are used to describe this great, gloomy, dreadful dark day of God's judgment on Israel. Proverbs is looking toward that end time.

"Verse 28: [28] Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

"That's the opposite of what Christ told the Believers. He said, 'Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be open to you.'

"This crowd has rejected Him but the Believing Remnant gets to ask and receive, seek and find, knock and its open. There's two different groups. Here's the rejecters:

[29] For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
[30] They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
[31] Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
[32] For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
[33] But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Proverbs 2:21-22: [21] For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

[22] But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. 

Proverbs 3:

[30] Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
[31] Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
[32] For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
[33] The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.
[34] Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
[35] The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

"That title 'the oppressor' is a title used over and over in the Psalms and in the prophets for the Antichrist. Verse 33 takes place in the day of the Lord.

"Proverbs 8: 

[1] Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

[2] She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
[3] She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
[4] Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

"Now she's not just crying in the streets out in the city; she's gone outside of the city to the high places, to the hills around it. She's gone out into the highways and hedges to cry, 'Repent!' When that doesn't get a response . . . 

Proverbs 9:

[1] Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
[2] She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
[3] She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,
[4] Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
[5] Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
[6] Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

"Now she's NOT out running; she's built her a house and out of that house she sends out her maidens, her messengers and they go out and cry, 'Hey, guys, dinner's ready. Come on in!'

"That progression of wisdom is exactly what happens in the earthly ministry of Christ. Matthew 11 and 12 is where a crisis point takes place in the ministry of Christ. The leaders of the nation Israel reject Him and won't have nothing to do with Him.

"Matthew 12:14: [14] Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.

"That's the first time they come together to destroy Him. Notice His response: [15] But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;

[16] And charged them that they should not make him known:

"Isn't that strange verse? That verse would kill evangelism if you tried to follow the Lord in Matthew. Why'd He do that?

"Matthew 16:15: [15] He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 

"Matthew 17:8-9: [8] And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.

[9] And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

"The message to the apostles was, 'Don't go out and emphasize His messianic office as the Christ; His public office.' Jesus withdraws from a public ministry calling everybody and begins to focus on one group of people. He builds Him a house of Believers, the tabernacle of David. A tabernacle is a tent made out of skin.

"Notice the end of verse 6 in Matthew 12: 'That in this place is one greater than the temple.' The end of verse 41: 'Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.' The end of verse 42: 'Behold, a greater than Solomon is here.'

"There's the greater priest, the greater prophet, the greater king. He's the true prophet, priest and king in Israel and He's been rejected.

"He tells them in verses 31-32: [31] Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

[32] And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

"They're blaspheming against the Son of Man right there, rejecting Him, speaking evil of Him. They say He has a demon.

"Matthew 13 begins, [1] The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

[2] And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
[3] And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

"Why does He begin to teach them in parables? Jesus said it was so certain people could NOT understand. 

"Matthew 13:10-11: [10] And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

[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.

"Jesus answered them, 'I'm going to speak in parables to HIDE from them because, having eyes they don't see, and having ears they won't hear, and having a heart they won't believe. But I'm going to give it to you and I'll explain to you how to understand it. For them, they're just going to be left out.'

"He spends the rest of His ministry building that house; the Little Flock. He goes away and sends the messengers, the apostles and prophets, out of His house to call Israel to repentance again. You see how His earthly ministry follows that pattern of wisdom?

"In Luke 7, what He's talking about here is, [35] But wisdom is justified of all her children. He's saying, 'Hey, Wisdom is ministering in Israel just like she said she was going to minister.' And wisdom's children HEAR, but that crowd out there isn't wisdom's children because they aren't getting it; they refuse it.

"Where we are in Luke is basically the Matthew 11 setting. In fact, in verse 16 and following in Matthew 11, you'll find this same passage.

"It's right at the point in Israel's history when that wisdom is no longer going to be crying in the streets in the chief places of the city to the leaders, but she's going to go over here quietly and go out to the highways and the hedges to publicans and sinners; to the nobodies.

"Those people come, and out of that group of people He's going to build a house in which He's going to live, out of which He's going to send a message back to Israel to, 'Come and dine.' "

(new article tomorrow)

Glory is the outworking of the plan

"In John 1, when it says 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,' Jesus Christ has come as the one who will accomplish the ultimate intention of God in His creation and He's going to come as Emmanuel, God with us, dwelling among men as man, for the purpose of accomplishing the purpose, the plan of the Father.

"That's why it says what it does in verse 14: [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

"When you listen to that verse it sounds different than when you read it and I'm conscious of that every time I quote that verse," says Jordan.

"There's really two issues about the dwelling. One, He dwelt among us full of grace and truth. That's an issue about the moral glory; the essence of the character of who He was.

"But there's another issue about His glory. 'We beheld His glory.' There was a manifestation of His glory and it was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

"Glory is the outworking of the plan and the purpose the Father had, that He would dwell and come and share His life.

"Jesus said about eternal life in John 17: [3] And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

"And that's not just to go up and say, 'Hi, Lord, how are you?' It's to know Him; it's to enter into an understanding of who He is and what He's planning on doing.

"One of the ways you get to know people is not just six-foot-two and eyes of blue kind of stuff. It's, 'Get to know them. What's on their mind, how do they think, what are their plans, purposes, goals?'

"What do they like? How do they react to things? It's where you begin to understand who they are and enter into more than just the external view, but you enter into their heart. That's what godliness is in the Bible.

"God-likeness is to be able to enter into an understanding of what God's doing so that you can begin to labor with Him, work with Him in it. But it gets to the place where you begin to not just know what He's doing and labor with Him, but you begin to be excited about what He's doing.

"You come to delight, you come to rejoice. Jesus said, 'The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.'

