Judgments

INTRODUCTION

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, either for rewards or for punishments. All our deeds and all our inner motives will be judged. Our motives are plain to God. God is all_knowing. Every- thing is open before Him. Our anger, our lust, our ungodly jokes, our idle words, are all going to be judged, unless they are repented of, cleansed and washed. St.Paul says, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (II Cor.5:11). Now we know only the grace of God, but that ‘day’ (of judgment) is going to be the terror of the Lord. We say that God is a forgiving God, and we take things for granted. “I can allow this thought; I can talk like this; I can allow these desires; I can eat as I please; I can despise others,” we think. But a day is going to come when we will be judged! Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men not to sin. “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb.4:12). God is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God knows the intentions behind everything we do. So God is a terror to sinners and backsliders. For saints, His face will be a glorious face, a bridegroom’s face. It is like the pillar of fire —to the Egyptians it was darkness, but to the Israelites it gave bright light. The very face of Jesus is going to be a terror for sinners and backsliders. So we need to be careful with our lives. We have to give account for every idle word (Matt.12:36). On the day of judgment, at the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord will say, “You spoke like that and discouraged that person; you spoke like that to hurt that person; you spoke like that to prejudice that person; you spoke like that to accuse that person; you cracked ungodly jokes, etc.” Punishments will differ according to spiritual growth and calling and according to how much enlightenment one has received of the truth. For instance, ignorantly disobeying is different from disobeying on purpose. “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (I Pet.4:17,18). The righteous are scarcely going to be saved! Think about it—when God starts judging, even the righteous may not be saved. God has called us with a high calling. Not understanding this, some take things easy; they disobey God and others and walk in their own way. They sleep, eat, talk, think spend money etc. as they please. We need to be careful, because the judgment of God will certainly come upon us. And judgment starts with the righteous. “I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing” (Psa.101:1). Mercy is first shown. By His mercy, God shows us through the Word of God, the seriousness of our sins. God does not punish us immediately. Because God is longsuffering, He waits for sometime. He gives chances, shows mercy. The goodness of God leads to repentance (Rom.2:4). So when we are repenting, we are actually taking hold of the goodness of God. Tell the Lord, “I want to be changed. I repent of all these sins in my life.” Then the judgment of God will not fall on you. But if you refuse mercy and justify yourself, looking at others and saying that you are better, you will not escape the judgment. No excuse is going to hold us up on that day of judgment. Our thoughts, our eating habits, the long hours of sleep we have—all need to change. The Holy Spirit must tell us when to wake up, when to sleep, etc. The Holy Spirit guides us in many ways. This is a very sweet experience. Life then becomes very easy and we will have time for everything. Otherwise, at the end of the day we will look back and say, “I have not found time to pray, read the Word of God, etc.” This is because we have not been obeying the Holy Spirit. In several places we read that Jesus’ hour had not come. But because He did everything only according to what the Father

told Him, He had time for everything although He had only 3½ years of ministry. Judgment may delay, but it certainly will come. God will be gracious to us, but if we do not repent, judgment will come. We read in the Word of God of how the judgment of God came appropriately, on all who sinned, depending on the nature and magnitude of each sin. Let us see some examples: Jacob deceived his father by wearing his brother's garment. After a lapse of 20 or 25 years his children deceived him by showing him Joseph's bloodstained coat. Absalom defiled his father’s ten concubines (II Sam. 16:22). How did he die? Ten young men surrounded him at the same time and slew him (18:15). Saul had wanted to pin David to the wall (I Sam. 19:10). See what happened to the dead body of Saul. “They fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan” (31:10). Saul lived for a number of years, but the judgment waited—till finally he was fastened to the wall after his death. Sisera gathered his nine hundred chariots of iron against Israel (Judg.4:13). What do we read of his death? “Then Jael...smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground...So he died” (vs.21). Only one nail was needed to kill him, and it was an iron nail. Abimelech killed seventy of Jerubbaal’s sons on one stone (Judg.9:18,24). How was Abimelech killed? “And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull” (vs.53). But although his skull was broken, his pride was not. “Then he called hastily unto the young man his armour bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him” (vs.54). His pride was harder than his skull. He did not want any to say that a woman had killed him. Sometimes people are like Abimelech. We really need to repent and howl and cry to God for our pride. Samson’s sin was the lust of the eyes (Judg.16:1). “The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes.” This was a judgment that came upon him. Also, the punishment came in Gaza, in the very place where he had sinned. “...and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house” (vs.21). God will certainly punish us according to our sins. Haman plotted against Mordecai and prepared a 50 cubit-high gallows to have him hanged on it. But finally he was hanged on the very gallows that he had prepared. “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him” (Prov.26:27). The judgment of God is just. Do not think that God will be silent regarding all that we do, say or think. God is only giving us time for repentance. “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long- suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impeni- tent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom.2:4-6). If we do not pay heed to the Word of God and reform ourselves even after knowing the truth, we will be beaten with many stripes—“And that servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Lk.12:47). There are two ways in which we can avoid the judgment of God: (i)

SELF-JUDGMENT

If we judge ourselves we shall not be condemned with the world (I Cor.11:31). We must judge ourselves everyday on the basis of the Word of God. Then we can be found without fault before the throne of God. “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Rev.14:5). These saints lived in the presence of God, before the throne of God. Therefore there

is no punishment or judgment for them. Saints judge themselves daily. Our attitude, behaviour, manner of speaking, way of thinking, all need to be examined. “Is my attitude wrong? Is my behaviour wrong? Is my manner of speaking wrong? Is my way of thinking wrong?”—this is how we should examine our lives. This is self-judgment and self-discipline. (ii)

ACCEPTING REPROOFS AND CORRECTIONS

Paul rebuked Peter (Gal.2:11-14). Paul was also advised (Acts 19:30). Paul was a great saint, but he accepted the advice of the disciples. All through the Bible, we see that saints have been corrected, and they have accepted correction. Once Jesus told Peter, “Depart from me, Satan.” After His resurrection, Jesus again corrected Peter. We need correction. We make so many mistakes. We ought to pray, “Lord, raise people to correct me.” St.Paul admonished Timothy to “rebuke sharply, correct, preach, rebuke and reprimand.” “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear,” he taught Timothy (I Tim.5:20). Proverbs 27:5 reads: “Open rebuke is better than secret love.” We need open rebuke. It teaches us humility, purity and love for God. It may even be a small child correcting us. Sometimes, God may use unconverted people to correct us. God deals with us in so many ways. We may have our own defences and excuses. But they only bring death to our life. “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov.29:1). Let us remember that we are all going to be judged — either to receive a reward or a punishment. So it is best that we live each day before the throne. To be found without fault before the throne of God, we need self-correction and self-judgment and the grace to accept correction.

 1 JUDGMENT ON THE ANGELS There are four orders of angels. They are called ‘thrones’, ‘dominions’, ‘principalities’ and ‘powers’ (Col.1:16). Five groups of fallen angles are mentioned in the Word of God. These angles fell before the creation of man. And they all fell due to different types of pride. There are a number of fallen angels. They are spirits—evil spirits. Behind every sin there is an evil spirit. These evil spirits desire to enter human bodies to do their destructive work, for, they cannot work without a body. Hence we should keep surrendering our body as instruments of righteousness unto holiness. The fallen spirits cannot enter us unless, knowingly or unknowingly we give room to them. Each time we commit a sin (fornication, murder, etc.), we open the door to a demon. The man of Gadara mentioned in Mark 5:9 had a legion of demons in him ie. 6000 demons. These demons tormented him day and night. Some angels had thrones. That may be the reason why they are called ‘thrones’. “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations” (Isa.14:9). Since, even the ‘chief ones of the earth’ are raised up from their thrones, these ‘thrones’ are the first group of angels. All the fallen angels were stirred up when the judgment came on Lucifer. LUCIFER

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (Isa.14:12).

Lucifer had a throne. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” he says (Isa.14:13). There is therefore a possibility that Lucifer belonged to the first order of angels. “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High,” said Lucifer (Isa.14:13,14). So the spirit of Lucifer is to exalt oneself or try to grab a higher position and honour than one has. Lucifer was already a great angel, perhaps an archangel, and he had a throne. He was called the son of the morning. He must have been a bright and shining angel having great power. He was not satisfied with all the power and glory God had bestowed on him. It is this spirit of Lucifer that incites most of the fighting in the world. Lucifer wanted to have more power, more position, more honour, etc. This spirit is working in the political and secular world; it is ram- pant in the spiritual or religious world too—making people desire greater and greater power, leadership, position, honour, etc. It is a shocking thing, but it is very true that most of the leaders who fought and came to a higher position whether in the secular, political or religious world, were possessed with the spirit of Lucifer! Such people may have a terrible end. Having the spirit of humility is, praying from the depths of the heart, ”He must increase, but I must decrease (ie. I must be completely hidden in Christ)” (Jn.3:30). In Luke 18:9-12, we see the Pharisee saying ‘I’ five times and in Isaiah 14:13,14 also we see the word ‘I’ mentioned five times. Self-exaltation, self-confidence, everything connected with the self, is connected with Lucifer’s spirit. We must know where we stand. We should realize our nothingness and abide in the calling wherewith we have been called. In the place where we are exalted we should humble ourselves. The ‘holier-than-thou’ spirit is Lucifer’s spirit. The Word of God admonishes us to count others better than ourselves. There are different types of pride. Despising others is also a form of pride. It is a self-exalting spirit. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” Lucifer said (Isa. 14:13). By despising others we are exalting ourselves. “How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isa.14:12). Lucifer was such a great angel that he was able to weaken the nations. This is the spirit, which makes people weak physically and spiritually. We should check and see whether we are giving room for this weakening spirit. When we despise others this spirit very easily enters into us. One important thing we should note is that this spirit is very subtle. If we despise others even inwardly we give room for Lucifer to come in. This spirit has the tendency to make people trust in themselves and think that they are righteous, and despise others. “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa.14:15). Verse 11 says: “The worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” In vs.12 we see that this angel was cut down to the ground. Pride will really cut us down to the ground, bring us right to the bottom. We should not wait for this judgment of God to come on us. One good way to avoid the judgment of God is through self-judgment. If we judge ourselves we will not be judged. Let us ask ourselves every day, “Am I despising anyone in my heart? Is there any despising spirit in me? Do I think I am better than the other person because of some mistake he has committed?” At times, the consecrations we have made may also lead us to despise others in our hearts. God is going to look at our character on the day of judgment. Consecration without character is not going to be rewarded. So we must reckon all that we have given up as dung. THE ANOINTED CHERUB

“I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground”(Ezek.28:16,17). “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth...thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire” (Ezek. 28:14). The anointed cherub must have been a very useful angel. And he had special anointing for his ministry. He is also of the first

order of angels. He seems to be a far greater angel than Lucifer, in power and in glory. Lucifer wanted to exalt his throne to the mountain of God, but the anointed cherub was already there. “Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee” (Ezek.28:3). God had given him great wisdom. Verse 17 refers to this wisdom as the ‘beauty of wisdom’. God can give us wonderful wisdom. Wisdom from the Word of God, wisdom for administration or wisdom to manage different areas of life, etc are all very good. What was the pride of this angel? It was the pride in his greatness and wisdom, in his gifts, his usefulness, his talents, his God-given revelations and blessings. Sometimes God gives us blessings and revelations which others may not have. All these are not given to make us proud, but to make us more humble. The more you receive the goodness of God or the mercy of God, the more you have to repent. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Rom.2:4). “Lord, I am unworthy; I have made so many mistakes and yet You are merciful towards me”—this is how we should humble ourselves and repent. This amounts to gratitude. When God answers our prayers, what should we do? We should repent. If we do not repent we will become proud. We would think that it is because our prayer was a mighty prayer that God answered it. Then the spirit of Lucifer and the spirit of the anointed cherub can come into us. We should remember the state we have come from and consider what our state will be if we allow these spirits in our life. That will enlighten us. The anointed cherub was perfect in beauty and wisdom and in the way he was created (Ezek.28:12,13). He had a covering of nine precious stones. All these nine stones are found on the breastplate of the high priest. The most important stone, jasper, is also men- tioned there (Rev.4:3; 21:11,19). He was enamoured with the beauty and glory he had. His heart was lifted up and hence his character was corrupted (Ezek.28:17). Rejoice not in your blessings, gifts, consecrations, etc, but in the Giver of these blessings. The cherub used his wisdom, usefulness etc, to collect riches (Ezek.28:16). No matter in what way we minister to others, our ministry should never be to earn money. People of God must live simple lives. We must make sure that we are faithful stewards of God’s money. We need God’s wisdom and grace to live this life. The anointed cherub is particularly connected with people of God involved in ministries. In vs.18 we read, “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries (ie. the Church, the house of God), by the multitude of thine iniquities.” “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” (Ezek.28:13). The ministry of the anointed Cherub was to come before the presence of God with singing. He might have been the leader of the heavenly orchestra. There is a set manner in which one should appear before a king. That is what we call protocol. The protocol to go to God’s presence is singing. Some angels were created for this very purpose. When the anointed cherub fell, his music ministry also fell. Heavy metal, Rock, Pop and all kinds of worldly music have been introduced by the fallen cherub. Very often singers and musicians find it very hard to remain spiritual. That is why musicians and singers must spend extra time with the Lord. Some Rock musicians, when they are under drugs, get a ‘fallen anointing’ and in that ‘anointing’ they compose music that enchants millions. When they begin to play, apparently, they get the audience worked up into a frenzy. Music has a tremendous influence on people. Even before going to war the kind of music that evokes violent patriotism is played. There was a boy named Michael of 11 or 12 years of age, who had the habit of listening to Rock music. One day he smashed an empty bottle. When questioned he said that when he listens to music, it makes him want to do something strange. That is the spirit of the anointed cherub. It activates one to do wrong things. The anointed cherub attacks servants of God more than the believers because servants of God are the ones who are more involved in the ministry of God. It is observed that it is often the useful ones who leave the ministry. So when we become useful let us not set our mind on our ministry. Do not look forward to a greater ministry. Look forward to a greater life. Then you will have a heart that is willing to share the ministry with someone else. You will not have a jealous heart. Whether you preach or another preaches, whether you sing or another

sings, God’s name will be glorified. “All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” The New International Version says, “You have come to a horrible end.” This is the judg- ment of God that came upon this fallen angel. Although very talented, this angel came to a horrible end. In Eternity, these spirits will be tormented eternally. Let this be a warning to all of us. By the mercy of God, some of us may be useful in many ways, shining with various gifts and talents. We are like the burning charcoal. Once the fire has gone out, the only thing that remains is the black charcoal and whoever touches it will become dirty. The more gifted we are and the most useful we are, the more we are indebted to God. If we have any- thing, and if we are anything, it is all the grace of God. Let us be more thankful and humble before the Lord. THE ANGELS BOUND AT EUPHRATES

