Ancient hatred is the source

From a Bible study last week at my church:

In Iran, Persia, the motivation to hate Israel is theological. It’s not purely political, economic, social. There’s a thinking process behind it; there’s an ancient hatred. There’s a conflict over who gets to own the planet from God’s perspective.

So, when you think about Israel today, how are you to think about them? They’re fallen. In the dispensation of grace, God isn’t working through nations. He’s not working through the nation Israel. He’s not working through America. He’s working through the Body of Christ, explains Richard Jordan.

I said on the radio show just this morning, God puts His life in “the church the Body of Christ” and through our flesh and blood He lives on Planet Earth.

The Body of Christ is God’s dwelling; His working through the earth. And it’s our proclamation of the Word of God . . . the light that’s shed pushes the darkness back.

You don’t look at Israel and say, “God put them there.” You don’t know that. The only way you’ll know that is if the Rapture comes. They could be destroyed next week, wiped off the face of the earth and it wouldn’t have anything to do with whether Daniel is right or not.

When the Rapture takes place and the prophetic program starts again, then you can say, “Well, that was stage-setting.” So quit trying to say, “That’s prophecy being fulfilled.” You got no idea whether it is or not.

Habakkuk 2: [18] What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
[19] Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
[20] But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

That’s the way the story ends. So when you think about Israel today, listen, they’re fallen; nationally they’re not an issue. They don’t need to be a nation (they can be). You can’t know until the Rapture.

What you can know is that ancient hatred is what it’s about and you can know the only answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today, when you get saved, you’re put in the Body of Christ and there’s neither Jew nor Gentile. God doesn’t put you in the Body of Christ to make you a spiritual Jew; He puts you in the Body of Christ to make you one with Christ and there’s no Jewish or Gentile status. You’re a new man; a new creature.

Three words: Pursue your dreams

Change is good. Count your blessings. Seize the day. Be your best. Never give up. Adventure is calling. Do it now. Enjoy every moment. Dreams come true. Fall in love. Go for it. Just be yourself. Keep it simple. Less is more. Life is good. Life is short. Make it count. Never give up. Never look back. You will succeed. You are loved. Why not now?

*****

You can’t get away from it; there’s an extraordinary way. It’s just fascinating how the Bible uses the number three.

This is the reality of the way the Creator created it; everywhere you look in creation, everywhere you look in the Scripture, the number 3 is just arbitrarily stamped, says Richard Jordan.

Jesus Christ was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Why not five, why not two?

Jonah was three days in the whale’s belly. Why not two days? It wouldn’t have stunk so bad when he got burped out. Why not four days? I mean, why three?!

Israel, they have three patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Levi, of the Levitical priesthood, was the third son of Jacob. The Book of Leviticus is the third book in the Bible.

When Moses was given the law, he came down off the mountain. You remember what happened? You remember how many people died that day? About three thousand.

When the Spirit of God was given on the day of Pentecost, you remember how many people got saved that day? About three thousand. A little symmetry there.

You go all through the Bible and that number three is over and over and over and over again. Abraham takes Isaac and for three days journey to take him up, he thinks he’s going to go sacrifice his son and the boy’s been dead for three days. You say, “Why three?”

There’ s three divisions in a Jewish Bible. When the wise men bring gifts, how many gifts do they bring? That’s why people think there’s three wise men. There might have been 40 of them; you don’t have any idea how many wise men there where.

They brought three gifts. Why did they bring three gifts? Because Jesus Christ wears three crowns, three offices: He’s a prophet, He’s a priest and He’s a king, so they bring gold for the king, they bring frankincense for the priest and they bring myrrh for the prophet.

There are three people in your Bible who entered into ministry when they were 30 years old. Jesus was one. Then King David, when he was anointed king, II Samuel 5. Then Joseph, when he took over Pharoah’s reign in Genesis 41. Three men.

Esther, she fasted three days. Why not five days? Why in the world would you think it’s better to fast three days than two or six? I mean, if three is good, wouldn’t six be better?

All through the Scripture. You say, “Why is that?” Well, three is an imprint. Romans 1:20 indicates that three is imprinted on creation itself.

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

You look around in creation and you’ll see the trinity; three stamped all over creation. We have three dimensions. Height, width, length. Time is in three parts: past, present and future.

If you take electromagnetic forces, it’s positive, negative and neutral. If you take pigments, there are three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. In light, coming off the sun, there are three primary colors. That’s red, green and blue. It’s interesting that they’re different.

The earth; it’s the third planet—third rock from the sun. Matter on the earth finds itself in three stages: solid, liquid or a gas. The strongest structural shape is a triangle.

DNA; the language of DNA is made up only of three-letter words.

It’s fascinating, but you do it all of the time just in the colloquial way that you live.'“Stop, look, listen!” We say, “Three strikes you’re out!” “He won the Triple Crown!” “Gold, silver, bronze.” He’s “cool, calm and collected.” It’s “of the people, by the people and for the people.” “Lights, camera, action!” You can just go on and on with this stuff.

Three is just stamped all over creation. You say, “Why?” Because the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen. You see His finger prints on His creation.

Now you have to understand something about the trinity: the Father, the son and the Spirit. Those titles describe the roles that each person of the godhead has chosen to play in relationship to His creation.

