By FAITH Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau Concerning THINGS TO COME –

THINGS TO COME

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

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INTRODUCTION

   In this 11th Chapter of the book of Hebrews, we approach verse 20 in awe of the things that have passed. The title, THINGS TO COME, is appropriate for we are halfway through this Chapter. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20) Verse 20 is the half way point in our faith, from faith to faith. In Hebrews Chapter 11, we have the double witness of God (1 – 1) concerning our faith, and here in verse 20, we also see a new beginning of THINGS TO COME. The number 2 is the number of witness, in the mouth of two or three every word of God is established: in the mouth of the Father, in the mouth of the Son and in the inner voice of the Spirit of God, every word of God is established. In the number 20 we have the repetition of number ten. Number ten goes deeper than The Law and the Commandments. CLICK HERE for more about the number ten. The root of number ten (10) is Divine Justice, for the just shall live by FAITH.  These words also have the triple witness of the Almighty God in the New Testament. Three times, in His word, He proclaims the just shall live by faith, and once in the Old Testament as the just shall live by his faith.

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4)

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, [it is] evident: for, The just shall live by faith. (Galatians 3:11)
Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38)

   Notice in the New Testament the three witnesses of God’s justice is BY FAITH. Now the difference in the Old Testament is that the just shall live by HIS FAITH, thus showing divine justice with the individual of faith. Also, the witness in the Old Testament and the New Testament discloses through FAITH the justice of God has been made perfect in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is the JUST ONE who has justified us before the Almighty God as the divine image of the invisible God.

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What Are the
THINGS TO COME?
FAITH
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   He took upon Himself the burden of our sin from the foundation of the world . . . the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation13:8) Throughout the entire history of mankind, from Adam to the present day, to the end of THINGS TO COME we see that Jesus Christ carried the burden of our sin in the Lamb slain, the Lamb from the tribe of Judah, who is worthy to open the books of justice for those who are just IN Him. Then the books of the unjust who will be judged by Him at the great white throne of divine justice. This alone discloses the complete deity of the Son of God, past, present and future.
This wonderful 11th Chapter has 40 verses. CLICK HERE for more about the number forty. Forty days and forty nights, God’s justice fell on the unjust for their trespasses in the sin of their wicked imaginations against the Almighty God. As the number twenty is divided by ten, we see the justification of saints in the Old Testament for they lived not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Their faith was in the present from the witness of God in the past. Their faith also looked forward in THE THINGS TO COME. The duplicate of ten takes us into the New Testament to show us that WE, the world that now is, is under divine justice and only the just shall live by his faith, and that the Author and Finisher of that FAITH must live in the heart of the just.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

   At the end of Chapter 11 of Hebrews, verse 40, ties US together with the Old Testament saints, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect, in the words, they without us should not be made perfect. We cannot stop here for we have to continue into Chapter 12. This great cloud of witnesses is directly tied to THINGS TO COME. Their faith was not only in the present, but also it was tied into the future. Their FAITH was not only in the TANGIBLE or in the SEEN, but their FAITH was also in the UNSEEN. Throughout the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints, looked for their Messiah, their King out of the tribe of Judah, and their Lord of Lords. From Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, ALL testified of the COMING of the JUST ONE, the Lord Jesus Christ. The JUST ONE is a title only given to the Son of God. The reasoning of the Spirit of truth is this: He justified ALL who were under the condemnation of the Just God. He is the ONLY JUST ONE among the creation of God. Every thing that was under the curse of Adam has been justified by the death of the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. Now, if all have been justified by God’s doctrine of justification in the righteousness of the Son of God, are those of the world past, present and future also justified? NO. Only those of FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ, HIS FAITH as the Author and Finisher of faith, SHALL and WILL enter into the kingdom of God. FAITH is the seed of the new birth, and grace is the life of the new birth in the Spirit of life which is IN Christ Jesus, our Lord. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
  In the great cloud of witnesses in Chapter 12 of Hebrews, we have the assurance of our faith in those who walked above the clouds of this earth, the clouds of sin, for they walked from faith to faith. Every day they gave forth a witness of their faith through the divine witness of the Spirit of Christ that was in them. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: (1st Peter 1:10) Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. (1st Peter 1:11) In these verses of 1st Peter, we have the divine witness of the Spirit of God informing us that the Spirit of Christ was IN the words of Moses, IN the words of the prophets and IN the words of the Psalms. ALL testified of the CHRIST who was to come. In the reality of their faith, their God, their Messiah, their Savior lived within them BY His Spirit, the Spirit of life that was and is and is TO COME . . . from faith to faith. Both the Old and New Testament saints are robed in the righteousness of Christ. All those of FAITH have been given the wisdom, the righteousness, the sanctification and the redemption of God. There is no such thing as a Redeemer from out of the descendants of Adam. MAN CANNOT AND NEVER COULD REDEEM HIMSELF. Only the GodMan, not in the flesh of Adam, but in a likeness of sinful flesh, in the perfect Body that God had prepared for Him could REDEEM man, for ONLY perfection could redeem that which is lost.

● Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5)
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (Hebrews 10:6)
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:7)
Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; (Hebrews 10:8)
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (Hebrews 10:9)
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)
● And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

   The natural man has no understanding of these verses. The natural man lives in his sin and in the nature of that sin, being a direct descendant of Adam man acquired that sin nature. Man in his present form as a child of Adam can neither conceive nor understand the depth of what Adam spiritually and naturally cast into the world.
   As sin came into the world, Adam became blind to his sin and all his descendants would also be blind to their sin and to the depth of darkness that they exist in day by day. For this world is still covered with the blanket of Adam’s sin. All the things that God declared good in His creation of seven days is now under a curse brought in by Adam, for by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So that death has past upon ALL of mankind, but wait . . . does not the creation moan and groan?

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, (Romans 8:20)
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

   Does not the animal kingdom die? Does not the grass wither and pass away? Do not the trees become diseased and fall to the ground? Do not the schools of fish float upon the water when they die? Does not the sin of Adam bring forth thorns and thistles covering the ground? Does not man toil in the sweat of his face, and in the sweat of his spirit to survive the travesty of his own kind? Are there not wars, and rumors of wars in the doctrine of Cain? Did not Cain become the first vehicle of Satan to shed the blood of man? Cain broke the inner fabric of ‘love thy brother.’ This ended because of sin within Cain which was brought about by Adam, Cain’s father. Cain was the first man born. In this he was the first to receive sin within himself from his father Adam, and so sin passed upon all of mankind. Now in Cain we were faced with the tragedy of sin and death, thus, there could be no justification in any HUMAN form. ALL of mankind would SIN and ALL of mankind would DIE. There was no hope, and ALL were without God in this world.

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What Are the
THINGS TO COME?
THE MORE EXCELLENT SACRIFICE
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   Here is where the Lord Jesus stepped in, who is the Author of faith, who is the Finisher of faith, and He, by FAITH, separated Abel from the sinful world of mankind by the more excellent sacrifice. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4) What does the word excellent show us? This word shows us that Abel’s sacrifice was far above just an earthly sacrifice. CLICK HERE for more about the excellent sacrifice.
   Abel’s sacrifice testified to him in his FAITH of THINGS TO COME. As we move through Scripture, the witness of THAT sacrifice is given many times and in many ways. However, in Isaiah 53:10 God witnesses to a Man, a heavenly Man, who will grow up before God as a tender plant WITHOUT sin and without a sin nature. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10) He will not be accepted by man, He will be rejected and displayed as a person of sorrow. This sorrow was within HIM as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Isaiah 53:10 takes us back to that most excellent sacrifice of Abel, and projects us to the fullness of time when Christ was made of a woman, made under the law in the Body that was prepared for Him by the divine counsels of God. So, therefore, HE was that more excellent sacrifice as the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world, AND as the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world, AND as the Lamb out of the tribe of Judah who is worthy to open the books of justice and has redeemed us by His own blood . . . the blood of the incarnate God . . . to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) The very presence of God’s blood was IN the image of the invisible God, in the brightness of God glory and in the image of His divine Person. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. (Revelation 5:1)
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? (Revelation 5:2)
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. (Revelation 5:3)
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. (Revelation 5:4)
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Revelation 5:5)
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. (Revelation 5:6)
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. (Revelation 5:7)
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation 5:8)
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10)

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What Are the
THINGS TO COME?
THE WORD OF GOD
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

  Are you beginning to SEE (have the eyes of your understanding been opened? The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18) Even if you are a new Christian, the connection of THINGS TO COME from the slaying of the Lamb from the foundation of the world, to the Lamb in heavenly glory in the midst of the throne of God? Man could not have conceived these matchless words of the Spirit of God. Man could not have conceived the very thoughts within these words. Man could not have conceived the wisdom behind these words. Even with ALL the writings of God, man has no entrance into the word of God except by the Spirit of God. Sin has blinded man not only to the Person of God, not only to God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but man is also blinded to the wisdom of God in the word of God. Man in his pride likes to tell the world that he has kept the word of God, that he (by the power of his intellect) has translated the word of God throughout time and to this very present moment. Many cannot believe that the Spirit of Christ conceived and wrote the word of God and that same Spirit has maintained and kept the divine word to this very day in time. The King James Bible is often called a translation; it is NOT a translation.

● And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (Revelation 3:7)
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)
● Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:110)
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12)

   The word of His patience was given by the Spirit of Christ within those men to give us a divine document from heaven, God’s voice in the ministry of His Spirit, as the Bible proclaims, the perfect will of God. And after being tried in the furnace of the world seven times, it has been sent forth on the number of resurrection, the eighth day, the eighth time in the fullness of the Spirit of Christ. And from that Lamb slain at the foundation of the world, we have beheld THINGS TO COME.

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Jacob and Esau Blessed Concerning
THINGS TO COME
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   In Hebrews 11:20, it could only be the Spirit of God that used only eleven words in this verse to show forth the history of mankind in THINGS TO COME to reveal the FAITH of Isaac and blessings both Esau and Jacob . . . By faith Isaac. This blessing was for each of them in THINGS TO COME. These three names: Isaac, Jacob and Esau are related to the FAITH OF Isaac. The FAITH that was IN him, the same FAITH that was in Abraham, and the same FAITH that would awaken the soul of Jacob, as the three names that God magnifies: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In relationship to Jacob, the supplanter, and Israel, a prince with God; in the supplanter we see the old nature, as he grabbed the heel of Esau during birth. The word of God depicted Jacob as a supplanter BEFORE his birth. For there were two in the womb of Rebecca: Esau and Jacob; they wrestled showing the contention of mankind against his brother, even in the womb. This also reveals that sin was already present in both Jacob and Esau while in the womb BEFORE their birth, they both were under the curse of sin.
   Both Jacob and Esau were constantly in contention all the days that they lived. For Jacob seized Esau’s right of inheritance in exchange for a bowl of pottage. Esau was born before his twin Jacob, and thus the inheritance belonged to Esau. These two brothers not only separated at birth, but they would also be separated by Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac loved Esau because, Esau, the hunter, brought prepared venison to Isaac and Isaac loved the venison that his hunter son brought to him. Then we find something interesting in the nature of mankind. We know the love that Isaac had for Rebecca, and we know that Rebecca loved Isaac, however, what we see is the sin in all humanity, in man and in the woman. Deception is part of the devil’s work. Deception begins in the heart of one, when that deception moves into another’s heart, then it becomes a conspiracy. Both Rebecca and Jacob conspired together against Isaac to seize the inheritance from Esau. (Genesis 27) When you see the fabrication of this conspiracy, you will see the falsehood of all of mankind against God, against His Son, and against the word of God. Both Rebecca and Jacob took the things that were false and NOT true to deceive Isaac. Esau brought venison, Rebecca and Jacob disguised the flesh of goats and lambs to deceive Isaac. As Jacob complained that he was not a hairy man as Esau, they placed the wool of the lamb on Jacob to deceive Isaac and to get the blessing onto Jacob. After this deception, Jacob was sent out into the wilderness by Rebecca for they feared the wrath of Esau, thus, Jacob fled. But he was under the eyes of God, where God would try and test him for many years. Jacob would tread the sin mill of his own sin. He would be denied the love that he desired for Rachel. He would labor in the heat and in the cold. He would be denied his own freedom many times by Laban. However, this did not change the character and the nature of Jacob. In the end of his labor for Laban, Jacob revealed that he was still a supplanter and he deceived Laban, and in Jacob’s guilt, he took his wives and his children and fled back to the land of promise, and back to the place of his dream of the angels ascending and descending in the ladder that reached into the heavens and to the Person of the Son of God.