Revelation 9:14,15 refers to another group of fallen angels. “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” How long they were bound, and why, we do not know. But from their work we can see what kind of angels they are. As soon as they are loosed they slay a third part of men. Today’s world population being approximately 6000 million, we under- stand that 2000 million people will be killed by them. It is clear therefore that these fallen angels are murderous spirits working in people. During the second half of the Tribulation Period the people will commit murder, sorcery, fornication, thefts etc, as stated in vs.21 of the same chapter. The spirit of anger is the spirit of murder. The first man who got angry committed a murder. Levi and Simeon were angry and they murdered the men of a whole city. Herod got angry and murdered many little children. In a good number of places we find anger leading to murder. We also see that the spirit of anger and the spirit of pride go together. A man who has the spirit of anger has the spirit of pride. In Jeremiah 48:29,30 and in Isaiah 16:6 we read of Moab’s pride, haughtiness and arrogancy being spoken of together with his wrath. And in Proverbs 21:24 we read of ‘proud wrath’. Of King Uzziah, we read that when his heart was lifted up he got angry with the high priest who tried to correct him (II Chron.26:16-19). So these four angels fell because of pride manifested through anger. The worst type of anger is hidden anger—keeping your anger in the heart and smiling at the person with whom you are angry. Simeon and Levi hid their anger against Hamor. God just cannot tolerate this kind of anger. Concerning Levi and Simeon, their own father pronounced, “Instruments of cruelty are in their habita- tions...Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel” (Gen.49:5-7). Jacob did not give a single blessing to Levi and Simeon—only curses. Dear friend, perhaps you may have the worst type of anger—you may be very clever in hiding your anger, irritation, hatred, bitterness, etc. On the outside you may appear to be friendly, but inside you are filled with anger. This is hypocrisy. Repent with a broken and a contrite heart lest you receive a curse from your heavenly Father. A truly humble person will be free from anger, irritability, hatred, bitterness, resentment, etc. All these are the foul offshoots of pride. May the dear Lord teach us Christlike humility every day, that we may be free from the snare of pride. First comes a little anger, then hatred, then murder. It has stages. So when a little hatred, a little bitterness etc comes into us we must get rid of it or it will kill our spirit of grace and peace and the very eternal life we have. THE ANGELS WHICH LEFT THEIR FIRST ESTATE

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in ever- lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). These are another group of fallen angels. These angels left their habitation and are reserved in ever- lasting chains under darkness. These spirits did not want to remain in the place God had for them. They left the place where

God had kept them as though it was not the best for them, as though they knew of a better place to go to. Not being in the place where God wanted them to be was sheer rebellion against God. We can also be like that. Our rebellion can also start like that—not wanting to go where God and our leaders send us, wanting to go to places of our choice or wanting to leave the place where God has kept us. The sin of these angels is the pride of self-will or independence. Once self-will comes in, it will keep urging us to go out of the will of God. Although we may do many good things like preaching the gospel, witnessing, feeding the poor, etc. it may not be in accordance with God’s will but after our own plan and will. Initially everything may seem all right, like Jonah’s running away to Joppa; but later we see how a storm arose and he was in deep trouble. When we go out of the will of God, we may not face any problem immediately, but a storm will certainly blow in our life and we may not be able to survive. We may also endanger the lives of those with us, as it happened to those who were in the ship with Jonah. In Isaiah 5:1,2 we read of a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. God has kept us in a very fruitful hill. We should know that we cannot be fruitful outside the will of God. The place where God has kept us is a fruitful place and He has fenced us in. A fence of protection is around us. But when we are out of the will of God there is no protection for us. In the fruitful hill where God has kept us is, the ‘choicest vine’. But when we are outside the will of God we are no more a blessing to others. We may appear to be fruitful but God will not take that into account. He will not give us choice souls as our portion. ‘Gathered out the stones’—In the place where God has kept us we may find many hindrances, but God will remove them. God will fight our battles. Outside the will of God, even if there is only one stone, God will not remove it and we have to struggle with it. In the place where God has kept us we may have trials, problems, hindrances etc, but we will have the assurance that the Lord Who brought us there will gather out the stones. The Lord built a tower in the midst of the vine- yard. This means He will watch over us. He has planted it in the middle—to watch for the enemy. There is also a winepress in the place where God has kept us. The winepress is to crush and sanctify us. You will never be sanctified if you are outside the will of God. In the will of God there will be a winepress to crush us so that we can be fruitful. God gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him. If you really want to do the will of God, the Lord will not keep you even a second longer than needed in any place. But if you want to do what you like or go where you like, darkness—tormenting darkness will come into your spiritual life. We should not think of leaving our habitation. We should remain where God has placed us. These fallen angels are those from whom the spirit of independence proceeds. It makes us complainers, murmurers etc. Jude 8 says that such people will also despise dominion ie. speak against elders. II Peter 2:10 says that they despise governments. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, ie. elders. These spirits also make people of God leave their first love, the first zeal, the first faith, the first consecration, the first vision, the first prayer life, the first holiness, the first sacrificial life, etc. They do this because they themselves kept not their first estate. If we leave the first faith, the Word of God says that there will be damnation—“Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith” (I Tim.5:12). If we cast off our first love how much more damnation there will be! This damnation will not only be on earth, it will continue through all Eternity. These fallen angels were bound in chains of darkness and reserved in the blackness of darkness. Jude 13 says that they will be in the darkest place. Even chains with which they are bound

are referred to as chains of darkness (II Pet.2:4). This darkness is not ordinary darkness. It may be a tormenting darkness, a darkness that brings unbearable pain (Rev.16:10). Here the darkness was so painful that they gnawed their tongues in pain. Perhaps it is darkness that can ‘be felt' (Exo.10:21). Colossians 1:13 says that it is not mere darkness but the power of darkness. Light has power and so has darkness. Saints in light have an inheritance. In the same manner those in darkness too have an inheri- tance and it gives them tormenting pain. Eventually, the pride of independence or doing things according to our self-will, will bring the blackness of darkness into our lives. The Word of God does not speak in support of any independent ministry. Jesus never sent anyone alone to do any ministry—He sent them two by two (Mk.6:7). Even to fetch a donkey He sent two disciples (Mk.11:1). Jesus always did the Father’s will and He has left an example for us to follow. Dangerous prisoners are kept bound with chains even in prison. That is what we read about these angels. They are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Dear child of God, the sin of self-will is not a small sin. We should be very careful. From the judgment meted out to these angels we should realize the gravity of this sin. God is a righteous Judge. He will never mete out judgment without justice. So even a thought of leaving the place where God has kept us should not come to us. If we are guilty of such thoughts, we should repent deeply and confess them. The best place for us is where God has kept us. If you are a servant of God, are you working in the place where the elders have placed you or do you wander around as you like? Repent or you will be a wandering star (Jude 13) awaiting everlasting chains of darkness. Your heart and soul can also be bound by darkness. Perhaps you are a child of God doing your own will; you may have the pride of independence and you may not feel like consulting others (those whom you ought to consult). Give up the pride of independence; do not be a wandering star, but go where God and the elders lead you. The will of God will never take you where the grace of God cannot keep you. SATAN

The chief of the fallen angels is Satan. Jesus says so. He is called Beelzebub (Lk.11:15), the father of lies, dragon, old serpent, etc. Satan also must have been a cherubim. He had a throne. He is the embodiment of all evil. All the evil found in the other demons and much more is found in Satan. His pride is the worst pride—subtle or hidden pride. All his works are most subtle. Right from the beginning Satan has been subtle. All that he does, he does in a very subtle, hidden way—unlike the other demons. In Psalm 91 we read that Satan is called ‘a fowler'. “He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.” Satan, the fowler, has a snare. He stays in hiding till we are trapped. You may think you are going the right way; suddenly you realize you are in a trap. That is ‘the snare of the fowler’. A snare is a deceptive thing. The area around a snare will look absolutely natural; it is only when a prey is trapped that it is known that there was a snare there. After the prey is caught the fowler comes and takes it away. That is the way Satan works. What is Satan’s major task? In a subtle way he corrupts minds. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor.11:3). Corrupting the minds is a subtle and hidden work. Why is corrupting the mind the most important work of the devil? In one sense, the mind is the capital of our spirit, soul and body. Once the capital of a country is conquered, all the other places can be easily won. Once our mind is corrupted we are corrupted; when our mind is fallen we are fallen. The devil is very cunning—he hides this truth; therefore he is rightly called ‘the deceiver’. As the time is very short, the devil is determined to corrupt the minds of God’s people. Most of the programmes on television, video, Internet, etc, are geared to defile the mind. Once a person’s mind is corrupted, regardless of his great anointing and talents, he becomes weak in his mind. Before his fall, man first fell in his mind; before the fall of a kingdom, first the capital city must fall. This is the

reason why Jesus, while mentioning a list of various sins, put evil thoughts first: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, cove- tousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mk.7:21,22). Therefore a true saint is one who has conquered his thoughts, as St.Paul did. “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor.10:4,5). When one’s mind is corrupted, no one can see it. Satan does not do anything openly. He never works as he is; he disguises himself as an angel of light and works in a subtle way. It is said that, in the Garden of Eden, the serpent looked very beautiful. His manner of speaking was also as if he really cared for Eve. Every- thing Satan does is done in a hidden way. If the mind is filthy it means Satan has taken the capital. “Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city ! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God” (Zeph.3:1,2). Once our mind is defiled we will be the oppressing city. We will trouble and torment others because we ourselves are tormented. Such a person will have a disobedient spirit. When corrected he will react like a snake. This is concealed or hidden pride—a sort of false humility. Everyone will think that he or she is a saint. Such people do not have a good conscience, so they cannot trust God for anything. If they fall ill, a desire to use medicine will arise. When the mind is filthy we cannot come close to God. We may try to pray but we will feel God is far away, though in fact it is not God Who is far away, but we. So pollution of mind is the worst thing. What is the best thing then that can be found in us?—purity of mind. When the mind is pure and clean we can do just the opposite of what is written in Zephaniah 3:1,2. We can trust God. We can trust that when Jesus comes He will not leave us or forsake us. We can live close to God. God will be real to us and He can correct us. Even if a child were to correct us we will gently accept it. Even if we are wrongly accused we will take it joyfully and, instead of oppressing others we will be a comfort to them. We need to pay a price to get an overcoming life. When we, from the depths of our heart, make a dedication then God is faithful to keep us in holiness. When you have a dedication in your heart, you do not live by your own strength. You live by the grace of God. When God sees in us a sincere dedication, then comes the grace of God. We find that purity and humility of heart are given to those who cry for it. God can see the sincerity of your heart and He is faithful to give you grace. If our conscience is corrupted we are letting God down. Realizing this truth, we really need to cry to God. “His (the devil’s) tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth” (Rev. 12:4). Satan cast down one third of the stars (shining saints who live in heavenly places). ‘Cast them to the earth’ means ‘made them earthly minded’. Either the devil will fill the mind with evil thoughts, or he will bring worries about money, materials, and earthly things. And he does this work very subtly—with his tail. Even some saintly people are deceived into worrying about building houses, earning money, etc. Many children of God are yet to discover that their calling is not to worry about material things but heavenly things. It is very sad that Satan, the deceiver, has already corrupted the minds of many Christians by filling them with evil thoughts or by giving them an earthly (worrying) mind. Instead of being warriors for Christ, they have become ‘worriers’. “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility” (Col.2:18 NKJV). If we are not careful we can be trapped in ‘false humility’ which is the worst type of pride. If a very proud man thinks that he is very humble, he has absolutely no hope of being delivered from pride. It is possible to appear to be very humble, and many may appreciate and praise our humility. As a result, the devil makes us believe a great lie because he is a liar and the father of lies. It may be shocking but it is true, that some who appear to be most humble may be those who have the terrible type of pride!

The judgment on Satan is found in Revelation 20:10. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone...and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever”. It says, ‘the devil that deceived them’. Even in the last mention of the devil in the Bible, the deception is mentioned. Some have the idea that Satan will be on the throne in hell. No, there is no throne in hell, no throne in the Lake of Fire. The Bible does not speak about that. There will only be torment there. Satan will have more torment than any other demon because he is the chief. We read that the books were opened in heaven and the people were judged according to their works. It is in the same way the fallen angels will be judged—according to their sin. Although all fallen angels are destined for the Lake of Fire, the torment will differ according to the gravity of each one’s sin, just as in heaven the rewards of the saints differ according to their degree of holiness and spiritual growth. In the Lake of Fire, there will be a hottest place, a darkest place, etc, and it will be a place of continual torment—a torment that torments the mind with evil thoughts, evil desires, etc. Let not the spirit of Lucifer, the anointed cherub, or that of the angels bound at Euphrates or Satan, be found in us. We must examine our lives and not allow these spirits to destroy our life and ministry. .

2 JUDGMENT ON MAN “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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” (Gen.2:16,17). Here we find the first commandment God gave man. It was disobedience to this commandment that brought God's judgment on the first man. Interestingly, the first commandment is about eating—about man's food habits. When we eat out of the will of God, it will cause death. How important our food habits are! Let us now consider how man was tempted, the factors that led to his fall, the chances God gave him for repentance, and the judgment meted out to him. THE TEMPTATION

It is by raising a doubt about God’s word that the devil made man sin. Look at the first question the devil asked. “And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen.3:1). When Eve was made to doubt God’s word, the foundation was laid for sin to enter the world. This is what the devil makes us do even today—doubt God’s word. Before sin enters your life, the devil tries to raise some doubt about what God has spoken to you, about the vision God gave you, etc. “Do you really mean God spoke that way?” he will ask. “Do you think you can be ready for His Coming?” “Do you think you can live this life?” “Do you think you can live without sin in your youth?” So doubts arise. If “Hath God said?” lays the foundation for all sin, then the foundation of all resto- ration is laid by, “Yea, God hath said.” “It is written…” Jesus told the tempter. Being the Son of God, Jesus could have spoken His own words—they would have been correct. But He did not do so. God spoke to Joseph through dreams. We know what Joseph’s brethren said about his dreams —“We shall see what will become of his dreams” (Gen.37:20). This is what the devils are saying about us—“Let us see what will happen to what God promised him. We will make sure it does not come true. He started following the Lord with that vision, with this revelation and with this dedication. We will put this temptation before him. Let us see what will become of his vision.” We read, “Joseph remembered his dream.” We should never forget the dream, the vision, the word that God has given us. Satan is against the word of God. The word of God is whatever the Lord has spoken

to us. The Lord has given us many promises. In times of trial or weakness, we should remember them. If we do not, we will be like Nebuchad- nezzar, the man who forgot his dream. He created great trouble because he forgot his dream. He ordered all the magicians and wise men to be killed. In Genesis 3:2, Eve says, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.” But the devil did not mention this. He was concerned only about the tree Eve should not eat of. Though all our needs have been provided, the devil’s trick is to show us what we do not have. The woman had all the trees to eat of. They were all good and pleasant. But the devil highlighted what she did not have. “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen.3:3). Eve said. This was not exactly what God had said. She dropped the important word. We read in Genesis 2:17, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The word ‘surely’ was dropped. The emphasis on the Word of God had left Eve. Neglect of the Word of God or lack of knowledge of the Word of God brings ruin to our life. We should give due importance to God’s holy Word. If our heart is longing for the Word of God, even if we were busy with many things, we will surely read it. When you lose the desire for the Word of God, you are in the way of sin. Also, God had not said, ‘Thou shalt not touch it.’ Eve made that addition. Of course, it is good not to even touch what God does not want us to eat. But she brought in something additional. The Word of God says that if anyone adds anything to the Word of God or deletes anything from it, God’s punishment will come on him. It is also interesting to note what was in the heart of the woman. When God spoke, He did not say, ‘the tree that is in the midst of the garden’. True, the tree was in the middle of the garden; but the tree of life was also in the middle. The woman added the words ‘in the midst of the garden’ because that was in the midst of her heart—it occupied her thoughts. In other words, she was saying, “The best is in the midst of the garden and God has forbidden me that.” When we lose interest in the Word of God, doubts arise—doubts about our calling and vision, about how to overcome sin, about God’s grace, etc. We think God has not given us the very best. We think God is not kind, not loving, not caring etc. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die” (Gen.3:4). The woman had dropped the word ‘surely’. Now Satan grabs that very word to use it against her. If we neglect the Word of God, the devil will use a substitute for that very Word, to deceive us. The devil wants to separate us from God. When we are separated from the Word of God, the devil will use that opportunity to separate us from God. So we should not neglect the Word of God and we should pray for a hunger and thirst for the Word of God, and to have the right discernment of God’s Word too, so that we may not add or delete anything. In the 5th verse the serpent says, “God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” This is just the opposite of the truth —“The day you eat, your eyes shall be closed and you shall be as devils, knowing only evil.” Actually, Eve was already like God, because the image of God and the likeness of God were in her. God’s glory was covering her. She was in a sinless state. So in one sense, she was a god. It was a poor idea that the devil put into her mind. When we allow God’s Word to go out of our life, our whole imagination is defiled. Our brain will work in a negative way. Many wrong thoughts and plans and wrong ideas about our life and our ministry will arise. The devil brought an imaginary dissatisfaction into the woman and destroyed her. If we really understand the Word of God and the truth, God in His mercy will help us to live a holy life; we will become immaculate, sinless beings. We really can keep away from all sin. We understand that after the serpent had spoken, the woman developed a desire to become like God with a negative intention. This became her weak point. The devil comes to us through our weak points. He looks for the weakest points in us—like a thief looking for the weakest window or door through which to enter a building. The devil knows the weak areas we have had in our past. Through those weak areas he will try to find entrance. He knows the wrong desires we cherished in the past.