There’s a thing in theology called submission, or subordination, in the godhead. There’s an internal relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit where they live together, and they’ve always lived together by the way.

And the way they relate to one another. They have chosen to assign responsibilities to each one of the members of the godhead, so that each one has their specific role. They’re all equally God but each one of them—the way God lives, the way God functions, “God is love.”

You know that verse? We teach the children, “God is good.” To be good means you’re always looking out for the interest of the other. Love is the carrying out of that which is good.

God, in His very nature, lives a life that is always focused on the benefit and the advantage of other people. In the godhead, the Father is always serving the Son, the Son is always serving the Father and the Sprit is always serving the Son. Each one, they live for each other. That’s the godhead.

As David fought Goliath

A sermon segment:

Your emotions begin to tell you, “This is what’s real,” instead of what God’s Word says.

The Philistines are encamped against Israel and you know the story of David’s victory over Goliath. Saul couldn’t win; David did. But you notice why Israel was in the trouble they were in?

I Sam 17:1: [1] Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.

They had invaded Israel’s territory. They had no right to be there, so the whole battle, win or lose, was the fact that they had come into land where they didn’t belong and Israel had let them.

That was David’s whole point: [26] And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

Paul says in Ephesians, “Don’t give any place to the devil; don’t let him start getting into the mind, because the purpose is to get a hold of your heart and destroy the proper functioning of your inner man.”

Now go to II Sam 17: [1] Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
[2] And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:
[3] And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.
[4] And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

Ahithophel was David’s counsellor but now he’s abandoned David and gone over to David’s son, Absalom, and he’s going to help Absalom try and steal the kingdom from David. So he’s a turncoat.

Ahithophel knows that the only time he’s going to be able to attack David is when he’s weary and “weak handed.”

Psalm 144 is a psalm of David and David writes:

[1] Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
[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.

Ahithophel knew that God literally had taught David’s hands to fight and that when David trusted the Lord, and was depending upon what God was doing, he was not only not weary, but he was strong and knew how to fight.

But in II Samuel, David is distraught, he’s emotionally a basket case, he’s discouraged, he’s on the run. So Ahithophel says, “I’m going to get him when he’s down and when he isn’t depending on his resources God has given him to fight and I’m going to make him afraid.”

Literally what Ahithophel was trying to do was get David to abandon the throne on his own. He knew he couldn’t go up and get David off the throne by himself.

God had given a strong hand to have that throne, but he wanted to get David to abandon the throne. Abandon the position God had given him and Ahithophel knew that if he did, all those mighty men David had would be discouraged and leave too.

That’s just an illustration of how Satan seeks to attack. Now, in our situation, when the Adversary wants to attack, he’s going to try to draw you AWAY from who you are in Christ by focusing on the outward and then he’s going to attack by causing you not to stand in the identity, in the truth, of who God has made you in His Son.

By the way, in Matthew 4, Jesus said, “It’s written.” That’s what you do. Romans 12: [1] I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

(new article this evening before midnight)

Definition of 'true Israel of God'

God testifies in Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”

When God uses the term ‘my son,’ He’s referring back to Exodus 4:

[21] And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
[22] And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
[23] And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

“Notice what God calls Israel. God desired to have a nation that He called ‘my son.’ In Scripture, a son is not just a descendant,” explains Richard Jordan.

“In Galatians 4, you see this thing about a son really being about the doctrine of adoption: [3] Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
[4] But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
[5] To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

“Israel is a child when they come out of Egypt. He’s literally teaching him to walk in the Lord’s way. He’s still a child but he’s a child who is going to be His son because that’s who you make a son out of in the Bible.

“By the way, God had other sons. In Genesis 6, you read about ‘the sons of God,’ which is a reference to angels. But they were not born; they were created. The first time God gave birth to a son, He gave birth to a nation.

“Now, He had given birth through Abraham to have Isaac; He gave Abraham and Sarah the ability to have a child.

“But in Deuteronomy 32, Moses tells Israel, ‘Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.’

“You go over and read Ezekiel 16, its 60-plus verses, and you read how he literally describes the birthing process of bringing Israel out of Egypt.

“It’s actually quite gruesome to read. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a child being born, but I think that’s one place a man doesn’t belong.

“Psalm 89 is about the Davidic Covenant. The definition in verse 27 says, ‘Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.’ That term the ‘firstborn’ is a reference to having that position of headship in the family.

Psalm 89: [27] Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

[28] My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
[29] His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

*****

Matthew 2: [15] And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

“That quote is from Hosea 11:1, but when you read Hosea 11:1, obviously God wasn’t talking about the Lord Jesus Christ back there.

“People say, ‘Why in the world would Matthew quote Hosea when Hosea was talking about Israel, not Jesus?’ That’s one of those places where you have to sit and think just a little bit.

“You see, God gave the name ‘my son’ to both Israel and Jesus the Messiah. He said, ‘This is my beloved son in whom I’m well-pleased.’

John 15: [1] I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

“We studied in Hosea 10 that the vine tree in the Bible is the nation Israel. Well, if the nation Israel is the vine tree that God plants in the earth, then why would Jesus say, ‘I am the true vine’?

"Because it’s only Israel IN Christ that’s going to be the blessing and going to get the inheritance.

“It isn’t just any Israeli. Paul confirms in Romans 2: [28] For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.