"That's not a bad thing; it's a good thing. I'm consumed with what excites God and His plan. The old A-Team TV show used to say, 'I love it when a plan comes together.' "

Everlasting love

In Natalie Cole's classic 1975 love song, This Will Be, the lyrics include:

This will be an everlasting love
This will be the one I've waited for . . .

I'm so glad you found me in time
And I'm so glad that you rectified my mind . . .

Loving you is some kind of wonderful
Because you showed me just how much you care . . .

This will be an everlasting love
Oh, yes it will now!

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

"When He talks about 'the love of thine espousals,' He's saying, 'I remember back in the early days.' Do you ever do that? He says, 'You remember when you fell in love with me in the wilderness and I courted you?'

"You ought to read sometime Ezekiel 16 about the wonderful story of the birth of Israel and how they were betrothed to one another," says Jordan. "This is the passage in Revelation 2, at the church in Ephesus, when he says, 'You've forgotten your first love.'

"God set His love on Israel because He had a purpose He was going to accomplish in them. They were weak and insignificant; they weren't the issue. It was His purpose with them that was the issue.

"The love that He loved them with, Jeremiah 31 is the chapter in which the New Covenant is delineated: [31] Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

[32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

"That's a reference back to chapter 2. God says, 'Even though I loved them and was devoted to them as a loving spouse and we entered into a covenant of companionship, a marriage relationship, yet they broke the covenant.'

"Now, in that context He's already said to them verses 1-3: [1] At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

[2] Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
[3] The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

"When He says, 'The people which were left of the sword,' those are the people talked about in I John who found grace in the wilderness. They learn the lesson that the Old Covenant, the Law, was designed to teach them. There's a schoolmaster who showed them they couldn't do for themselves; they needed Jehovah to do it for them.

"In Joshua, the people from Ai just beat the britches off of Israel and they said, 'Well, what's going on?!' God says, 'There's sin in the camp and it's got to be dealt with. You've got to purge out the rebel from your midst.' They go to the valley of Achor and judge sin in their midst and separate out the true from the false.

"By the way, in the latter part of Hosea 2, He said, 'After I purge out the rebel, I'm going to allure you and draw you back in and I'm going to marry you again.' 'Wow, we going to get married again! And we're going to be RESTORED back to our first love relationship!' They find grace in the wilderness.

"That issue of that everlasting love and finding grace in the wilderness, that's what the New Covenant is all about for the nation Israel. 

"On the night before our Lord dies, He goes into the Upper Room. John 13:1: [1] Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

"What was in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary? Hebrews says, 'Who for the joy that was set before Him.' For the joy of that kingdom out there, for that everlasting love that He loved them with so that He could give them grace in the wilderness and bring them into that kingdom. For the joy that was set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame.

"So, when John comes along in I John he's reminding them, 'You want to see God's love for you? You want to see this everlasting love God has for you to get you through that wilderness and carry you into the kingdom? Are you wondering over there about whether He really loves you or not, or whether He's just?'

"We've already learned in James and Peter all about how they need to trust Him, they ought to trust Him, they should trust Him, they can trust Him, and now John says, 'Here, let me remind you of why you trust Him. Because He loves you. You're the object of His love. The very day He gave birth to the nation, He gave birth to you so He could love you and marry you and have you as His own. It's been an everlasting love and God's manifested it and made it real in that He sent His Son into the world so we might live.' "

(another article later today)

Major and minor

I've been under the weather but promise to have a new article tomorrow. In the meantime:

The fundamental reason the Minor Prophets are called minor is they’re small. While the Book of Daniel has just 12 chapters, for example, it contains almost 12,000 words, making it twice as long wordwise.

Jordan explains, “Isaiah to Daniel, they deal with the MAJOR issues; Hosea to Malachi are going to deal with filling in the blanks and the details. Hosea is the first book of the Minor Prophets and the 28^th book in the Bible. That means it matches Isaiah 28.

“I would recommend to you—if you would familiarize yourself with II Kings 14-18, that’s the time period historically out of which the whole Book of Hosea comes.

*****

“What Zechariah’s going to be about is the time when the Lord comes back to repossess His possession.  He’s got these angelic beings out there ready to go and He says, ‘The earth is at still and is at rest. It’s ready for me to come back and take it!’

“Once you’re at home, you have access and that’s that idea of ‘walking to and fro.’ It’s an action and an activity talking about repossession.

“Zechariah 1:12-13 says, ‘Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.

“I like that: good words, comfortable words. In Isaiah 4 he says, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.’ Paul says, ‘Comfort one another with these words.’

“There’s information, doctrine, truth, words in the Bible designed to produce various effects. These are ones that are going to produce comfort in Israel.

“The passage goes on, ‘So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.’

“The picture here is that the time is going to come when He’s going to re-establish the kingdom. He scattered them but it’s not going to be forever. What Zechariah does is talk about that restoration process.

“Verse 18-19 says, ‘Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
[19] And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.’

“That verse is fascinating. The horns are explained to you in the Book of Daniel. Zechariah’s going to build onto that previous revelation. But notice how he says this because there’s a sense in which this verse, if you don’t read it right, is not accurate.

“It says ‘which have scattered Judah.’ See that past tense? But the horns in Daniel, only one of them is past. They’re in the second one and there’s more to come. Here Zechariah says, ‘They’ve already done it.’ “He’s alerting you to the fact that he’s looking beyond the activities of this period of time here. He’s looking beyond to the fulfillment of these things.

“So Media-Persia, Rome, Greece—these kingdoms, once they’re done, Zechariah’s looking for that and that’s why when you come to verse 20, and I’ve always thought this verse was the fascinating one, it says, ‘And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.’

“What do carpenters do? They build things. You remember how Christ talked to the Pharisees and said, ‘You builders . . .’ The leaders of Israel were supposed to be builders of the nation.

"Isaiah 28:16 says, ‘Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.’