These he will try to revive. So we have to close all those doors. The Church of God is a Garden of Eden. God does not want any room to be given for sin. The presence of God is always there. Everything that is pleasant is there. But there is the forbidden fruit also. There are forbidden areas. You cannot loosely walk around, you cannot loosely talk to anyone. There are forbidden things. Keep away from them. Do not touch them. Do not even look at them. THE FALL

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen.3:6). The woman saw the tree. If God did not want her to eat it, what is the use of looking at it? Job says, “I made a covenant with mine eyes” (31:1). We all have to make a covenant with our eyes. Most of our sins come through the eyes. One saint has said that the second look is a look of lust; it is a wrong look, a sinful look. “What harm is there in looking?” we may argue. The woman also must have thought the same thing—“God did not say we should not look at it; only, we are not to eat it.” We must never think on these lines. If something is forbidden, there must be some harm in it—which we may not see at the outset. She saw the tree as one that was ‘good for food’. God had created every tree as good for food. But the woman saw only this tree as good for food. When man loses his vision and gives room for the devil to make him doubt the Word of God, he calls evil good and good evil. Here the forbidden tree looked good to her—as if all other trees were not good. The same thing happened to the Israelites. Since their heart was in Egypt, they called manna ‘light food’ and despised it, although it tasted like honey and fresh oil. God had also provided for them a natural refrigerator. First dew fell on the ground, then on that ground manna fell and on top of it again dew fell and covered it. How God cares for His children! But they were thinking of cucumbers, onions and garlic; cucumbers and onions became more delicious to them than the angels’ food! When we lose interest in the God-given food, that is, the Word of God, our interest will go to the forbidden food—to other books and other things and that will be our ruin. Instead of getting to know good and evil, Eve came to know only evil. The woman saw the tree as ‘pleasant to the eyes’. All the trees were pleasant. But she listened to the devil and doubts arose. The forbidden tree became pleasant to her. This is called the lust of the eyes. Love for the Word of God should fill our hearts. One man of God said that he is not moved by what he sees but by what he believes. We should believe the Word of God each time trials and problems crop up. The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon we have—all the other weapons given to us are defensive. When we keep the Word of God in the right place in our life, it gives us tremendous strength. But when we hold it the wrong way, when we do not give it the right priority, we cannot use it. It can cut us too. She saw that the tree was ‘to be desired to make one wise’. Has God created us as fools? Now the devil was putting it into the woman that the tree would make her wise. It was as if God had created her a fool and that now, with her own cleverness, she was going to become wise. This danger may come into our life too. God had created the man and woman with great glory, grace and wisdom. But the woman was not satisfied with the wisdom that God had given her. By trying to get wisdom her own way she became the first fool and a first class fool too. When we do not give to the Word of God the prominence or importance that needs to be given, we give room for many kinds of foolishness. Many foolish notions will come to our mind. We should believe the Word of God and take a stand for it. If we use our human wisdom and understanding, we will become fools and be fools forever. The devil twisted everything and made the for- bidden thing appear beautiful. He also made it appear as if he cared for the woman. “See, God made you blind. I am going to open your eyes. God

did not give you the right food. I am going to give you the right food. God made you a fool and I am going to make you wise.” They were all twisted ideas, but it appeared as if all that the devil was saying was correct. ‘She took the fruit thereof and did eat.’ Man’s first sin was because Eve failed to consult Adam when the devil suggested to her about eating the forbidden fruit. Eve could have consulted God because God was communing with them everyday. In Hebrew it is written, ‘God came walking in the habitual way.’ She could have consulted her husband too. When God created man, it was with consultation. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen.1:26). When creating all other things, it was all a command. But when it came to creating man, there was no command. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit consulted with one another. Consulting one another is important in the lives of the children of God. Even if you are a great man or a great saint, you must consult with others. That will really help you keep away from sin. “In multitude of counsellers there is safety” (Prov.24:6). Very often it is pride that makes us independent. Even if we have enough experience and enough knowledge, we must consult others. God could have commanded, “Let there be man.” But He did not. And God wants us too to consult one another. We do not see Satan giving the fruit to Eve. It was she who took it. For every sin we commit we are responsible—we cannot blame anybody else. In every case of sin, it is we who give room for it. Sin came not by chance but by choice. Every sin is like that. The Word of God says in James 1:14, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” When we give room for sin, sin comes in. God does not tempt us. If there is lust in your heart, you lust. If there is anger in your heart, then you get angry. It is not what is around us that tempts us but what is within us. It is not the surroundings that bring temptation. If a seed is sown, it sprouts in due course of time. So the seed of sin needs to be removed from our lives. Then no tempting situation can make us sin. If no seed is sown, even if you keep watering and manuring the soil, nothing will sprout. So the seed of sin should go. The seed of the Word of God should be sown in our hearts instead. Immediately after eating the fruit she made the man also eat it. When the woman realised that she did not die although she ate the fruit, it might have emboldened her to give it to her husband as well. The man also must have thought that although God had said ‘the day thou eatest thou shalt die’, his wife had not died. “God would not have meant it,” he must have concluded. Hence, without questioning the woman, he also boldly ate it. But on that day, man died in two ways. Before eating the forbidden fruit they had eternal life abiding in them. But when they ate the forbidden fruit they lost that life. Spiritually, they died. Literally also they died. The Lord had said, ‘The day thou shalt eat, thou shalt die.’ In the eyes of God, a thousand years is like one day and one day is like thousand years. Did man live even one day then? Adam lived only nine hundred and thirty years which is not even one day for the Lord. Man therefore lived less than a day. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen.3:7). Till this time their spiritual eyes were open. But now the spiritual eyes were closed and through the natural eyes they saw their shame. Sin brings shame. They now could see only earthly things. Earlier their perception was different because they were seeing through their spiritual eyes. What happened as soon as their eyes were opened? The effect of sin started. Till the moment they committed sin they had a happy life. They had nothing to worry about till then. Immediately after they sinned, worry, anxiety and need came into their lives. What was the need they felt? Now that they found themselves naked, their pressing need was clothing. Quite naturally, fig leaves could not cover their nakedness, nor could they be used for even a day as the heat would dry them. Earlier, they did not worry about their garments. God’s glory was covering them. They had the best house. God was a shelter for them. God was a resting-place for them, and angels were attending on them. In the Garden of Eden there were only herbs and fruits. Now, after they were thrown out, lions and other animals

started attacking them and men began attacking one another too. So all earthly and human problems came into existence—all beginning with sin. God wants His children to live a life free of material burdens. Sin brought all our problems, worries and cares. So a sinless life is of course the happiest life—a restful life. God wants our cares and needs to be spiritual. The Word of God says that only the heathen worry and care for material things—what to eat, what to wear, etc. People of God are redeemed from these earthly, material and financial worries. Even if we have plenty, if there is sin in us we will be worried. You may ask, ‘Why did God create that forbidden tree and keep it there?’ “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen.1:31). Every- thing was very good, including the forbidden fruit. We read in Hebrews 5:14, “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” After eating the other fruits and attaining the re- quired growth, Eve could have eaten the forbidden fruit. God wants us to discern evil but not by committing it. CHANCES FOR REPENTANCE

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden” (Gen.3:8). Though man committed sin, though man’s love for God had changed, still, God’s love for man did not change. Had God not loved man, He would not have come again to the garden to visit them. Some people’s idea is that God came again to punish them. No. If His intention was only to punish them and put them out, that could have been done by sending a single angel. There was no need for God to personally go there. Besides, they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, as was His habit. As soon as man committed sin, God did not come flying to chastise him. God waited till the cool of the day because he wanted to give him enough time to repent. Had God come as soon as man sinned, he may have said, “God, You did not give me a chance to repent. You came at once to lay hold on me.” So God did not do that. He purposely came in the cool of the day. God wanted to show man that even though he had sinned He still loved him and cared for him and that He was still willing to help him. That was God’s mercy. But man did not make use of that. Adam may have thought that God did not know this or that, or that he was clever enough to get away with his fault. Sometimes, when parents want to punish their child, they run towards the child, perhaps with anger. God did not come like that. He came in the cool of the day. ‘Cool’ is rendered as ‘wind’ in another version. So God was bringing man a cool breeze to comfort him in his distress. If a punishment has to be given to anyone, you should not give it with hot anger. If you are tensed and under pressure, you have to cool down. Wait for the cool of the day, not for the heat of the day. Often, in the heat of the day, we question people, or try to reprimand or correct them but that is not the divine way. There was a time when the sound of the Lord walking in the garden had been a joy to Adam and Eve. They were happy that God was coming to visit them, talk with them and have fellowship with them. What happened now? The sound of the Lord walking, brought fear and terror to them. It was not that God was walking differently or harshly. It was in the same sweet way that was habitual to Him that God walked even on that day. It was not a change in God’s walk but a change in man’s character that brought fear and terror. This is very true in our life . When there is sin in our life, when our heart is not right with God, then there is a possibility for unnecessary fear to come. At other times too, fear may try to creep in, but we can rebuke that fear. Here we see that fear and worry came, not because of the environment, or what was happening around, but because of what was happening inside them. If we are really walking with God, we will not have any unnecessary fear in us, but we

will be encouraged in any situation. When the disciples were tossed about by the wind and waves and were rowing very hard all night we see Jesus coming walking on the water to help them. But although help was coming, they thought trouble was coming and yelled out. How important it is to keep our lives right with God! Even before God came close to Adam or asked him anything, Adam could have gone running to God as a child runs to the father, and said, “I am sorry; I have made this mistake.” He could have, like the prodigal son, thought, “God is coming to me; let me go to Him.” But he did not do that. So he lost that chance. When God came, He did not straightway ask about their sin. What did He ask first? “Where art thou?” (Gen.3:9). How mercifully God was dealing with them! He did not call Adam like a policeman —“Adam ! Where are you? I have come with a gun to shoot you.” It was a call of love, like a mother calling her child. Before God judges man, before He punishes him, He wants to show His love for him to the utmost. God knew what had happened; He wanted to gently tell Adam that he was not in the place where He had kept him. That is why God asked them that question. God still asks us this same question. “My child, where are you? In what state are you spiritually? What happened to your first love, your prayer life?” We see here how hard God was trying to get them to repent so that they might not get punished. But we find that man did not want to confess. Instead of confessing sin, Adam confessed three consequences of sin viz. “I was afraid”, “I am naked” and “I am hiding”. When we do not confess our sin, we confess the results of sin. Adam could not get any repentance by doing that. Adam said, “I was afraid because I was naked”. The imme- diate effect of nakedness is shame, not fear. He ought to have confessed: “I was afraid because I have sinned.” He was afraid, he was naked, he was hiding—all because of sin. But he did not want to say, “I have sinned.” The devil will try to make us avoid saying, “I have sinned.” He does not want us to confess any sin. Not only was Adam trying to hide from God, but he was also trying to hide the truth. How can one hide from God? Again, in Genesis 3:11, we see God giving man a chance. Unlike human beings, God does not easily give up on anybody. Gently, softly, considerately, God continues to give us chances to repent. “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” He asked. God knew what had happened; He wanted man to know that the eternal consequences of his sin were more serious than the immediate consequences. The immediate consequences of his sin were that “he was afraid, naked and in hiding.” That was not as bad as the chain reaction of his sin—millions and millions of people being thrown into hell. Of course, we cannot blame Adam for our sin. But look at the chain reaction of his sin. Look at the seriousness of the sin—“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Rom.5:19). One of the reasons why God was dealing with man was because He wanted him to know the seriousness of his sin. Why do we not avoid sin? Why are we not frigh- tened of sin? It is because we only think of the immediate consequences. But sin also has eternal consequences. Also, sin is contagious. It comes to you, you give it to someone else and that person gives it to another and so it continues—whatever sin it may be. Holiness also is influential. When we live a holy life, a clean life, a pure life, that will really encourage others. God now plainly asks man, “Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” thus giving him a chance to simply answer ‘Yes’. If only he had answered ‘Yes’ at least now! Just one word and the whole world would have been different. But once sin has hardened a man, he will not confess. It is against his dignity to do so. It is against his pride. Instead of saying ‘Yes’, Adam said, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I did eat.” He was implying that the mistake lay with the woman and with God Who gave him the

woman. When we do not confess our sin, when we do not want to correct our lives, we find fault with others. Sin makes a person blame others for one’s own mistake and deprives him of his love for God and others. Thus a strained relationship develops. We do not realize that we are digging our own grave. We are digging up the very ground we are standing on. Adam sounded as if God had given him the woman to make him sin. When sin enters, dear child of God, our lives will be twisted; our attitude will be twisted, our conversation will be twisted, our understanding will be twisted. We can never be upright. Everything will be upside down. It would have been much easier for Adam to say ‘Yes’ than to give all the explanation he gave —justifying himself, blaming his wife and blaming God. Living a spiritual life or doing the right thing is actually easy. The devil may say that a backslidden life is easy and that living a straightforward life is difficult. But life is hard only when you backslide. God asked three straightforward questions but man kept covering his sin. God could do nothing more. Punishment came after that. God is lovingly asking you these questions. In every way God graciously gives us chances. He does not judge anyone hastily. Before God executes judgment, He gives us chances to repent. It is only when we refuse to repent, refuse to confess and refuse to turn to God that God executes judgment. He cannot but do it. The next question went to the wife. Obviously, the woman was also present when God was questioning Adam. She might have heard all the answers Adam gave God. It was only after that, that God questioned the woman. He did not ask her the same questions because then she may have answered the way her husband did. God put it differently—“What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen.3:13)—so that she may repent and not give the same stereo type answers. How gracious and wise God is in trying to help us! But instead of admitting her fault she blamed the serpent. She says, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.” Did the serpent tell her to give the fruit to her husband? No, the serpent did not say that. Then why did she do that? Sin always finds some excuse to prevent us from being forthright or open. Concerning every little sin we allow into our lives, if we realize the eternal consequences we will be very careful. What we do, what we speak, how we spend our time, how we behave, our attitudes, how we pray, how we read the Word of God—we should be careful about all these. We need to understand, from the judgment that came upon man, how careful we ought to be with our lives, particularly with regard to confessing our sins. THE JUDGMENT

“And the Lord God said unto the serpent...upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen.3:14,15). God did not give the serpent a chance to repent. God gave many chances to Adam; the woman also was given a chance, but the serpent was not given any chances. Straightway punishment was meted out. This is really a frightening fact. The lesson we have to learn from this is, the one who sinned was given a chance, but not the one who tempted another to sin. Our sinning against God is serious. That, by itself, is very bad. But if we make others sin, it is worse. That is a terrible sin. For that sin no chance for repentance was given. We can take the place of the tempter by making others sin, by discouraging others from following God, trusting the Lord, serving God, etc. We ourselves may be bad and discouraged, but making others so is much worse than that. The serpent who preached falsehood to achieve his own end was cursed and made to go on his belly. Whatever punishment God gave the man and woman, He did not curse them. But God cursed the serpent. Going on the belly means living for money or food. There are some preachers who are like that. Upon their belly they go—they preach for money and material gain. They serve God for money. This is a curse.