[29] But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

“He’s not saying what people today say: ‘Oh, when you get saved, you get spiritually circumcised and now you’re a spiritual Jew.’

Look back at verse 17. He’s talking to Israelis; physical descendants of Abraham.

Romans 2: [17] Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,

“A real Jew is not just a descendant of Abraham; he’s got a spiritual circumcision of the heart. In that passage in Deuteronomy 30, God told Moses, ‘I’m going to circumcise not just your flesh but your heart.’

“In John 8, Jesus is talking to the religious leaders of Israel and they say, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Jesus says, ‘Big deal, your real father is the devil.’ God’s the Father of all them that believe.

Isaiah 45: [17] But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

“Israel’s going to have salvation, but where’s their everlasting salvation going to be? In Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“By the way, in verses 21-23 is that passage in Philippians 2 that Paul quotes as a reference to Jesus Christ. So right here in the passage you have an identification of Jehovah as Jesus.

[21] Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
[22] Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
[23] I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

“You see, it’s Israel IN Christ--not just Israel in her flesh--that is going to be the redeemed nation God uses to be the head of the nations.

[24] Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
[25] In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

“So when He talks in Hosea about the ‘firstborn,’ that title is really the title of the Messiah, because it’s going to be the nation IN Christ; the true Israel of God.

“The Lord Jesus Christ, by the way, in His earthly ministry, literally retraces the history of Israel, and His going down into Egypt and coming up out of Egypt--that’s where the nation came from. So He’s going to come from the same journey that His nation does.”

All roads lead to ancient Israel

For years I’ve heard the name Jordan Maxwell and not known who in the world he was, other than people find him a leading world authority on the occult and ancient symbolism.

Just the other day, I was intrigued enough by a YouTube headline about Maxwell’s take on Baal worship that I clicked on the video and finally heard Maxwell speak. I was bored within a couple of minutes so I slid forward with my cursor and landed on this portion of his talk:

“A segment of people that we call Jewish, but I know that there’s a very big problem in using that term. It’s filled with land mines, so when you’re walking through theology and talking about Jewish, I would say a good 95 percent of everything that we have been told about the ancient Jewish peoples and ancient Israel and all of that never existed. There was no ancient Jewish people. There was no ancient Israel. There was no King Solomon or King David. None of that ever existed. It’s all a very big story but none of it is history.”

What a thoroughly deluded moron! This is who “thinkers” look to as an “esoteric scholar” and “preeminent researcher”?!!

*****

"Every religion found among mankind has its origin, in some particular way, in the religion God gave Israel.

"It’s a fascinating thing when you study it through," says Richard Jordan. "Study Islam, Hinduism . . . I was reading through the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu holy books, and I’m in this one passage thinking, ‘Wow, man, that’s Leviticus!’ You say, ‘How’d they know about that?!’ Well, it got out.

“You watch Islam. Ramadan is here and they make the pilgrimage. Well, three times a year, every Jew had to go back to Jerusalem, make a pilgrimage. Deuteronomy 16:16. It was required of them. Not just once in a lifetime but every year.

“The Muslims pray toward Mecca. Well, where did Daniel pray toward? Jerusalem. Why? That’s where God’s temple was.

“You look at all that corrupted stuff out there . . . Israel, who had the ‘pure religion,’ as the Bible calls it, corrupted their religion with the false and it’s a screwball kind of a thing where, ‘I’ve got the real thing and you’ve got the fake thing, but I like your fake thing, too, so I’ll bring your fake thing into my real thing and corrupt my real thing, and now both of us don’t have anything worth having!'

“They just swap things around and that’s why II Kings 17 says about Israel that they worship Jehovah and serve Baal. You say, 'How do you do that?!'

"Well, go to any church in America today and you can see it happening. Go to a Catholic church, Orthodox church, Catholic-sympathizing Protestant church, which is pretty much everybody, and you see all those kinds of things.

“I just had a conversation with a brother who's dealing with people in his assembly about the Lord’s Supper; they're glued to doing it in the traditional mini-Protestant Mass form and they think it’s an absolute requirement it be done that way.

"I’m thinking, ‘You know, even if I thought what they wanted to do was right, making it an absolute requirement is exactly the opposite of what I Corinthians 11 says to do.’ You think, 'Where’d that come from?' Tradition gets a hold on you.

“God says in Isaiah 1:13-15 [13] Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

[14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
[15] And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

“When He says there ‘you spread forth your hands,’ that’s how the religions pray. You know why people do that when they pray? It’s, ‘Pour down the blessing, Lord!’ Have you ever watched a Catholic priest do the Mass? Why do they do that?

"You ever watch the Charismatic folks on the TV? Why do they do it? They haven’t got a consciousness of God living inside of them. Why do you want God to drop you something if you understand He lives inside you? ‘What’s He dropping down? He’s in here!’

“Things that you do mean things. People say, ‘Well, Paul says over in Timothy to lift up holy hands.’ Well, as soon as you get holy hands, lift them up, but until then, understand that’s a figure of speech. That’s not talking about the posture of your hands. I’ve looked at most of you all’s hands and they aren’t that holy.

“By the way, people use this passage in Isaiah 1 to say, ‘See, God really didn’t want Israel to have all that bloody religion.’ Yes, He did. He gave it to them! He just wanted them to do it in faith, not make a religious system out of it; not have ‘idols in their heart,’ as Ezekiel says. 

