“When the Lord Jesus says there are going to be wolves in sheep’s
clothing, the idea is they’re going to impersonate the ‘little flock,’ ”
explains Alex Kurz. “In other words, these impostors—that’s why Peter says
their ‘feasting among you.’ ”
Specifically, Peter describes them as “spots” and “blemishes” who are “sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you.”
*****
“I think on the holiday we all pretty much know everybody we sit
down to eat with,” says Kurz. “There’s a familiarity there. Rarely do you go to
someone’s home and there’s a complete stranger there. If they’re feasting with
the ‘little flock,’ that clearly tells us there’s fellowship, there’s
camaraderie, and yet, what is Peter saying? ‘They’re deceivers. They’re
infiltrating privily.’
“Jude says, and I love the
way he describes these guys—‘they creep in.’ They don’t knock on the door with
a banner saying, ‘I am a flaming apostate and my desire is to victimize you and
to lead you astray.’
“These false prophets and
teachers creep in like a bunch of roaches under your door and, you know, when
you expose the light, what happens? They scatter.
*****
“Both Peter and Jude identify a specific false prophet for which Balaam is the poster child. Balaam, in Numbers 22, behaves in such a way that serves as a pattern for what’s going to happen in the 70th Week. You can just check off the characteristics.”
“One of the more obvious ones is he’s double-minded. Remember what
James says: ‘The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.’
“Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘You cannot serve God and
mammon.’ Well, look at what Peter says in II Peter 2:15: ‘Which have forsaken
the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of
Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.’
“What is the way of Balaam? Jude will identify the way. He says,
‘Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after
the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.’
“What was the way of Cain? Why did Cain kill his brother Abel?
Remember what the Lord said to Cain? ‘God had respect unto Abel’s sacrifice.’
Why? Because Abel believed God’s Word and responded in faith to the claims of
the Lord, bringing the proper sacrifice.
“Cain thought the fruit of his own labor was equal to the lamb Abel
brought. The way of Cain is simply the rejection of the claims of God;
rejection of God’s Word and doing things in your own way.
“When it says they ‘ran greedily after the error of Balaam for
reward,’ what we’re going to find out regarding Balaam . . . listen, he was a
professional denominationalist! He was a professional theologian.
“In other words, what Peter
and Jude are warning the ‘little flock’ against is the professional institution
of religion that takes the Bible and imposes it on the ‘little flock,’ going
greedily after the paycheck. We’re going to find out that as they creep into
various homes, they’re being financially rewarded.
*****
“From II Peter 2, we know one of the primary teachings of the false prophets and teachers is to ‘deny the Lord that bought them.’ One of the principle doctrines of heresy in the 70th Week by those theological professors and teachers is they’re going to take the Old Testament—Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy—and teach it and impose it upon the nation of Israel, denying the claims of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. No. 1, they deny the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“II Peter 3 warns that they deny the doctrine of wrath, too. What did Balak want Balaam to do against Israel? Balaam tried to curse Israel and couldn’t do it. It’s interesting that when there was an attempt to curse Israel, it couldn’t be done, but when God now says, ‘I’m going to curse Israel,’ guess what the false prophets in the 70th Week teach? ‘There is no wrath,’ and they’ll use the Bible to do it.
*****
“You know why water baptism was so extremely important during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry? ‘To flee the wrath to come.’ John the Baptist didn’t say, ‘Oh, if you want to demonstrate your faith to God, get wet,’ as a sign and all that kind of baloney. He said, ‘You’re coming for water baptism to flee the wrath to come.’
“Isn’t that what Peter said in Acts 2 when the audience—they were
pricked in their heart and said, ‘What must we do?’ and Peter says, ‘Save
yourself from this untoward generation.’ How do you save yourself from the
wrath that’s going to break out? ‘Repent and be baptized.’ Water baptism is to
escape wrath.
“You see why it’s
inconsistent for a Believer today to get water baptized? Are we fleeing the
Fifth Course? Are we fleeing the Lord’s Day of wrath today? Paul
the Apostle of the Gentiles says about the dispensation of grace, ‘Grace and
peace.’ God’s extending His love, mercy and longsuffering. God’s not threatening
us with His Lord’s Day of wrath.