“You will eat dust all the days of your life.” Eating dust means seeking vanity (honour, fame etc.) The Bible calls these ‘dust’. Some are under this curse; they are eating dust all the days of their lives. Some ministers of God want to be exalted and honoured in this world. This is a curse. The world can really make you famous. We read in the New Testament that the devil wanted to make Jesus famous. We need to be free from this curse. The serpent eating dust also signifies the devil trying to take away from us the realization that we are dust. All the days of our life, the devil will try to suck that humble truth out of our lives, and make us imagine we are great. God remembers that we are dust, but we forget that we are dust. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman.” In a sense, the woman stands for the Church. All God’s people are the seed of the woman. When God says, “I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed”, it means God is creating enmity between the devil and the people of God or the Church. “I will put”—it means that God will take the initiative in putting that enmity. After sin entered the world, man acquired an attraction towards sin or evil. He now loved evil and evil thoughts. But what did God do? Because man lost the grace to hate evil, He placed the enmity in us so that we may be able to hate evil. David says, “I hate vain thoughts.” God says, ‘I will put that hatred in you; I will help you in that respect because you don’t have the strength. You loved the serpent and obeyed the serpent. Therefore I will put a hatred for the devil in your heart.’ Look at the mercy of God! “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen.3:15). The woman’s seed is also Christ. Jesus bruised the serpent’s head on the cross at Calvary. “And thou (the devil) shalt bruise his heel.” ‘His heel' refers to the body of Christ. This bruising shows the physical sufferings Christ had to endure on the cross. This was permitted by God. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Isa.53:10) we read. In this life, God permits suffering in our body. Unless we are willing to suffer physically, we cannot crush the head of the devil or live a holy life. Suffering in the body is essential for us. I Peter 4:1 reads: “He that hath suffered in the flesh (according to the will of God) hath ceased from sin.” Bruising the heel, that is, physical sufferings, is permitted to help us keep our holy life. “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh”—this is bruising the heel—“arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” All that God permitted was only for our blessing. Of course, if man had not sinned there would not be this suffering. Satan’s head was bruised or crushed on Calvary. ‘Head’ means Satan’s tricks—all his corrupt wisdom and cunningness with which he tried to destroy God’s people. ‘Head’ also represents thoughts. Since the devil’s head is crushed, no evil thought has any right to enter our mind. We see that, before Calvary, living a holy life was impossible, as far as the thought realm is concerned. Before Jesus died, the mind could not be kept perfectly pure by anyone. We see in Colossians 1:21,22 that our minds were alienated from God and we were enemies in our mind by wicked works. “Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.” God wants to make us holy and unblameable. “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen.3:16). Every birth is connected with sorrow. We will not have spiritual children if we do not have sorrow, if we do not have any pain in our heart for souls. We cannot get souls unless we have travail. The more the travail and pain, and sorrow and burden in our hearts for souls, the more God will give us souls. “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Jesus Christ is our Husband. Though our Husband gives us many spiritual children, our desire and love should not get diverted; they should be only towards Him. Sometimes God may give us great ministries and very precious souls, but our desire and our love should not be on these things—our desire and love should be only

on our Lord. If all your affection and love is on your Husband then, ‘He shall rule over thee.’ This is conditional. If you do not have any love or desire for the Lord, He will not control your life. He will leave you to run your own life. Do you want Christ to rule over your life? Then all your desire should be upon Him. When all our desires are on Jesus alone, He can rule our life. He will not rule as a dictator. The Holy Spirit is called a ‘gentle dove’. He does not want to rule over us without our desiring it. That is why it is said, “I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come” (Hagg.2:7). Christ should be the desire of every- one. When all our desires are on Him, it is very easy for Him to rule over us and it becomes a delight for Him to do so. MERCY AND JUDGMENT

After all the punishments were pronounced on them, we see God being gracious to them. God made coats. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen.3:21). Adam and Eve had covered themselves with fig leaves. Fig leaves dry up soon; they could not have lasted even twenty-four hours. So God made coats and clothed them. After making the coats, God did not say, “You have committed this sin; take these coats and go away.” Not only did the Creator God make them coats, but He also clothed them as a mother would clothe her child. What great love! Although man had fallen into sin and had started to rebel against God in many ways, God was gracious to him. The woman had listened to Satan, the serpent, which she should not have done; she had also added to and removed from the Word of God. She ate the fruit contrary to the will of God and also gave it to her husband, which was a further transgression. And when God questioned her, she defended herself and excused herself, laying the blame on the serpent. But in spite of all this, the motherly nature of God is seen. God made them coats of skin. These coats of skin point out that God had killed an animal, for, without killing of an animal, there cannot be a coat of skin. An animal was killed as a token of sacrifice for their sins. This is a shadow of the future sacrifice of Christ. Also, we read in the Word of God that ‘without shedding of blood there is no salvation’. The coat of skin is the garment of salvation. Isaiah 61:10 says, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.” This is what God has done. Although Adam had sinned, God had made a provision for his salvation. Adam did not ask God for clothes; probably his pride did not allow him to do so—sin really brings pride into us. That is why ‘the ground was hardened’ ie, the heart was hardened. Sin makes the heart hard. Although there was absolutely no trace of repentance seen in Adam, God still was caring for him. We see here that it was God Himself Who made coats for them. He did not ask an angel to do this; God was clearly showing Adam and Eve that He still loved them. God’s love, affection and grace is poured out on fallen man. How did Adam look after he was covered? He looked like an animal. He had a brutish appearance. This is the real appearance of a sinner. This is what sin does to man. In fact, as represented in the Word of God, a sinner is worse than an animal. It is better for a brutish man to appear brutish than for a person who is outwardly a saint to be an animal inside. “Man is become as one of Us,” (Gen.3:22) God said. There is a vast difference between God’s know- ledge of evil and man’s knowledge of evil. God’s know- ledge of evil does not tempt Him to commit sin. When we have grown in divine character, knowing evil will not tempt us to commit sin. As saints grow in the knowledge of God and in the wisdom and character of God, they know how to discern evil. This is what is meant by “strong meat belongeth to them...who... have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Strong meat is recognizing evil through spiritual growth. That is the way Jesus knew evil; that is the way saints too should know evil. But man came to know evil by tasting evil, by committing evil. Our love must grow in knowledge and judgment (discernment) (Phil.1:9,10). Redemptive love is not carnal or sensual. We need to grow in the love of God to know what is excellent. The closer we get to God, the more we sense the awfulness of sin.

Saints do not need worldly wisdom or carnal love. Jesus ate butter and honey till He was able to discern evil (Isa.7:15). To refuse the evil and choose the good we need butter. Butter shows revelations from the Word of God. We need honey too. Honey is enlighten-ment concerning the deeper truths. For instance there are some words that saints should not use. Only when we grow in our spiritual life can we discern that even the words we use can bring temptation to others. If we do not have a revelation of the Word of God or an enlightenment of the deeper truths, we will not be able to discern such things and grow in the character of God. Man’s knowledge of evil without the divine character was therefore dangerous. Hence his life span was curtailed. Otherwise his wickedness would have been very great. “So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen.3:24). It was only the mercy of God that drove man out of the garden. If we do not let God chastise us, we will fall into the hands of the devil. It is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of the devil. When God chastises us, we should accept it. Before man fell through disobedience, he had eternal life, fellowship with God, the image of God, dominion, the glory of God, immortality and an inheritance. These seven blessings are restored to us through obedience, by Christ’s sacrifice. We should take care to preserve these. We read that two angels stood at the east of the Garden of Eden to keep watch. In the New Testament we read of two angels who gave the news of Jesus’ resurrection which opened the way for all the lost blessings to be restored. The Garden of Eden that was closed, is now open for us spiritually. God also said, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Rev.2:7). This refers to those who live in the first love. ‘He that overcometh’—the ‘overcoming’ mentioned here is overcoming backsliding or ‘coldness of the heart’. Eating of the fruit of the tree of life is growing in the inner man. It is the food for the inner man. We do not know whether the earlier paradise, the Garden of Eden, is still existing. Some are of the opinion that Noah’s flood would have covered everything and so it cannot be existing now. We are not concerned about that. God has a ‘paradise’, a ‘Garden of Eden’ for us, and that is going to exist for ever and ever. There is a tree of life in it. That tree of life is Jesus Christ, and it is in the midst of the garden. We see that the entrance to the garden is given to those who obey the commandment. “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev.22:14). If we learn to obey, God will give us wonderful revelations. We should obey the Holy Spirit and also obey our elders. Sometimes God may correct us even through a child. We have to realize that that too is from the Lord. The garden can also be the Church. The cheru- bim that are at the east of the garden of Eden signify the consecrated servants of God. The sword is the Word of God. The tree of life is Jesus Christ. The cherubim, holding a flaming sword, were protecting the garden. In the New Testament, the servants of God and the Word of God do not close the way to the tree of life, but lead to the way of life. Servants of God are flames of fire—‘He makes His ministers flames of fire’—not to close the door, but to lead the way to the tree of life, Jesus Christ. God has given into their hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God—not to stop the people from entering in but to make them enter in. This is the glorious ministry God has given to the consecrated servants of God.

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JUDGMENT BY FLOOD “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them

wives of all which they chose” (Gen.6:1,2). Why did these daughters of men appear to be fair to the sons of God? The sons of God had lost the fear of God and their vision of the inner beauty of holiness coupled with a meek and quiet spirit. This led to their breaking their life of separation. For the ungodly there is no inner beauty. That is why they are very concerned about their outer beauty. The sons of God got married to these women and therefore judgment came upon them. If concern for outward beauty brought judgment on the ungodly how much more then on the godly? Hence we teach that concern for outward beauty will bring judgment. “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen.6:3). We see that before judgment, the Spirit of God was pleading with men. This is the case with us too. Before judgment, in many ways, God shows us our wrong ways. The Holy Spirit pleads with us, asking us to stop—like a proctor pleading in the court of Law on behalf of the client. But even for this pleading there is a set period of time. There is a grace period in which we may repent. The Spirit of God will not always keep reproving, rebuking, warning and chastening us. There will come a time when the Lord will give us up to walk according to our desire (Rom.1:24,26,28), just as He abandoned those who did not heed the preaching of Noah (II Pet.2:5). “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen.6:4). Union of the godly seed with the ungodly brought forth giants and they were wicked people. We see that God used Noah, and not these men of renown, to build the ark. We read in the Word of God that the Antichrist too will be a renowned person. There is a great tendency among people to desire to be popular and famous. There is a deception behind this desire. In the Bible we read of many who had this desire. Many church leaders too try to get name, fame and power. It is not at all surprising because even Jesus was offered this. Satan said to Him, “If you worship me I will give You the whole world.” It is a deceiving spirit, an unclean spirit that offered this to Jesus. Wanting to be famous, popular and accepted by others is one characteristic of this spirit. Genesis 6:5 says, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Here we see the real reason for God’s judgment—man’s wickedness was so great that every imagination of his thoughts was only evil continually. If the evil thoughts of man were so wicked in the sight of God as to bring such a great judgment, how much greater judgment then will the thoughts of God’s children bring! We must be very careful regarding evil thoughts. Very often, we allow evil thoughts in our mind because we do not know its seriousness. “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee” (Acts 8:22) Peter said to Simon. See how serious thoughts are! If we do not repent and ask the Lord to forgive us, they can bring us eternal punishment. “And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart” (Gen.6:6). God repented for having created man. God’s repenting is not like man’s. God has given us the gift of a freewill which animals and trees do not have. God was sorry that the good thing which He gave man was wrongly used. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. ...Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Gen.6:8,9). How did Noah become such a just man without the Bible, without a church and without servants of God? The reason is, Noah found grace in the sight of God. All around was wicked- ness and corruption but he did not even look at them. His eyes were upon the Lord. Therefore he found grace in the sight of the Lord. If we too need grace, our eyes must be upon Jesus. Noah found grace in the sight of God and therefore he became perfect. We can become perfect only if we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We must look to God for all our needs. We must learn to build up faith and get everything from the Lord. These days people take loans, buy things on hire-purchase, etc. These are not sins but this is

not the way to live by faith. Wherever we are, it is God Who meets our needs. We must receive all things by faith. If we cannot trust God for our physical needs we cannot trust Him for our spiritual needs. And spiritual needs are much greater than physical ones. In your daily life, you must exercise your faith. “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” says the Psalmist (23:1). Before God created Adam He made everything that he needed. God also knew that man should not live alone. Man did not ask but God knew that he needed a companion. This shows that God knows our needs beforehand. Genesis 6:9 says, ‘Noah was perfect in his gene- rations.’ This means that Noah was an outstanding person in his generations. Noah lived to see about ten genera- tions and he was outstanding in all of them. If we live looking to God, we will be representing many generations. When the judgment came, only the just and perfect were saved—only Noah and his family. When judgment comes, only the ones who look to Jesus, find His grace, walk with Him, and are just and perfect, will be saved. “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Gen.6:12,13). ‘Man’ has now changed to ‘flesh’. Man became so carnal that God calls him ‘flesh’. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So God decided to destroy this ‘flesh’. The purpose of judgment was to destroy all flesh. In the New Testament also we see the same truth. No flesh is going to be safe. All flesh is going to be destroyed. God allows trials and tempta- tions in our lives to destroy the flesh. If our flesh is destroyed in judgment, that is not going to glorify God. Do not wait for judgment to come and destroy the flesh. Before the judgment a special flood must come into us. A flood of God’s love must come into us. In that flood all our carnal thoughts and ways must get washed away. Before the judgment, ask the Lord to burn all your car- nal ways with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The earth was filled with violence. Carnal nature causes violence too. The ark refers to Christ. ‘Waters’ show trials and persecutions. More waters show more trials, persecutions and afflictions. We can see two groups of people here: (1) the group in the ark (2) the group outside the ark. The ones who were outside went deeper and deeper into the water and died. But those who were inside (in Christ) went higher and higher. They were lifted up. This is why one man of God has said, “Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.” These are afflictions and trials allowed by God. The same trial, which destroys the ones who do not know God, lifts up the ones in Christ. Therefore when we are in Christ, trials, afflictions and persecutions will draw us closer to God. But if we are outside, we will grumble and murmur and say, “There is rain, there is so much water, the flood is increasing, the mountain is getting covered…” Those who rejoice in trials and temptations draw closer to God. But those who grumble and murmur cannot hear the voice of God. We see two things happening: (1) the water increasing (2) the water gradually decreasing. These are two experiences. Trials may increase and they will also decrease. In both cases we must be inside the ark or in Christ. Then they will never affect us. “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch” (Gen.6:14). The real meaning of pitch—kapher (in Hebrew) is ‘to cover’, but that very Hebrew word also has the meaning ‘to forgive’. “But he, being full of compassion, forgave (pitched or kapherred) their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath” (Psa.78:38). If we are to be in Christ we must be pitched within and without. This means we must forgive within and without. Some people forgive only outwardly; inside they do not forgive. In II Chronicles 30:18 too the same word ‘kapher’ is used. The ark had three storeys but one door. There are many beautiful meanings to this. We can compare the ark to Eternity. There are three heavens—first, second and third heavens—New Earth, New Heaven and New Jerusalem in which is Zion. For all these there is only one door. This door is Christ.