"Psalm 118:22, says, The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

“Well, builders who don’t do their work get to be replaced by the builders, and when you’re going to be a builder, there’s carpenters. And then he says there’s going to be four carpenters and he said, ‘What come these to do?’

“Verse 21 goes on, ‘Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.’

“These carpenters are going to come to break the power of the Gentile dominion over Israel and establish Israel’s kingdom. Now, the fascinating thing is when the Lord Jesus Christ came, you know what they called Him? You remember what Jesus’ daddy did? He was a carpenter. In Mark, they called the Lord Jesus Christ ‘the carpenter.’

“You say, ‘I wonder why they’d call him that?’ Well that’s because that’s what His daddy did. Isn’t it fascinating that when God arranges for the Lord Jesus Christ to be born by the virgin Mary, she’s espoused to a guy who fits the pattern exactly like He said it was going to come to pass?!

“By the way, there are going to be four carpenters. How many Gospels are there? It’s interesting. The four gospels are there because there are four specific ways the Messiah is described as coming.

“Zechariah 9:9 says, ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’

“So when you come to the book of Matthew, you see, ‘Behold the king.’ It starts out ‘son of David, the son of Abraham.’ Luke takes him back to the son of Adam. You know what Zechariah’s telling you: ‘You know what you want to watch out for? The king’s coming.’

“Zechariah 3:8 says, ‘Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.’

“Isn’t it fascinating how that word BRANCH is all in upper-case letters? There are only a very few words in the KJB that are in all upper case like that. That’s a reference to the Messiah. There are four different Branch titles given to the Messiah.

“You know what the Book of Mark does? It says, ‘Behold my servant.’ You go through the Book of Mark and notice how many verses start with the word ‘and.’ You read the first chapter of Mark and if you just sit and read it you just go, 'Man, Mark is moving!'

“There’s no genealogy in Mark. There is in Matthew because you need to know who the king came from. But who cares where a servant came from? What do you want to know about a servant? Can he work! You don’t want to know what his pedigree is. It’s, ‘Can he get the job done?’ Mark is the gospel of the servant.

“What you’re going to read about in Mark is sonship service. There’s a lot of talk today about ‘your sonship walk.’ If you want to see a real sonship service, you’ll see it in the Lord Jesus Christ, specifically in the Book of Mark.

“When Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus,’ you want to see that sonship mentality put on display in human form made real—the Book of Mark’s for that.

“Zechariah 6:12 says, ‘And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.’

“We’ve got another behold statement. Now he’s the man. So you’ve got the Book of Luke presenting Him as ‘the man Christ Jesus.’ He gives the most thorough description of the nativity."

Nothing brings more shouts at a camp meeting than . . .

A great old invitation hymn, He Included Me, written by New Jersey preacher Jonathan Oatman in 1909, goes,

1. I am so happy in Christ today,
   That I go singing along my way;
   Yes, I’m so happy to know and say,
   “Jesus included me, too.”
   • Refrain:
     Jesus included me, yes, He included me,
     When the Lord said, “Whosoever,” He included me;
     Jesus included me, yes, He included me,
     When the Lord said, “Whosoever,” He included me.
2. Gladly I read, “Whosoever may
   Come to the fountain of life today”;
   But when I read it I always say,
   “Jesus included me, too.”
3. Ever God’s Spirit is saying, “Come!”
   Hear the Bride saying, “No longer roam”;
   But I am sure while they’re calling home,
   Jesus included me, too.
4. “Freely come drink,” words the soul to thrill!
   Oh, with what joy they my heart do fill!
   For when He said, “Whosoever will,”
   Jesus included me, too.

When Oatman (born in 1856) was a child growing up in Medford, N.J., he delighted to sit alongside his father and hear him sing hymns. At 21 years old, he was granted a license to preach the gospel by the Methodist Episcopal Church and was later ordained.

For  many years he worked with his father in the mercantile business under the firm name Johnson Oatman & Son. After his father's death, he went into the life insurance business.

According to a tribute profile written by J.H. Hall during Oatman's career, "Mr. Oatman is at the zenith of his years, and at this time he is one of the most prolific and popular gospel hymn writers in the world. He has written over 3,000 hymns, and no gospel song book is considered as being complete unless it contains some of his hymns.

"He wrote his first song in 1892, which was brought before the people in 1893 by the late Prof. J.R. Sweney, and entitled 'I Am Walking with My Saviour.' From that time on Mr. Oatman has written and sent forth to bless the world an average of over two hundred songs each year. In a book published in Boston in the early part of his career as a song-writer, he made the following dedication:

Let others sing of rights or wrongs,
Sing anything that pleases;
But while they’re singing other songs,
I’ll sing a song for Jesus.

"In 1894, Professor Sweney wrote the music to one of Mr. Oatman’s songs which at once gave him a place in the front ranks among American hymn writers. It is called 'When Our Ships Come Sailing Home.' It was sung at the great Ocean Grove, N.J., camp-meeting, and the people there went wild over it. The late Bishop C.C. McCabe sang it all over the United States.

"About the same time Prof. W.J. Kirkpatrick introduced Mr. Oatman’s 'Deeper Yet.' This song made a way for itself into the hearts of all true worshippers. There is a peculiar depth to it found in very few gospel songs.

Deeper yet, deeper yet, into the crimson flood;
Deeper yet, deeper yet, under the precious blood.

"Then followed 'Holy, holy, is what the angels sing,' brought out by Dr. H.L. Gilmour. This song has only to be heard and its place is sure. But in 1895 appeared the song that has carried the name of Oatman to every clime and land on earth. The late Prof. Geo. C. Hugg wrote the music to 'No, Not One.' It went like wildfire from the start.