*****
“Peter assures in II Peter 3:9, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’
“The next verse says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up.”
“You see why Peter has to say that? Because there is this general
teaching by the institution of religion that denies the Fifth Course of
Judgment. Do you understand that the
Israelite in the Lord’s Day believes they’re immune from judgment; immune from
wrath?
“Their teaching and perspective was God’s going to destroy the
Gentiles, and their attitude was that they’re God’s favored people, possessing
a privileged status before God and as Jews. ‘As Israelites, we’re immune from
any kind of punishment. Punishment is reserved for everybody else.’ ”
*****
All along in Israel’s history, the people would read and
study the Book of Proverbs knowing it had special application for the future generation
of Believers living through the “last days.”
The first nine chapters of Proverbs actually represent an
introduction David writes to his son, Solomon, about wisdom. Before the
proverbs are even listed, David advises Solomon about wisdom. The last two
chapters give a conclusion. In fact, Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1 are not even
proverbs; they’re prophecies warning the reader about when the book will have
its specific significance.
“When the proverbs of Solomon begin in Chapter 10:1, and extend to the end of chapter 29, those proverbs are to express the wisdom of God for a worthy walk of the ‘believing remnant,’ especially in that Fifth Course of Judgment in that time of their captivity; in the time of their suffering and their persecution and their estrangement,” says Jordan.
“They’re going to have to have a worthy walk in the details
of their life and remember that, under the law system, the law controlled the
details of their life right down to the fine-tuning of things.
“It’s in the minute things they’re going to disassociate
themselves entirely from the inroads of the vain, apostate religious system in
Israel. They’re going to need keen judgment and insight so as not to be seduced
by the satanic policy of evil against the nation—the seductive policy that
would deceive the very elect themselves.”
*****
In a very literal way, the future generation, just as with
Believers today, will need to be able to perceive and identify words of
understanding from words of deception and foolishness.
Jordan reasons, “God says to Job in Job 38, ‘Who is this
that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge?’ You see, words without knowledge—words that don’t give
understanding—darken your mind. They darken counsel. They darken the ability to
know what to do. These proverbs are going to give them words that give them the
ability to perceive that.
“When Proverbs says its aim is ‘to give subtlety to the
simple,’ the issue of subtlety is the issue of craftiness. You remember in
Genesis 3:1 what it says about the serpent; that ‘he was more subtle than all
the beasts of the field’? He was a crafty, cagey guy who was hard to catch and
easy to be caught by.
“Jesus says to the apostles in the Great Commission, ‘I’m
going to send you out as sheep among wolves; be wise as serpents and harmless
as a dove.’ You need to have some subtlety. Some craftiness so you can avoid
being caught by the snare of the Adversary.
“Now, why would simple people be in danger of being caught in craftiness? In Chapter 14:15, he says ‘the simple believe every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.’ And in Proverbs, when it talks about the simple . . . even like we saw when Wisdom called the religious leaders simple, it’s because they just believed every word instead of checking and looking and finding and understanding. They just took their word for it and you can easily be deceived that way.”
*****
Among Proverbs’ fascinating aspects is how both wisdom and folly are personified as women. When wisdom speaks, for instance, it’s in three different formats.
Jordan explains, “First she speaks in the city; in the
streets to the leaders of the nation. Then she withdraws herself and talks in
private. She builds herself a house and goes into her own chamber and talks to
just the people who are willing to come into her house. And then she sends her
emissaries out into the city to invite other people into the house.
“There’s going to come a time in Israel when Wisdom will cry in the streets and do what she does in the latter part of Chapter 1 (beginning in verse 20), which is to talk to the religious leaders of the nation and say, ‘Come and repent because the wrath of God’s coming, and if you don’t get right and hearken to me, the wrath of Almighty God is going to destroy you.’
“When they don’t hearken, Wisdom cries again (in chapter 8), but this time she’s not out in the streets, she’s gone over and built her a house, and it’s from her house that she cries and invites people, ‘Psst! C’mon over here, I want to talk to you!’ and they go in the house.