*****

“Go to Ezekiel 36 and see how the land had been polluted and made unclean by the blood of the idolaters and offering the children to Molech. All that blood of idolatry, He takes them out of that land for the 70 years so the land can have rest. 

“In Isaiah 1, when He says, ‘So is this people,’ He’s talking about Israel and every work of their hand; everything they’ve done in their religion is unclean, unacceptable. 

"Talking to the nation Israel, He says they’re spiritually Sodom and Gomorrah: '[10] Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.' The Book of Revelation calls them that.

“The nation Israel is in an absolute condition of rebellion. He calls them that at the end of verse 2. Isaiah 1:4 says, '[4] Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.'

“That’s His description of them spiritually before they go into captivity. Haggai is telling them, ‘You’re still in that spiritual condition.’

“Isaiah 1:11 says, [11] To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

“The problem isn’t that God didn’t give them commandments and instructions about burnt offerings and so forth; it’s that they’re not bringing them in faith. The Book of Leviticus says ‘if any man will.’ They made a religion out of the sacrifices.

"He says ‘bring no more vain oblations.’ They’d developed the Jew’s religion into a vain religious system. Jesus said, ‘In vain do you worship me, teaching doctrines of men.’ ” 

(new article before midnight tomorrow)

Disturbing military news

I caught a short YouTube video entitled “This is TERRIFYING” from an Englishman known for sarcastic commentary. He showed a clip of a businessman in a suit giving a very casual presentation about Palantir’s Maven Smart System.

The man boasts from the stage, “We’ve gone from finding the target to now coming up with a course of action to actioning that target, all from one system. This is revolutionary. We were having this done with 8 or 9 systems, where humans were literally moving detections left and right in order to get to our desired instate, in this case, actually closing a kill chain.”

Here’s the British YouTuber’s analysis: “ ‘Actioning that target’ is English for killing. Pinpointed killing from satellites and AI and this, of course, is a military demonstration, but if you don’t think that this, along with your facial recognition, your digital ID, your social credit scoring system and the absolute surveillance of your new 15-minute city infrastructure . . . I f you don’t think that that can be used effectively on the everyday citizen, dude, moving into our very quickly approaching dystopian nightmare, then you’re not paying attention.”

Also yesterday, I saw a headline that caught my eye about how our military is finding messaging from the White House very disturbing. The article is from the Washington Post and begins:

“When the retired U.S. Army colonel Joe Buccino first saw White House posts mixing Iran war footage with clips from cartoons and video games, he felt something he had rarely experienced from American military messaging: disgust.”

The article continued:

“But President Donald Trump’s top communications team, he said, had decided to treat the international conflict like a big joke. Veterans who were already questioning the war’s strategy and endgame, he added, were unnerved to find the nation’s highest office posting pop-music-scored clips of missile strikes, mixed with footage from Call of Duty and ‘SpongeBob SquarePants.’

“ ‘They’re completely diminishing what they’re asking the nation to do in Iran,’ Buccino said in an interview. ‘It seems almost obscene relative to the actual violence and suffering that’s involved with this.’

“The videos have also fueled fierce backlash as they clash with real-world grief: On the same day earlier this month that an Air Force refueling plane crash killed six American service members, the White House posted a meme video interspersing explosions in Iran with celebrations from a sports game on the Nintendo Wii.”

(new article this evening before midnight)

Great hymns . . . in a world of woe

Coming in the door this evening my mom had on “The Five” talk show on FOX News. As they broke for commercial after a segment about the plane accident at LaGuardia, a snippet of nearly indecipherable rock music playing in the background included the lyrics (I caught a few words and Googled them right away):

“I'm getting drunk on a plane Buyin' drinks for everybody
But the pilot, it's a party Got this 737 rocking like a G Six.”

Just one little example of how the news media “secretly” mocks its viewers as well as news they cover.

*****

Psalm 45 is a classic psalm written for the “head choir director,” hence its heading: “To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil. A Song of Loves.”

Psalm 45:6 is quoted in Hebrews 1:8 as a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6] Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

Hebrews 1: [8] But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

The “He” in the verse is God the Father. Notice how God the Father calls God the Son “God”? That’s one of the proof texts of the deity of Christ, explains Richard Jordan.

He’s fully God as well as truly man. He’s the God-man. God the Father calls Him God.

Psalm 45 continues: [7] Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
[8] All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

You read down through the psalm and you can easily spot songs we sing. It’s where we get the great old hymn that goes:

“Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe, only His great eternal love made my Savior go. My Lord has garments so wondrous fine, And myrrh their texture fills; Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine With joy my being thrills.”

That’s what the verse is talking about. Hymn writers often write hymns right out of the Scripture. I know sometimes people chafe a little bit at the poetic license that people sometimes use in the hymns . . .

There’s another great hymn that starts out, “Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.”

That comes from Psalm 45:2: “Thou art fairer than the children of men.” The greatness of the king talks about how God the Father looks at Him and He sees Him as one in whom He finds all His joy and the greatness of who He is.

That’s the first thing you do when you talk about a king on his coronation day; you talk about what a great hero he is. 

Writing 'I-chabod' and they're gone

(will have new article later today, as in before midnight for certain)

Hosea 13:16 says, “Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.”