● And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. (Genesis 28:10)
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. (Genesis 28:11)
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:12)
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; (Genesis 28:13)
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 28:14)
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. (Genesis 28:15)
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. (Genesis 28:16)
And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. (Genesis 28:17)
● And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:51)

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The Evidence of
THINGS TO COME
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

1. Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. (Isaiah 45:11)
2. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13)
3. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (Romans 8:38)
4. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; (1st Corinthians 3:22)
5. Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ. (Colossians 2:17)
6. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; (Hebrews 9:11)
7. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)
8. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)
   I want you to study these 8 mentions of THINGS TO COME. You will not only find in the number eight the first day of the week and the number of resurrection, but in each mention of THINGS TO COME there is a specific point related to you in your redemption. You share in all eight mentions of THINGS TO COME. They belong to all those who are born of the Spirit of God and tread through this ungodly world by FAITH IN and OF the Lord Jesus Christ.
   In Hebrews 11:20 we see the position of a prophet in Isaac, for he projects the THINGS TO COME to both Jacob and Esau. After the 20th verse we see a direction of the Spirit of God and the evidence of THINGS TO COME in the child of purpose, the proper child, which was given to Jochebed; from birth, this goodly child was under the stress of an ungodly world. The children that were born were being slaughtered so that Egyptian monarch would not fear the Hebrews. Therefore, the child Moses was hidden among the bulrushes in an ark. This is how God begins THINGS TO COME. Also, with Jacob and Esau, they are always seen in opposition to each other. God watches them and His eyes were upon them, and in Malachi Chapter 1, verses 2 – 5, we see God’s judgment and God’s grace: judgment upon Esau and grace upon Jacob.

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, (Malachi 1:2)
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:3)
Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. (Malachi 1:4)
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. (Malachi 1:5)

  God separates both Jacob and Esau. First, it is the deviousness of Esau and the eternal sense of God’s judgment given through the words, Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau. These words bring out the divine hatred of SIN AND THE SINNER and they all bring out the love of God for the supplanter who was Jacob. As we study their lives we will discover that when they were joined together when Jacob returned to the land, the Almighty God took Jacob aside and wrestled with this supplanter UNTIL God could give him a new name, Israel, a prince with God. Now, in this prince with God, Jacob prepared gifts for his brother Esau. He was going to Esau on the ground of his new name, A Prince with God, but Esau came with four hundred men of war. Jacob’s heart had been changed, but Esau’s heart remained the same. Although they embraced each other and wept, Jacob NEVER united his people with the people of Esau. There was a spiritual separation for there was a hatred within the heart of Esau, and thus, God protected Israel from the scourge of Esau, who became the land and the nation of Edom. The word hatred for Esau, and love for Jacob discloses the position of the children of the flesh and the children of the Spirit. Edom attempted to destroy the nation of Israel even before they came back into the land under the leadership of Moses. Also, there is a saying that many use, that God hates sin but does not hate the sinner. CLICK HERE for more about this saying. This thought comes from the modernist and the leftist liberal church that does not care about the sin among themselves. They preach a gospel that gives the liberties of SIN and not the liberties of Christ. This gospel of the chains of SIN are wrapped around the pews of church sitters. They think that they are free from SIN while they continually commit sin. 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. (Hebrews 1:8) Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Hebrews 1:9) In Hebrews Chapter 1 verses 8 and 9, it is the Son of God who LOVES righteousness, and HATES iniquity, and ALL those who continue in sin are the children of iniquity. The first entity where iniquity was found was in Lucifer. Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. (Ezekiel 28:15)
   Esau was a child of iniquity and God HATED Esau. The result of the sin of Esau was that God destroyed his heritage. God destroyed Edom because they became a deadly and poisonous thorn in the side of Israel, therefore God destroyed their mountains. You say, Well, Malachi is in the Old Testament. Well listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit of God in Romans 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Before we continue, look at the divine address . . . 9 is the final digit, the END if you will, and nine projects to us the Old Testament judgment upon Edom. They were FINISHED, and they would never rise up again. Then we have number 13, the world calls this the unlucky number. God sees it as the profound number of evil, which will be displayed in the man of sin, The Beast in Revelation Chapter 13. In Revelation 13 we see the trinity of evil, the old serpent himself, the devil and Satan giving his throne or seat over to The Beast, who will declare himself to be God, and the false prophet will proclaim to his image the worship of all as though The Beast is God. As we return to Romans 9:13, we have the name of Esau brought out in the New Testament to remind us that those who walk by faith that God HATES SIN, and HATES the SINNER as well. There will be NO LOVE of God at the great white throne of justice. The fullness of the love of God for man was expressed on Calvary’s tree by the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Man of the cross who separates the love of God and God’s hatred against SIN. For Jesus Himself felt THAT HATRED as the SIN of the whole world was placed upon His flesh. This gives God the RIGHT in His fulfilling righteousness to separate the sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat, and the just from the unjust. As the Son of God hated iniquity He also loved righteousness, and He fulfilled that righteousness upon the cross. As the divine Shepherd, He separates His sheep from the world.
   In the descendants of Esau, we see the HATRED of God expressed in Edom’s destruction. And yet, man thinks that he has the right to tell God what God can do and what He can’t do. This is the evidence of the blindness that man has for his own sin. Adam brought sin into himself AND into the world. The proof of this is DEATH. I again say, DEATH. Try to escape from DEATH, YOU CAN’T. Death is everywhere. Death is your destiny. All through the creation because of Adam’s sin, the creation moans and groans over the SINS because of the human race. All come out of the womb of sin and iniquity. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.(Psalm 58:3) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5) There are two great truths in Psalm 51 and in Psalm 58: both man and woman were seen by God at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The woman was in transgression. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. (1st Timothy 2:13) And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1st Timothy 2:14) Eve, being the weaker vessel, was targeted by Satan as a door to the Federal Head, Adam. God had made Adam HEAD over all the beasts of the field, over all the things in the air, over the things in the seas, and over the creeping and crawling things of the earth. It was EVE who passed the fruit of destruction to Adam, and Adam willingly took the fruit from her hand and brought SIN into the world, and into his own heart. It was Adam in his position as Federal Head that plunged the world into sin and death, and thus, there is NO escape except through FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ. To understand more of who you are as a being, and what ALL mankind is: read the complete Psalm 58 and 51. May your eyes open to the tragedy of SIN and DEATH. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (Romans 5:12) In this same book of Romans, we see the ONE who overcomes SIN and DEATH for us. In Romans 8:2, it is the Spirit of LIFE which is in Christ Jesus, and it is THAT Spirit of Life if we through FAITH would receive it will free us from The Law of Sin and Death. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
   In Romans 8:9, we also see God’s Spirit: the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit that separates the just from the unjust. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9) They who are of the flesh as Ishmael cannot please God. They who are of the Spirit, as Isaac, it is those of FAITH who please God. According to the word of God, there must be the evidence of the Spirit of Christ within. The Bible proclaims that there is a personal witness of the Spirit of Christ within us. Christ witnesses with my spirit that I AM a child of God.

● But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. (1st John 2:10)
● And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. (1st John 3:24)
● And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)
● Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. (1st John 4:13)
● The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16)

    These are just a few verses that the heart of the child of God should identify with in a personal sense as a personal possession in the love of God which is IN Jesus Christ.
   The voice of the Lord was heard in Israel as He walked among His disciples and the Jews. Every word that He spoke was from DIVINE ORIGIN. These were the words of TRUTH and yet, man still turns away from the words of the Divine Man. Today in each believer in Jesus Christ, those who are born again by the Spirit of God from on high, the Lord Jesus speaks to the heart from His place of majesty in heaven above. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. (Hebrews 12:25) We must listen to the voice from heaven. Christ has given us the Spirit of truth to lead us into all truth.
   As you examine Jacob and Esau, we see a renewed man in Jacob as Israel, and Esau the hunter. Although they both communed together and wept together, the tears, however, of Esau was only a mirage of emotion to cover the hatred that was within his heart.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14)
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; (Hebrews 12:15)
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. (Hebrews 12:16)
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. (Hebrews 12:17)

   As I have previously written, Israel (Jacob) approached Esau with gifts of his heart for Esau, but Esau came with four hundred men of war. Do the math of spiritual reasoning that NOT all those who say that they are of Christ are of Christ. They will weep before you over their sin but will not open their hearts in repentance towards God. Tears do not bring about salvation; it is a broken heart and a contrite spirit and FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ. Esau’s heart still harbored enmity towards his brother. How do we know? The old saying that the proof is in the pudding was in the descendants of Esau. In Edom, the descendants of Esau, the malignant hatred for Israel was shown in the burden of Malachi. In Malachi’ first burden of the word of the Lord is with Esau and his descendants. As Esau never had true repentance towards God in the doctrine of Canaan, he HATED his brother so intensely that his descendants tried to destroy the nation of Israel. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1st John 4:20) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (1st John 4:21)
   With Jacob and Esau we have a phenomenon, they were twins. Much has been recorded about twins. They have the same likes, when one is in distress it has been recorded that the other twin feels the burden, the same with tragedy and the same with death. But the meeting in Genesis 33:4 was the LAST meeting of Jacob and Esau. They would never meet again as brothers except for the burial of Isaac their father, which was not a harmonious occasion. According to Scripture, Esau’s tears were shallow tears because they did not lead to repentance. The first two brothers that came into the world were Cain and Abel just as there were TWO branches and TWO fruits in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
   Since SIN came into the world, we see the first man of sin in Cain. His first sin was not against Abel; it was against God. God had shown both brothers the path of repentance towards God, the sacrifice of redemption, and yet Cain (instead of bringing a lamb for a sacrifice) brought the works of his own hands. Firstly, this denied the word of God. Secondly, it showed the true enmity that Cain had in his heart for God; thus, God rebuked Cain for this, and exposed Cain’s heart with the words, sin lieth at the door.  The rebuke to Cain showed enmity for his brother Abel because Abel was OBEDIENT to God’s word and because Abel had not refused the Holy Ghost. Abel was a child of God, Cain was a child of the devil.

● Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)
● He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1st John 3:8)
● Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (1st John 3:15)

   The enmity and hatred of Abel took over Cain’s entire heart. The evil grew within Cain until it lashed out in hatred and took the life of Abel, so according to Scripture, Cain did not have eternal life. Now apply this verse to Abel, And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:26) And then add Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Where do we see eternal life of Abel? In the words, he being dead yet speaketh. This shows the presence of eternal life as well as the beginning of the verse . . . By faith.
   When Jacob met Esau in Genesis 33:4, there were temporary emotions of Esau. These were the emotions of his memories. They were not of a contrite heart, nor of a humble spirit, and the proof was in the descendants of Esau. There was a continual hatred for Jacob and for all of his seed. Edom continually attempted to destroy Israel or prevent Israel from possession of the land promised by God. CLICK HERE for more about the Edomites.

● Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders. (Numbers 20:17)
And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. (Numbers 20:18)
And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet. (Numbers 20:19)
And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand. (Numbers 20:20)
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him. (Numbers 20:21)
● But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not. (Jeremiah 49:10)
Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. (Jeremiah 49:11)
For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. (Jeremiah 49:12)
For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. (Jeremiah 49:13)
I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. (Jeremiah 49:14)
For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. (Jeremiah 49:15)
Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 49:16)
Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. (Jeremiah 49:17)
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. (Jeremiah 49:18)
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me (Jeremiah 49:19)
Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. (Jeremiah 49:20)
The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea. (Jeremiah 49:21)
Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. (Jeremiah 49:22)

   In the book of Acts, when the Holy Ghost came down from heaven to fortify man and to give gifts to man for the Body of Christ, the Church. Satan also sent his children to destroy the Church. The Holy Ghost witnesses this in the stoning of Stephen. The truth of Stephen’s message had cut to the very center of the heart of the Jews. Then speaking of the whole history of Israel, Stephen proclaimed in Acts 7:51, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. What man cannot see in the stoning of Stephen is the horror of denying the Holy Ghost. Christ Himself from on high witnessed this horrible act, and received His servant into the glory of the Lord. If anyone resists the Holy Ghost whether Cain or Esau or the Jews at the stoning of Stephen, or in our present age, the rejection of the gospel and the rejection of Christ, they also deny the Spirit of truth.
  The book of Acts is also called The Acts of the Apostles; the correction would be The Acts of the Holy Spirit. After the Holy Spirit laid the foundation of gifts in the book of Acts, that SAME Spirit built a fortress of doctrine in the book of Romans. There is a lot in the name ROMANS. It was the Romans, at that time, who were the strength of the world. They built the roads, bridges, the mountain passes, and the Holy Spirit USED the things of the earth to spread the gospel throughout nations. The Romans desperately attempted to destroy the truth. They failed. The Holy Spirit used the pathways of Rome so that the disciples could further the gospel into the known world. In the book of Romans, God begins with the resurrection of His beloved Son by the Spirit of life that is IN Christ Jesus. He is the unconquerable Christ with an everlasting kingdom. He is able to save to the uttermost. He is able to KEEP that which He had purchased with His own blood. He has destroyed death by the Spirit of life within Him, the Spirit of holiness IN His resurrection from the dead. And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:4) In the first seventeen verses of Chapter 1 of the book of Romans, we have the resurrection and the presence of the Son of God in the Spirit of holiness which in turn allows US to be brought into the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17) Then we are showered by FAITH beyond measure, for it is faith to faith, and the mountain top is the just shall live by faith.