“Of course, all of that is exactly what happens in the
earthly ministry of Christ. He starts out publicly in the streets calling the
nation to repentance. Then, in the middle part of His ministry, about Matthew
11 and 12, He withdraws, and just at the point in Matthew 12 when the Pharisees
and Sadducees—the religious leaders—begin to develop a plot to kill Him, He
withdraws Himself from them.
“In Matthew 16, Peter says, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God.’ Jesus says, ‘You’re right; don’t tell anybody.’ Isn’t that
strange? He goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John
and is transfigured from them, and they see His kingdom glory and majesty and,
as they’re coming down from the mountain, He says, ‘Now you guys have seen it,
but don’t tell anybody.’
“Wait a minute! Before,
they’d been going around saying, ‘Hey, He’s here! He’s here! Trust him!’ Now
He’s saying, ‘Psst! Come over here guys. Let’s regroup.’
“When He does go outside to talk to people, He says, ‘From
now on I’m only gonna talk in parables so you guys can’t understand it. People
in my house over here, they can understand it.’
“And He says ‘the kingdom’s gonna be taken from you,’
meaning it’s going to be taken from the religious leaders of Israel and given
to a nation that brings forth the fruit thereof. He says, ‘Fear not, little flock, it’s your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,’ and He literally builds within
the nation Israel a new nation; within the house of Israel, a new house. A
house where wisdom’s gonna live.
“And then, as in Proverbs 1, He sends His spirit down on them and then He sends His emissaries out of that house in the early Acts period to cry once again and to entreat. And in Proverbs 9, they go out and say, ‘Hey, there’s dinner at home. Come and dine. All is ready.’ You have parables in Matthew about the feast and the dinner that’s there, and you have them going out on the highways and in the hinterlands.
“David personifies wisdom as a person, and when it speaks in
Israel it’s going to follow this pattern so that when you get over to Matthew,
and that generation that Proverbs 30 says is going to show up—there is a
generation that does these things—when they show up, John the Baptist
identifies them and then you see wisdom cry in the streets, then go into the
house, then send out the apostles and the ‘little flock.’
“It’s that prophetic sense that Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1 are
talking about; in the day when Wisdom speaks in their midst that this book will
come into its own.”
*****
David gives four purposes the proverbs were collected
together to accomplish. The first purpose, which is to know wisdom and
instruction, is amplified in Chapter 1: 7-9. The second purpose, to perceive
the words of understanding, is amplified in Chapter 1:10 to the end of chapter.
The third purpose, to receive guidance in judgment and equity, can be found in
Chapter 2. The fourth purpose is “to give subtlety to the simple, to the young
man knowledge and discretion.”
“Beginning in Chapter 3, all the way down to the end of
Chapter 9, or at least to the end of Chapter 7 (chapters 8 and 9 is a monologue
where Wisdom speaks again), you have the focus on that fourth purpose,” says
Jordan. “David was the most concerned .
. . You know when you give your kids instruction, you got some things you want
them to know about. You tell them to do this, this and this, and, ‘This one
here, man, we need to talk about!’
“The most demanding one of these things—the one that David
wanted Solomon to know the most about—is the one that God through David and
Solomon wanted the ‘believing remnant’ in the last days to know the most about.
Have subtlety. Have the ability to know and have knowledge and discretion.
“And that’s the reason that all through Chapters 3-7 . . .
that’s where that stuff about that ‘strange woman’ comes up. That strange
woman, folks, in Revelation 17, is that religious system.
“That apostate religious system that starts back in Genesis
and is introduced to the nation Israel through the tribe of Dan and is called
Baal worship goes all down through the Bible and becomes the religion of the
Antichrist. Part of the seduction is that thing in Revelation 2:14 and 20 where
that woman Jezebel seduces the servants of God to commit fornication in the
context of religion.
“These proverbs are designed to equip these people to be
aware of the problems and these (four purposes) are going to give the ability
not to be seduced. You and I today face that same religious system. It doesn’t
make any difference what God’s doing, Satan has his religious system out there
and it adapts; it doesn’t change what it’s doing, it just adapts its tactics.
“What the Proverbs were going to do for Israel, and what
they will do for the believers in Israel, is give them the capacity to stay out
of the trap and not step in the snare of the Adversary. That’s what Paul’s
epistles do for us.” (II Timothy 2:24)
(new article
tomorrow)
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