“You read that and you go, ‘Whew.' That’s a demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what war’s about. That’s how bad it’s going to get for Israel," says Richard Jordan.

“Hosea 10:15 says, ‘So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.’

“In one morning the nation is just going to be destroyed and be gone!”

“Spiritual corruption is at the heart of the destruction of the national life of Israel. That’s why Hosea started out talking about how they’re an ‘empty vine.’

“I would say to you that every state has within it the seeds of its own destruction, because the old sin nature of man makes it so that every system of government that’s set up will eventually force the people under its authority to obey and pay for, through confiscation of taxes, unjust laws.

“That moral corruption that comes because we’re sinners results in the destruction of a state. You’re seeing it happen in our nation right now. And we are at that place in our nation where Israel was in Hosea 10, where it’s irretrievable as far as going back to where we once were. The cycle has to see itself through.

“I’ve said to you, Christianity for most of the last 2,000 years has been an underground religion. Grace Believers have always been an underground movement. Bible-believing people like us have always been under the radar.

*****

I Samuel 13 says, [6] When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.
[7] And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
[8] And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
[9] And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.
[10] And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.

“Samuel showed up right on time on the seventh day just like he’s supposed to, but Saul had gone out and usurped the priest office. The result of that was that God rejected Saul and he lost the kingdom.

“That’s exactly what the Antichrist is going to do. He’s going to sit in the temple showing himself that he is God.

“All that Baal worship, religious apostasy and corrupting of the system goes all the way back to the establishing of the nation; the first king in Israel.

“So when Hosea talks about the iniquity in Gilead and the wickedness in Gilgal and so forth, and there’s no king, there’s nothing that’s going to help them in that apostate system.

“Hosea 10 says they’d made a covenant with the Assyrian (of which the Antichrist will be). What you’re going to notice as you go down through this passage is that in the beginning here, when that first portion of the captivity is coming upon Israel, the beginning of the captivity mirrors the ending of the captivity.

“The last stage of the captivity is that 70^th week of Daniel. It is mirrored by the first stage; the initial ‘going in.’ And what you see constantly in the taking of Israel is little flash-forwards, as it were, into what’s going to happen in the tribulation.

“The history Hosea is writing is really a dress rehearsal of the tribulation period and this covenant is one of those things.

*****

The famous passage in Isaiah 28 says, [14] Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
[15] Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”

“They thought that covenant they made with the Assyrian was going to deliver them from captivity and destruction, but God says, 'What you’ve done is you’ve made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement.' They’re a part of the satanic program.

“Reading that, immediately you think of Revelation 6, if you’re familiar with it, because that rider on that fourth horse is death and hell follows him. Those four horsemen in Revelation 6 represent four different views of the Antichrist; four different roles the Antichrist is going to play.

“Verses 16-17 says, [16] 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.
[17] Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.’

“That’s an immediate prophecy about the Assyrian captivity. Prophetically it’s talking about the Antichrist.

“Isaiah 10:5 says, ‘O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.’

“That Assyrian taking them into captivity is a picture and a type and a dress rehearsal of the Antichrist, who also is the Assyrian in Scripture.

“You see, it says in Daniel 9 that after the 69^th week, ‘Messiah’s cut off but not for himself.’ There’s the crucifixion. At the end of those 69 weeks, Messiah’s crucified, the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the prince that shall come does that. He makes a covenant with Israel for one week. In the midst of that 70^th week, he breaks the covenant.

“They thought they had a covenant that was going to protect them. They made a covenant with the one who was ultimately going to be the one who destroyed them.

*****

“Daniel 11:21 says, ‘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.’

“He’s going to come in as a peacemaker and take the kingdom by buttering up Israel and making them think he loves them and that he’s going to be their Messiah.

“The passage goes on, ‘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.’

“The idea there is they’ve gone out and sought to have the Assyrian deliver them and it isn’t going to work.

*****

“Hosea 10:5 says, ‘The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.’

“Chapter 8:5 says, ‘Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?’

“The calf of Samaria started back in Exodus 32 with the golden calf. In II Kings 8, Jeroboam sets up the golden calf and said, ‘These be thy gods that brought thee out of Egypt.’ It was the main idol of Baal worship.

“Chapter 13:2 says, ‘And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.’

“So you’ve got this idol-worshipping program going on and it’s going on here in Hosea 10 in Beth-aven.

“When you read commentaries, the (scholars) read that word Beth-aven and they start looking for it and there’s no place that they know of that’s called Beth-aven.

“Hosea 10: 8 says, ‘The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.’

“That term ‘aven’; the word itself means emptiness, vanity, wickedness. Beth- (the house) aven (of the sin of Israel). The calves really were at Bethel, but Bethel, ‘the house of God,’ has now become Beth-aven, the house of wickedness.

“Verse 15 says, ‘So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.’

“In other words, the same place where Jacob spent the night, saw the ladder and so forth and got up the next morning and said, ‘This is the house of God; this is the gate of heaven,’ has been corrupted into the very seat of the satanic religion. That’s how thoroughly Israel had been corrupted spiritually.

“Remember, verse 5 says ‘the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.’ They’re going to lose it all. It’s going to be wiped out. They see it’s going to be a great loss to them.