"Within one year it had been copied into 35 books and took a place among the immortal songs of the religious world. The late Bishop Isaac W. Joyce had the song translated into Chinese and Japanese. During the war in South Africa, the Christian Herald of New York had a full-page picture of the Boer refugees on the border of India engaged in worship, singing this popular song:

Jesus knows all about our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!

"Many fine songs are only appropriate for certain occasions, but 'No, Not One' can be sung at any time, place, or occasion.

"In [1898] the late Prof. J.H. Entwisle introduced Oatman's 'Higher Ground.' The music was written by Mr. Chas. H. Gabriel, author of 'The Glory Song.' This song at once took high rank among the holiness people, and secured a lasting place in American hymnology. Nothing can bring forth more shouts at a camp-meeting of 'Glory' and 'Hallelujah' than the singing of 'Higher Ground':

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on heaven’s table-land,
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

"But it remained for Prof. E.O. Excell to bring out in 1897 what, in the opinion of most critics, is said to be Mr. Oatman’s masterpiece. 'Count Your Blessings,' like 'No, Not One,' has gone all over the world. Like a beam of sunlight it has brightened up the dark places of earth.

"Perhaps no American hymn was ever received with such enthusiasm in England as 'Count Your Blessings.' A London newspaper daily, in giving an account of a meeting presided over by Gypsy Smith, said, 'Mr. Smith announced the hymn 'Count Your Blessings.' Said he, ‘Down in South London the men sing it, the boys whistle it, and the women rock their babies to sleep to the tune.' During the great revival in Wales it was sung at every service.

"The foregoing are only a few of Mr. Oatman's songs that have won their way to the hearts of Christian people everywhere. 'Take Off the Old Coat,' 'O Don't Stay Away,' 'The Blood Upon the Door,' 'The Same Old Way,' 'God's Three Hundred,' 'When the Fire Fell,' 'I Know He’s Mine,' 'Almost Home,' and many others are among his best."

Here are the lyrics to No, Not One:

1. There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   None else could heal all our soul’s diseases,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   • Refrain:
     Jesus knows all about our struggles,
     He will guide till the day is done;
     There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
     No, not one! No, not one!
2. No friend like Him is so high and holy,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
   No, not one! No, not one!
3. There’s not an hour that He is not near us,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   No night so dark but His love can cheer us,
   No, not one! No, not one!
4. Did ever saint find this Friend forsake him?
   No, not one! No, not one!
   Or sinner find that He would not take him?
   No, not one! No, not one!
5. Was e’er a gift like the Savior given?
   No, not one! No, not one!
   Will He refuse us a home in heaven?
   No, not one! No, not one!
6. *****

Lyrics to I Know He's Mine:

1. There’s One above all earthly friends
   Whose love all earthly love transcends,
   It is my Lord and Christ divine,
   My Lord because I know He’s mine.
   • Refrain:
     I know He’s mine, this Friend so dear,
     He lives with me, He’s ever near;
     Ten thousand charms around Him shine,
     And, best of all, I know He’s mine.
2. He’s mine because He died for me,
   He saved my soul, He set me free;
   With joy I worship at His shrine
   And cry, “Praise God, I know He’s mine.”
3. He’s mine because He’s in my heart,
   And never, never will we part;
   Just as the branch is to the vine
   I’m joined to Christ; I know He’s mine.
4. Someday upon the streets of gold
   Mine eyes His glory shall behold,
   Then, while His arms around me twine,
   I’ll cry for joy, “I know He’s mine.”

Media telegraphs 'plagues' (of biblical proportions?)

Guess who said this a few days ago: “There’s something going on, it’s crazy. What’s happening is crazy and you wonder whether or not all of the things that he’s signing, whether or not he understands what he’s signing, because this is worse than Bernie Sanders at its worst point. We never thought this could happen. Bernie Sanders on steroids wouldn’t be signing what this guy is signing."

That was Donald Trump referring to our president. Trump also said he thought Kamala Harris could be our president soon.

*****

In an internet article today entitled, "Australians warned of spider 'plague' after floods," the first paragraph reads,  "A plague of the world's most venomous spiders could swarm Sydney after torrential rain and flooding, the Australian Reptile Park said Wednesday, warning that the deadly arachnids could seek refuge in homes as they escape the deluge."

In a headline from yesterday's Deseret News: "There's a mouse plague happening in Australia right now."

The article begins, "An out-of-control infestation of mice in the eastern states of Australia is making life difficult for local farmers, grocers and community members.

"Live Science reports the infestation is so bad that some unlucky farmers have lost their entire harvests to the mice. Hotels in the infested areas are closing their doors because the unwanted guests are dirtying their rooms and grocery stores are reporting nightly extermination sessions that tally up to 600 mice."

*****

Joel 1:4 says, “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.”

“Every time you read a commentary about the Book of Joel, they look at this insect infestation as a historical event but nobody knows when that took place," says Jordan. "There’s no record of it in Scripture outside of this passage.

“You can believe anything you want about it, but my own personal, private, subject, individual impression is that he’s not talking about an infestation in the past, because he’s not talking about the past here; he’s talking about the future.

“It’s an infestation in the future that’s going to wind up with the destruction of the land and, in chapter 2, it’s going to be immediately followed by the battle of Armageddon. That takes place in the last half of the 70th week and at the end of it in the ‘day of the Lord.’

"So verse 15 says, ‘Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.’

“Really, what he’s describing here is a prophetic picture. If you want to say, as the commentaries all do, that it’s historically rooted in the past and Joel’s doing what Hosea said, using a similitude—‘Here’s a historic event and an illustration out of it’--I think you lose something if that’s all you get out of it.

*****

“You see how he says in verse 3, ‘Here’s what the old men are to do’: ‘Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.’

“Here’s something you need to pass on to your kids and make sure they understand it so they can pass it to their kids and let everybody remember this.