The ark also has only one window. The Hebrew word for window is thohar. This word is used twenty-four times in the Bible. Only in one place does it stand for ‘window’; in all other places it is ‘noon’. What does the Holy Spirit say about the noon? “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday” (Isa.58:10). The Holy Spirit is trying to say that when we come to the noon we can have light, the divine light. Only in Christ do we receive this window, this noon, this light. Nowhere else can we see this light. To escape the flood we must maintain our union with Christ—we must remain in the ark (I Pet.3:20,21). We get this experience when we receive water baptism (Gal.3:26-28). We must remain in the death of Jesus, in the likeness of His death (Rom.6:4,5). Only if we live such a life will our life be hid with Christ. In Noah’s days, importance was given to eating, drinking, etc (Matt.24:37-39). “(They) knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;” Jesus said. Even today, like in the days of Noah, many are insensitive to the doctrine and truths they hear. They are too preoccupied with other things to be aware of their impending danger. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (II Cor.5:9,10). Only those with this revelation will desire to please the Lord.

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JUDGMENT ON BABEL Genesis 11:2 reads: “They journeyed from the east…” The first step of backsliding is seen here ! The east is where the sun rises. When you turn away from the Sun of Righteousness, you follow a shadow and you are in danger of judgment. When you turn away from the presence of God, you are heading for danger. You are inviting judgment. The presence of God left King Saul and judgment came upon him. Samson did not know that God had left him, but soon afterwards, judgment came on him. Under the first judgment on man, we saw that Adam hid behind trees. He could not be in the presence of God. The trees behind which Adam hid were the very blessings that God had given them. Some great preachers are hiding behind their gifts, although they are in sin and have lost the presence of God. Even today, many people want to build a Babel for themselves. ‘Brick’ in Genesis 11:3 stands for what man makes by his own efforts: “Let us make brick,” they said. Spiritually speaking, this shows our relying on our own efforts and cleverness, trying to establish our own righteousness. Let us consider our own works. Are we building them with our own righteousness and effort? St. Paul says in I Corinthians 3:13 that every man’s work shall be tried with fire ! We cannot please God by relying on our own ability in our works. God is going to try our works with fire. Genesis 11:4 reads, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven...” The Original Version of this verse does not have ‘may reach’ or ‘have’ because the Hebrew language does not recognize anything that can be done or possessed without God ! Here the intention of the builders and the method used by them were wrong. They relied on their own efforts; they wanted to ‘outwit’ God by providing a way of escape from any future flood. God had to frustrate their plan, for it would make them continue in their sin; it would harden them, and their proud hearts would believe that without holiness there can be a way of escape. In our spiritual life too, we can build a tower. Instead of repenting of and acknowledging our faults, we can build a tower by making excuses for ourselves or seeking to justify ourselves. When we refuse to repent of our sins, what we are doing is building a Babel—creating confusion for ourselves and for others. Being wicked, the people thought they could rebel against God and escape judgment. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent on building nuclear bomb shelters today. This is the foolishness of man, who, instead of repenting, wants to build a modern escape tower and avoid God’s judgment. We should always search our hearts, living in the presence of God, so that God may

help us to repent daily and cleanse ourselves by the blood of Jesus Christ, that we may walk in the light. Then God’s grace will take us to our eternal home with Him. The builders of Babel had two ambitions. One, to reach heaven and the other, to make a name for themselves ! But these two can never go together! If you want recognition and worldly honour and the praise of men, you will never go to heaven. You will be building Babel—you will only get a bad name. If we resent being criticized, even unfairly, we are building Babel in our hearts! Jesus was called a glutton, winebibber, etc. But He humbled Himself and committed Himself to the Father. Therefore He received a name above every other name. They wasted so much energy, money and time trying to reach heaven—in the wrong way ! After Jesus died and rose from the dead, the fanatic Jews were willing to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, to publish a lie ! How much are we willing to spend to publish the truth? God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. He knows whether we are preaching, singing and doing things for His glory, or in order to get glory for ourselves. We must always be poor in spirit. “Lord, I am nothing; there is nothing good in me. It's only Your grace,” we should keep confessing. Let us examine our hearts and see—are we building a city and a tower? Let us repent before confusion comes. Genesis 11:5 says, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded”—‘children of men’ not ‘children of God’. They were the children of men. God was patient with them and gave them time to repent. We should not think that God has forgotten. He is only waiting for us to repent of our trying to build our Babel, before He brings judgment upon us. “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Gen.11:6). Here God speaks a blessed truth. If the people are one, as in this case nothing can be held back from them—whether it be for good or for evil. God wants us to be joined together, to be of the same mind (I Cor.1:10). God has given us seven “ones” (Eph.4:4-6)— (i) one body (ii) one Spirit (iii) one hope of our calling (the Rapture) (iv) one Lord (v) one faith (vi) one baptism (daily reckoning ourselves dead to sin and trespasses) (vii) one God and Father of all. This one body is the Body of Christ (the blood of Jesus is in this body) the Church which is of one mind and the one spirit is the Holy Spirit. God wants to build a city through us. We should have these seven ‘ones’ in our life. In Acts 4:32, we read that all that believed were of one heart and one soul. God wants to build a great building through us. For that we need unity. But a factor, which creeps in to prevent this unity, is the desire on the part of some, to get a ‘name’. When desire for individual reputation comes into the hearts of God’s people, the unity of children of God is disrupted. “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people mag nified them...)” (Acts5:12,13). Here we see a wonderful thing—a great unity among the believers, and a real fear of God that came upon all others. The Gibeonites deceitfully extracted from the Israelites a promise that they would not destroy them. They were made hewers of wood and drawers of water, but they were a snare to the Israelites. We should be united in love, so that God may put a wall of fire around us to prevent any infiltration by spiritual Gibeonites ! We must not have carnal love, but the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph.3:19). Love with knowledge is subjective and subject to our assessment and knowledge of the object of one's life. It is conditioned by the individual’s qualities, character, etc. The love of Christ which passeth knowledge is the love of Calvary, the agape love. This love is one which compels us to pray for our enemies or those who want to harm us, and to love them unconditionally. It is only such love which will transcend mortality. This is what St. Paul means when he says in I Corinthians 13, ‘If I

have not charity (love) I am nothing, and nothing I do will profit me.' If we do not have the love of Christ, we will not have all the fulness of God. How important it is that we have this love—so that we might not see the imperfections of others, but look upon them with the agape love of Christ! Only then can we be united in love. A wrong kind of union can be disastrous. God has revealed certain truths to us and we should not make compromises but contend boldly for them (Jude 3). We cannot join hands with error. True union comes through holiness and the Spirit of God. “So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city” (Gen.11:8). Here we see that the very thing that they were labouring to prevent, came upon them ! On the day of Pentecost, the scattered nations were brought into union. They became one holy nation with ‘a pure language’ (Zeph.3:9). At Babel, God had confounded their language and scattered them. But now, God has given us new tongues, to accomplish the opposite of what was done at Babel for, by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. Our God is a God of peace and the peace of God is to rule in our hearts. The builders at Babel were building a city and a tower to reach heaven with their own efforts ! The foolish builders failed to finish building even that one tower. Thank God, He is building for us a city which is far above all heavens, which has not one, but many towers. It is a city that is not made with hands, that is not made of perishable substances like brick and mortar. We do not have to use brick and mortar! God is building that glorious city for us. Let us inherit that city.

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JUDGMENT ON EGYPT The judgment that came on Egypt was a tenfold one. First judgment _ Water turned into blood Second judgment _ Frogs all over the land Third judgment _ Lice on man and beast Fourth judgment _ Swarm of flies Fifth judgment _ Cattle dying of murrain Sixth judgment _ Severe boils upon all Seventh judgment _ Hail and fire mingled with it Eighth judgment _ Locusts eating what was left Ninth judgment _ Thick, tangible darkness for three Tenth judgment _ All the firstborn of Egypt killed—

days and nights both man and beast

All ten plagues had only one purpose. God had only one purpose in executing all these judgments—ie. to serve Him—“Let My people go”, He said. Is there anything in your life to hinder your serving God? The words, “Let My people go” have been mentioned seven times in the Bible. This shows that God is not going to tolerate any hindrance in our lives as an excuse for not serving Him. This is going to be a much more severe judgment than any other in our life, in that, it will not be just one judgment. The first time, when God said, “Let My people go” it was to hold a feast in the wilderness (Exo.5:1); all other six times it was to serve Him—“Let My people go, that they may serve Me” (7:16; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; 10:3). Serving God is a feast in our lives. It is not an ordinary feast but a royal wedding feast. Of the wedding feast, in the gospel of St.Matthew, we read of the king saying, “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet” (22:4—NIV). If we serve the Lord in the right

way, it will be joy unspeakable and a most beautiful thing. You cannot find any other work in heaven or earth greater than serving God. It is called an honour—a great honour. Jesus said, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple,” and, “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple” (Lk.14:26,33). This honour, to consecrate one's all and to serve Jesus, is given only to those who are called. “No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God” (Heb.5:4). Even though Moses disobeyed God (God had told him to speak to the rock but he struck it twice), God still honoured him because he was serving the Lord. The calling to serve the Lord is a great and high calling whether we live in the right way or not. We should not take it lightly because it is a heavenly calling. “Where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour” (Jn.12:26). There are a few things we can study about Pharaoh’s compromising attitude. The first compromise was, “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land” (Exo.8:25) ie. have no separation. The Lord said, “No, you cannot serve Me in the land. You have to go three days’ journey,” signifying that a clear-cut separation was needed. The feeling “my mother, my brother” etc., should leave our spirit. The first trick of the devil is this—“Don’t have any separation. Keep your kith and kin, country, culture etc, in your heart and serve God,” he tells us. Some are serving God in this manner. Such cannot escape God’s judgment. They will suffer in some way. If we allow anything to hinder our serving God, God’s judgment will come upon us. This awareness should be in our spirit because God is a jealous God. We cannot serve both God and mammon or God and the world. If we serve God in the way He tells us, then it will be a great honour to us. God was a wall of fire all around the people of Israel. If we truly serve God, ‘eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for us.' The second compromise of Pharaoh was—“I will let you go,...only ye shall not go very far away” (Exo.8:28). There is nothing called ‘too much consecration’ or ‘going too far’. If such a thought should come to your mind, it is a thought of Pharaoh. Till we put such thoughts out of our lives, God’s judgment will keep coming on us — on our body, our spirit, our soul, our family, anything we are attached to, anything that comes in the way of our serving God. All twenty-four hours of the day we should be in the King’s business—our mind, our thoughts and our desires should be in it. We should love and serve God with all our heart, soul, body and being. Our ministry is not for just the few years here on this earth—there is an eternal ministry waiting for us, and the glory that we shall have is greater than the glory of the Old Testament saints. When Moses came down from the mountain, God’s glory covered his face and the people could not look at his face because of the glory of God (II Cor.3:7-11). The face shows the state of the heart. Moses’ glory was the glory that pertained to the minis-tration of condemnation—the ministration of the letter brought death. But our ministry is more glorious. So we should not serve God in the ordinary way. Dear child of God, you are a glory-man, a glory-woman. On the Bride’s head we see twelve stars shining; we see her clad with the sun—so she has light all over her body; and she is standing on the moon — ie. there is light on her feet. She has light on her head, body, feet etc—glory, glory, glory all over. Our words should be glorious. We should walk in glory. God wants us to be filled with glory from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet. We are to be surrounded with it. When the disciples lived with Jesus they saw His glory. In the same way people should see glory on our face—in our character. Even the angels are amazed at this ministry of the New Testament and look down with great amazement (I Pet.1:11,12). The problem with us is that we do not look at it with amazement. Ephesians 1:17,18 says that we should know not only our calling but also the hope of our calling, which is something of the future. We see that the Bride thinks about the future and rejoices over it (Prov.31:25). Normally, when we think about the future, we are worried about our family, job, health etc. But the ministry, which the Lord has given us is so great that when we think about the future, we can only rejoice. For this our spiritual eyes have to be opened. We all have our failures, but that does not change the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God, the power of God or the love of

God. We should not think about our own ability or disability, but live on the promises of God. The next compromise Pharaoh wanted is, “Go... ye that are men, and serve the Lord” (Exo.10:11). This meant they could leave Egypt and serve God, but their heart would be in Egypt—because they would be leaving their wives, cattle, children, etc. there. Lot’s wife left Sodom, but her heart was still in Sodom. That is why she looked back. Pharaoh knew that if the wives and children were left in Egypt, the hearts of the men would be there and they would want to come back soon. This is what is happening to many children of God. After they come to Christ, they want to go back to the world because their heart is there. Peter had a wife and a house. But what does he say – “Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (Jn.6:68). If your heart is somewhere you would keep wanting to go there. We must burn all our boats and bridges when we come out to serve the Lord. This determination should be in our spirit. Then it will not occur to us to go back. “Go back” implies that we have some place to go back to. We have come out to go to the Promised Land and there should be no turning back. True, we have our own failures. But God will give us grace. We need a commitment, however, to see the grace of God. When Sanballat and Tobiah called Nehemiah, he said, “I am doing a great work, so that, I cannot come down” (Neh. 6:3). We are about the King’s work. This is a great work—even greater than the work of the President of a country because it is God’s work. “I am a servant of God. I must be about my Father’s business. I cannot come down”—this zeal should always be in our spirit. The fourth compromise sounds rather funny. “The men, women and children may go,...only let your flocks and your herds be stayed:” (Exo.10:24). Why are flocks and herds needed? For sacrifice— you cannot serve God without sacrifice. You need to sacrifice if you go to worship. You have to take an animal. So this final compromise meant, “All right, you serve God, but do not have a spirit of sacrifice.” Serving God without sacrifice is serving God with comfort. This is a subtlety of the devil. After a few years of following God, our spirit of sacrifice is gone and we think we can take it easy. Our spirit should remain a sacrificial spirit. Our end should be better than the beginning. When the people of Israel neared Canaan they had to face greater trials. They had to face Jordan and a Jericho wall. After reaching Canaan too they had to make sacrifices. This spirit of sacrifice should never leave us. After we get to heaven and see the glory for the little suffering we have gone through we may say, “I wish I had suffered more on earth.” Angels say, “I wish I had a chance to suffer.” They are not given that chance. We are given that privilege. Ours is a “light affliction for an eternal weight of glory.” When the suffering seems heavy, the glory will become light. When the vision of our glory increases, our sufferings become light. So we should maintain a spirit of sacrifice. “And Moses said,...Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind” (Exo.10:26). That means that we should not leave anything when we step out to follow the Lord. Every fibre of our being must follow God. We should follow the Lord in every aspect of our life. When Pharaoh refused to consent to the terms set by Moses, then came the last judgment. The firstborn of Egypt were killed. The power of Egypt or the power of sin was broken. There are beautiful, glorious truths contained in this. When we really follow God the proper way—that is, not leaving behind even a hoof—then the power of sin or the backbone of sin will be destroyed in our lives. Otherwise, all our life we will never get victory over lust or carnal thoughts, as thoughts do not get old—only the body does. A 90-year-old can have a 19-year-old’s thoughts because the state of our mind depends on how we have exercised it. Only consecrated people can live a holy life; others cannot. When we make the decision to follow God we can live a holy life. Our heart should keep saying, “I belong to God.” When a great tempest was raging and for fourteen days they could not eat anything, St. Paul was able to say, “I belong to God; I serve God” (Acts 27:23). The devil should know this—“I serve God.” We do not serve the flesh or the world, the devil or sin. We serve God. Dear Reader, this is such

a glorious life. Please do not despise it. What we learn from these ten judgments is that, God is very severe with servants of God. If there is any distraction in our following God, then the judgment ensues. We see that God chastised Pharaoh. “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” (Rom.9:17). Why did God raise him ? Why has God raised us up from the horrible pit ? To show His power or character to the whole world. There is a greater calling for us, but we can be like Pharaoh. We can harden our hearts. If we do not follow the Lord properly, all these ten judgments, perhaps in a greater measure, can come upon us in a spiritual way. Let us therefore serve God with a pure heart. Let us not make any compromise.