—–◆—–
THINGS TO COME
The Lamb Slain
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

  The Great Justifier is seen from the foundation of the world as the Lamb slain. Abel was brought into the seed of FAITH and then lived from faith to faith. Jacob although a supplanter wrestled with God and limped away with a new name: Israel. He was changed from a supplanter to a prince with God. Throughout God’s divine history in the word of God, it has been conflict between two. First, it was Satan against God. It was SIN against righteousness. And then through the serpent, it was man’s sin against God. Then with Cain and Abel, it was man’s sin against his brother, and we see the same conflict in Esau and Jacob. The world witnesses that same evil against the righteousness of God. This same righteousness against the evil of the root who was Lucifer and now is the old serpent the devil. The first seventeen verses of Romans Chapter 1 is the love of God through FAITH. After the seventeenth verse, we have the condemnation of the world against God. They turn their backs to God and to His Son. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:32) This verse SEALS the fate of the ungodly world, and the beginning of Chapter 2 looks on ALL of Adam’s race and proclaims, therefore thou art inexcusable, O man. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. (Romans 2:1) This verse discloses the chasm, the separation between God and man. This is Adam and ALL his descendants. This is why it took the SECOND MAN not of Adam, nor of the earth to redeem man. This was the MAN from heaven, and Christ had nothing of Adam in Him. Christ was separate from ALL humanity. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. (Hebrews 7:26) The words SEPARATE FROM SINNERS discloses the separation of the DIVINE from the earthly. Christ was NOT here to become a man, HE came to be the Redeemer of man, for God was IN CHRIST redeeming the world unto Himself. So, this ONE of righteousness could have NO SIN IN HIM. He was without a sin nature.

● And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. (1st John 3:5)
● For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2nd Corinthians 5:21)

   Again, we have a contrast. Christ KNEW NO SIN, and only because He KNEW NO SIN can we be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. The devil in Matthew 4:4 and in Luke 4:4 tried his best to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, but Chapter 4 in the book of Hebrews verse 15, reveals that He related to our feelings, and to our infirmities in His sympathy to Adam’s lost race. He was even tempted in ALL points like as we are tempted, yet without SIN. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Christ suffered for us. Although the joy of His redeemed was set before Him from the foundation of the world in that precious Lamb of God slain, He ENDURED the cross, DESPISING the shame, for the GLORY that would be placed IN HIM at His place at the right hand of God. It is for us to follow in His footsteps, who did NO sin, nor was guile found in His mouth. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (1st Peter 2:21) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (1st Peter 2:22)

   In the Old Testament, we have a witness of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 24:3, the Holy Spirit proclaimed . . .

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? (Psalm 24:3)
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. (Psalm 24:4)
He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:5)

  There are several points here: Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? There is only ONE who is qualified, and we find the qualifications in Psalms 2.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalm 2:6)
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Psalm 2:7)
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2:8)

   Christ has the RIGHT to ascend into the hill of the Lord. Then the Holy Spirit in Psalm 24 proclaims who shall stand in his holy place? The answer is found in Hebrews 9.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; (Hebrews 9:11)
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: (Hebrews 9:13)
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)

   Christ entered into heaven itself with His own BLOOD and placed it on the mercy seat. It is HE, and ONLY HE who has clean hands and a pure heart. He DID NOT lift up His soul to vanity, nor has He ever sworn deceitfully. Instead, HIS SOUL WAS OFFERED FOR SIN. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10) He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11)

● And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)
● Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
● But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1st Corinthians 1:30)
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)

  Man likes to forget about Esau after the book of Genesis; however, God will not allow us to forget. The name Esau is mentioned eighty-eight times in Scripture. Each mention contains a message for us today. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage. Now according to Revelation Chapter 2, the Church of Ephesus, the first Church mentioned within fifty years of the Spirit of God coming down from heaven with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ sold her birthright to the Nicolaitans. These are the men of the book of Jude.

● For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (Jude 1:5)
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)
● 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. (Jude 1:11)
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; (Jude 1:12)
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude 1:13)

  These Nicolaitans, these ungodly men of the book of Jude denied our Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ. They preached a Christ on the cross, but NOT a Christ of resurrection and life. Their message was a message of death, and not of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus. Remember that between Jacob and Esau, it was Jacob whom God loved, and it was Esau whom God HATED. We see the same combination in the first Church of biblical history: Ephesus. God LOVES those who do NOT deny His name, however, He HATES the Nicolaitans and the doctrines of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6, 15) and the men of Jude 4 who denied and continue to deny our only Lord God Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit used the name Esau eighty-eight (88) times to remind us in the New Testament that Esau SOLD his birthright and that we should cling to our birthright IN Jesus Christ with all of our spiritual might and power. We should depend on the Spirit of truth to not only reveal in us our birthright, but our inheritance which is IN the Person of Jesus Christ. In the very first fifty years of Church history, the church sold themselves to the world. Although these men crept in SLOWLY, it was the single drop of water, moment by moment, day by day, month by month and year by year, WEARING away at the righteous STONE and wearing away of the DOCTRINE of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are a few things that are rarely spoken of in the modern church. We should admit that each of the Apostles was blessed by the Lord Jesus and received the Spirit of truth. They went into the world and took their journey through the world, taking nothing of the Gentiles, but ministering the truth through the Spirit of truth that was in them.

Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: (3rd John 1:6)
Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. (3rd John 1:7)
We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. (3rd John 1:8)
I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. (3rd John 1:9)
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. (3rd John 1:10)
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. (3rd John 1:11)

   In this last epistle of John, there are only fourteen verses, but they loudly speak of those who love the Lord and do His bidding taking nothing of the Gentiles, yet the Nicolaitans (those who crept in unaware) bear the name Diotrephes. They loved preeminence, and the high seat of church authority. They closed the doors to the gifts of the Spirit of God, and they closed their door to the apostle John. We see in this 3rd epistle of John that John was shut out from fellowship with the saints by this ungodly Diotrephes. How do I know that Diotrephes was ungodly? I know because John adds this in verse 11. John separated Esau and Jacob with the word evil and the word good, thus, taking us back to the very foundation of evil in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. John continues on to say in verse 11, He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Does this not remind you of Esau . . . Esau I have HATED, and Jacob have I LOVED? This is how closely these men of evil mingled among the children of God. John was denied by Diotrephes John’s birthright by the Spirit of God to minister the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the very Body that John belonged. Only EVIL would deny John’s right to serve and to minister Christ. So, we come to our present age. These evil men and women came in the beginning of Church history. They wrestled the truth out of the hands of the children of God, and substituted their names and the names of fictitious saints, the names of women such as Mary, even angels in their doctrines of blasphemy. Now after all these centuries of battle, the church is but a shell of what it once was in the days of the apostles. The truth and the inheritance of the saints has been ripped out from the once hallowed walls of the Church. As Christ walks through the seven candlesticks there is but a glimmer of light left in the last candlestick.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (Revelation 3:15)
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16)
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (Revelation 3:17)
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Revelation 3:18)
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3:19)
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:22)

   As the first Church Ephesus left her first love, the Lord Jesus Christ, we already see the splintering of truth in the Nicolaitans and their deeds and doctrine which Christ HATED. Then we get to the last church, the number seven, the world has done its work well. In the extreme, they are adorned by GOLD and world wealth. Their buildings do not speak of Christ, or the ministering of the Spirit of truth; they speak of the edifice of man to man, and evil Diotrephes runs rampant through the halls of this LAST church keeping the gifts of the Spirit of Christ from entering in. They close their doors to the Spirit of truth, and one day, this great false lying church, this great whore of Babylon will be destroyed in an HOUR of time.

● Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:7)
● Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. (Revelation 18:10)
● And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. (Revelation 18:19)
● So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation 17:3)
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: (Revelation 17:4)
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5)
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:6)
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation 17:7)
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. (Revelation 17:8)
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. (Revelation 17:9)
And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. (Revelation 17:10)
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. (Revelation 17:11)
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. (Revelation 17:12)
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. (Revelation 17:13)
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. (Revelation 17:14)
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Revelation 17:15)
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17:16)
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:17)
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (Revelation 17:18)

   The next verse that we will quote is NOT on the memory list of most people. Even true Christians swing away from this verse in their memory work. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44) For years I saw this verse as only connected to the men that were in the Temple, and then through other Scriptures the light went on that Christ was speaking about the entire Adamic race and ALL come into the world as a child of Satan. This is why it is crucial and should not be denied that a MAN MUST BE BORN AGAIN. He must be taken OUT of the possession of the devil and by the Spirit of truth be placed in the bosom of Christ. Grace and true can only come by separation. Hypocrisy lives and breathes by its own lies. Since the devil was a murderer from the beginning, then what does that make man who is SIN, but under the shroud and power of that same murderer, the devil. With murder comes lies, so many lies that the devil is without truth.

SIDE NOTE: The Devil’s Work: Here is a present day (August 15, 2026) example of the devil’s work. In Cambridge University, England, they exalted a young man through his lies and deception almost giving him popery over the university. However, his resumes, his academic dissertations where all based on his narcissistic imaginations. Everything about him was false but entirely swallowed without any research by the men of knowledge, learning and scholarship. What an embarrassment and a SHAME when this young man’s LIES surfaced. However, this was much more than SHAME, it was a revealing of what existed in the hearts and minds of these men of renown of Cambridge. This was a REVEALING that within this once noble fortress of learning there is a body of men hiding their own corruption and pride. But this is no mystery to those men of renown of Cambridge, for they said in their hearts, There is no God. They said in their hearts, That the Scriptures cannot be infallible. They said in their hearts that Christ was NOT the Son of God, then if so, Whose Son was He? The only alternative would be that He was the Son of Adam. Which He was NOT? The divine breath of Scriptures upholds HIM the Lord Jesus Christ as the fullness of the Godhead Bodily, the express image of the invisible God, the brightness of God’s glory and the perfect expression of the Person of God. Christ is the INHERITOR of all things, and the CREATOR of the worlds. Will you find any of these verses in the hearts of the Cambridge elites. When this deceiver of Cambridge was revealed, as Judas, he went out and supposedly committed convenient suicide sparing the mound of termites of higher learning from further humiliation. The convenience was of his father, the devil. Whether by his hand or the hand of another, I do not know, but when you walk among the children of the devil in lies and in hypocrisy, be wary of the demonic sword raised high above you from behind. It is only there to bring forth death. Always consider that you live among the devil’s children who are murderers and liars and it has been so since the beginning. ♦ END of SIDE NOTE: Here is a present day example of the devil’s work.

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THINGS TO COME
HEREAFTER
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   It is evident that the lives of Esau and Jacob are far behind us. It is evident that the promises given to Abraham, Isaac AND Jacob had been partially fulfilled in the coming of the divine Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Isaac prophesied to both Esau and Jacob of THINGS TO COME, we, as the children of God, stand on a glorious threshold of truth and the Spirit of truth that has been given to us to raise us above the clouds of sin, and to open our spiritual eyes to THINGS TO COME. What a blessing it is to stand in this doorway of truth. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4) This doorway of the Spirit of truth not only reveals the past to us and gives us instruction in the Old Testament, but it advances us to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of comfort, comforts us in our present position in Christ Jesus. We see the glories that await us beyond the horizon to the UNSEEN world of our redemption. As the sun is setting on Church history, the word spoken to the apostle John while on the Isle of Patmos are for US as well. We should write the things which we have seen in our own experiences with the Lord Jesus Christ. We should write about the things that are, the things that God sees in the present church of this world. We, as John on the Isle of Patmos, must look into the things which are to come hereafter. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. (Revelation 1:19) It was not a strange voice to the church at Ephesus.
   These were the direct words from the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent these words and signified them to Ephesus BY His angel. There was no question to the authenticity of these words, for they did not come to the prophets, but directly from heaven, from the Author and Finisher of their faith. But sadly, they had lost their first love. When one loses their first love, it is something else OR someone else who removes that love and substitutes another love. The devil has found that through deception that he can present the world, and the things of the world as part of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This became in the heart of Ephesus, the love for another. When the eyes of the Ephesians turned from Christ, the heart of the Ephesians followed. Not only Nicolaitans were introduced by the devil to the flock, but the church also accepted those who held the DOCTRINE of Diana, and the IMAGES of Diana, which were lascivious which was brought in by the men of Jude 4 and 6.
   The letter to the Ephesians tells the true story of a failing church. The instructions that were given to the Ephesians was to REMEMBER those things that they had left behind. This was NOT a faithful church enjoying heavenly things. It was a church who had to be reminded of the doctrines of Christ and had to be reminded of their heavenly INHERITANCE and their warfare against principalities and powers and the darkness of this world. They had to be reminded of their heavenly armor which they had cast off by joining themselves together with the world. And they were reminded that they should put ON their heavenly armor. This reminder came in the closing Chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians.