“Notice that when it says ‘the priests thereof rejoiced,’ it’s in the past tense. They used to rejoice in it because it made them rich; it made them powerful. But now it’s gone. And the people are going to mourn because of that. When He says ‘for the glory thereof,’ that’s sarcasm. It didn’t have any godly glory but it had a man-made glory.

“God took the glory off of Israel and wrote ‘I-chabod’ over the nation. He’s going to take the false glory that the priests and the people attributed to Beth-aven and He’s going to write ‘I-chabod’ over that, too, and they’re going to be gone.

“Verse 6 says, ‘It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.’ Even the calves are going to be carried away to the Assyrian. They’re going to be given to King Jareb.

*****

“Back in chapter 5:13, we read about when Ephraim saw his sickness. They were trying to get help from the Assyrian. They made a covenant with the Assyrian that he would deliver them and keep them safe, and it’s going to wind up he’s going to betray them--coming in and taking them--and all that stuff is going to be carried off as a present to him to make him wealthy. That’s exactly what the Antichrist is going to do with them.

“You see, when Israel in the Tribulation would read this, they think going to the Assyrian is a good thing and Hosea’s telling them, ‘Uh-huh, he’s deceiving you.’

“Verse 6 says, ‘It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.’

“It’s important to notice, where did it come from? Where does the destruction come from? It comes from them following their own way. It comes from rejecting God’s Word and walking in their own way.

“II Kings 17:9 says, ‘And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.’

“I mean, they just sunk down into the lowest pits of this stuff. Why did the judgment come? They were going to do what they wanted to do, God’s Word be hanged.

*****

“Years ago, I sat with a young couple and the wife had decided to leave the marriage, and I’m sitting with them in the living room and we were talking a little bit when she finally looked at me and said, ‘I don’t care what you say, my parents say or what God says, I’m through.’

“Well, I just closed my Bible and got up and grabbed my hat and left. What else are you going to do? Well, that’s what these people have done. They said, ‘We don’t care what you say, God says or anybody else says, we’re going to follow our own counsel. We’re going to say these false gods are true and we’re going to worship them.’

"He says in Hosea 6:10 that Israel’s going to be ashamed. They’re going to be carried off into captivity and there’s going to be national humiliation because they followed their own counsel. They’re going to do it their own way.

“Proverbs 13:13 warns about this kind of conduct: ‘Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.’

“National destruction comes when you despise the Word of the Creator. They threw the Bible out of their national life and the result was that in came error, the lie, corrupted them and made their future nothing but absolute complete destruction.

“You say, ‘Why would they do that?!’ Well, their heart was the problem. In Romans 10:3, Paul says that, ‘For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.’

“Going about to establish your own righteousness is another way of saying pride. What does Proverbs 13:10 say? ‘Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.’

*****

“Hosea 10:7 says, ‘As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.’ That verse gives the new bibles a real problem. It’s strange. Isaiah 57 says ‘the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.’

“There’s no peace for the wicked. They’re like the troubled sea that’s always just spitting. I was raised on the Gulf Coast. One of the things you know after a storm, or after a heavy sea, is there’s always foam. Those white caps are caused by air that gets in the water and it will leave foam on the surface.

“When He says it’s like foam on the water, you just squish foam down. It’s got no substance to it. It isn’t hard to get rid of it. It’s just quickly gone, and they’re going to be cut off and it’s not going to be any problem to destroy them.

“Hosea says ‘in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.’ It’s not going to be any big to-do to get it done; it’ll just be ‘pfwhut.’ All this stuff they’ve got going on in their plans of resistance has no substance to it at all.

“In Hosea 10:8, when it says ‘the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars,’ that phraseology occurs only one other time that I’m aware of and it's in Genesis 3:18 when God describes how the earth is going to bring the thorns and thistles out. It’s talking about the curse. What it’s going to take is their altars are going to be left idle and just grown up.

*****

“When I was in college in the 1960s, there was a big movement called the ‘God is Dead Movement.’ Isn’t there a movie out right now called ‘God is Not Dead’? Well, there used to be a theological movement that a guy down in Georgia headed called thanatology.

“ ‘Thanos’ is a Greek word for death and theology is the study of God. It was the study of the death of God and the idea was God’s dead, He’s useless like an appendix you don’t need any more and forget about it.

“I once knew a Christian cartoonist who drew the most fascinating cartoon. It was two guys going out to the cemetery and digging a grave and burying God in the grave. In the first panel you see two guys and they’re walking with their shovels, leaving the cemetery, and there’s a headstone that says, ‘God is Dead.’

“The next panel you see grass begin to grow. In the third panel the grass grew up so high all you could read was ‘God is.’

“I thought, ‘That’s it!’ That’s in essence what He’s saying there: ‘The thorn and thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.’

“All that they were trusting in--Creation’s just going to take it back over, it’s going to be idle and of no value and their going to wind up saying to the mountains, ‘Fall on us.’

“Now you’re in the Tribulation again because in Luke 23:3 Jesus says they’re going to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us.’ In Revelation 6:16, in that six seal, the kings of the earth and the rich men cry to the mountains, ‘Fall on us and save us from the face of him that sits on the throne.’

“What they’re trying to do is hide from God’s wrath. But that’s another one of these kind of little things that just shoots you over there into the Tribulation so you kind of know the context.

*****

“Hosea 10:9 says, ‘O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.’

“That’s Judges 6, 19 and 20 where all that terrible corruption took place in Israel and the nation was just ‘liking it so.’