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JUDGMENT ON CANAAN The judgment on the nations of Canaan is a source of enlightenment to children of God. The nations of Canaan were originally children of God. They were the children of Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Gen.10:6-18). Something specifically happened to change these children of God into heathen nations. In Genesis 9:20-27 we read of the incident, which brought the curse upon Canaan and his descendants. What Noah did was clearly wrong—getting drunk and lying naked; but Ham made the mistake of talking about it to others. We may see the mistakes of our spiritual fathers; but, instead of taking pleasure in talking about them to others as Ham did, we must like Shem and Japheth, cover them with a mantle of love, by prayer. Very rapidly, the descen- dants of Ham, who came under Noah’s curse, changed from children of God into heathen. The meaning of ‘Canaan’ is ‘low’. We must avoid coming to such a state where we are found spiritually low. If we are critical of our spiritual fathers even in our mind, we will end up as Canaanites—spiritually low people. It is not for us to even look at the mistakes of our elders. In I Chronicles 5:1 we read of how Reuben lost ‘the right of the firstborn’—“Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel).” We can relate this to our dealings with our spiritual fathers. The ‘father’s bed’ denotes the rest of our elders. If we disturb the rest of our elders by our behaviour, we will lose our ‘right of the firstborn’. If, by our com- plaining, murmuring, disobedience etc., we become a problem or a burden to our elders and upset their peace, we lose our ‘right of the firstborn’. Birthright, in the Bible, is a double portion. It can also stand for sanctification. Sanctification is a birthright. In Exodus 13:2 God says, “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn.” The whole congregation has to be sanctified, but the firstborn have a special sanctification—an over- coming life. We read in the Word of God that we are the firstfruits of His creatures (Jas.1:18). The kingdom is also a birthright. “And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram; because he was the firstborn” (II Chron.21:3). If we lose our birthright, we lose the Kingdom—the undefiled, immovable, incorruptible Kingdom which has been promised to us. We lose many blessings too. “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power” (Gen.49:3). We must decide to fight against the Canaanite spirit and destroy it—that in itself is a blessing, and a step in our spiritual growth. “Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them ?” (Judg.1:1). Although one would expect the word ‘down' and not ‘up', considering that the Canaanites were low, here we find the word ‘up', thus showing that fighting against the Canaanites is an upward step in our spiritual life—putting away the critical, fault-finding, judgmental spirit from our lives. Remember what happened to Miriam when she found fault with Moses.

Adonibezek, King of the Canaanites, had dominion over seventy other kings. “Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died” (Judg. 1:6,7). When we overcome the ruling spirit in our lives, it is in effect getting victory over seventy other spirits as well—self-pity, critical spirit, murmuring, etc. Sadly, the children of Israel did not carry out God’s command- ment to completely destroy all the nations that inhabited Canaan—see Judges 1:21,27,29 etc. They allowed the Gibeonites to dwell among them. We must take very seriously, the need to drive all the Canaanite spirits out of our lives. We must be like Joseph who prevailed ! “But the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries” (Judg.1:35). We read of many children of God who became a great blessing to their spiritual elders. Consider the love Paul and Timothy had for each other. Timothy's presence was a great joy to Paul. “Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy” (II Tim.1:4). “For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state…ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel” (Phil.2:20-22). Our very presence should be a blessing and comfort to our elders. We see the same thing in Titus also. “For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus” (II Cor.7:5,6). St. Paul, in the midst of great trials, found the coming of Titus a comfort. Let us never be a source of disturbance to our elders. In Philemon vs.7, we read of Paul, an elder saying to Philemon, “We have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.” See what a miracle this love could do ! The word used here for this love is agape. Colossians 1:4,5 reads: “Faith in Christ Jesus,...love...to all the saints,...hope...laid up...in heaven.” Agape love does not have any distinctions—‘to all saints,’ it is said. It is carnal love that seeks to make a difference. Ephesians 1:15 also speaks of this love—“unto all the saints”. If this love is not in us, we will also lose our firm faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 3:17-19, St. Paul writes, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Normally, love is limited to knowledge. ‘Agape love’, the love of Christ, passes knowledge! It is an unchanging love. Circumstances do not diminish that love. It is Calvary’s love. Calvary, or Golgotha, is the ‘place of the skull’. At one time the skull had been a head, with brain, eyes, ears, a tongue, etc. Now it does not have any of these carnal factors! Calvary’s love is “skull love”. It is not influenced by eyes, ears, brain etc. “Who is blind, but My servant ? or deaf, as My messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect?” (Isa.42:19). Jesus took the cross and went to Golgotha or Calvary. But we do not want to go to the place of the skull—we want to use our brain! Unless we go to Golgotha, our cross will not become a crown. The judgment on the Canaanites was, God spewing them out of the land of Canaan. This is a warning to all of us. “That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you” (Lev.18:28). God told the Israelites what He would do to them unless they lived different from the earlier inhabitants of the land. The word ‘spue out’ connotes something that appeared to be palatable and tasty, but which actually turned out to be bitter, sour and dis tasteful, and therefore had to be put out of one’s mouth. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My

mouth” (Rev.3:16). Let us take heed, dear child of God, not to allow the Canaanite spirit to be in us; instead, let us have the spirit of Timothy and Titus. Let us go up and fight against the Canaanite spirit and obtain total victory.

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JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL THE ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY After Solomon’s time, the nation of Israel was divided into two — the Kingdom of Israel made up of ten tribes and the Kingdom of Judah comprising the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The judgment that came upon the 10 tribes of Israel is the Assyrian captivity and the judgment on Judah and Benjamin is the Babylonian captivity. About 19 kings ruled in Israel and they were all wicked kings. God chastened them and sent many prophets, including Elijah and Elisha, to rebuke and correct them; they were sometimes even given over into the hand of enemies, but they did not depart from their sins. Sometimes they repented, but again they went back to their idol worship. So judgment had to finally come. From II Kings 17:623 we see how constantly they rebelled against the Lord till finally judgment came. During the reign of King Hosea, the Assyrians took them away captive. Israel had been a godly nation but when they went away from the Lord, judgment came on them. We are called a holy nation but if we go away from the Lord, judgment will come on us too. The Israelites walked according to the desires of their flesh and mind (Isa.3:16). We have been anointed as priests so that we might offer our body as a sacrifice and not be conformed to this world (Rom.12:1,2). We have been anointed as kings that we may reign over our mind (Prov.16:32). If we satisfy the desires of our flesh and mind we become the children of wrath (Eph.2:3). We will go into captivity like the Israelites and our latter state will be worse than our former state. God had given Israel many chances, rebuked them, chastened them and sent many prophets among them but they still rebelled. They even persecuted some of the prophets God had sent to them. God’s judgment had to come and they had to be given over into the hand of the enemy forever. What a terrible judgment! These things are written for our warning. We read that after sixty or seventy years the same thing happened to the kingdom of Judah. There had been some good kings in the kingdom of Judah; so the judgment was delayed. However, there were many wicked kings too. The Assyrian captivity, which came upon the ten tribes of Israel was a warning for the kingdom of Judah. But the kingdom of Judah too did not want to follow God’s ways. They despised and misused the prophets sent to them until the wrath of God came upon them. Even today, there are many elders and servants of God placed over us to correct and admonish us. If we mock them and despise them in our hearts, it will result in the wrath of God coming on us. We read about the Babylonian captivity in II Chro- nicles 36:15-20. The house of God was burnt with fire. The Lord does not accept worship from wicked people. The house of the Lord had become a den of robbers (Jer. 7:9,11). They had a formal worship and were boasting about it, while all the time wickedness was in them (Matt.15:8,9). “Ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely…and come and stand before Me in this house,” said the Lord, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me” (Isa.1:13,14). God will forsake the churches that do not fear God and raise up for Himself a small group of people who love holiness and a consecrated life, who live by faith, and who are zealous for God. The vessels of the house of God were all taken into captivity. We are the vessels of God. We have to live with fear and trembling before God. Even the ark of the covenant in the most holy place was carried away. The candlesticks, spoons, cups etc., were all taken

away (II Chron.36:18). This signifies precious truths or deeper truths being taken away. When we rebel against God, against God’s servants and God’s counsel, and when we do not humble ourselves before the servants of God or our elders, then judgment will come. If we are proud and arrogant and disobedient to the counsel of God and walk in our own ways, judgment will come. Our God is a longsuffering God and He will give us many chances; but if we are like the Israelites, God will not be able to do anything with us, and judgment will come. The last king of Judah was Zedekiah. He did horrible things to Jeremiah although he knew that Jeremiah was a prophet of God. He did not humble himself (II Chron. 36:12). He did not humble himself before Jeremiah. Do we humble ourselves before our elders? Or do we do things with a proud heart? Jeremiah 52:10,11 records what happened to Zedekiah because he did not humble himself. The king of Babylon slew all his sons before his eyes and slew all the princes of Judah and then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with chains, carried him to Babylon and put him in prison where he remained till the day of his death. The important thing we have to learn is that when the Lord corrects us, unless we wholly repent, the judgment will come. Unfortunately, many of us have not learnt the blessedness, the glory and the benefits of bearing chastisement in the right spirit. Those who accepted chastening received blessings. The best passage in the Scripture regarding the blessings of chastisement is Hebrews 12:5-11. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.” When we are chastened, be it through any servant of the Lord, we should take it as the chastening of the Lord. We should not despise the chastening of the Lord in our heart nor should we faint. This means we should not get discouraged about it. Verse 6 reads: “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” God chastens only those whom He loves; so if you are chastened, it means God loves you and if you are chastened more it means God loves you more. That is the spirit with which we should take correction. “And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” If we are not chastened or corrected by anybody, it means God has rejected us. If we are chastened, if God has raised people to correct us, it means God has accepted us. Look at the prodigal son. After he left home, problems came. He had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, no place to stay; all his money was over. He was being chastened. That showed that God loved him and was chastening him to make him come back to the father. Correction shows that God delights in us. A father corrects the son in whom he delights. Correction brings about a fear in us. Proverbs9:8 says that if you love those who rebuke you, you are a wise man. If you hate the person who rebukes you, you are a foolish man. We should not be like little children who cannot love those who correct them. If we accept rebuke in the right spirit, our faith will grow tremendously, and when we do not accept correction in the right spirit we become weaker and weaker in our inner man. Titus 1:13 reads: “Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” When you take correction you become strong in the faith. Now we are in a froward generation that has no faith, because they do not take correction. The judgment will come on the generation that does not take rebuke and correction (Deut.32:20). “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on earth?” Jesus asked. Psalms 141:5 reads: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness.” Many of us are blind to these truths. “Let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil.” When we are willing to receive correction in the right spirit, it gives us a special anointing. “Yield to My reproof again. If you do that I will pour My Spirit upon you” reads Proverbs 1:23 in another translation. We read in Psalm 94:12,13, “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,...and teachest him out of Thy law.” Those who are corrected will be enlightened on the Word of God; God gives special revelations to those who receive correction in the right spirit. “That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity,” it says. Those who receive correction will have rest or peace in adversity; others will not. Take Saul for example. He did not want to receive correction. When adversity came he

trembled and did not know where to go. He had no rest at all. So we see that it is a real blessing to be chastened. In Hebrews 12:11 we see that when we are chas- tened it is grievous to us. It is grievous to the Lord too to chastise us. It says, “He doth not afflict willingly” (Lam.3:33). Nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peace- able fruit of righteousness. Here chastening is compared to a seed. When a seed is sown you do not find the result or fruit immediately. Chastening is like that; you think, “What good is there in this chastening.” But it brings us peace and righteousness if accepted in the right spirit. Chastening is a part of Christian discipline; so let us not resist it. Let us ask God to give us grace to accept correction joyfully, particularly when we are innocent. If we do not accept correction, God will leave us alone. Read Proverbs 3:11,12. God does not want us to come to that state. Judas, obviously, was left to himself. And of course, he was deceived. Look at Saul. He was corrected when he offered the sacrifice, when he failed to destroy the Amalekites, and on many other occasions. But he was far from taking correction. Finally, he came to a place where he was in deep distress and there was nobody to help him. Saul’s end is a very good warning for us. But look at David. When Nathan went up to him and told him directly, “You are the man. Your punish- ment is going to come. Your child is going to die,” David humbled himself. He loved Nathan the prophet. He even named one of his children, after him. We all know how God blessed him later on. But David's son, Adonijah was not like him. His father could never correct him or reprove him (I Kgs.1:5,6). So he was ruined. Those who do not allow themselves to be reproved or corrected will definitely exalt themselves and bring about their own ruin. They can never be humble. When we are innocent and are chastised we become a blessing to others. Jesus was chastised for our peace. He became a blessing for the whole Universe. Jesus was chastised, not because He did wrong, but because ‘it pleased the Father to bruise Him.’ We read it in Isaiah 53:10. Many in the Bible were rebuked for things they never did. Joseph was one such person. He became a great blessing; even studying about him is a blessing. He was put into a pit; his name was tarnished and he had to suffer for a long time in prison, but all these punishments brought a great blessing to him. After the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, there were no more kings in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Once judgment comes there is no way of escape. So dear Reader, before the judgment comes God is graciously speaking to us. Let us graciously accept correction.

