Pitiless God: 'I'm comforted in you getting yours'

In Ezekiel, God keeps reminding Israel they were to be His witness, His Word to all the nations of the earth, but that they fumbled the ball.

Ezekiel 5:6: [6] And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

"She's been worse than the nations. Doesn't that phrase 'she hath changed my judgments' remind you of Romans 1? They changed the truth of God into a lie. Israel had God's Word in written form, directly from the mouth of God, and they changed His Word MORE than the Gentiles did. They turned the truth into a lie," explains Richard Jordan.

Verse 7: [7] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

"God's saying, 'I mean, you had my name, my judgments, my statutes, my laws, and you were worse at keeping them--the Gentiles did better at following the false gods that they had. They were better at their religion than the one I gave you. They had a false religion while you had the truth and yet they did better than you at it!'

Verse 8: [8] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

"He's going to judge them so that all the nations will see their God won't put up with what they're doing.

Verse 9: [9] And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

"God's saying, 'It's going to be worse with you than it's ever been with anybody. Why? Because you had my Word; you had the light, the truth, and you rejected it. Your consistent rejection of the truth I gave you, my longsuffering in seeking to bring you back, my chastening--you've walked against me in all of that.'

Verse 10: [10] Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

"Imagine the fathers eating the sons and the sons eating the fathers. Back in Jeremiah and Lamentations where things got so bad with poverty, they would eat their babies only a span long. Just a little newborn, 18 inches long. You remember where it says they will be 'without natural affection'?

"Listen, you don't reject the truth of God in any culture and get better. And all those things that He's going to smite them with back in Leviticus and stuff, it isn't just that He has to send these things. He sends them but the people are down with it and He's going to scatter them.

Matthew 24:12 says, 'And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.' When you don't have the capacity to understand what God's doing, iniquity abounds.

Luke 12:48: [48] But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

"What Ezekiel is saying is just that; judgment is in proportion to knowledge and privilege. He's going to judge Israel as an example to the Gentiles of what happens when you have the light from God and then you walk against it.

Ezekiel 5:11: [11] Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

"Notice He says, 'As I live.' God literally pledges His very existence to carry this out. This is not a small matter with the Lord. He's saying, 'Based on who I am, I'm going to do what I do.' 

"By the way, when you get to chapter 8, He'll lay out what the detestable things (the abominations) are and it had to do with idolatry, Baal worship. They forsook Jehovah and went after the gods of the Gentiles and then they brought that into Israel's temple and added it on.

"There's a verse in Kings that says they worshipped Jehovah and followed idols. How do you do that? It's called ecumenicalism. They're doing that today.

"What was the first commandment? Have no other gods before me. Don't make any graven images. He says, 'Therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.'

"What do you do when you don't have pity on people? You don't feel sorry for them. Here's Jehovah looking at His nation, putting them into captivity, punishing them, letting them bear the consequences of their rebellion, and He says, 'I won't have pity for you. I'm not going to feel sorry for you because you're getting what you deserve. You're getting what you asked for.'

"Here's what they're getting: [12] A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

[13] Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.

"When He sees the destruction that His fury brings upon them, He says, 'I'm comforted.' Now, that's a side of God that we don't like to talk about. We like to say, 'God is love. God so loved the world. Love wins.'

"God says, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That's not what I want. But they turned.' He says in Ezekiel, 'You're at a point now where you've had the opportunity to turn and you refused. You had the opportunity to get right and you wouldn't do it, and now you're at the place where the time of judgment's here.'

"If you look at Isaiah 1:24, He said this through Isaiah in relationship to the carrying away of the northern kingdom: [24] Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

[25] And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

"God says, 'I'll ease myself. I'll get rid of these dudes. They're fighting me on every hand; I'll quit fussing with them and get rid of them.'

"He's saying, 'It's over; the argument's over.' Did you ever get tired of arguing with people? If you've got kids you know what I'm talking about. Listen, God Himself has a right to decide when His patience has run out.