“The sin that began back there in the Book of Judges is still going on in Israel now. It’s never been dealt with. That mixed multitude, that apostate crowd out there, is still there! Well, God’s going to take care of it.

“The next verse says, ‘It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.’

“God’s determination is He’s going to bring that Fifth Course of Judgment. Now, that verse right there helps you understand something about what’s going on in Leviticus 26.

*****

“The judgments in Leviticus 26 are identified there in Hosea 10:10 as ‘chastenings.’ If you have a Scofield Bible, you’ll see he puts ‘warnings of chastening’ as a paragraph heading over verse 14. Above verse 16 he has the heading, ‘First chastisement,’ then in verse 18, ‘Second chastisement.’

“Scofield knew to identify these things as chastisements, and there are five cycles, or I call them ‘courses’ because they’re meant to be remedial. They’re meant to be not just punishments but learning experiences.

Chastising in the Bible is designed to teach through discipline. It’s different than punishment. Leviticus 26: 23 says, ‘And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me.’

“Notice the purpose of the thing was to reform them. The chastisements were designed to teach Israel and bring them back where they ought to be, not just to destroy them or punish them in the sense of getting even with them.

“Hebrews 12:5, talking about the time period he’s going to be chastising Israel, says, ‘And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.’

“You see how He defines that word ‘chastening’ in verse 9 as ‘corrected’? Then He goes back to the word ‘chastening’ in verse 10. The idea is that course of punishment on Israel is a corrective discipline.

“Now, He told them that back in Hosea 7:12. ‘I’m going to chasten them just like I said I would in Leviticus 26.’ Hosea is helping you define what’s going on in Leviticus 26 as chastisements. Every time He put one on them, He says, ‘If you won’t hearken for that one, I’m gonna give you some more!’

“The purpose was, ‘Hearken! Listen! Be reformed! Turn around! Repent!’ Now in Hosea 10, they haven’t done that and they face the Fifth Course, which is national deportation.

*****

“God says in Hosea 10:10, ‘It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.’ Those furrows back in verse 4 are furrows filled with hemlock. We read in chapter 12 that those furrows are filled with altars where they’re making sacrifices to Baal.

“Notice when He says ‘they shall bind themselves in their two furrows,’ the southern kingdom is corrupted too. He’s going to deal with the northern kingdom first, as an example, but both kingdoms are in a mess.

“Verse 11 is well-stated: ‘And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.’

 “Now, she’s taught wrong; she’s been taught a lie. When it says she ‘loveth to tread out the corn,’ remember the passage in I Corinthians 9:9: ‘For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?’

“When they tread out the corn, they get to eat it. She doesn’t love working; she loves eating. She loved the benefits that she had.

“Well, if you go to Micah 3, you’ll see the prophets in Israel were called 'hirelings.' They were doing it for the money. We saw that earlier where they say, ‘Just give me, give me, give me.’

“So He says ‘Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught,’ and that ‘I passed upon her fair neck.' He’s going to put a yoke on her! Now when He says He’s going to make Ephraim to ride, it means somebody’s going to ride on Ephraim. He’s going to put a harness on Ephraim and Ephraim is going to be carried away into captivity and that Assyrian’s going to control them.

“If you look back at Jeremiah 31, they’re going to be carried away into satanic captivity and he’s going to ride them. The one they thought was going to deliver them is really going to be the one who’s going to control them and run them and ride them into the ground.

"Jeremiah 31:11 says, ‘For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.’ Israel was in captivity in the clutches of someone who was stronger than them and they couldn’t get loose.

“Listen, this is God’s chosen nation. They were to be the head of the nations. And He’s making them the tail!

*****

“In Hosea 10: 12, though, comes mercy: ‘Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.’

“Right in the middle of all this darkness is hope.  Now you’re back in Hosea 6: 1-3: ‘He’s going to come revive us. There’s hope!’ When is the hope? When He comes. In the middle of all that darkness there He is as light, but you’re going to have to hang on because it ain’t coming soon.

“That’s why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.’ You see, there had to be a heart attitude to start with to turn this thing around.

“Verse 13 says, ‘Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.’

“That’s that refuge of lies in that covenant back in verse 4. Verse 14 says, ‘Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.’

“That word ‘arbel’ means to be ambushed by God. He’s literally turned the wickedness that’s up in that northern kingdom. It’s the thing that’s going to cause God to destroy them in the day of battle.”

Greedy dogs

(new article this evening)

II Peter 2 begins, [1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
[2] And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
[3] And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

He’s so familiar with it and it’s so closely associated with what he thinks is in the Bible that he won’t hear anything; that’s why they’re false teachers, explains Richard Jordan. These guys, in Israel’s situation, are going to be professing Israel, but they’re apostate Israel and the truth of God is going to be evil spoken of.

That word feign, false, is an artificial kind of word that is molded. We use the word plastic. The word plastic comes from a Greek word that means to press into a mold. These people’s words are that way. They find out what you want to hear, what you want said, what will sell.

We see it in political realms today. You go out and ask, "What do you want to say?" and I’ll mold it to what you want so that I can get the position, the power, and I’ll just go do whatever I want to do.

Through covetousness. They’re greedy for power, for control, so they take words that are designed to fit the situation.