And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him. (Ephesians 6:9)
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (Ephesians 6:10)
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (Ephesians 6:14)
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (Ephesians 6:15)
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (Ephesians 6:16)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17)
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6:18)
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, (Ephesians 6:19)

   If we return to the book of Acts, we will see the warnings to the elders of Ephesus.

And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. (Acts 20:25)
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. (Acts 20:26)
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. (Acts 20:29)
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. (Acts 20:31)
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. (Acts 20:32)
I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. (Acts 20:33)
Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. (Acts 20:34)
I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)

   In the Lord’s divine message to Ephesus in Revelation Chapter 2, it is the first time that He brings up REPENTANCE for a whole church, as Esau, the church at Ephesus, the church of the world had NEVER repented as the tears of Esau were only superficial. When Esau met Jacob, the tears were tears of deception, and Jacob saw through Esau’s tears and separated himself and all his possessions from his brother Esau.
   The divine warning to the church at Ephesus was that if they would not repent, then the Lord Jesus would remove their lampstand, and they would be cast into utter darkness. This is the first time that we see the possibility of the removal of the lampstand. The lampstand is the symbol of divine light and divine life. When the lampstand is removed, the Spirit of truth is removed, the Spirit of comfort is removed, the wisdom of God is removed, and righteousness of God is removed, the sanctification of God is removed and the redemption of God is removed. Without the lampstand, there is NO divine light and life. It is also interesting that in verse 5 of Chapter 2 of Revelation that the Lord Jesus brings in the word fallen. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
   The Lord instructs those in Ephesus to REMEMBER the height, and the breadth, and the depth and the FULLNESS of their love when they first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now they are in a fallen condition. If they have any hope of returning, they must REPENT and do the first works of the gospel through grace and truth. We know from history that Ephesus did not repent, and that she was the first church to lose the light from the candlestick, and even the candlestick itself. In the letter to the Ephesians we have the reminder of the DOCTRINES OF CHRIST in Chapter1 it is ELECTION, and PREDESTINATION and the GRACE of God through the TRUTHS of the gospel. They had to be reminded of this, much as the Colossians who had denied the preeminence of Christ in all things. Through the entire first century of Church history, we see the FAILURE of the church brought in by the ambassadors of Satan, the Nicolaitans, who had crept in unawares. These were Satan’s men of renown, with the same heart, the same goals as the men of renown mentioned in Genesis Chapter 6. They brought in damnable heresies, and along with the heresies, they brought in worldly lusts for the treasures of this world. With all the subtilties of the old serpent the devil. 

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (Jude 1:5)
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)

  Jude was not writing to any particular church. He wrote what was taking place over all the worldly church of his time. The book of Jude was given as a finality of the earthly ministry to a fallen world church. The next book after Jude is the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. THIS book and the ministry of that book has to come directly from the source of God’s faithful and true witness: The Lord Jesus Christ. The world AND the church are seen in a completely separate ministry, a ministry from heaven down to man. It is the LAST ministry to show the complete FAILURE of the witness of man in ANY of the holy things of God. Therefore, we see FAILURE in the churches in the book of the Revelation. There are only TWO churches who received good marks from the Lord Jesus Christ: the church of Smyrna and the church of Philadelphia. The early church at Ephesus fell to the lasciviousness of Diana, and not putting away the gods of this world.
   When Moses returned from the mount with the FIRST two tablets of stones, he found the Israelites worshipping a golden calf of Egypt, and in lasciviousness in acts of their flesh. A fact about Israel: after Joshua took them into the land, after they warred and took possession of the land, when Joshua was ready to depart from this world, he exhorted the people of Israel to put away the gods of Egypt, and to worship the Lord. Remember, it is through the holy Scriptures and the examination of holy Scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, we have been given these words to put us on a true course by the Spirit of truth. However, this church at Ephesus was not alone, the Spirit of God wrote to the Galatians, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you.

● I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: (Galatians 1:6)
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. (Galatians 1:7)
● O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? (Galatians 3:1)
● Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3)

   We see how the early church sold its birthright for the things that are SEEN, and they paid no mind to the eternal things of the UNSEEN, as Esau, for a bowl of pottage, for things of the earth. And also, as Israel, the early church went after other gods, so much so, that when Constantine usurped power from God over the church of God, this church worshiped the first dominant anti-Christ and listened to a world ruler and not to the Spirit of God. In a natural sense, it is very rare when one corrupts their heart and turns away from their first love, almost always THAT first love never returns into their heart. In the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the men of renown in the doctrines of Balaam, took over with the ministrations of evil in denying the ONLY LORD GOD and our Savior Jesus Christ.
   When you consider the voices of all the apostles, they were small in a large world of darkness. Those voices were only magnified by the Spirit of truth WITHIN them as the Spirit of truth went with them. It is the Spirit of truth that magnified the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1st Peter we are told that the gospel was sent down from heaven by the Holy Ghost. As the first church, Ephesus, lost its first love, she forgot that the banner that she carried and the banner over her was the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. She began to believe the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, and eventually these doctrines took over all ministrations with their ministrations of evil as they denied our Lord Jesus Christ. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love. (Song of Songs 2:4) God gives us seven letters to the churches to open the ears of those who have ears to hear, to reveal the doctrine of Christ and the deity of the ONE who was incarnate and came from heaven’s glory, and to open the eyes, to unstop the ears, to quicken the heart, to restore the soul and to enlighten the spirit to the beginning of the creation of God who is the VOICE of God, and who in seven glorious days created the worlds.
   They attacked HIS deity because of the same spirit that was in Esau, the same spirit of the Jews in the parable in Luke 19:14, We will not have this man to reign over us. This has been the story, the history of man in his sin that the blindness of SIN results in the blindness of the heart, the blindness of the soul and the blindness of the spirit within man. As we look over the cities burning with SIN, as we look over the towns and the hamlets blown by the venomous winds of sin, as we look over the entire sea of humanity we see the spiritual blindness of man to their Creator and God. As you read Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, you have to be spiritually blind to not see the results today in the worldly dead church of Laodicea. Laodicea reveals that the first love NEVER returned into the hearts, souls and spirits of those who had swallowed the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, those men who crept in unawares. The Lord’s introduction of Himself in Revelation 3:14 is the LAST WITNESS of HIMSELF to a fallen church, a world church. What is commonly called today denominationalism has sown its seductive seeds of DIVISION among the saints of God. So much so, that the Lord Jesus has to say to the world church that HE IS THE AMEN. HE IS THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, the beginning and the end. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ there is NO divine magistrate over the world. Christ is the ONLY LORD GOD and He is the ONLY TRUE and faithful WITNESS of God. The church has put on her garments of purple and has decked herself with gold. CLICK HERE for more about stealing the purple. She has LOST, or better, she has CAST out the Spirit of truth. The Lord Jesus declared that He is NOT only the AMEN, but it is He who is the TRUE and faithful WITNESS of God. Then, Christ gives us the witness of that which was from the beginning. He declared with all power by His word and by His Spirit that IT IS HE who is the beginning of all creation by the WORD of His power. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. (Revelation 3:14) 
   As we study Esau and his descendants Edom, his descendants constantly revealed enmity and contention against Jacob who is Israel. It was the church of Diotrephes that was contentious against the apostle John. Diotrephes had CLOSED the door of the church to the ministry of the Spirit of truth. We now see the SAME spirit of Diotrephes in contention with those who herald the truth of the word of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. This contention comes from church doctrine that the BUILDING and their presence IN the building and their membership to the building and to the organization of Laodicea is more excellent than the Person of Christ. They have abandoned the love of Jesus Christ for the tall spires of this world and its wealth. They look upon their buildings as the Jews looked upon Herod’s Temple, that the Temple was MORE important than the sacrifice, that the Temple was MORE important than the truth of the word of God. Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. (Mark 7:13) We stand now in a world of darkness, but although the voices are few, each voice has the Spirit of truth which is as a streak of lightening into the world of darkness.

   In Revelation 2:1 Christ revealed His preeminence. Now remember, it IS HE who holds the seven stars in His right hand. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. (Revelation 2:1) He also, according to Hebrews Chapter 1, holds the sceptre of righteousness in His right hand. This sceptre is His dominion over the entire kingdom of God. He walks through the candlesticks to give His light and His life as the great High Priest Melchisedec. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. (Hebrews 7:26) The Lord Jesus Christ will NOT ignore a church of sin, He will expose them with the fiery judgment with His eyes upon it. As the lost spirits wander in darkness, so the church of this world wanders in that same darkness. When the candlestick is gone, there is NO life and no light. As Esau troubled Jacob and the nation Israel, so the Nicolaitans, the men of renown, have continuously troubled the church. Growing in number until the Lord has only one alternative to spew ALL who follow the doctrine of the Nicolaitans out of His mouth. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16) Now put this verse with ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’

● But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
● And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:4)

   It is the VOICE of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very WORD of God who condemns the church of Laodicea. This is NOT merely the churches on every corner, but the CHURCHES of the entire world. The WORLD CHURCH has engulfed Rome, denominationalism, and ‘isms’ of every form of belief and unbelief. He condemns them because of the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, the doctrines of the world, and the doctrines of the devil. The devil used Constantine to take control of the church. The devil began to use his power through Constantine to take away the witness of God. Then, the devil developed an empire in Romanism, and he set his throne upon Rome. His power went out into all the world denying the doctrine of Christ and the doctrines of the word of God. They worked by the power of the spirit of evil to CLOSE the door to Jesus Christ and OPENED the door to ‘mother Mary.’ They created a ‘holy Father’ and all his little Nicolaitans around him to pervert the Church of Christ and to deny HIS most holy name. When you enter into any of their buildings you will NOT see a RISEN Christ, but a DEAD Christ upon a cross.
   As the TRUE and FAITHFUL WITNESS, Christ has spewed Laodicea out of His mouth. The failure and darkness of Laodicea is revealed in the face of the world. It is THEY and the world who have given up FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ. In HIS last message to the world, it is that HE STANDS at the door of the heart and knocks, and if any man hears His voice, and OPENS the door to his heart, the FAITHFUL and TRUE WITNESS of GOD will come in and sup with Him. He will feed you with the word of God from Moses and the prophets and the book of Psalms and things concerning HIMSELF. Then with a burst of glory HE will reveal Himself in the New Testament as JESUS CHRIST, the SON of God, as the incarnation of the invisible God. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name [was] Simeon; and the same man [was] just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. (Luke 2:25) As there were some in Israel waiting for the consolation of Israel, so also today, there are some waiting for the call to Come up hither and to forever be with the Lord.