John 3:16 says there's life through trusting in Christ because God's love provided life for His Son. Then John 3:36 says, [36] He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

"There's a line. Which side are you on? God's love is on one side but look at the rest of that verse: 'the wrath of God abideth on him.'

"I know it's not popular to believe in the wrath of God. It's not popular to believe that the wrath of God would be something He'd be comfortable with for all eternity. But He says that willful, intentional, deliberate, continual rebellion . . . 'There's going to come a point where my patience is over and I'm going to be comforted with the destruction.'

Ezekiel 5: 14-15: [14] Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.

[15] So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.

"God says, 'Right there in the midst of the nations, I'm going to show everybody what happens when you rebel like you have.' They're going to be a reproach, a taunt. They're going to be instruction for the Gentiles on what happens when your rebel against the God of Israel.

[16] When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
[17] So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.

"All those things in verses 16-17 are back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These are things they knew would overtake them in their rebellion. They had full knowledge of the consequences of their sin. There's a long history of rebellion that brings Israel to this stage."

(new article tomorrow)

Gigantic flying scroll of Scripture

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow)

“The last three visions Zechariah sees seem to be extremely confusing to commentators. You take Florida Baptist teacher Dr. Peter Ruckman. When he wrote a commentary on the Book of Zechariah he kept saying, ‘I didn’t want to write this because there is stuff in Zechariah I don’t know anything about.’

“When he gets to chapter 5, he says, ‘This chapter, nobody knows anything about it.’ Consequently, you can always tell how much somebody who’s teaching Zechariah has had contact with Ruckman, because they’ll say, ‘Well, you can’t figure this out. You don’t know it.’ The mentality is, ‘If doc didn’t know it, nobody can know it.’ The thing about that is you don’t grow beyond what he didn’t know.

“Zechariah 5 is an interesting chapter in that all of a sudden Zechariah doesn’t give you a lot of extraneous information to help you interpret what’s going on, but that isn’t because he’s trying to hide it," explains Richard Jordan.

"The reason for it, it seems to me, is at this point, where we have the sixth through eighth vision, Zechariah expects his readers to have enough information to be able to understand these things for themselves.

*****

“If you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there’s a point where the Lord Jesus Christ began to speak in parables. Prior to Matthew 13, for example, He spake very plainly, but now there’s this rejection of Him that’s taken place. The first stated plot to kill Him is in Matthew 12. That’s when He says, the greater prophet, the greater priest, the greater king is here and you’ve rejected Him.

“In Matthew 13 He goes outside of the house, a picture of leaving the nation Israel, and sits by the seaside and begins to give what He calls the ‘mystery parables of the kingdom.’

“Preachers tell you Jesus told parables in order to make it easy for people to understand what he said. Jesus said it was the opposite. He said, ‘It’s for you to understand and for them not to so I’m putting it in veiled language only believers can understand.’

“He gave seven parables in Matthew 13 and interpreted the first two. In Mark 4 when he did it, He explained, ‘I’m going to interpret these for you so you will have a template by which you can interpret all the rest of them.’ He taught them how to interpret the parables so they could go on with the rest and that’s sort of what’s happening in Zechariah.

*****

“Chapter 5 begins, 'Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.' In a little while there’s the 'flying ephah.' Ruckman doesn’t know what these are so therefore they’re unidentified flying objects and he says the chapter’s full of UFOs.

“In this sixth vision about a flying roll you’re going to see here the fact God’s going to judge; He’s going to curse sin. They’ve broken the covenant and it’s not going to go undealt with. The seventh vision of the ephah is a real strange one.

“Zechariah’s first five visions were full of hope, the kingdom, the restoration and then these last four visions focus on vengeance and wrath.

The next two verses reveal, [2] And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
[3] Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

“When he says it’s a roll, that’s talking about a scroll that's an official document. Ezra 6 begins, [1] Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.
[2] And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written.