“Whenever you have someone in Israel telling them to remind their children about things, over and over again the context of what they’re reminding them about is going to be the restoration of Israel at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble.

“How often have we looked at how many events in Israel’s past are really dress rehearsals for things coming in their future.

“Come with me to Psalm 78. You see how it says a ‘Maschil of Asaph.’ That word Maschil is a Hebrew title for a psalm designed to teach doctrine. This is not a devotional psalm; this is an instruction psalm designed to produce edification in its hearers. It’s by Asaph, David’s choir director, so to speak.

“But he was more than that. Matthew 13: 34-35 says, ‘All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: 35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.’

“If you’ve got a Scofield Bible, it tells you where it’s a quote from. It’s from Psalm 78:2. Notice what Matthew calls the writer of Psalm 78. He doesn’t call him the psalmist, or the writer, or the devotional expositor. He calls him the prophet.

“So what do you expect to read in Psalm 78? Prophecy. Why? Because Matthew 13:35 said a prophet wrote it.

“I know I get way out on a limb some time and people think, ‘Brother Rick’s just nuts,’ but when you read these things, and you believe what you read and put them together, you begin to say, ‘Wow, this stuff is kind of fascinating!’

*****

“Here’s what the prophet says to them in Psalm 78: ‘1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
[5] For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
[6] That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
[7] That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

“That’s saying, ‘I’m going to tell you history like you learned our history, but our history is really a parable. Our history is a dress rehearsal about things taking place in the future.' It’s not just, 'I wonder what happened today; let’s turn on the news.’

“If you go on down through the chapter, and there’s 72 verses to it, he starts with the Exodus and goes all the way down to I Samuel 8 with David and goes through Israel’s history. He’ll do it in Psalm 105 and 106. The psalms do this over and over again.

“Each psalm has a particular doctrinal emphasis to it and they’ll pick out the history of Israel and lay it out and the psalmist will say, ‘You see what God did back there? He’s going to do the same thing over there.’

"Look at verses 43-45: 43] How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
[44] And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
[45] He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

*****

“You remember all the plagues Moses put on Egypt? The Book of Numbers says he was judging the gods of Egypt. Each one of those plagues represented an attack on some of the pagan gods the Egyptians trusted and he bested them.

“In fact, after the one in Exodus 10 about the locusts, Pharaoh’s men come in and say, ‘Pharaoh, would you just get rid of this guy because we’re beat; he’s already beaten us.’

“Verse 46 says, ‘He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.’  Verse 49 says, ‘He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.’

“So what happened back in Egypt is a prophecy against what God’s going to do against the world. By the way, Isaiah calls the pharaoh that held Israel captive the Assyrian.

"The Antichrist who’s going to hold Israel captive in the tribulation is called the Assyrian. So the spiritual force behind the captivity of Israel in Exodus is the same satanic policy holding them captive in the tribulation.

“If you go to Joel 1:4, he actually has four categories for the plague of the locust (Exodus 10). Commentaries usually say those are four different stages of the life of a locust. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s fascinating to me that one bug can only eat so much so when he leaves, the next bug eats more and by the time you get to the end, there ain’t nothing left.

*****

“There’s a destruction coming in the land that Joel is prophesying about and, as we read the rest of the chapter, he’s going to describe how thorough the destruction is.

“There’s people who say that’s four different Gentile nations and they try to interpret it and so forth, but my own view is it’s a literal destruction of the land, only it’s looking to the future and that’s why he tells them to remember it.

“Joel 1: 19-20 says, 19] O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
[20] The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

“Fire, flame, devouring--that’s not what locusts do. There’s something more than just bugs infesting, so when you keep reading in Joel 1 you begin to say, ‘Hmm.’

“Verses 5-6 say, ‘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.
[6] For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.’

“Now, wait a minute, the locusts turn out to be a nation that’s come up upon the land, strong and without number, and they’ve got teeth like a great lion and they devour.

“Lions aren’t going to eat the grass. You go on down through here and you see they eat the grass, the trees, the apple trees, the pomegranate trees, the vine tree.

*****

“There’s something more than just literal locusts because now, in connection with that, there’s a nation. When it says they have teeth like the teeth of a lion, and have cheek teeth of a great lion, there’s a fascinating comparison there.

“In essence, what Joel is doing is announcing the judgment of that Fifth Course on Israel. The day of the Lord’s wrath is what that Fifth Course of captivity is and what Joel is saying is, ‘That Fifth Course is coming!’

“In all the other courses, He’ll destroy the land and let the Gentiles come in and take them, but God doesn’t clean wipe them out. But when you get down to that Fifth Course, you’re going to be down to the place where you’re so starved and your resources are so gone you’re going to start eating each other.

“Now, if you go back into Kings, you’ll see that historically. I know you and I, all fat and sassy, have never been that hungry. It’s easy for you to say what you wouldn’t do, but if you’re put in the exact same circumstances they’re in, then tell me you wouldn’t do it. That’s how desperate they’re going to be.

*****

“Deuteronomy 28, where it’s describing the outworking of these five courses of judgment, verse 38 says, ‘Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.’

“One of the judgments of God against Israel is the harvest of their land being consumed by pestilence; by plagues of insects, specifically locusts.

“Verses 40-43 says, [40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
[41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
[42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

“God’s going to stop the natural production of the fruit of the trees. In verse 49 (‘The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand’) is the nation in Joel 1:6.

*****

“It’s a nation of locusts. Proverbs 30:27 says, ‘The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.’

“If a locust has no king, would you properly describe him as a nation? Doesn’t a nation need a head? So it would be odd to call a band of locusts a nation if they didn’t have a king, but what if you had locusts who had a king?

“In Revelation 9 are some locusts. Where’d they come from? The bottomless pit. Well, obviously they weren’t insects. They are some kind of spirit creatures. They would be some of those evil angels like over in psalms.