● After this I looked, and, behold, a door [was] opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard [was] as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1)
● And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.(Revelation 11:12)

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THINGS TO COME
The Chosen Faithful
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   We are not drifting away from Esau and Jacob, or from our study verse in Hebrews 11:20, By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. THINGS TO COME now embraces us, the children of God. We are in our desert journey, our wilderness and path through the dry sands of time. We have the robes of righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

● I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)
● And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. (Malachi 3:17)

   Those who were captive in the darkness of SIN and have been freed from that darkness by the glorious LIGHT of the Lord Jesus. We have been taken out of captivity, and we have been made free in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to see the first mention of jewels in the Bible. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. (Genesis 24:53) In the silver of this verse, we see redemption by the sacrifice of the divine servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirty pieces of silver marked the price, however, the voice of the Spirit informs us that those thirty pieced of silver were NOT enough, for it was cast back in the Temple and refused by the earthly high priest and his servants. The gold speaks of the righteousness of God, and the garments are the garments of salvation. The unnamed servant of Abraham was searching for a bride for Isaac, Abraham’s son. God the Holy Spirit discloses to this servant, the chosen bride. The Holy Spirit places His seal upon Rebekah by answering the prayer of the servant. If you combine this verse in Genesis with the verse in Isaiah and in Malachi, you will begin to see the day when Jesus Christ will make up His jewels and present to Himself those who are redeemed by His blood as the Eternal Bride. He has placed the jewels of salvation upon US. We wear these jewels of silver and gold as a badge and seal of salvation. We have the robes of righteousness in the gospel of wisdom. He has sanctified us through His blood, and to put us in His service through the power of His word He has given us a voice to stir the whole world and to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1st Corinthians 1:24)
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1st Corinthians 1:25)
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: (1st Corinthians 1:26)
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (1st Corinthians 1:27)
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: (1st Corinthians 1:28)
That no flesh should glory in his presence. (1st Corinthians 1:29)
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1st Corinthians 1:30)
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)

   So that we will not be lifted up in pride, we cannot in ourselves save perishing souls. We cannot in ourselves forgive the sins of others. We can only cast the net of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is GOD who fills the net, and ONLY HE gives the increase.
   In Genesis, we have three hunters: Nimrod, who is twice called the mighty hunter in Genesis 10:9. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. The next hunter is Esau, the cunning hunter in Genesis 25:27. And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob [was] a plain man, dwelling in tents. so who is the third hunter? Ishmael is called a wild man in Genesis 16:12 whose hand will be against every man, And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren, and in Genesis 21:20 he is an archer in Genesis 21:20. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. The mighty hunter, a cunning hunter and an archer, all had bows to kill, to conquer and to devour. The third hunter Ishmael represents the hunter in Revelation Chapter 6, verse 2, And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
   I must make this statement: the word of God is the map of grace. It is the path of FAITH, and it is the stairway of life. The word of God begins with our ruin, and through FAITH raises us above the clouds, above the stars and into the presence of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The last mention of a hunter is in Revelation 6:2. This hunter has a bow and a crown. Nimrod had a bow and a crown. Ishmael, the archer, had a bow and a crown, Esau, the hunter, had a bow and a crown. These three men of Satan’s birth went forth conquering. To combat these three men in Genesis, God gave us three men of HIS choosing: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each one of these men were CHOSEN by God: Abraham was chosen in Mesopotamia when the God of glory appeared to him. (Acts 7:2) Isaac was chosen BEFORE his birth and his spirit was sent by God. When God chose Jacob, it was a battle of wills. God wrestled with Jacob, and chose Jacob to be the root of Israel, the nation.
  In Revelation 6:2 we have the last mention of BOW. We have the one going forth conquering. To understand Revelation 6, we have to unravel the ball of yarn of the word of God. The book of the Lamb is Revelation Chapter 5 is NOT the book of life; it is the book of Divine Judgment. We see that the Lamb is the Lamb of the tribe of Judah, and it is connected directly to David, and HE has the right not only through His lineage, but He has the right to open the book by His blood. He has redeemed us by HIS blood. This gives HIM the RIGHT to open the SEALS of the book of judgment. Six, is the number of man, and this will be the judgment of ALL men of the earth, as this 6th Chapter of Revelation reveals the history from the first horseman in Chapter 6 in the very last verse, we have the conclusion of God’s JUDGMENT upon those who dwell upon the earth. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Verse 17 is connected to the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is mentioned twenty five times in Scripture and each time leads us directly to Revelation to 6:17 to the GREAT DAY of God’s wrath, to the GREAT DAY of the wrath of the Lamb when He shall conquer ALL as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. However, the person in 6:2 is NOT the Lord, it is the counterfeiter, the conqueror, the antichrist.
   In Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we see the beginning of the promises of God that will engulf and KEEP the nation of Israel. Abraham was told (NOT asked) but TOLD to walk before God and to be perfect. Abraham OBEYED the voice of God. It is recorded that he kept the charge of God, God’s commandments, God’s statutes and God’s laws. Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 26:5) Remember, we are writing about the words of Isaac in revealing to his sons, THINGS TO COME. Through FAITH, the children of the Lord Jesus Christ are, in fact, THE THINGS TO COME. We are IN those promises to Abraham and those promises to Isaac and to Jacob. We today are the children of Abraham. It is proven by the Spirit of God in Galatians 3:26 – 29.

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

  God not only joins us to the seed of Abraham but uses Abraham as an example. We are to walk before God and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

● Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1st John 3:1)
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1st John 3:2)
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1st John 3:3)
● Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)
● To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23)

   In James 1:27 the word UNSPOTTED is only mentioned once in ALL of Scripture. By THAT, the Spirit of God has placed a mark upon that word to draw our attention to our own being, to walk before God and to be PERFECT IN the Lord Jesus Christ. As Abraham, a man of FAITH, had that same call to walk before God and to be thou perfect. And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1) The word perfect is found ninety-nine times in Scripture. This should get your attention. If you begin with Noah, the first mention of the word perfect is in his generations. His generations of FAITH were perfect in God’s line of FAITH from Seth to Noah. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9) As Noah was perfect in his generations and found grace in the sight of the Lord, Abraham was to walk before God in that SAME grace and the call to BE PERFECT. Then, let’s add Leviticus 22:21, And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. Again, numbers loudly speak in Scripture. It is the 22nd Chapter of Leviticus, and the twenty-first verse. Notice the number structure of THREE two’s (2 – 2 – 2), then the number 1, the FULNESS of the Godhead bodily. The GODHEAD witnessed to the perfection of the accepted sacrifice. As you look at the sacrifice, you see that this sacrifice in Leviticus 22:21 had to BE PERFECT without blemish. This perfection in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Lamb out of the tribe of Judah who has redeemed us through HIS PERFECT SACRIFICE and His shed blood. We are told in THAT, that we are just men made perfect IN HIM. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. (Hebrews 12:23) Add Hebrews 11:40 to Hebrews 12:23, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. To show that we are made PERFECT IN HIM, our blessed Lord and Savior, consider 1st Corinthians 1:30 and 31. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. (1st Corinthians 1:30) That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)
  Esau as Edom were the enemies of Israel. This began with THE HUNTER. This is one of the traits of Satan. He goes to and fro throughout the earth SEEKING and hunting those who he may devour. His children are the archers and hunters with their bows of evil deeds.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1st Peter 5:8) Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1st Peter 5:9)

  Verse 9 ends with the word WORLD. These are the children of the devil, the HUNTERS. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44) The word HUNTER is only mentioned four times in Scripture. Twice with Nimrod, he was a MIGHTY HUNTER and once with Esau who was a CUNNING HUNTER, and the last mention is very interesting. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. (Proverbs 6:5) Deliver THYSELF from the hand of the HUNTER. This deliverance is found in the wisdom of God, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . for HE IS WISDOM. The four times that the word HUNTER is recorded shows us the number of the world, and they who dwell therein.
   While man was in the womb of Rebekah, the TRUE NATURE of mankind was revealed for Esau and Jacob began their conflict in Rebekah’s womb. And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. (Genesis 25:21) And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. (Genesis 25:22) And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23)
  As we see in Esau and Jacob, their SIN NATURE was present IN the womb. This also is a witness of God’s election because later as it was proven and witnessed by the Spirit of God that BOTH Esau AND JACOB were sinners; yet, God chose Jacob and refused Esau. This also shows that when God changed the name of Jacob to the name Israel, He brought ISRAEL into the family of God. Israel and NOT Jacob walked away from God after Jacob wrestled with God. Jacob was a supplanter, but he walked away no longer a supplanter but as a Prince with God; thus showing the election of God. This is proven in Romans Chapter 9, verses 10 – 21.

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (Romans 9:10)
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) (Romans 9:11)
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. (Romans 9:12)
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. (Romans 9:14)
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Romans 9:15)
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. (Romans 9:16)
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. (Romans 9:17)
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. (Romans 9:18)
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? (Romans 9:19)
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? (Romans 9:20)
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:21)

  To Romans Chapter 9, my little children, add Ephesians Chapter 1. READ it carefully, allow the Spirit of truth to open your heart. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:1) Paul begins in verse 1 that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the WILL of God. This cancels out the will of man. Paul had surrendered himself to the Spirit of the Almighty God. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4) In verse 4 according as he hath chosen US in HIM, let us be reminded that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world, (Revelation 13:8). He has CHOSEN us in HIM BEFORE the foundations of the world. The choosing of the children of God was made by the determinate counsels of God in His foreknowledge. Deep in the unknown in places that we cannot comprehend, ( And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. John 17:5) God existed and God made a plan. He purposed in His own will the creation and the creation of man and the plan of redemption. In Chapter 2 of Ephesians, verse 1, we see that God has quickened us. This is difficult for man to accept. The unregenerate man cannot see beyond the darkness of his own soul, heart and spirit. The natural man in Adam HATES the light.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:20) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:21)

   We have been quickened OUT of that darkness. We came into this world as a child of Adam, a child of SIN, a child of trespasses, and we were by nature (SIN NATURE) the children of wrath even as others. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) What does the word dead mean here in this verse? You were DEAD to God BEFORE God quickened you. You had NO life. God looked upon you as DEAD! Your soul was for Adam. Your spirit was for Adam. Your heart and mind was for Adam. Your total being existed in the deadness of Adam. You were a child of disobedience. You walked and lived among the children of wrath.

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:3)

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THINGS TO COME
The Excellent Sacrifice
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

  The Spirit of God builds a legal case and reveals that we were once children of darkness. We were alienated FROM God. We were DEAD to the very Spirit of the Living God. We walked according to our own will. We lived in our own sin and in the sin of others as well. We had NO entrance into the promises of God. We were without HOPE and without GOD in this world. We can only say of our previous life that we were wretched and undesirable, and yet, to God grace and mercy, HE QUICKENED US. HE CHOSE US OUT OF DARKNESS. HE GAVE US THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, and the Spirit of that life in our very soul. HE FREED US from the bondage of sin and death. None of this was done by the will that was within us. He CHANGED OUR WILL, so that our will NOW loves God, and hates darkness. We are blessed to be the children of God in Jesus Christ. God has removed us from this world, yet, we fight the fight of FAITH. It is a battle with the spiritual darkness, with the rulers of darkness who hate the LIGHT. The Light that we find in Jesus Christ has illuminated us to the things of the UNSEEN, and the wonders and glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. The only Light within the Church is the Person of Christ. We herald THAT Light in opposition to the children of darkness. As the first drops of the sincere milk of the word of God has to come from the unction of Christ with the words that He spoke . . . learn of me. Why do we spend so much time promoting the world of man through all the chaotic voices of denominationalism? The world has its own religion or religionS. They directly oppose ALL the things of Christ with the darkness of the spirit of Satan. We have lost the spirit of selflessness, and instead of learning of Christ and all His glory, the message today is to NOT learn of Christ, but to learn all about us, and about the church. It is not about who we belong to in the heavenly realm, but where we go on an earthly realm. Every thought that we should have should be TO GOD BE THE GLORY. That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)
   To understand the will of self in the darkness of Esau, which is Edom, we see the will of self in the word duke . . . a title of preeminence and of aristocracy and reserved specifically for those of royalty. Edom is documented as having a king seven times, thus it was a kingdom. Forty-three times the word DUKE is recorded. It is ONLY recorded about the sons of Esau in Genesis Chapter 36 and in 1st Chronicles 1:51-54. The plural of the word duke (dukes) is found fifteen times in Scripture. The phrase the dukes of Edom is recorded four times and Esau is called the father of the Edomites twice in Scripture. Once again all these references are about the children of Esau which is Edom. The very WILL OF SELF in Esau traveled throughout the entire nation of Edom.
  Man has this enmity, this SELF WILL; it is a hidden jealousy against God. It is the manifestation of Lucifer’s children, for he is the father of his own faithful. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44
   Every one of the world thinks that sin is something that you do. Although this is true, it is the SIN within that makes you do the sin without. The very depth of sin took place at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was NOT physical death. It was spiritual death with the SENTENCE of physical death. This death that took place WITHIN Adam permeated the entire creation. There was a cosmic shock wave when Adam brought sin into the world. It affected ALL of nature. It affected ALL the souls of men yet to be born. It condemned ALL of the seed of Adam. Sin corrupted the entire world. The psalmist in Psalm 23:3 proclaimed that it is God who restores the soul of the psalmist for the soul was LOST at the sin of Adam. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. It was the Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of time who paved the path to the tree of death to give LIFE and to RESTORE the souls of man. It was HIS sacrifice of Himself. His SOUL was offered up to God to give man LIFE in the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) 

● Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)
● And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

   We should consider THE THINGS TO COME, in Abel, according to Hebrews 11:4, Abel saw the excellency of the sacrifice that he offered up to God. Abel understood THE THINGS TO COME. In Leviticus 22:21 we see the peace offering. When anyone presented an offering of the beeves or a lamb, then that lamb had to be perfect without and within. And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. This is the PEACE OFFERING, those who offered understood that the offering HAD TO BE PERFECT TO HAVE PEACE WITH GOD. As the gospel of John presents the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, the Lord Jesus presents Himself as the peace offering in John 14:27, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

● Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; (Ephesians 2:15) And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (Ephesians 2:16)
● And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

   The Lord Jesus presents Himself as the PERFECTION OF GOD, the excellency of God, and the Holy Ghost presents the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 1:3 as the brightness of God’s glory, the very peak of glory, the perfection of glory, the excellency of glory, and God’s perfection came in the image of the invisible God: Jesus Christ. That which was the God who was invisible was now SEEN in the image of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed Himself as the image of God. Christ revealed Himself as God the Father.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (John 14:8)
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (John 14:9)
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14:11)

   Scriptures prove that the Lord Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God. In that express image, He was Jesus Christ the Son of God, He was Jesus Christ God the Father and He was Jesus Christ the Holy Ghost revealed to man in the EXPRESS IMAGE OF THE PERSON OF GOD. Jesus Christ never laid aside HIS perfection. Jesus Christ never laid aside His excellency. He laid aside His glory in His manifestation, but He NEVER laid aside the Spirit of life that was IN Him. The perfect sacrifice could not come from the earth, and Peter informs us that He did NOT come from the earth.