“So the roll is a book that’s been rolled up into a scroll. We’re talking about a book that’s an official document.

*****

"Zechariah 5:4 says, [4] I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

“What is it that brings a curse? It’s the broken law. You remember the curses of Leviticus 26? God says, ‘You keep the law, keep my covenant, and I’ll bless you. You don’t, I’ll curse you.’

“Deuteronomy 27:26 says, [26] Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

“That curse comes from breaking the law, so the flying roll contains the curse. The roll is going to be the Word of God; it’s going to be God’s message to them. That’s how God’s Word was available to them.

“Jeremiah 36 begins, [1] And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
[2] Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

"Verse 4 says, [4] Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

“What Zechariah is seeing is the Word of God and in it is the law. ‘This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.’

*****

“By the way, the idea of it being a FLYING roll . . . It says ‘the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.’ A cubit is the measurement between the end of your finger to your elbow. It’s generally considered to be 18 inches, so this thing, if it’s 20 cubits, it’s going to be a little over 30 feet. If it’s 10 cubits wide, it’s going to be 18 feet wide.

"So you’ve got this gigantic roll that’s flying and where’s it flying? Over the land of Palestine. Now why would you have a big copy of the Scripture flying in the air?

“The last time we were at Navy Pier there was an airplane flying by pulling a banner. It was down by Soldier Field but it turned around and came back, flying right over Navy Pier, and all of a sudden you could read the sign.

“You know how you’re watching for it and you can’t see it and you’re just waiting for it to get there? This roll thing is flying in the air for them to read. It’s big and gigantic so it will be easy for them to read!

“Habbakuk 2:2 says, [2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

“The idea is put it in big billboard fashion so people can see plainly, because when they get the message then they can run with it. The flying roll is not designed to be some spook show or Star Wars thing where there’s a flying saucer or flying banana out there. It’s not to be a UFO. This is a picture, a vision of how God’s Word is going to be placarded before His people and they’re going to be accountable to it.

“Of course, when he talks about the curse going over ‘the face of the whole earth,’ he’s talking about the land of Palestine. All of the land of the Middle East is going to here this message.

*****

“We know the roll was written on both sides because Zechariah 5:3 says ‘for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.’

“When God gave the commandments to Moses, Exodus 32:15 says, [15] And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

“They were written with the finger of God, so when He gave the law, He wrote it on both sides. You remember the law is really in two sections.

"The first four commandments talk about the relationship with God: Have no other gods before me, no graven images, don’t take the name of the Lord in vain and so forth. The last six commandments had to do with the relationship with one another. Don’t commit adultery, don’t lie, don’t steal, etc.

“So what does Zechariah do? He’s taking the side of the law that says, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ and then he says, ‘Thou shalt not swear,’ meaning don’t blaspheme, swear falsely in God's name. One is the fourth commandment and the other is the eighth commandment. So he’s got the balance and that’s why the two sides.

“Those two specific sins are identified, not just because they represent the two parts of the law, but because they focus on the Antichrist, the satanic policy in the ‘last days’ against the Believing Remnant in Israel.

“When he says everyone that stealeth shall be cut off, Jesus said in John 10, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.’

“Who is it that was trying to climb up the other way? The Pharisees; the vain religious system in Israel. They were trying to get the blessings without coming God’s way. And Jesus said, ‘You’re a thief and a robber.’ He said, ‘When they sware falsely in my name, they blasphemed.’

“Revelation 13 says about the Antichrist that his mouth was full of blasphemies against God. These are the special sins that are going to be used in the seduction policy against the nation Israel to try to destroy the Little Flock in Israel and the nation itself. So those specific sins, the reason they’re listed here is because these sins are specific sins that the Antichrist and his followers with their tactics are going to use against the Little Flock.

“I’m saying these particular things because by the time you get here in Zechariah 5, these are the kind of things that ought to be rolling around in your mind when you read these verses.”