“Revelation 9:3 says, ‘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.’

“Along with the insect infestation that’s physically destroying the land, eating it down so it produces absolutely nothing of consumable value, now there’s a group of demonic in the spirit world coming.

“Verse 4 says, ‘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.’

“So this locust is going to attack people who are lost. Revelation 9:5 says, ‘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. ‘

“They don’t kill you, they just torment you. It says they’ll want to die and they can’t. Verse 6 says, ‘And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.’

“The passage goes on, ‘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.
[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[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.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
[12] One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

“If that’s the first woe, think how bad the next two are going to be! And that first woe is what Joel is seeing. Not only is there just going to be the physical destruction of the land, the picture in Joel is that in the tribulation, there’s going to be this swarm of locusts.

“Revelation 11:3 says, ‘And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.’

“Those two witnesses are Moses and Elijah and they’re going to do something. Remember verse 6? Would that be a little bit difficult? You read in Joel about the rivers drying up and everything being parched.

“One of the plagues Moses smote Egypt with was locusts. In that second half of that 70^th week in the tribulation, literally the land’s going to be smitten with swarms of locusts that just take the form of the plagues out of Egypt.

“They cover the land, go in the houses and just infest everything, eat everything, decimate the land. Then you’re going to have on top of that these demonic locusts from Revelation 9 that come on the land as a nation whose teeth are like lions. All of that is going to be followed in chapter 2 of Joel with the battle of Armageddon.”

(new article tomorrow)

Their love of setting things on fire for Moloch, or king

In the appendix notes about Tammuz at the end of his classic book (circa 1858), The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop writes, 

"Everywhere are the Zoroastrians, or fire-worshippers, called Gabrs. Now, Genesis 10:8 proves that Nimrod was the first of the Gabrs. As Zoroaster was head of the fire-worshippers, so Tammuz was evidently the same . . . 

"1. In the first place, Tammuz and Adonis are proved to be the same divinity. Jerome, who lived in Palestine when the rites of Tammuz were observed, up to the very time when he wrote, expressly identifies Tammuz and Adonis in his commentary on Ezekiel, where the Jewish women are presented as weeping for Tammuz . . . 

"2. Now, if Tammuz was Nimrod, the examination of the meaning of the name confirms the connection of Nimrod, with the first fire-worship, there needs no argument to show that, as the Chaldeans were the first who introduced the name and power of kings, and as Nimrod was unquestionably the first of these kings, and the first consequently, that bore the title of Moloch, or king, so it was in honor of him that the 'children were made to pass through the fire to Moloch.' But the intention of that passing through the fire was undoubtedly to purify . . .

"It is evident fire itself was worshipped as Tammuz, for it is called the 'Father that perfected all things.' In one respect this represented fire as the Creative god; but in another, there can be no doubt that it had reference to the 'perfecting' of men by 'purifying' them. And especially it perfected those whom it consumed. . . And this also, no doubt, reconciled the parents who actually sacrificed their children to Moloch, to the cruel sacrifice, the belief being cherished that the fire that consumed them also 'perfected' them, and made them meet for eternal happiness."

*****

Ezekiel 8 is a passage mentioning Tammuz: “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

[13] He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
[14] Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.”

Jordan explains, “Tammuz was the son of the goddess of the sun. In the Baal worship system there’s always a Madonna and child. Tammuz is the baby and he has two tremendous things happen in his life. One is he’s killed. Then, later on, he’s resurrected.

“He dies in the fall of the year as the ‘god of agriculture,’ as the winter approaches, and in the spring of the year he’s resurrected. These women are weeping not for their sin, or the judgment of God that’s coming. They’re weeping for Tammuz, of all things.

“Verse 15 says, ‘And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.’

“You see what these guys are doing? They’re in the temple and they’re making out like they’re worshipping Jehovah and yet they’re really just eyeball deep in Baal worship.

“Verse 17 says ‘they put the branch to their nose.’ That’s quite a statement, isn’t it? You know, four times in Old Testament the Lord Jesus is called by the title ‘the branch.’ Isaiah 4, Jeremiah 23, Zachariah 3 and 6.

“Each one of those four references is a reference to a particular characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ that’s reflected in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It’s a fascinating portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Author of life.

“This idolatrous system here has taken that title and developed their own idolatrous source of life. God is love, therefore love is God, and the highest act a man can perform is to create life. That’s why the tremendous sexual abominations that were involved in this—in fact, the word used there is the word used for 'phallus.' The Greek phalex that later on shows up.

“You know, we say you’re ‘thumbing your nose at God.’ That’s the modern-day derivative of this term here. The Italians have a vulgar, vile gesture that they use that’s a similar kind of a thing. They just show the earthy, abominable nature and that’s what’s going on there.”

(another article later this evening)

2020 should have been their death knell

In an account people use to say there are contradictions in the Bible, Numbers 25 says,

[8] And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

[9] And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. 

In I Corinthians 10, Paul says, referring to what took place in Numbers, in what is obviously "subsequent revelation," [8] Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

"In other words, in the whole plague the aggregate was 24,000, but in one day 23,000 died; that was the impact of the thing," explains Preacher Richard Jordan.

*****

"All day long on Christian radio, they talk about 'the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom' and they use the term 'Christ followers.' What in the world is that? The devil's a 'Christ follower.' Well, of course, you've got to get the right Christ, because Satan's a christ.

"What is now called 'social justice' was one hundred years ago called the 'social gospel.' That is, we want to go out and feed and clothe the poor. When I was in college in the '60s, I worked in the rescue mission and we actually did feed and clothe poor people and house the homeless.