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (1st Peter 1:18)
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1st Peter 1:19)
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1st Peter 1:20)
Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1st Peter 1:21)

   So we have established the perfections of Christ. When something is perfect there is NOTHING else that can measure up to that perfection. When God the Holy Spirit uses that word perfect or perfection, there is nothing in heaven, nothing on earth, nothing under the earth that can measure up to that perfection. Royalty, heavenly royalty came down to earth. He is called the King of heaven. He is called the King of Kings. He is the King over the kingdom of God. He is the risen Christ with the crown of glory upon His brow. He is the perfect Lamb SLAIN from the foundations of the world. Peter tells us that Christ was FOREORDAINED as the Lamb of God BEFORE the foundations of the world, thus, showing the existence of the Son of God AND the Lamb of God BEFORE creation began. Then AT the foundation of the world, Christ was SLAIN by the determinate counsels of God. He came to earth as Royalty to present Himself as a Savior for mankind. He presented Himself as the Son of man in His walk upon earth, but He NEVER surrendered His title as The Son of God which was confirmed by heaven above. In His works of compassion, and the miracles that He performed upon man showed His deity and His Sovereignty over diseases, over death, over sin in cleansing the lepers, and as the beginning of the creation of God He could still the seas, the roaring waves became calm to His voice. The boisterous wind hushed and humbled itself at the presence of the Sovereign of creation. He fed the multitude as the Bread from heaven come down to man. He was both Light to the Spirit of man, and Life in His own Spirit, for the Spirit of Life was found in Jesus Christ. When He walked upon the earth, the darkness HATED Him. He was God incarnate and they would not accept Him, so they crucified the Son of God.

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THINGS TO COME
The Risen Christ
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   Now let us look at THINGS TO COME. In the early church, they placed an image on the cross of the Son of God. A symbol of blasphemy, for the cross is a symbol of a DEAD or DYING Christ. Paul, through the Spirit of God, informs us that we serve a RISEN Christ. There is no such thing as a dead Christ in the present world, for He is ALIVE in heaven, and His voice is heard through Scripture by those who love Him. They have written on their hearts that He is not here He has risen and ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3) The symbol of a dead Christ spread through the world, especially in the temples of doom, the temples of blasphemy against the Son of God. The very fundamental commandment given in the days of Moses was NOT to worship an image (ANY IMAGE) made by man.

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2)
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (Exodus 20:4)
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:5)
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:6)

   A good example can be found in the brazen serpent (Nehushtan). The brazen serpent was given for one particular sin of the children of Israel. However, after that occasion was over, the children of Israel developed a system of worship for THAT brazen serpent that was on the pole. They worshiped that serpent throughout their journey in the wilderness. Then they took it into the land of promise and worshiped it until the days of Hezekiah for a total of approximately 726 years. In 2nd Kings 18, the Spirit of God writing about the life of Hezekiah reveals that the brazen serpent STILL existed and it was not a copy, it was the original brazen serpent that Moses had made. Then the Spirit of God tells us that in the days of Hezekiah, for right up to that age of Hezekiah, the children of Israel burnt incense to this brazen serpent.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. (2nd Kings 18:3)
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. (2nd Kings 18:4)
He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. (2nd Kings 18:5)
For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. (2nd Kings 18:6)

   This brazen serpent wasn’t in a grove, nor in a field, but the children of Israel had brought it into the house of God. When Hezekiah saw it, he called it Nehushtan, which means ‘a piece of brass.‘ It was an image and it was blasphemy against the Almighty God. Moses had commanded the children of God NOT to worship ANY image of things in heaven, things on earth or things under the earth. Now to show where the brazen serpent was placed, we must go to 2nd Chronicles 29:16.

And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. (2nd Chronicles 29:15)
And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron. (2nd Chronicles 29:16)
Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. (2nd Chronicles 29:17)

   One needs to see the horror of placing Christ on a cross in the day and age in which we live. This symbol denies a RISEN Christ, and this symbol glorifies the sufferings of Christ which is over. In Hebrews 12, verse 1 and 2, we have great cloud of witnesses and they proclaim to us that for the JOY that was set before the Son of God, BEFORE the foundations of the world, HE ENDURED the cross, DESPISING THE SHAME and then the Spirit of God said, HE IS SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. When the Lord Jesus came to earth as that holy thing, as the image of the invisible God, as the Savior of man, as Emmanuel God with us, the world of religion, the world of politics, the world of darkness HATED the Lord Jesus Christ. After His ascension to glory, the world still HATES the Lord Jesus Christ. The world INSISTS that HE is STILL on the cross and STILL suffering when that is OVER AND DONE WITH. In life man will not accept the Son of God, in death they will not accept the offering of His soul. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10) The religious world at the time of His resurrection would not accept the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a resurrected Christ ascended to the right hand of God, the world will not accept the dominion of the RESURRECTED Christ over ALL principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Religion equals the smiles of darkness for the darkness overthrows the hearts of fools who will not accept a RISEN and GLORIFIED CHRIST. Satan loves images. Look at the statues and images that the world glorifies and cherishes instead of the Son of God IN heaven. God has absolutely no tolerance for images even those that men refer to as saints. When you worship The Almighty God, you are to worship HIM in SPIRIT and IN TRUTH.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (John 4:23) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

   Yet the majority of those who profess their religion to Jesus Christ, remain ignorant to the wisdom of God and to the power of God found in the word of God. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29) For instance, Christ is the Wisdom of God. Man is without wisdom if they do not know the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in a born again experience, not of the will of the blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. It is only by the divine will of God can Christ be made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

● But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1st Corinthians 1:30)
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)
● Proverbs 8
● Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: (Luke 11:49)
● But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. (Luke 11:20)
● This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. (John 8:6)
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. (John 8:7)
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. (John 8:8)
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (John 8:9)

   There is a question that needs to be answered. Why does man have conviction at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? The reason is that the things of God is foreign to man and has NO connection to the righteousness of God. Man has no connection to the wisdom or God, or to the sanctification of God, or to the redemption of God. Religion has no wisdom of God in their sanctuaries. They are void of righteousness, void of sanctification, and void of redemption. How often I have been told by a child of religion that this or that man is such a good man and a religious man. They do not see or fear the word of God. They do not obey the voice of God. Their concept of God is a God that approves of their sin. However, as I have previously stated, God HATES SIN AND HATES THE UNREPENTANT SINNER AS WELL.
   Abraham obeyed the voice of God. Examining the visible church of God today, we see that they do not obey the voice of God. Now, when it comes to serving God, Abraham KEPT the charge of God. Abraham KEPT the commandments of God written in his heart along with God’s statutes and the laws of God. Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 26:5)This was over four hundred years BEFORE Moses and mount Sinai and the tablets of stone. But it is worth repeating for Abraham was a man of FAITH. He was a man of light. He was a man of grace and truth, and God CALLED Abraham, a friend of God.

• And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)
• But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. (Isaiah 41:8)

   Following on the theme of a friend of God. The Lord Jesus looked on His disciples in John Chapter 15, verse 14, and declared, ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:14) Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)

   Connecting John Chapter 15 with the life of Abraham we are to acknowledge and to KEEP God’s charge. We are to obey God’s voice. We are to KEEP whatsoever the Lord Jesus commands in His statutes, and in His laws. We have been freed by the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus. Christ has freed us from The Law of Sin and Death. (Romans 8:2) However, God wants us to walk WORTHY of our calling. He wants us to OBEY the word of God. He does not want us to rewrite His words of perfection. He does not want us to listen to the clamor coming out from religious darkness.
   When Abraham was called out of darkness, for once again, the whole earth had been swallowed up in darkness. The God of glory appeared to Abraham when he was yet in Mesopotamia. (Acts 7:2) God builds ALL His promises around Abraham AND his seed. He gives us a divine example by the birth of Isaac born of the Spirit.

For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. (Galatians 4:27)
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Galatians 4:28)
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. (Galatians 4:29)
Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. (Galatians 4:30)
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Galatians 4:31)

   The promises given to Abraham were not only of an earthly seed, but also of a heavenly Seed.

● Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)
● There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

—–◆—–
THINGS TO COME
THE WEEPING OF WISDOM
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   Doth not wisdom cry? Wisdom IS the Lord Jesus Christ. He is made unto us Wisdom. Before His crucifixion He wept or cried three times. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. The resurrection of Lazarus was NOT for God, it was to show man the power of God IN Jesus Christ IN raising Lazarus from the dead. This was not the first time that Jesus Christ had annulled the voice of death. Yet, He wept, WISDOM WEPT NOT for Lazarus but for the unbelief of those who were present. He had proven that He was the resurrection, yet now in John 11:35, He wept over the souls of man. Jesus wept. Doth not wisdom cry? The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10) Again I write, the Lord Jesus Christ IS THE WISDOM OF GOD. Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? (Proverbs 8:1)
   He wept over Jerusalem, the city that He had chosen to establish His earthly kingdom, and yes, that is yet to come. But the day of His kingdom was there at Jerusalem. When the multitude proclaimed ‘blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord,‘ ‘peace in heaven‘ and ‘glory in the highest.’ Those voices rang out with the Spirit of God proclaiming that their King had come to bring them peace. He had brought the peace from heaven and the glory of the highest, and yet, the Pharisees among that multitude declared to the Lord Jesus, Rebuke thy disciples, rebuke the multitude. God was presenting His Son as KING and the religious leaders denied their King who had come from heaven’s glory. The Lord Jesus said to them, If all these people were to hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. What would the stones cry out? Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the LORD. When the Lord Jesus came near to Jerusalem, He looked over Jerusalem and He beheld the whole city. In His divine nature, every soul and every heart was open to Him. And yet, they rejected Him, and HE wept over His beloved city, Jerusalem, the city of peace. This was to be the day of their glory, and yet, they rejected the Glorifier.

Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. (Luke 19:38)
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. (Luke 19:39)
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, (Luke 19:41)
Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. (Luke 19:42)
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, (Luke 19:43)
And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19:44)

   The book of Matthew adds more to this event through Matthew 23 and Luke 13.

● O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:38)
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:39)

● O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! (Luke 13:34)
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Luke 13:35)

  Now this is two times that WISDOM wept. Once over a friend and the unbelief of those around. He was and is the resurrection. Yet man will NOT believe. This belief IN the Lord Jesus as the resurrection of the dead is a mighty belief because FAITH opens the door to eternal life. The Lord Jesus proclaimed, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (John 11:25) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:26) The last time that WISDOM wept, the tears of the Lord Jesus Christ were as great drops of blood.