*****

“Malachi 4:5-6 is the last thing you read in the Old Testament. It says, [5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
[6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

“Before the Second Advent Elijah’s going to come. Who did we just read about in Zechariah 4? You remember those two olive branches, those two witnesses from Revelation 11? We know one is Moses and one is Elijah.

“Right there in Zechariah 5 you just read a couple of verses before about Elijah coming. So Malachi says, ‘Elijah’s coming.’ Verse 6: [6] And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

“If you don’t listen to those two witnesses in Zechariah 4, what’s going to happen? He’s going to smite the whole earth with a curse. You see the connections in that? This stuff is not just free standing. It’s not just, ‘Huh, what is that? Must be a UFO.’ There’s plenty of information here to figure out what’s going on.

*****

“By the way, when he says in verse 2 that ‘the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits,’ come back to I Kings 6.

“When you’re familiar enough with these things in your thinking you would ask yourself, ‘Why in the world would he tell me how big the thing is?’ He could have said it was big. Why did he give me the measurements and when he did, why did he give me THOSE measurements?

“Well, if you weren’t really familiar with the history of Israel, you could get a concordance and look it up. It would be better to be familiar with it.

“What you do is you try to get the things in your mind. In fact, I have people email me or Facebook me and ask, ‘What are your reading habits?’ Someone asked, ‘When you read do you study?’ No, just read. Just reading gets it into your mind and then when you study, you’ve got all that stuff floating around in there.

“Here’s a cross reference that you could have found easily. When Solomon built the temple, I Kings 6:2-3 says, [2] And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
[3] And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

“So the porch on the temple is exactly the same size. You know what you do with a porch? My wife always wanted to have a house with a porch. We stayed at a B&B in Maine that had this beautiful porch looking out over a blueberry field and a big woods full of fall leaves in beautiful color. You know what we did on the porch. We’d get up in the morning and go out and sit on the porch. It was beautiful.

“The porch is where you go watch stuff, where you go see stuff, where you put the handbills. This scroll is there and it’s going to remind them, if they’re thinking, about the temple. Well, there’s something very special going on in Israel in connection with the ‘last days,’ in connection with the satanic policy of thieving; stealing God’s Word from the people and speaking blasphemy against Him that’s going to cause the curse to go out through the whole land that has to do with the temple.

“My point is that the flying scroll, even in its dimensions, points them to the temple. II Chronicles 4:1, talking again about Solomon, says, [1] Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.

“I just point out again, here’s the altar. Where? In the temple. What is it that the Antichrist is going to assault? Where’s he going to declare himself to be God? Where’s he going to speak the great swelling words of blasphemy? It’s all going to be related to the temple.

*****

“So here comes God’s Word and when you violate the law, that covenant, there’s a curse coming and it’s going to consume the whole land. This thing’s going to cover the whole of the Middle East.

“Zechariah 5:4-5 says, [4] I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
[5] Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.

“They think they’ve been doing it and getting away with it, but he says, ‘I’m going to send this curse and it’s going to pursue them, not just down the street, but it’s going to go home with them and consume them.

“It’s literally going to consume them, their homes and the building material the houses are made of. Now, that’s quite a curse. He’s literally going to take the whole of them out completely.

“The only thing in the Bible that I know of like that is, can you think of it? You remember when God put the tenth plague on Pharaoh? The death angels are going to come in to all the houses that don’t have the blood on the post.

"If you’re not under the blood, William Tyndale coined a term in the 1500s to describe that event. He called it the Passover. It comes out of Exodus 12:13 when God says, ‘When I see the blood I will pass over them.’ But what He was doing was there was this death angel that pursued Pharoah, that Assyrian usurper seeking to destroy Israel . . ."

Genius at difficult, dark, mystical sayings

(new article tomorrow)

“God looked down through the ages and saw the time when Satan would deceive the nations with another Babylonish scheme: The dictator of a world government would repeat the attempt made by Nebuchadnezzar to command all nations and peoples to worship his image as God or be killed.