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JUDGMENT AT CALVARY In the beginning the world was given into the hands of man by a covenant (Gen.1:28). Adam trans-gressed and broke the covenant and lost the dominion which God had given him (Gen.3:17,18). Satan snatched away this dominion from man and became the god of this world (II Cor.4:4). The prince of the world had to be judged before the world could be redeemed. On the cross of Calvary, there were seven areas upon which judgment fell. 1. Sin 2. Sickness 3. Fear 4. The World 5. Death 6. Hell 7. Satan By His death on the cross, Jesus Christ brought judgment on these seven areas in order to restore to man that which he lost. The benefits of Calvary are more for the New Testament saints than for the Old Testament saints and we must enjoy them. Man lost his dominion over the world through disobedience. Only a perfect man could redeem it for him. Jesus was therefore made in the likeness of man. He lived a perfect life and did the whole will of God so that, through His death at Calvary, the

world could be redeemed. 1. SIN

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom.8:3). In the Old Testament time sin could only be covered, and not purged (Psa.32:1). The covering of sin in the Old Testament time is symbolic of the reality of the cross of Calvary. The cross brings redemption from sin. The blood of Jesus purges us from sin. Jesus shed His blood through the eternal Spirit (Heb.9:14). If we have a revelation of this, we can have an overcoming life. The blood of Jesus is unique. It is holy, precious blood, for, in Jesus was no sin (I Jn.3:5), He knew no sin (II Cor.5:21) and, He did no sin (I Pet.2:22). Nobody has the blood type of Jesus, because He had no human father—Jesus was born through the Holy Spirit. So there is eternal power in the blood of Jesus. Many miracles were performed in the Old Testa- ment, like the stopping of the sun, the raising of the dead etc. But the law in the Old Testament could not condemn sin in the flesh. People could not be made perfect in the Old Testament period. We in the New Testament period should not allow sin to have any dominion over our body. Verses 2,6,7,11,12,14–18 of Romans Chapter 6 teach the doctrine of baptism ie. freedom from sin. Every part of our body should be holy. On Calvary, God judged sin. From the crown of His head to the soles of His feet, Jesus was bruised, smitten, pierced and wounded, that we may attain total victory over sin. If we do not by faith appropriate the total victory over sin that God has given us through Calvary, we will be like the Old Testament saints. We must have absolute holiness even in our thought realm. 2. SICKNESS

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isa.53:5). The Hebrew word for ‘peace’ here is ‘shalom’. Shalom stands for good health, prosperity, peace, well-being, wholeness, etc. The chastisement for our good health was on Him, and by His stripes we were healed! The stripes of Jesus were not for our sin, but for the healing of our sickness. His death was for our sin; His stripes were for our healing. We should have a zeal to resist sickness, because Jesus has already destroyed our sickness by His stripes. It is an accomplished fact. We are not immune to sickness as long as we are on this earth; but we must resist sickness because our Father has already deposited healing in our name by the stripes of Jesus. We should resist and torment sickness and not allow sickness to overpower us and torment us. If we do not torment the devil and sickness, they will torment us! The demon asked Jesus, “Have You come to torment us before our time?” Healing is children’s bread. Jesus taught His dis- ciples to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Healing is our Father’s gift already given to us through Jesus. Doctors say that there are 206 bones in the human body. The whips which the Roman soldiers used to scourge Jesus had pieces of metal and bone at the end of the thongs, which tore out the flesh each time the victim was struck (Psa.22:16,17). The Roman law, unlike the Jewish law, did not limit the number of stripes a victim may be given, to thirty-nine. Jesus was scourged till almost all His bones, including His facial bones, were exposed. His body was broken and lacerated for our wholeness and healing. If we do not claim this tremen- dous power of healing for which Jesus has already paid such a terrible price, we are despising the agony He underwent to give us this complete victory over sickness. Do not despise the stripes of Jesus! It is almost blasphemy against the stripes of Jesus to say,

“God has sent this sickness to me !” Healing magnifies God Who has pleasure in the good health of His servants. God has displeasure and sadness over the sickness of His servants. Even while dying, we must claim good health. We do not need sickness to take us to heaven. We need Jesus! 3. FEAR

Some people are in constant fear—fear of sickness, fear of the future, fear of death, etc. Jesus judged all fear on the cross of Calvary. The only fear that all children of God must have is the fear of God! This is a positive fear and it is the beginning of wisdom. In one sense, fear is the anticipation of loss. We can therefore overcome negative fear if we, like St.Paul, “count all things as loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus.” If we have nothing to lose, we will have nothing to fear. If there is any area in our life concer- ning which we have a negative fear, it means that it is an area which we have not fully dedicated to God. Perfect love casts out fear. We will have no fear if we have dedi- cated all things to God—even our name and reputation. Of Jesus, we read that people even said that He was mad! 4. THE WORLD — THE WORLD SYSTEM

“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal.1:4). Jesus died on the cross to deliver us from the world. The fashions of the world, the world systems, etc., are all planned by the devil. A book by Manuel Emmers of Nigeria, says that many things like murders, fashions, etc., are planned in the pit of hell. Children of God should not borrow the fashions of the world! We should be an example to the world by our lives and character, by our prayer life, holiness, etc. On the cross of Calvary Jesus delivered us from the world system. 5. DEATH

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb.2:14,15). Through death, Jesus destroyed him who had the power of death. Death is separation— separation from God. When the prodigal son returned, the father said, “This my son was dead…” The son was separated from the father’s home. His absence from the father is refer- red to by the father as ‘death’. We read of the second death in Revelation Ch.20. This shows eternal separation from God. At one time we were dead in trespasses and sins. Sin and trespasses separated us from God. Saints do not die; they sleep in Christ (I Thess. 4:14). Sinners die. At Calvary Jesus abolished death. He destroyed the devil who had the power of death, and He has delivered us from the bondage of the fear of death, that we may live in peace and sleep in peace. He has already made us more than conquerors. 6. HELL

“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” (Rev.1:18). Hell is torment. Some have hell in their mind—torment about the future, etc. ‘Keys’ show power. Jesus has power over hell and death. Through Christ we have power over hell and death. He conquered hell and death on Calvary’s cross. In the Old Testament time, there were two places to which people went after their death—one, a place of rest to which saints went, called ‘Abraham’s Bosom’, and the other, a place of torment to

which the rich man of the Bible went (Lk.16:23). Between these two places there was a great gulf. Jesus went to the lower parts of the earth to Abraham’s Bosom and He took captivity captive and ascended to heaven (Eph.4:8-10). Before Jesus died on Calvary there was no full redemption, and therefore until Jesus took captivity captive, Old Testament saints like Samuel were in the upper section of hell, called Abraham’s Bosom. Saul obviously went to the place of torment, because of his disobedience, his resorting to witchcraft, etc. The Old Testament saints are now no longer in that place below the earth. So hell has no power over blood-bought children of God, after Calvary. 7. SATAN

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen.3:15). In the Garden of Eden the Lord promised that Christ, the woman’s seed, would bruise Satan’s head at Calvary. This was accomplished when the body of Jesus was bruised on the cross. Satan can now use only his tail. Satan has no power over the children of God who have been bought and redeemed by the blood of Jesus at Calvary. We read that a single angel was able to bind Satan and put him into the Bottomless Pit (Rev.20:1-3). Satan is afraid of God’s children. They have the triune God and many angels to fight for them—provided they live under the blood and in the will of the Father. God has already thrust out the enemy from before us (Deut.33:27). Now He says, “I am giving you the privilege of destroying him!” Resist the devil and he will flee. He is a defeated foe. God expects His children to claim the victory that He has already won for His children on the cross of Calvary. “It is finished!” was a cry of triumph. When we stand in the name of Jesus, every knee, including Satan’s, shall bow. If sin is lurking in our life, however, we will be afraid of Satan! Let us claim all the victories that Jesus won for us at Calvary. His victory is for you, dear child of God. Claim it and live in it! §§§§§

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JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL BLINDNESS “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom.11:25). Moral blindness, spiritual blindness, at times physi- cal blindness and other kinds of blindness, can be the judgment of God. “Fulness of the Gentiles”—this stands for the per- fection of the Gentile Church. At the Coming of the Lord, the complete number of the Gentiles would have come to Christ ( NLT). In the Bible there is another expression ‘the times of the Gentiles’, which is different from ‘the fulness of the Gentiles’. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Lk.21:24). This ‘times of the Gentiles’ is the Gentiles occupying Jerusalem. This started with the captivity of Judah, the Babylonian captivity (II Kgs.25:21). It ends with the Armageddon War. Why did God allow blindness to happen to Israel? This is a warning God is giving to the spiritual Israel. We can also become blind to the truth. God permitted it to happen to them so that we could avoid it. In Matthew 13:13 we read, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” In seeing many things they did not see or perceive—they would not take it to heart. Spiritual blindness came to Israel because, though they heard the truth they did not value it. Spiritually, such things are happening now. Having heard blessed

truths, people do not value them. Jesus said that we are blessed to hear the hidden truths, because to many prophets and righteous men these mysteries, the riches of the glorious truths were not revealed. “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matt.13:16,17). Dear child of God, having heard so many blessed truths which millions of Christians do not know, do you really value them? The Israelites did not value the truth. So God blinded their eyes and opened the eyes of the Gentiles. Many do not value the truth, the beautiful truth God has revealed to them. When God’s Word is spoken to us we should be anxious to receive it. If we do not value the truth, the spirit of slumber will come upon us. “For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath He covered” (Isa.29:10). Have you noticed how during a sermon, some people fall asleep? One reason is that, earlier when the Word of God was preached or spoken they did not value it. They despised it. Therefore God has allowed a deep sleep to come upon them. “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day” (Rom.11:7,8). Blindness is on Israel till the fulness of the Gen- tiles comes in, ie. till the Coming of the Lord. That can happen to us too. Till the Coming of the Lord, we may have blindness. After the Coming of the Lord our eyes will be open. Then we will say, “O, I missed the Rapture, I missed all the glories, I missed all Eternity.” Dear child of God, we should not let that happen. We are the most privileged people. Do you not feel excited about this life, about this truth, about Zion, about an overcoming life, about holiness, about a consecrated life? This life is very exciting because great riches are in it. If we do not value these, if we despise them, the judgment will come on us. God permitted Israel’s blindness. God will permit a strong delusion (II Thess.2:9-12). Why did God permit such a strong delusion on His people?—because they received not the love of the truth. A strong delusion came on those who did not love the truth. We are called to love the deeper truths; otherwise a stronger delusion might come upon us. Esau despised his birthright. Later on he cried, but God could not give it back to him. ‘Strong delusion’ can be called ‘wrong influence’. If we do not really love the truth, the devil will tell us, “This is not your calling; you are called to live in a different way; you don’t need a real consecrated life, etc.” This is happening to a number of children of God who began following the Lord with great joy and consecration. After a few years they say, “I don’t think I should be consecrated like this.” Dear Reader, that should not happen to us. We should really love the deeper truths. We should pray and ask the Lord to open our spiritual eyes. When God opens our spiritual eyes, life will be really exciting. God has to open our spiritual eyes, because there are so many riches. There are at least seven riches mentioned in the Word of God, exclusively in the New Testament. We should not live as if we do not know anything about these riches. When we do not have any revelation about all these riches, in our heart and mind, we will want to go back to the world. If our spiritual eyes are opened we cannot even for one moment think about going back. As days pass we become more and more thankful to God for this life.

Riches of Grace “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph.1:7). We get the riches of grace by the forgiveness of sins. At the time we receive forgiveness from Jesus, grace comes into our lives. In the same way, when we forgive others, abundance of grace comes in. The more we forgive, the more riches of grace we receive. That is why we always need a forgiving

spirit; there should be no irritation, resentment or awkward feeling in our spirit. When we do not forgive others we lose the riches of grace. Everyday we should examine ourselves—“Lord, is there any resentment in my heart? Do I harbour any grudge in my heart?” When Jesus was pierced in His side, forthwith (immediately) blood and water came out. Blood shows forgiveness, and water, love, grace, etc., When we are being pierced, forgive- ness and forgiving love should immediately come from the heart. Then the “riches of His grace” will be there. When we have the riches of grace, though every- body else may be dry, we can flourish and be green. When all are sleeping and slumbering, we will be able to watch and pray. In a situation where everybody is discouraged, we will be encouraged and be able to en- courage others. That is what grace does. When all are going down in their spiritual life and holiness seems almost impossible, the grace of God will make you sense more of the holiness of God. We also read in the Word of God that they who receive the riches of grace will rule in life. Their life will be a ruling life, a reigning life (Rom.5:17). Christ will be reigning in them.

Riches of the Glory of His Inheritance in the Saints “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” (Eph.1:18). In Ephesians 1:15, we read, “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints.” After saying this, St.Paul says in vs.18, that he prays that their eyes may be opened. Here the emphasis is on ‘love unto all the saints’. “After I heard about your love unto all the saints, I am praying for your eyes to be opened, so that you may know what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” If we do not love all the saints, we cannot enjoy these riches. Our spiritual eyes will not be opened to see the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Saints in light have a special inheritance which we read of in Colossians 1:12 as ‘the inheritance of the saints in light’. This is what is mentioned as ‘riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints’. ‘Love unto all the saints’ is something we should possess. St.Paul mentions the same truth in Colossians 1:4—“Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints.” In both places we read of ‘faith in Christ Jesus’ and ‘love unto all the saints’. Generally, our love for a person diminishes when we notice certain shortfalls in His character. But we should love looking through the character of Christ. In Eternity light comes to New Jerusalem from Zion. The light from New Jerusalem goes to New Heaven, and from New Heaven to New Earth. We should look through the light, and that light gets reflected and gives light to all others. Some children of God say, “I don’t want to work with this person and live with that person.” That is because they are not ‘walking in the light’. We must learn to love all the saints. It is true that loving some saints is difficult, but the love of God can overcome any difficulty. If we are able to love only some particular saints, that means our love is carnal. It is not spiritual at all. Being selective is not the love of God. To study “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” is in itself something very great and glorious. But to possess these riches, one thing is essential—we must have “love unto all the saints”.

Unsearchable Riches of Christ “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph.3:8). In Christ are the unsearchable riches. The more you seek or search, the more you get them. They do not get exhausted at all. There are so much riches for every area of our life, for every moment in life, for every situation. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (II Cor.9:8). This means abounding in all things, always and in all aspects. That is beautiful.