● And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, (Luke 22:41)
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42)
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:43)
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44)
● Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; (Hebrews 5:7)
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; (Hebrews 5:8)
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5:9)
Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 5:10)

   In the gospel of Luke, we see the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of man, however, His birthright and His inheritance was and is in heaven. He is eternally attached to glories in heaven, and these glories came down to earth to be manifested before man in the likeness of sinful flesh; so that He, by the sacrifice of Himself, could take away the sin of the world. Doth not wisdom cry? There in the garden, we see the travail of His soul as Isaiah informs us in Isaiah Chapter 53. In this travail, He wept with STRONG crying. Only once recorded in Scripture do we have the words strong crying attached to anyone. The agony of the Lord Jesus Christ, the travail of His own soul, in the garden we have the Lamb of God, the sacrifice to be offered. In the garden we have the High Priest Melchisedec who will offer up that sacrifice to God and they are ONE and the SAME in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the very point that we are trying to make in the THINGS TO COME. The prophet Isaiah spoke of ONE who would suffer the travail of His soul in Isaiah 53:11, He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Isaiah fills us in on what transpired in the garden 712 years before Christ, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, would see the travail of His own soul. I ask this question, have you ever felt the travail of your soul? In this travail in the cross that was set before Him, what had to be accomplished on Calvary was far GREATER than the sufferings of flesh. When Christ was on the cross, He represented the entire GODHEAD: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. ALL were in travail because of what was about to be born of God. The pains of death would give way to the pains of birth, and by the knowledge of God’s righteous servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, He would justify many. The word many signifies a limit, not ALL men will be saved; NOT all men will be justified, NOT all men will believe. Yet, the Lord Jesus shall be their iniquities. Now, when we mentioned that the Lord Jesus wept THREE times, once over a friend because of the unbelief of others; then over His beloved city Jerusalem who refused to accept their King, their Messiah and their God. Then the third time, He wept over your sin and over my sin and over the sin of the whole world. All that He had created, that He had declared to be GOOD was tainted by SIN and the darkness of Lucifer and the darkness of Adam. When the Lord brought about redemption, it was the things in heaven, showing that Lucifer’s cloud still existed; the things on earth showing that the children of Adam had NOT repented; and then lastly, the things under the earth, the graves and the souls of those who lived in darkness and would not repent. A lot of people do not understand true justification. The Lord Jesus justified ALL with the condition of belief. There comes a time in every person’s heart that the Spirit of God witnesses to them. Then, it is up to that person to believe and to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This does not nullify the elect, for God in His foreknowledge KNOWS those who are His. These are the ones, the lambs, the sheep of His pasture that God the Father has given to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
   The last weeping of the Lord Jesus BEFORE the cross was the travail of His soul. Christ had NEVER experienced death. Here at the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh, He was to go into death and destroy death. As by one man, death came into the world in Adam, so now Christ would defeat death as the righteous servant of God and bring life into the world, and the Spirit of His life. (Romans 8:2) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (Romans 5:12)
   Now WISDOM, the Lord Jesus Christ, brought forth the plan of redemption, and then completed that plan in the words that He spoke from the cross. These words should give comfort to every child of God, from the mouth of the Savior, after His battles in the unknown in the darkness, He cried out with the thundering words, It is finished.
   The determinate counsels and the foreknowledge of God met together in the Person of the WISDOM of God on the cross of Calvary, for the GODHEAD in Jesus Christ confirmed the determinate counsels, the foreknowledge of God, and the plan of redemption BEFORE the beginning of creation. Just as the creation was NOT an accident, it was the PURPOSE of God in the WISDOM of God and His determinate counsels. Every word spoken in the creation of the things SEEN and the things UNSEEN came from the beginning of the creation of God who WAS and IS Jesus Christ; by which He confirms in Revelation 3:14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. The Holy Spirit confirms this in Hebrews 1:2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. No one looks at the word of God as the greatest power on the earth, yet, within its pages are the storms of life and death, and man in all of his power cannot control life or death for ONLY the Almighty God, Jesus Christ, has the keys of life and death. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18) Doth not wisdom cry?

   It is not often that God gives a prophecy directly to a woman in Scripture. God told Rebekah that within her womb were two separate nations; not merely two brothers, but within her womb were two distinct nations. These two nations were Edom and Israel. Then the prophecy continued, that the elder would serve the younger.

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. (Genesis 25:22)
And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23)
And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. (Genesis 25:24)
And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. (Genesis 25:25)
And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. (Genesis 25:26)

  They were different in the womb; they showed their contention against each other as they struggled in the womb. As THINGS TO COM, one, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, would struggle against the darkness. He continually stated that in this world, nation will be against nation, and there would be wars and rumors of wars. We never attach the word SIN to the great conflicts of men, and yet, if SIN was removed from the hearts of all of mankind, then we would have world peace. But as long as SIN drives the hearts of nations, nation will be against nation. The two nations struggled against each other even in the womb of Rebekah as Esau fought to have preeminence. It is recorded that Jacob took hold of Esau’s heel. To those who like to proclaim the innocence of the unborn, these two brothers in the womb reveals the very root of SIN within the unborn. There is no innocence at birth, for every soul is in the darkness of the deep. Every soul born of Adam and Eve in the generations yet to be born are contaminated with the darkness of SIN. Every soul MUST BE RESTORED to the pre-existence of sin. One verse in Scripture proves this, Psalm 23:3, He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Now we all agree that Psalm 23 was written long before the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Yet, the Psalmist in FAITH believed that the Lord Jesus Christ had the power to RESTORE his soul and that with his restored soul in the new birth, he would walk in the paths of righteousness.

SIDE NOTE: Name’s sake . . . great name’s sake. Now these words are important . . . for his name’s sake. The plurality of the names of the Lord is given to us throughout the entire Scriptures. The continuity of the word name’s runs through the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is directly connected to the last name mentioned concerning the Almighty God. It is found in Revelation 22:16, I JESUS. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
   He is the Root and Offspring of David; therefore, He is the KING over all the kings and kingdoms of the world. He is the bright and morning star signifying His creative hold over all the creation. He is the very Spirit of His name’s sake. But the name that is above every name is the name JESUS. He holds the bright and morning star, as you look into the heavens in the dawn of the day, you can see that last star brightly shining as it pronounces a new day and the reality of that new day is the continuation of the ONE who holds that bright and morning star. It is HE who holds ALL things by the word of His power.
● For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. (1st Samuel 12:22)
● Moreover concerning a stranger, that [is] not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake; (1st Kings 8:41)
● Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; (2nd Chronicles 6:32)
● He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3)
● For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it [is] great. (Psalm 25:11)
● For thou [art] my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me. (Psalm 31:3)
● Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. (Psalm 79:9)
● Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. (Psalm 106:8)
● But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy [is] good, deliver thou me. (Psalm 109:21)
● Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. (Psalm 143:11)
● For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. (Isaiah 48:9)
● Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. (Isaiah 66:5)
● O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou [it] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. (Jeremiah 14:7)
● Do not abhor [us], for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. (Jeremiah 14:21)
● But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they [were], in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 20:9)
● But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. (Ezekiel 20:14)
● Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. (Ezekiel 20:22)
● And ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 20:44)
● Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not [this] for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. (Ezekiel 36:22)
● And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
● And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29)
● Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9)
● And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Mark 13:13)
● But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute [you], delivering [you] up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. (Luke 21:12)
● And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name’s sake. (Luke 21:17)
● But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. ( John 15:21)
● For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. (Acts 9:16)
● I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake. (1st John 2:12)
● Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. (3rd John 1:7)
● And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. (Revelation 2:3) It is the Lord Jesus who is speaking. He is the Dictator of the words spoken to the angels of the churches. It is through this revelation that we learn the power of thy name’s sake. In the ministry of the gospel one must have patience for it is a difficult battle against the prince of darkness. Although we of the children of God have victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have the peace of God in our hearts, those we minister to are swimming in darkness whether they realize this or not, the darkness that engulfs them has swallowed their souls. The only restoration that any soul can have is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is HIS NAME that is above every name.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Philippians 2:9)
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:11)
  Man has ignored a very important point in these verses in Philippines Chapter 2, at the top of the names of God is the name JESUS. He is given Sovereignty over those of the earth, for every knee shall bow. He has Sovereignty in the heavens and over all the things in heaven. He has Sovereignty in the things of the earth, and He has Sovereignty over the things under the earth. Those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord have surrendered their lives to the Sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the glory of God the Father.
  When you read all the verses of his name’s sake, you will see that each mention is to a specific Person . . . that is the Person of the Lord who is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Righteous Branch of the knowledge and wisdom of God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1st Corinthians 1:30) That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1st Corinthians 1:31)
   The Lord Jesus holds the sceptre of righteousness. He is the Righteous King. His preeminent attribute is His own righteousness which He fulfilled on the cross of Calvary. His sceptre of righteousness never departed from His hands. 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. (Hebrews 1:8) Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Hebrews 1:9)

   This sceptre of righteousness makes this Son, God’s ONLY begotten Son, He is unique in every way because that righteous scepter will never depart from the future nation of Israel. He will come and declare His righteousness as a blast of righteousness as lightening from above. The Lord Jesus is the FIRST BORN out of the depth of death among many brethren. He is the FIRST BORN from the dead. He is the FIRST BORN from the supernatural womb of God.

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, (Luke 1:26) To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:27) And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. (Luke 1:28)
● And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. (Luke 1:30) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. (Luke 1:31) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: (Luke 1:32) And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (Luke 1:33) Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? (Luke 1:34) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
  It is here in these verses that wisdom cries. There is nothing impossible with God. He is SOVEREIGN in life, in death and in His great power. God not only chose Mary because she found favor in His sight, but He chose Mary and chose her womb to present HIS only begotten Son to the world. This is the uniqueness of the power of God, for nothing is impossible for Him. He who is SPIRIT conforms to the image of flesh, and born of a woman of the earth, but IN His SOVEREIGN POWER, He came forth in the fullness of time. This is His time of manifestation when the Spirit of the Highest, the invisible God is manifested before man to present to man in the fullness of time the SOVEREIGN work of God in His work of redemption for man. His eyes went to and fro throughout the whole earth, and they rested upon Mary and she was blessed among women, for she would carry the SEED of God (that holy thing) in her womb. She was blessed AMONG women NOT ABOVE women. This distinction was recorded twice in the gospel of Luke.
● And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, [thou that art] highly favoured, the Lord [is] with thee: blessed [art] thou among women. (Luke 1:28)
● And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed [art] thou among women, and blessed [is] the fruit of thy womb. (Luke 1:42)
   God, who is the Creator, humbled Himself to be present as the Son of man. In the uniqueness of that title takes away all the authority from the descendants of Adam, for IN the uniqueness of Christ He was BOTH SON of man and Son of God. What we should understand that God not only looked on Mary’ outward countenance, but He also looked into the depth of her heart. As Abraham was chosen of God, the God of glory appeared to him. (Acts7:2) The God of glory chose Mary to be the womb of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. God was about to do the impossible as man would see, for man would deny this act of God even to this very day. This began in heaven with the Holy Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. That holy thing from heaven, the Seed of divine deity, the Son of God, the Son of the Father’s love from before the creation of the world would come to be the Lamb of God, the divine sacrifice to show all men the love of God without measure.
● Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)
● And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)
● Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3)
Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:4)
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? (Hebrews 1:5)
And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. (Hebrews 1:6) ◆ End of Side Note: Name’s sake . . . great name’s sake. CLICK HERE for more about His Name’s sake. 

   Back to Esau and Jacob . . . during the birth of Esau and Jacob, Jacob showed his nature as a supplanter by taking hold of Esau’s heel, thus attempting to stop his birth as the firstborn. It was the struggle to achieve the inheritance. This reveals that the struggle between these two brothers would not only be in the womb, but throughout their lives and the lives of their descendants. The HATRED that developed in Esau grew with each succeeding generation. Esau lost his inheritance through the deceptive work of Rebekah and Jacob. This HATRED grew through Esau’s descendants. This HATRED grew until God destroyed Edom. But it was not only Edom that HATED Israel. In the book of Judges, the HATRED of the Midianites overpowered the entire nation of Israel.