“If you want to see the kind of guy this character the Antichrist will be, Daniel 7 tells you he’s an intellectual genius, a wizard at words and communication. It says he speaks with great swelling words. He’s a military genius, a political genius, a commercial genius.

“Daniel 8:23 says, [23] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

“The Antichrist’s going to be a genius about understanding dark, difficult, hard, mystical sayings. He’s also that fierce, bloody, violent man," explains Richard Jordan.

“The passage goes on, [24] And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
[25] And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

“When it says ‘his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power,’ that’s saying he’s going to have Satan give him his power and his seat.

*****

“It says, ‘He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and by peace shall destroy many.’ He’s going to come in and say, ‘Peace, peace.’

“Daniel 11:21-22 says, [21] And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
[22] And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

“That’s all that stuff in Isaiah 30 about ‘speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.’ His words will be smoother than butter. Deceit’s in his heart but he doesn’t say he’s going to obtain the authority. Israel’s going to literally surrender to him through a peace plan.

“Daniel 11:24 says, [24] He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

“They’re going to think, ‘This guy, he’s a commercial, military, political genius and we’re getting RICH by helping him!’ As soon as they get there, though, he pulls the rug out from under them. He’s a deceiver.

*****

“In Daniel 8, Daniel sees another end-times vision in the third year of the reign of Babylon. It’s a subsequent vision to chapter 7. What he sees is a ram with two horns. Then, in verse 5, he sees an he goat come up and destroy the ram. Daniel then says, ‘What is this?’ By the way, after the he goat destroys the ram, the he goat fills up the whole earth and then the he goat’s broken into four pieces.

“The interpretation of that starts in verse 8: [8] Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

“Come down in the chapter and look at the interpretation: [19] And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
[20] The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
[21] And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

“Again, we’re talking about the ‘last days’; end-times prophecy. The he goat is the king of Grecia. The great horn between his eyes is the first king. The ram is Media-Persia. The horn that comes up is the first king of Greece. Who was that? Alexander the Great.

“Verse 22: ‘Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.’

“So that king, the Antichrist, comes up out of one of those four divisions of the Greek Empire. The king of the north is Assyria. The king of the south is Egypt. If you keep reading, it’s the king of the north and the king of the south that battle in chapter 11.

“Out of those two nations, the Antichrist comes out of Syria. He doesn’t come out of Europe. He is the Assyrian by national origin. Daniel tells you that’s where he’s going to come from, so when you’re watching the politics of this thing, watch this guy. And when you see the guy take over the 10 kings by subduing three and rising up, you know you’ve got your man. So there’s descriptive prophetic details that will help a fellow.

“Daniel 11:30 says, [30] For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

“He’s going to break the covenant and blame Israel for doing it. He’s not going to take credit; he’s going to blame them.

“Verse 31: [31] And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

“Jesus talked about that in Matthew 23: ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ Right in the middle of all that deceptiveness where the Antichrist’s lying to them through his teeth, the people who know their God shall be strong and it says “they that understand shall instruct many.”

“There’s a Believing Remnant who’s going to know what’s going on because they read these prophecies and say, ‘There it is, here it is; here’s what God says that is!’ So they’re the ones who trust God’s Word; they’re the ones the Antichrist is trying to persecute, eliminate and destroy.”

*****

“Then they built a tower. In the Bible, a tower is a reference to a very particular thing. Psalms 18:2 says, [2] The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Who is David’s high tower? The Lord is. He’s my high tower.

“Psalms 61 says, [2] From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
[3] For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.  

“We got a song in the hymn book that says, ‘Oh let me flee to the rock that is higher than I.’ That’s the Bible verse that song came off of.

“Psalms 144:2 says, [2] My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

“Proverbs 18:10 says, [10] The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

*****

“You see, what you’re talking about is a religious thing; something with a spiritual connotation to it. When they built the city, they were building a political entity to establish them and make them a name in the earth, lest they would be forgotten.