"The college campuses where people said you need to do this, I think, 'Hey, Doc, what are you doing? You sit in your ivory tower, get paid, go home and put your feet up on the coffee table. Come on down to the mission and actually do this stuff.'

"Anyone who's involved in preaching the gospel, appreciating the grace of God, is going to be concerned about ministering to those who are in need. With Paul in Galatians 2, when the apostles recognized his ministry, they said, '[10] Only they would that we should remember the poor,' talking about the poor saints in Jerusalem. Paul said, 'We're already doing that. That's the normal thing.'

"Anywhere you go in the world where the gospel's gone, you'll find ministries to the sick and needy, but they do it with the gospel in mind, trying to reach the souls of men, not just their physical well-being.

"The social gospel back 100 years ago was, 'Well, we take care of the physical needs.' Listen, there's no such thing as social justice. 

"In the Bible it's 'biblical justice.' If you want to see it in the age of grace, it's in Colossians 4:1: [1] Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

*****

"In the literal earthly kingdom to come, the Lord Jesus Christ will purify the government because He'll be the king. Isaiah 34 says all three branches of the government will be under His control. There will be a reign of righteousness. He'll bring justice to the social structure of the world.

"All the passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel that you hear people quoting to bring social justice, that will never happen in the present evil age. But they will when Jesus comes and sets up His kingdom. That's what they're describing.

"He'll bring a healthcare system that will work: 'Inhabitants of my kingdom will no more say I am sick.' He'll bring an economic system that brings complete prosperity to everyone on the planet. He'll bring an ecological system that will take care of all the fright/hype.

"I remember in the 1960s, it was, 'We're going to freeze.' Global freezing. The cover of Time Magazine had a globe on it, all frozen over. Now it's global warming. That's just a bunch of rich, greedy corporations trying to suck money out of your pocket book to the government. 

"When Christ comes back He'll take care of that. When we say we're pre-millennialists, that's as much a political statement as it is a doctrinal statement. There's not going to be any hope outside of Jesus Christ.

"But there is hope now because we understand why Christ isn't here. He's not establishing the kingdom. Get out of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and get over into Romans-Philemon and find out what God's really doing and don't live in a false world with false ideas.

*****

"The brother was talking about 'suffering-avoidance.' I was convinced last year that the COVID situation would be the death of the Charismatic, Pentecostal fraud claims. I mean, why wouldn't it be?

"When the virus first started, Kenny Copeland, Rod Parsley, Paula White, all these whackos, they were 'breathing out the breath of God's heat upon the COVID' and they were going to destroy and get rid of it. What happened? Everybody got sick. It didn't work. You'd think if anybody had one living brain cell they would look at that and say, 'That stuff's just a fraud.'

"The same thing with the prophecy stuff. These guys claim to be prophets and made all these prophecies that didn't come about. Sid Roth had a big convention before COVID with all these big prophecy preachers and they all talked about '2020 Visions' and how wonderful 2020 was going to be. Not a one of them saw the pandemic coming.

"2020 should have been the death knell of them, so why wasn't it? Well, I got to thinking about that. I Timothy says, [8] And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

[9] But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
[10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

"Galatians 3 says, [3] Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? [4] Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

"People's religious flesh wants what it wants so desperately bad that it's willing to, well as Brother Crumb said it, 'God is not a man that He should lie.' They're willing to look that in the face and say, 'Well, He didn't really mean what He said.'

*****

"A pamphlet I came across gave arguments for why dispensationalism is wrong. It said, 'Because there's no proof for the Rapture.' The Rapture has been popularized into a side show by social media.

"You know how people sing Amazing Grace and have no idea what they're singing about? Well, they talk about the Rapture and have no idea what they're talking about. In other words, they set up straw dummies.

"Another argument on why dispensationalism is false is because it's 'new.' That's probably the one you hear the most. It's an argument that turns on the concept that only ideas that have widespread historical appeal should be considered truth. In other words, you need this long body of tradition and scholarship in order for it to be true. That's the argument of historical losers, frankly.

"The Reformation, and these are the people who often make this argument, was new 500 years ago. The Presbyterian denomination was new 300 years ago. The Lutheran denomination was new 400 years ago. The developments in Covenant Theology, from the 17th Century, are 'new.'

"So the argument that if it's new it's wrong . . . listen, truth is determined from the Scriptures. Truth isn't determined by history. Truth can be uncovered, it can be forgotten, it can be restored, it can be developed, but it's not going to be new. It's been there all along in the Book even if it's only just now being nailed to the door of the old dead-wrong tradition that you've been a part of.

"The things that people use to oppose are really traditions of the vain religious system; the man-made system."

The learning experience is the certificate

The Bible teaches there is a big difference between human happiness and godly joy. What gave Paul the ability to live in whatever circumstances and have joy was from not evaluating life the way human viewpoint does, on the basis of simple happiness.

"Human happiness is about meeting personal expectations and having circumstances match desires," explains Preacher Richard Jordan. "It means I’m happy when life and others respond the way I want them to, or expect them to respond.

"God’s purpose in your life has nothing to do with making you happy. People say, ‘Well, certainly God wants me to be happy.’ If God’s goal was to make/keep you happy, then suffering wouldn’t have any real purpose in your life. In fact, it would be completely counter-productive.

“Real joy is about meeting God’s expectations, not yours, and having done God’s will. God’s purpose is to use me to bring glory to His name, and in every circumstance of my life that’s my purpose, my privilege. I don’t need to look at circumstances and evaluate whether this is a place I can rejoice or not.

“Glory is an outward expression. Rejoicing is an inner attitude. So the inner attitude of joy results in me being able to express that outward demonstration of that joy in times of trouble, difficulty and pressure, or persecution.

“It isn’t enough just to say ‘tribulation works patience’; it’s KNOWING that it does that causes us to be able to have the glory—the outward expression of this joy in the midst of trouble.