Verse 18 says for when they speak great swelling words of vanity: [18] For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
[19] While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

That’s a chilling verse. Great words—oh they sound good. Wonderful oratory. But they’re words of vanity. We’ve got a great word—we say "airheads." That’s really what it is.

Paul talks about the vanity of your mind. If you have something that has absolutely nothing in it you have a vacuum. You open it up and it sucks stuff in. There’s these great swelling words that are just sucking in all of these false ideas. They allure through the lust of the flesh.

It’s like I Timothy 4 says: [1] Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
[2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

The path of faith is wearying to the flesh. You see, your flesh loves the performing. Makes it feel good; it satisfies. It hangs constantly to being able to do something.

Revelation 18, you’ll see how it fits in II Peter: [11] And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
[12] The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
[13] And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

Revelation 17 and 18 is that religious system that rules over the earth is the religious system that’s heads up in the Antichrist and false prophet.

You look at verse 12 and the first thing in the list was gold. The last thing was souls. They’re selling the souls of men just like a merchandiser would sell his wares. This is the consistent pattern of false teachers.

Isaiah 56: [6] Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
[7] Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
[8] The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
[9] All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

[10] His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
[11] Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Somebody said that’s the real DD degree. You ever see a preacher with a DD after his name? That means dumb dog.

Micah, looking toward the tribulation period, he’s looking on that fifth course of judgment on the nation Israel, Micah 3: [8] But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
[9] Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
[10] They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
[11] The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

I'll tell you something about money--listen, folks, one of the clearest ways you know what’s valuable to you is where you spend your money. Religious hucksters all they’re interested in is the money and they’re just as alive and well in the dispensation of grace as they will be in the tribulation.

I Peter 4: [17] For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
[18] And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
[19] Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

There’s a passage just like this in Hebrews 10: [26] For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
[27] But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
[28] He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

[29] Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  

No worries

I Peter 5: [6] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

[7] Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
[8] Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Paul says to us in Philippians 4: [6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

You and I are not to be full of care about anything; we’re not to be full of care about anything. That is, we’re not to worry about anything, says Richard Jordan.

We’re literally not to have worries that we have to cast on the Lord. Now that’s high ground, I understand that. I’m not going to pull rank and draw a line and say you can’t ever have a worry. I’m going to say you shouldn’t ever have a worry.

I’m not going to say you won’t ever have one, knowing my own failings. I’ll ask my wife, “What are you worried about that for?” and she’ll say, “I have to worry about it because you don’t.”

I’ve just, through the years, learned to just, you know, not worry about it. You know, something’s happening and something’s going to go on, and somebody will say, “Are you worried about such and such?” and I’ll say, “It’s not time to worry about it yet.”

A guy says, “I worry early.” Now, worrying early is just an excuse for jumping to conclusions. That’s all that is. You worry about something, then you have to worry about worrying about it and you have to worry about worrying about worrying about it and it changes 4-5 different times in the meantime.

What you need to do is just be prepared to handle it. Under grace you’re equipped to handle it. I mean, even difficult circumstances, instead of being problems, all of a sudden I can get excited and go in and figure out how to do this.

Instead of you worrying about it, just major on being equipped to handle whatever comes.

When it says they’re to cast their cares upon Him, that’s how it is they’re able to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. They can trust Him to take care of things for them.

Psalm 55 is a Psalm of David that describes the cry of the nation Israel as they languish under the assaults of the Antichrist. In David’s case it’s a type of the Antichrist, but in prophetic view it’s the voice of the enemy.

[1] Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
[2] Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;
[3] Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
[4] My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
[5] Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.
[6] And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

You ever felt like that: “Stop the world, I want to get off.” That’s it; that’s what David’s saying.

[7] Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
[8] I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
[9] Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
[10] Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
[11] Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

That’s talking about life in the city. Hey, we live in the city. Does that sound a whole lot different than the place we live? People talk about the decay of the inner city. Sort of sounds like David.

It’s nothing new going on today. The same answers that David knew were answers are the answers today and the same problem David’s facing is the tribulation problem they’re going to face in the ages to come.

[12] For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
[13] But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
[14] We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
[15] Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
[16] As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
[17] Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
[18] He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.
[19] God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
[20] He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.
[21] The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

Doctrinally this is the Antichrist breaking the covenant with Israel and then seeking to destroy them, and in the midst of that hour of treachery, the remnant says, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.”

[22] Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
[23] But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

That’s not a general statement, because many bloody and deceitful men live out all their days. That’s a statement prophetically about that tribulation period; exactly what he’s telling them in I Peter.

The commandment of Paul is “be careful for nothing.” That’s not a suggestion; it’s a commandment.

“Perfect peace have they that love thy law.” That’s all the verse says. It doesn’t say, “Perfect peace have they that love thy law and aren’t going through a mid-life crisis or don’t have bills they can’t pay.”

You’re never in a situation where you don’t know what to do. Even when you don’t know what to do you know what to do, because when you don’t know what to do, you go find out what to do, because you’re always capable of handling any situation.

When you get that mental attitude, that kind of mental-attitude dynamics working in your thinking process, then you don’t have any cares.

You don’t have anything to be anxious and worried about. You look at even the most difficult of problems as welcome challenges to give some excitement and some growth into your life. Rather than being worried about it, you welcome it as a challenge. Now you might get weary in it, but weariness and worry are two different things.