“They want to make a NAME. They want to take over Creation independent of God. They don’t just have a political system with the city; they have a religious system to go along with it in the tower.

“The tower's established in the city of Babel, which becomes the kingdom of Babylon, and in the Bible, it’s known as Baal worship, and starts with Nimrod right here. They say, ‘That the top may reach unto heaven.’

"You know what they’re doing? They build themselves a big cathedral with the bell tower, except there’s not just a bell up there. There’s an altar on top of that thing and they go up there on that altar and offer a sacrifice and it’s that sacrifice that’s going to get them to heaven, they say.

“Of course, they just say it ‘may’ reach unto heaven. Maybe. What they’re saying is, ‘We’re going to do it OUR way, not God’s way. We’re not going to have the nationalism and the divisions and the separations that God says. We’re going to remove the bounds God puts between us and we’re going to have one political entity. There’s going to be a one-world government and we’re going to have a one-world religion; internationalism and ecumenicalism.' You know where it all began? You’re reading it! It all began with Nimrod.

“Then there’s the religious system with all of its rites, rituals, and so on. When you hear the Bible talk about Baal worship, this is its origins and you know what it is? It’s Babylon and it’s Genesis 11, and something tremendously significant is happening here. Far more so than just another rebellion against God.

“Look what the Lord does in verse 5: ‘[5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. Verse 6 says, [6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

“How would you like the Lord to show up and see your city? I take people around and show them Chicago and the old North Shore Church building and every now and then I think, ‘Well, why not, the Lord came down to see Nimrod’s city and his church.’

“The Lord came and inspected the city. He says, ‘Hmm, lookie here what we got.’ And He came and looked at their church building. You see, they’ve gathered themselves together with the international spirit of oneness. They’re taking away the separations God gave them; the distinct charge and commission to go and do the thing He gave them to do.”

*****

While it’s commonly understood that first-century Greek author Pliny the Elder named Zoroaster as the inventor of magic, the Bible clearly reveals its origins are with the 'wise men' in Babylon.

“As God scatters the nation Israel and brings the times of the Gentiles into vogue, Nebuchadnezzar takes Israel’s place as the king in the earth and in Babylon there’s this scholarly priest-class of people—the magicians, sorcerers, astrologers, the Chaldeans,” explains Jordan.

“There’s this people with this supposed profound, supernatural-type wisdom and knowledge gained from reading the stars, and the wise men from Matthew 2, who journeyed to see Jesus as a young child, have this connection with being able to grasp this type of knowledge.”

According to a website, “The religion of the Persians is often connected with the name Zoroaster, who enjoyed a wide reputation in the ancient world as the founder of the order of the Magi, and by extension as the founder of the wisdom of the Persians. Many classical Hellenic (Greek) authors and philosophers so preoccupied themselves with Persian culture that they journeyed, studied, and as a result, adopted many Persian-Magian-Zoroastrian ideas and skills.”

Jordan says, “The wise men who saw Jesus Christ’s star in the east were from Persia, from Babylon, no doubt. It was about a 1,200 mile journey. They come into the house where Jesus is now a toddler, and it’s a house, not an inn or stable. He’s not in the barn or in the field. He’s not in Bethlehem; He’s in Nazareth.

“If you remember, Herod tries to get to Jesus by ordering that children two years old and younger be killed, so the implication is it could have been as much as two years gone by since the wise men first saw the star.

“In the Book of Daniel you see these wise men came out of the tradition of Babel and Babylon. When Nebuchadnezzar came in to take Israel away, it says he took away the choicest young men.

"As Daniel 1:20 says, ‘And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.’

*****

“The word ‘magi’ is where you get the term ‘magician’ and it didn’t have to do with David Copperfield and all that sleight of hand stuff you see these guys do today.

“Zoroasterism was a religion based on the ability to read the stars, but nobody can figure out when or where Zoroaster lived. They got about three dates that cover about 900 years and they got him living anywhere from Pakistan to middle Persia to up into Turkey.