“All of your joy is eventually going to have to be based in who God has made you and what He’s going to do with you in Christ. Every time in Paul’s epistles when you see the issue of hope, it’s always looking to the future. It’s a Rapture-resurrection kind of a look.

"Always talking to God about what His word says about the circumstances I’m in gives me the ability to continually endure through the trouble because I’ve got a hope out there in the end that fills my heart with rejoicing. My joy is going to come from the sufficiency of His grace."

*****

“We instinctively withdraw our hand if it’s getting burned, right? But when it comes to tribulation, God’s attitude and perspective is, ‘No, I don’t want you to behave like that,’ ” explains Preacher Alex Kurz.

“There’s a direct correlation with the activity of godliness and the sanctifying effect that tribulations now have in life. It isn’t something that we dread. It isn’t something we run away from. It’s something that we can not only welcome, but we recognize we’re more than conquerors. God says there is a specific provision He gives to us so we can triumph in life.

“Instead of looking at tribulation as something to avoid, we’re to see its value. It’s no longer an enemy. I don’t have to fear or dread. I now can welcome those tribulations.

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“Hebrews 5:7 is a powerful, powerful verse of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.’

“He was a man of sorrows. Jesus was acquainted with grief. You don’t think He was touched by the effects of living in a sin-cursed world or the emotional and psychological trauma; the rejection and alienation. He knows--He feels hurt. He feels pain.

“Verse 5:8 says, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.’

“He didn’t succumb. While He’s in pain, while He’s in anguish, while He’s experiencing the trauma, you know what He chooses to do? ‘I’m going to learn.’ It’s a learning experience!

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“The theme of II Corinthians actually has to do with sufferings, tribulations and infirmities. It’s probably the darkest epistle the Apostle Paul wrote.

“He starts chapter 1 with, ‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.’

“Drop down to verse 9: ‘But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
[10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.’

“We’re going to learn to trust what God has to say about tribulations. Our flesh and our emotions, which are committed to avoiding all that . . . we now can learn what God says about it. So now we can tackle it with this renewed understanding; this renewed knowledge about it. Don’t fear it; don’t dread it.

“Paul says, ‘I’m now going to trust what God says.’ If He says tribulation is ordained to be a spiritual benefit and blessing, are we going to believe what He says about it? We have to readjust the way we think about the problems of life.

“God will not remove your affliction. Paul says three times, ‘Lord Jesus, please,’ and Christ responds, ‘Paul, you aren’t thinking about what’s happening in your life.’ Jesus Christ reminds Paul about the available inner-man capacity he already had: ‘Paul, you’ve already got something; I don’t need to do any more.’

“God will not miraculously reach down into your life and remove your problem or shield you from the problem. He doesn’t give us immunity or a hedge of protection. God said, ‘It’s a blessing.’

“What do we KNOW? ‘Hey, it’s going to work something!’ When bad things happen in your life, it has absolutely nothing to do with God’s displeasure. It has everything to do with God’s delight in producing something in the core of your inner man.

“ ‘If I’m going to glory,’ Paul says, ‘I’m going to glory in the things concerning my infirmities. God’s not angry with me; He’s not angry with you.’

" ‘So wait a minute, Paul, why do you look like a physical mess?!’ Paul’s going to say, ‘You know what, that’s my certificate.’

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

“It says, ‘We must.’ Is that optional? It’s a reality. The sooner we accept the fact that tribulation is part and parcel of our experience and edification, the sooner we can employ the very doctrines God says we need in order to glory in and see the value, worth, profit and advantage in it.”

(new article tomorrow)

Years spent in vanity and pride

"Ecclesiastes is a fascinating book because it's written by the wisest man who ever lived who had it all," reasons Reid. "He was a political leader. He was the king over the most important nation on the earth, the nation Israel. He was wealthy beyond man's imagination. He was wise because he was given wisdom by God. He was musically talented; he had men singers and women singers. He wrote over a 1,000 psalms. He recorded proverbs. He had vineyards.

"In other words, take every aspect of human endeavor, whether it's arts, or culture, or finance, or politics, he excelled in all of them. And what did he conclude? Well, life on earth is vanity under the sun. Apart from God, life has no point.

"So what is the whole duty of man? It's simple and it applies to all mankind. 'Fear God and keep His commandments.' Do what God would have you to do. Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth.

"Ecclesiastes is a cautionary tale because the wisest man who lived, who had everything, made his life a mess because he didn't keep the first thing the first thing. He got away from the Word of God. He wasn't reading, studying, obeying the Word and the end result was, 'Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.' "

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Hymn by Isaac Watt, "Let Him embrace my soul, and prove," based on Song of Solomon:

Let him embrace my soul, and prove

Mine interest in his heav'nly love;
The voice that tells me, "Thou art mine,"
Exceeds the blessings of the vine.

On thee th' anointing Spirit came,
And spreads the savor of thy name;
That oil of gladness and of grace
Draws virgin souls to meet thy face.

Jesus, allure me by thy charms,
My soul shall fly into thine arms!
Our wand'ring feet thy favors bring
To the fair chambers of the King.

[Wonder and pleasure tune our voice
To speak thy praises and our joys;
Our memory keeps this love of thine
Beyond the taste of richest wine.]

Though in ourselves deformed we are,
And black as Kedar's tents appear,
Yet, when we put thy beauties on,
Fair as the courts of Solomon.

[While at his table sits the King,
He loves to see us smile and sing;
Our graces are our best perfume,
And breathe like spikenard round the room.]

As myrrh new bleeding from the tree,
Such is a dying Christ to ine
And while he makes my soul his guest,
My bosom, Lord, shall be thy rest.

[No beams of cedar or of fir
Can with thy courts on earth compare;
And here we wait, until thy love
Raise us to nobler seats above.]