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. (Judges 6:1)
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. (Judges 6:2)
And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; (Judges 6:3)
And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. (Judges 6:4)
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. (Judges 6:5)
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. (Judges 6:6)

   In the book of Esther, king Ahasuerus ruled from India all the way to Ethiopia and was sovereign over 127 provinces. The little poisonous evil man at the right hand of Ahasuerus was Haman the son of Hammedath an Agagite who advised king Ahasuerus to kill every Jew in his dominion. Haman was an Agagite from the lineage of the Amalekites who were descendants from Esau. And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz.Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife. (Genesis 36:12) CLICK HERE for more about Agagites and CLICK HERE. 
   Before Israel became a nation it was HATED. During Israel’s birth as a nation at the base of mount Sinai they were HATED. During their journey though the wilderness they were HATED. As they went into the land of promise per God’s instruction, they were HATED. That land belonged to God. It was His to control. It was His to determine that the interlopers of giants should be forever removed. As Lucifer/Satan attempted to place their evil agents of rebellion on God’s territory that was specifically meant for His people, the battle that began in the supernatural realm of God then continued on the earth and for millenniums the battle still continues.
   Today, Israel is completely surrounded by her enemies. Four Arab nations touch border to border, and behind these four Arab nations there are many more Arab nations. Within Israel itself the area of Gaza belongs to Israel. Since the days of Joshua (Joshua 11:22) the Anakims (giants) lived in the land of the children of Israel: called Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. The area called the West Bank belongs to Israel. Israel is not only surrounded by enemies of God but within the land itself His enemies flourish. Regardless of what political policies of peace report, peace is not the goal of Arab nations. There is only one acceptable policy and that was the policy of Haman under the power of the Persian and Media kingdom: KILL ALL JEWS in the realm of king Ahasuerus. Why so much hatred for Israel? It may appear that Israel is the object of their HATRED, but it is GOD they hate. Its NOT Israel they hate, it is the GOD of grace and truth that they HATE. They HATE that God commanded His creatures for they desire to command God. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17) They HATE that it is God who commands and control life and death. They HATE that God separated the DARKNESS from the Light. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.(Genesis 1:4)
   I have seen such HATRED in our own days spurred on by liars and paid propagandists erroneously called news. The holocaust that Hitler instituted to a dark world, the slaughter of millions of Jews, both young and old, both male and female, there was NO mercy shown to the Jews in the third Reich. But it didn’t end there, the shame of the human race is beyond measure. As Germany was defeated, Stalin (the ruler of Russia) picked up the sword of HATRED to extinguish all of the Jews in Russia. He sent out green trucks disguised as bread trucks to pick up Jews early in the morning. There is no count that I know of as millions of Jews that Stalin annihilated.
   Even NOW in the Middle East the small nation of Israel is HATED beyond measure by the Eastern world and in disguise under the veil of deception, the Western world breaths peace in the fallacy of their own HATRED for the Jews. Great Britain is one of the examples. They LOVE the children of Mohammed and they HATE the children of Israel, and they claim a great kingdom that they are the true Israel of God.
   Esau and Jacob were born approximately one thousand eight hundred years before Christ. When Isaac prophesied of THINGS TO COME, we do not have the written prophecy of ALL that he told to his sons Esau and Jacob. But we see some of the fulfillment of his prophecy in God’s statement of His HATRED for Esau and His love for Jacob. In the so-called minor prophets in the book of Obadiah this is a one chapter with twenty-one verses. These twenty-one verses are full of wisdom for us today. Doth not wisdom cry? The verses that stand out are verses 8, 17 and verse 21. (Obadiah 1:8)

● Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? (Obadiah 1:8)
● But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. (Obadiah 1:17)
● And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S. (Obadiah 1:21)

   Wisdom teaches us NOT to fight against God’s chosen people Israel. Although they have rejected their Messiah and God’s plan and promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are STILL the apple of God’s eye. Although they have been scattered through the globe, God has KEPT a company of Israelites FOR HIMSELF. He returned to the LAND OF HIS PROMISE. Their document of possession is the OATH of God’s promise to them. They have been given THAT LAND, their inheritance, at the hand of the LORD. In our lifetime, we have seen that HE subdues and destroys those who come against the nation of Israel. He PRESERVES the Jewish people as a remnant all over the world. The promises and blessings that were given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be completed fulfilled in the last days when God subdues ALL the nations of this world, and destroys the evil and darkness of the kingdom of The Beast, and casts the man of sin into the eternal fires of damnation. Both The Beast and the false prophet will be cast in alive. The rest of the nations of the world will be brought into subjection to the Son of God, the Lord of Lord and King of Kings. The psalmist was given great prophetic vision. In fact, the Lord announces David as a prophet, and in one of His last messages to His disciples, He spoke from the books of Moses, from the prophets and from the book of Psalms in the Old Testament on things concerning Himself and THE THINGS TO COME in the days of Esau and Jacob were fulfilled in the manifestation of the invisible God IN Jesus Christ. CLICK HERE for more about THINGS TO COME for Israel and for the world. 

—–◆—–
THINGS TO COME
THE FULLNESS of THE GOD OF GLORY
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (Hebrews 11:20)

   It doesn’t take long to see the message of the book of Psalms. Psalm 1 is The Blessed Man. Psalm 2 is The Anointed Man, and this psalm gives a mirror image of man’s rebellion against God, and how God subdues man with His King of Righteousness. Man struggles AGAINST GOD, and God subdues man with His Anointed, who subdues ALL in the end of Psalm 2.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? (Psalm 2:1) The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, (Psalm 2:2) Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalm 2:3) He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. (Psalm 2:5) Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalm 2:6) I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Psalm 2:7) Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2:8) Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (Psalm 2:9) Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. (Psalm 2:10) Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. (Psalm 2:11) Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:12)

   It is here in the Old Testament, in the 2nd Psalm that wisdom speaks to the rulers of this world. The Lord dictates to the kings of the earth, Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. They are to be instructed in the word of God as Moses instructed the people of Israel that their king should not only uphold the word of God but should also write a copy (without error) on parchment and on the pages of his own heart. And to the judges of this world, wisdom cries out with the word of truth. In God’s creation of man, ALL men was to serve the Lord with gladness. Adam changed that at the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil. Sin became a barrier against the word of God, and against TRUTH. The goodness of God was replaced with the sinful heart of man, and yet, God still cries out in wisdom that the judges of the earth and the rulers of the earth should be wise and serve the Lord. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. This tenth verse takes us to the wisdom of God in Proverbs Chapter 8. Wisdom leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to the holy. FAITH unveils He who is Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
   In the book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, and yes, 6 is the number of man. Many individuals do not see God’s judgment in this Chapter, but God is dealing with SIN from the very beginning. In the year king Uzziah died, the sin of king Uzziah was so great that God punished him with leprosy to the day of his death. CLICK HERE for more about Uzziah.

  What was king Uzziah’s great sin? He infringed on the rights of the only King and Priest in Scripture, Melchisedec, the Lord Jesus Christ. King Uzziah wanted to be both king AND priest among the sons of Adam, these two positions were eternally separated. Even in the New Testament there is only ONE King and Priest and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. ONLY through FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ can His children be made both priests and kings. Doth not wisdom cry? So, Chapter 6 of Isaiah marks the death of a king consumed by the leprosy of his own sin. Now, in the 6th Chapter, the true King and the true Priest reveals Himself as the Lord lifted up and seated on His throne. Here, God gives a vision to Isaiah, a man on the earth, looking into the Temple of the Jerusalem which is above, and he sees the Almighty God sitting upon His throne, and that throne is the throne of righteousness. 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. (Hebrews 1:8) Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Hebrews 1:9) 
   In the vision of Isaiah, the Lord God filled the heavenly Temple and the earthly Temple with His glory, thus, revealing His heavenly and earthly possession; that both these Temples are FILLED with His glory. After Solomon completed the building of the Temple, the God of glory who had appeared to Abraham, descended into Solomon’s Temple and filled it with His own GLORY. At THAT moment, the God of glory TOOK possession of THAT Temple as HIS HOLY RESIDENCE ON EARTH. It was no longer Solomon’s Temple, but NOW it was the Temple of the Lord.
   In Isaiah’s vision, we see that Uzziah disgraced the Temple of the Lord. He also disgraced the holiness of God, he disgraced the Sovereignty of the Almighty God, possessor of heaven and earth. But THEN, He reassured Isaiah by revealing to His prophet and His priest, the fullness of His glory in both heaven and on the earth in the heavenly sphere, the seraphim, the worshiping angels and the servants of the heavenly Temple in the Jerusalem which is above. The heavenly symbolism is transferred to the earth in Isaiah’s vision. This vision becomes to Isaiah the reality of the Almighty God in both King and Priest. It is the God of glory, the thrice holy God revealed by the seraphim in the wisdom of God. Three times, the seraphim cry out, Holy, holy, holy. Holy, God the Father; Holy, God the Son; and Holy, God the Holy Ghost. I use the designation of the Holy Ghost because it gives personality to the Holy Spirit of God. God the Father has a personality, God the Son has a personality and God the Holy Ghost is the personality of the SPIRIT OF GOD. All three make up the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Jesus Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9) Isaiah was a priest AND a prophet, yet, in the revelation of God to him, he was made to stand before God as a man in his own sin, and Isaiah saw his own sin purged and his iniquity removed and taken away. And he laid [it] upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. (Isaiah 6:7) The word PURGED is joined in the New Testament in Hebrews 1:3, Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. (Proverbs 16:6)

   It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has purged our sin and taken away our iniquities as the children of God, He will remember them no more. We have been brought into His holiness; we are the children of God the Father. We are brethren of our holy and righteous King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are joined in Sonship with His eternal inheritance. We are NOT born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh in Adam, nor the will of mankind. We are born of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost has come upon us and has given us LIFE in the Holy, Holy, Holy. With Isaiah, it was the coals from the altar of incense that touched his lips, thus PURGED his sin and iniquity. Now, see the truth, that in the mind, in the heart, in the soul and in the spirit of Isaiah, he was made to see that depth of his own sin and iniquity and the NEED of atonement towards God. Isaiah was brought into the atonement of Christ, as we are, for Christ took away our iniquity and PURGED our sin. That which was inherent in us, and that which we committed in life, He will remember our sins and iniquities NO MORE. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10:17 brings us from the past to the present and to the future of our eternity. Our theme verse in Hebrews 11:20 specifically centers on THINGS TO COME. And yet, it is the CENTER of Hebrews Chapter 11. The Spirit of God emphasizes THINGS TO COME. But that does not erase the past. It joins WITH the past, and the present.
   Consider Abraham, God appeared to Abraham many times as the God of glory referred to in Acts 7:2; as Melchisedec in Genesis Chapter 14; as Abraham’s shield and exceeding great reward in Genesis 15; as the Almighty God in Genesis 17; as the Lord of life and promised seed in Genesis 18; as the Judge of all the earth in Genesis 18; as the Angel of the Lord in Genesis 22; and as the God of resurrection in Hebrews 11:19. In all the visitations, and the visions, and the physical appearances, hearing the voice of the Lord, we only have a divine snapshot of ALL that transpired between the Lord Jesus and Abraham. Each time that it is written in Scripture was to reveal our Great God and Savior in different ways to show us the FULLNESS of God, and to reaffirm the words of Genesis 18:14, Is any thing too hard for the LORD?

● Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. (Genesis 18:14)
● But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)
● God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1)

    This is only part of what we see in Scripture. We do not have ALL of what God gave and spoke to Abraham, or ALL of what they talked about, but from the many visitations and ALL that Abraham received from God, God could declare by His Spirit that Abraham was His friend. There are many things that the Spirit of God has left out of Scripture deliberately, but He has made sure that ALL the promises of God are revealed in these last days to the children of FAITH, and FAITH brings with it the unwritten Law of God written on the hearts of FAITH. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, (Hebrews 10:15) This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; (Hebrews 10:16)

    Today man ignores these verses. Man looks at them in unbelief. Man is not capable of believing that the Sovereign God can write His laws and His statutes on the pages of the hearts of men. Ask the psalmist as he declares, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. The object of our heart is FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ. FAITH is not our object, but our gift to present the Lord Jesus in His glorious redemptive work to our hearts. Is there anything too hard for the Lord Jesus? Can He command the seas? Can He hush the wind? Can He cleanse the leper or make the blind to see? He raised the dead, and He fed the five thousand, He gave strength to the legs of the crippled man and made wine from water. He can speak in a whisper, or He can make His will known as a mighty storm. He can make fire pass by and speak in a still small voice.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: (1st Kings 19:11)
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1st Kings 19:12)
And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? (1st Kings 19:13)

   The same still small voice that spoke to Elijah is the same voice that speaks today, Come unto me, and I will give your peace. Come unto me, and I will make you fishers of men. Come unto me, and I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. These are the promises that the children of God hold dear in their heart. Here is where FAITH comes into the heart so that the child of God can say, He restoreth my soul. So, as Isaiah and John the apostle, what a DOOR is opened in heaven for us. What God gives the newborn Christian in a moment in a second of time is a communication by the Spirit of Christ FROM heaven into the heart; the revelation of the Spirit of truth to guide and to comfort us; the mind of Christ, so we can hear the wisdom of God, and we can rest in the righteousness of God and thus, we are sanctified by God in the Lord Jesus Christ. ALL of these things fulfill our redemption by God on the cross of Calvary. ALL this has been given to us to safely guide us in this treacherous world to our home above, to a better country, to a divine City of our God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of our peace, but NOW, doth not wisdom cry? We see in part, but not all, there will come a day that we will see all things in Christ Jesus. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1st Corinthians 13:12) Now, little flock, get some rest for the road to come that takes us to our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen and Selah

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (Ephesians 6:10)
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (Ephesians 6:14)
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (Ephesians 6:15)
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (Ephesians 6:16)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17)
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6:18)
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, (Ephesians 6:19)
For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:20)

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© Copyright – Michael Haigh
Published on September 25, 2026 @ 3:00 PM (EST).
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. (KJB)