"It’s a mess to try and figure out who this dude was and what he did, but the fact is these wise men pre-date Zoroaster, who simply came along and took up some of these guys’ position. Where these guys come from goes all the way back to Genesis 11.

“The magicians and astrologers were people who practiced predicting the future; claiming what was going to happen by calculating the planetary positions, taking these maps of the heavens and the signs of the zodiac and all these 'influences' of the stars.

“They professed to be endowed with profound wisdom and extraordinary knowledge in spiritual things, but we’re told Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were 10 times better than these other guys. Why do you think that would be? Their wisdom and understanding comes from the Lord."

Abraham all fraught with fear

(new article tomorrow)

In Genesis 12, Abraham reasons with his wife, Sarai, “Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

[12] Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
[13] Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.”

“Sarai was a good-looking gal evidently, and the Egyptians had a habit of killing off the men folk and saving the women, like in Exodus 1,” says Jordan.

“So Abraham says, ‘I pray thee, thou art my sister.’ Now, was that a lie? Well, it was a half-truth because they were HALF sister/brother.

"Abraham’s saying, ‘If we tell them you’re my wife, they’re going to think you’re a good looking gal and they’re going want to take you, so let’s tell them you’re my sister.’

“He has no trust in God; he’s conniving. The passage goes on, ‘And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
[18] And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
[19] Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
[20] And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.’

 

*****

“That’s a great testimony to leave with, isn’t it? Have the old king get you in there and bawl you out about your own ethics! Pharaoh’s saying, ‘Why, you old sorry rascal, what’d you come down here for?! You don’t know nothing about life and living! Look what you brought on my family!’ I mean, that Pharaoh had more ethics than Abraham did and he shames him! 

“Now, there’s something interesting in that passage. Why in the world would God have plagued Pharaoh for taking Sarai to be his wife? David took another man’s wife and God didn’t put any plagues on him. Herod had his brother’s wife and God didn’t do anything special to him.

“Why would he have threatened Pharaoh that way? It had to have been something special about that wife; about the ‘seed of the woman.’ You see, there’s the conflict! There’s Satan’s attempt to destroy Abraham’s seed by destroying SARAI!!! And it’s getting to Abraham. He’s all fraught with fear.

“The thing that got Abraham in trouble is he quit walking in faith, depending on God, and went off into human viewpoint, and pretty soon fear overtook him and he got in circumstances he couldn’t control.

"Fear drove him further and further and further away into the satanic web that was designed to thwart God’s purposes, and God intervened with the plagues.

“The lesson is if God hadn’t intervened like He did, everything would have been lost for Abraham. Divine intervention to keep His dispensational purposes on track is part of God’s program for the nation Israel and it starts right here.

*****

“Abraham’s going to come up out of Egypt with his wife and all that he had and it says he was very rich in cattle and so forth. Sure he was rich! Pharaoh had given all kind of stuff when he went down there!

“Isn’t it interesting a guy goes out into the world (Egypt’s a type of the world) and he makes a mess of it and yet every time God brings him back out. Remember when they came out of Egypt in the Exodus, they came out with all her stuff?

“Abraham went right back to where he was at the beginning. He goes back and does the first work, just like Israel’s going to have to do.

“All of Israel’s history is there for you. They go out and succumb to the satanic policy of evil and yet, eventually, the true son of Abraham comes and brings them back out of Egypt, rich in the splendor of the Gentiles, possessing the riches. It will take the Millennium to make all that come to pass and God sits them right down where they were at the beginning.

“There’s something in all this about us. Have you been hearing parallels with your own spiritual life in here? Remember, Abraham is not just the ‘father of the circumcision,’ he’s also the ‘father of the uncircumcision,’ and in that he’s the father of all them who believe.

“My friend, it took death to get Abraham loose from Haran and you know it took death to get you and me to lose some of our past. Paul said, ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’ ”

No. 1 problem for preachers? Pride

Luke 9:54-55 says, [54] And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
[55] But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

“How did Jesus Christ know what manner of spirit they were? He identified it by the words that came out of their mouths. The words communicated what was inside and there was this spiritual identification and revelation of what was inside of them based on the words that came out of their mouth," explains Richard Jordan.

“There’s a great verse in Job 34:3 about this: [3] For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.

"You know what, bologna and corned beef don’t taste alike. You can always tell the difference. Well, just like your tongue can distinguish, your ear can try what’s going on in words.

“In Job 26 is a series of questions. Somebody suggested to me one time that these would be good questions that might appear at the judgment seat of Christ when God’s going to try the quality of every man’s work by fire.

“What Job is doing is responding to Bildad’s charges. It reads, [1] But Job answered and said,

[2] How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
[3] How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
[4] To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

"When Paul talks about seducing spirits, he’s talking about, ‘Here’s some preachers that when they communicate, what they’re communicating is designed to seduce—seducing words of man’s wisdom.’ "

*****

“What people come to realize is ‘right division’ of the Scripture IS what the Scriptures teach!" says Michigan preacher Tom Bruscha. "The question everybody has when they finally see this truth is, ‘How come everybody’s not teaching this?! Don’t they know?!’

“Well, they know it. They got other names for it: Ultra-dispensationalism, hyper-dispensationalism, etc. They know what it is.

“So, why is it you can look at it and see, ‘Man, look how many verses now go together! Look how many times Paul says he’s the Apostle to the Gentiles!’?

“You know it’s there! It doesn’t take a whole lot of searching to see it! And so young believers in right division always wonder why the preachers don’t see it.

“Paul writes in I Timothy 6: [3] If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
[4] He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
[5] Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.’

“If a person doesn’t teach those things, what does the Bible say? ‘He is proud, knowing nothing’! I look at some of these guys who don’t know right division and I say, ‘Well, they know SOME things.’

“You know they got some good things to say, but the Scripture says that the man who’s not acknowledging the truth of right division, which is on all the pages of Paul’s epistles and even in Peter’s epistles, that that man is ‘proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings . . .’

“The Bible speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I guess you have to decide whether you want to be likeminded, right? Likeminded with the prideful speaker who denies the truth of God’s Word or likeminded with God’s Word that you need to separate from that man.

“What hinders common people from understanding grace truth are the preachers that are out there. Pride is the No. 1 problem in the ministry and the verses speak for themselves concerning that.

“No matter where you are and how you present yourself, deep down inside you’re No. 1 problem in your life is pride.

“It manifests itself in different ways but pride, when you think about the Bible’s sins—when it talks about not bearing false witness, not committing adultery, not stealing and thou shalt not kill, those are certainly things you sin against other people.

“But when it comes to the sin of pride, pride is a spiritual sin. It’s when, like in I John, it says, ‘All that’s in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They’re not of the Father; they’re of the world.’

“The pride of life is really a sin deep down inside each one of us that really there’s no way we’re going to control that in our own flesh because it’s THERE. You can be, as we joke about, ‘proud of your humility,’ because, deep down, you’ve got a pride problem.

“It will manifest itself in different ways, so when Paul says, ‘Don’t do anything through strife and vainglory,’ we got to knock the pride down, knock it out and we’re not going to be able to do that. It’s going to take the Word of God and it’s going to take the Spirit of God in us to understand what God’s Word says about these things so we can combat it.

“It’s a spiritual sin. The word 'strife' actually means contention. And when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he says he heard there were contentions among them. In chapter 3, he says those contentions are carnal, whereas there’s envy, strife and division among the people. It is the very sin when Satan appeared to Adam and Eve and he wanted to tempt them, the thing that he said to them was, ‘Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ 

“So, it was that direct disobedience through that temptation of the idea they could be as gods. That is the very root of sin itself.

“Proverbs 13:10 is a simple verse but, boy, you can’t get around it no matter what you do. It says, ‘Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.’ "