How do we get the unsearchable riches of Christ? “Unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints is this grace given”, says St.Paul. We should desire to become “less than the least”. The unsearchable riches of Christ are not for everyone. God gives grace to the humble, says the Word of God. “I want to be less than the least of all saints,” our hearts should cry out to God; then we will receive the unsearchable riches of Christ—abundance of grace for every moment, for every situation, for every problem and to deal with every person. God cannot give these riches to proud people—only to those who really take time to examine themselves and humble themselves. Humility should be in our spirit. We read of what Samuel tells about Saul when he really humbled himself and considered himself to be the least: “And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house? And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?” (I Sam.9:20,21). When he considered himself small, when that thought was in his spirit, the desire of all Israel was on him. In other words, when we become smaller than the smallest, we become the desire (joy or delight) of all Israel and of God. Saul could have in fact boasted of many things. We read in I Samuel 9:2, that Saul was “a choice young man and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” When the grace of God overflows from us we will not look at or see our goodness; we will not see the greatness of our family background. We will only see that we are less than the least of all. When pride overtakes our life, we do not see anything other than our greatness. When humility fills us, we see nothing but our emptiness before God’s fulness. When Saul was able to see himself as the least, he was called the ‘desire of all Israel”. Jesus is called the “desire of all nations”. “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts” (Hagg. 2:7). Jesus wants us also to be like Him. When St. Paul found the unsearchable riches of Christ, what did he do? He counted all his other riches as dung. He was a very rich man. His father was a Roman citizen. Paul studied at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a Pharisee, a doctor of the Law and held in honour by all the people (Acts 22:3). He was a celebrated Jewish teacher. His influence carried great weight in the Sanhedrin. Studying under him those days was like studying in the University of Oxford today. Hence Paul was no ordinary person. But when he had a revelation about the unsearchable riches of Christ, he counted all his riches as dung in order to win Christ.

Riches of the Glory of this Mystery “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col.1:27). Who will receive the “riches of the glory of this mystery”? Those who have got the hope of glory will receive it. What is the hope of glory? It's the hope of the Coming of the Lord. Those who have the hope of the Coming of the Lord, and who prepare themselves every day for it, have the ‘riches of the glory of this mystery’. In another sense, many hidden truths and mysteries will be revealed to them. If we live every moment being ready for the Rapture, ‘the riches of the glory of this mystery’ will be revealed to us. There are many mysteries mentioned in the Word of God. In all these mysteries there are many areas we need to know. Riches of His goodness “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Rom.2:4). Those who repent receive the “riches of His good- ness” The “goodness of God leadeth thee to

repentance.” We may think, “I have done nothing wrong; why should I repent?” The more we see God, the more we will be able to see the true state of our heart in the right pers- pective. Till we see God we may never feel repentant. Prophet Isaiah was going about saying ‘Woe to you’, but when he saw God he said, “Woe to me.” He saw his own state. Dear child of God, till we see God, we will never see ourselves as we ought to; we may compare ourselves with others and say, “Oh! I am better.” When did Job repent? God says of him, in the first chapter, that there is no one like him, that there is no wickedness in him. “There is none like him in the earth.” In other words God was saying that he was the Number One saint—a perfect man. It was God Who gave that testimony of him. Such a man, we may think, does not need any repentance. But when he saw God he started to repent in dust and ashes. To repent in dust and ashes in those days showed deep repentance (Job 42:5,6). The greatest saint in the world in the sight of God’s holiness is a miserable failure. No matter how holy we become, in comparison to God’s holiness, our holiness is contemp- tible. The reason why we do not repent is because we do not see God. We do not have a proper revelation of God. “Riches of His goodness” is for the saints who repent deeply with a broken and a contrite heart. Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judg- ments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom.11:33). Here you find two exclamation marks in the same verse. While St.Paul was writing this, he must have been on his knees. To the Ephesians, when writing about the riches, he says, “I kneel before the family of God in heaven.” When we read and understand the riches of God we will immediately feel like leaving the Bible, getting down on our knees and thanking God. We feel we cannot read any more because it has become so exciting. Wisdom here is what God has prepared for us in Eternity. We read about that in I Corinthians 2:7-9. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” In the sixth verse St.Paul says, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” And in the seventh verse he says, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory,” and that wisdom is, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” He was speaking of the hidden wisdom, as a mystery. Here the knowledge is knowledge of the character of Christ. Knowing Christ means, knowing of the character of Christ. St.Paul speaks here of the “depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge”! What an exciting thing! We must meditate on these riches. If we despise these truths we will be blinded spiritually, morally and maybe even physically.

Reproach of Christ “The reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb.11:26). Egypt, being the World Empire at that time, had riches coming in from all over the world. Even now, in the British museum, some of the riches the Egyptians had—treasures of gold, a golden casket, etc. are dis- played. They had so much riches, but Moses found “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” ! How do we get this? When we are despised, rejected, neglected and ignored, when our advice is ignored and our opinion, though good, is ignored, when we are put down and humiliated, the way we take it all (the spirit with which we take it), gives us these riches. That is why Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when men shall ...reproach you, and cast your name as evil...leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Lk.6:22,23). When you are reproached and ridiculed, if you feel hurt and offended, if you feel pain and cannot love that person, then you will not get these riches. We get them if we can inwardly rejoice in

that despising and rejection. It is a great thing to have these riches. But unless we know of these riches, we may never desire it. Even today, the eyes of the Israelites are blinded. When they hear about Christ, they get very angry. When a certain ten year old Jewish boy was told about Christ, he said in anger, “If I see Him, I will beat Him up.” The reason is that the eyes of the Jews are blinded, so that they may not see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand and be converted and healed. ‘Converted’ means ‘transformed’. We need to be converted (or transformed), and understand from the heart. Understanding with the brain is different; it is “logos”. Knowledge from Bible Study and the like is logos. But understanding in the heart is rhema. ‘Rhema’ is specific inspiring word given for a particular person at a particular time, for a particular purpose—it goes into our spirit. Healing is needed in many areas of our life—healing in some past memories, etc. We need healing in our spirit, soul and body. We have considered seven riches but there are so many other riches mentioned in the Word of God. The Word of God is full of riches; it is like a spring. As we read the Word of God we must find excitement; or else we might become spiritually blind. Some day we may desire, “Lord I want to know about New Jerusalem. I want to live that life. I want to live a higher life.” God may not give us a chance at that time. Today is the day of salvation. If today, you hear His voice harden not your heart. In the Old Testament, David had some revelation of the Word of God. He says, “At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judg- ments” (Psa.119:62). “I rejoice at Thy word, as one that findeth great spoil” (vs.162). This was in the Law period. During the time of the Old Testament, there were only the books of Moses and some books of the prophets. They knew nothing of the New Testament grace. Having such shallow knowledge available, that man of God got up at midnight to meditate on the Word of God; even in the night watches he was meditating on the Word. It was as exciting to him as if he had got great spoil. Dear child of God, do you really love the Word of God? Every chapter, every verse, has riches—beautiful, glorious things. This is such a wonderful, glorious expe- rience with our hearts full of joy, and we experience heaven on earth.

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JUDGMENT ON THE WORLD THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH This is the most important of the twenty judgments that are being dealt with. The Rapture is a judgment though we may not realize it. The ten judgments preceding this are judgments that have already taken place; but this one and the ones to follow are future judgments. This judgment may take place at any time. Why is the Rapture called a judgment? It is because, at the Rapture, those who are ready will be judged and taken up, and those who are not ready will be judged and left behind. God is a righteous judge. Our faithfulness, our every thought and word, our inner motives and intents of the heart, will all be judged. Our lives must be transparent. Our spirit, soul and body must be preserved blameless and we must be watching and waiting for His Coming (I Thess.5:23; Lk.21:36). The Rapture has two aspects: (1) The terror of the Lord (2) The mercy of the Lord. For those who are not ready and left behind it is called ‘the terror of the Lord’. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences” (II Cor. 5:11). For those who are ready and caught up, it is ‘the mercy of the Lord’. “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21). After the Coming of the Lord, there will be real terror. The

Bible, which speaks of the mercy of the Lord also speaks of the terror of the Lord. We should have a balanced view of these two aspects of the Rapture. What does Jesus say about ‘the terror of the Lord’? “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt.24:48-51). Indeed, it is frightening, but this is what the Lord says. It is the evil servants who say in their heart, “Jesus is not going to come today” or “He is going to delay.” They do not openly say this, but it is in their hearts, and so they “smite or oppress their fellow-servants, and eat and drink, and are drunken”. There is nothing wrong in eating and drinking, but it must be such that the Rapture is not forgotten. The judgment of God will come on all our thoughts, lust for food, lust for various other things in the world, and on our nature of not bearing rebuke and correction. We see therefore that the Rapture is a judgment. We read, “...and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.” According to this verse, a hypocrite is a person who says in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming.” Dear child of God, every day we must have the expectation of the Coming of Jesus. If we live with the expectation that Jesus may come any moment we will be very careful of what we think or say. Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” So remember, the first aspect of the Rapture is the ‘terror of the Lord’. We see the same thing in Luke 12:45,47,48. “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.” “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes...For unto whom- soever much is given, of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” God has given us so many deep truths. On the one hand we must be grateful to the Lord for revealing so many blessed truths, but we cannot ignore the fact that, “that servant which knew his lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes.” If, after having received revelations and known the will of God, we say in our hearts, “The Lord will delay His coming,” what will our state be? The Lord will come at ‘a time we think not.' The Lord says, “Be ye also ready.” Nowhere in the Bible does it say ‘get ready’ or ‘getting ready’. The Lord is not coming for a people who are getting ready, but for those who are ready. Jesus comes as a ‘thief’ to sinners and backsliders and as the ‘heavenly Bridegroom’ for those who are ready and waiting for Him. The coming of the thief may cause fear, but we should not be in that state. Jesus says that two will be in the field, two will be in the bed, and two will be grinding at the mill. The one will be taken and the other left behind. This shows the select Rapture. This shows that when Jesus comes, we may be in our work place, or working at home or asleep. Those who are ready will be taken up and the others left behind. Field means the Church (Jn.4:35,38). If we are not ready, God will prepare others. That is why the Word of God says, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev.3:11)—somebody else may get our crown. The Coming of the Lord will be like the Passover. At the Passover night there was a great cry among the Egyptians but among the Israelites was a great feast, a great joy, for they were going to Canaan. On one side, funerals; on the other side, feasts. This is typical of the Rapture. Many will go with great shouts, singing and rejoicing to meet the Lord. Among those who are left behind, there will be a great cry. We are not called to be left behind. We are called to be raptured at the Coming of the Lord.

We read in Malachi 3:1 that the Lord whom we seek will suddenly come to His temple. All those who have received the Holy Spirit are His temple. Of those who have received the Holy Spirit only those who are ready will go at the Rapture. We read in Hebrews 9:28, “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time…unto salva- tion.” The first time He came for the salvation of sinners; the second time He will come for those who look for Him. The Amplified Bible reads: “Those who are eagerly, continually and patiently waiting for and expecting Him.” He is coming for such. We should be in that state—eagerly, continually and patiently waiting for Him day after day. The king told Daniel, “Daniel,...thy God Whom thou servest continually...He will deliver thee” (Dan. 6:20). So Daniel was serving God continually and he found deliverance. We must serve Him all the twenty-four hours of the day. It says, “No manner of hurt was found upon him” because he continually served the Lord. Our heart should not be given to feelings of hurt, offence, etc. We talk of the meekness of the Lamb, the good- ness of the Lamb, the grace of the Lamb etc., but dear Reader, after the Rapture, it is the “wrath of the Lamb”. “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev.6:16,17). Perhaps during the Tribulation Period, there will be no place of refuge or safety. They say to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him Who sitteth upon the throne.” What has happened to the face of the Lord? The face of the Lord has not changed. It is just the same. But when sinners and backsliders look upon the face of the Lord, it is terrible. They will see their secret sins in the light of His countenance. “Thou has set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance” (Psa.90:8). If we bring our sin to the light then the Lord will wash us, but if we hide it, that is, if we do not confess it, it will be a secret sin. And “secret sins are in the light of His countenance.” Sinners and backsliders will see all their secret sins on the face of the Lord. Therefore the face of the Lord will be terrible to them, but the saints see the same face as a glorious face. Therefore the Rapture is going to be a judgment; but the saints who judge themselves now will not be judged then. On that day they will only stand before the Lord to receive a reward (II Cor.5:10), not punishment. For the saints, the Rapture is going to be most blessed. It is called the blessed hope. Dear saints, we should not be frightened about the Rapture and think, “I have to pray more. I have to sacrifice more, etc, to be ready.” All these things are good, but we do not go at the Rapture by our own righteousness. We are saved by the grace of God. None of us can say we deserved to be saved. In the same way when we go at the Coming of the Lord none of us can say, “I deserved to go.” First salvation and final salvation are both by the grace of God. We can only cling to the grace of God. We do have to be holy and pray, etc. but we go at the Coming of the Lord only by the grace of God. The trumpet will sound and we will be caught up in the twinkling of an eye. We have to be ready at that moment. Only grace can do that. That is why we read that Zerubbabel laid the head stone shouting, “Grace, grace” (Zech.4:7). The headstone is not the foundation stone. The headstone is the finishing stone. We are going to finish shouting, ‘Grace, grace’. The Lord started and He will also finish it. If we do not look at the grace of God, we will be condemned. We cannot go at the Rapture by our good works. Even the greatest saint has to depend upon the grace of God. Take your eyes off yourself; it is the grace of God that is going to help you go at the Coming of the Lord. If we do not have a vision of the grace of God, we will be looking at our works. Look at Noah. He found grace by looking at the eyes of God. So we too should look only at the eyes of God. From there comes grace and that grace will mould and change our life. In Jude 21 we read, “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we see, instead of “Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, it is written “mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Coming of the Lord is mercy. Why has the Lord not come so far? It is the mercy of God. If He has been merciful to you so far, at the time of His Coming too, He is going to be merciful to you. When we think of the

Rapture, we should think of the mercy of the Lord. The Lord said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This is not only for the present but to the end of the world. That is His promise. Therefore, when you think of the Coming of the Lord, think of the mercy of God, or else you will feel condemned. When we say, “Oh Lord, only Your mercy can help me,” that mercy will break our hearts and that mercy can make our heart tender. Dear child of God, if you look at your own life you will never go. If we lose sight of the grace of God we will condemn ourselves, and condemn others. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit.2:11-13). The grace of God is there to teach us to deny worldliness and ungodly living and live soberly, righteously and godly. “Who art thou, O great mountain?”—To some, this mountain is condemnation; to others, it is a constant guilty feeling; to some others it could be unbelief. To thoughts like “I don’t think the Lord will take me”; “I have already made so many mistakes” etc, we must shout out, “Who art thou, O great mountain?” This mountain in our lives can also be pride, arrogance, stubbornness, etc. But we should say, “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel (a type of Christ) thou shalt become a plain.” Dear Reader, keep your eyes on the Lord. In the eyes of the Lord we will not find condemnation; in the eyes of the Lord we will not find a doubt; we will not find fear or a guilty conscience, etc. The Lord will give us His grace. “Faithful is He that calleth you; Who also will do it” (I Thess.5:24). We read in the Word of God, “They limited the Holy One of Israel.” We know God has been faithful to us; we should not limit His faithfulness. We know God has been merciful; we should not limit His mercy, so also His love, grace, etc. It says, “Thy mercy is great above the heavens”; “Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds” (Psa.108:4;36:5). “The trumpet shall sound and…The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thess.4:16,17). So God is faithful. Today challenge your mountain before Jesus and say, “Thou shalt become a plain,” and when we reach the clouds we can say, “Lord, now I know Your faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” Let us look only to grace. §§§§§

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JUDGMENT ON THE REMNANT CHURCH “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”(Rev.12:17). ‘Remnant of the seed’ are those who are left behind. They had received the Holy Spirit, but were not ready when the Rapture took place. They kept the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. The woman stands for those who received the Holy Spirit but did not prepare themselves for the Coming of the Lord. It is the mercy of God that will keep us ready for that moment when the Lord comes. The Word of God says that no man will know the day or the hour of the Coming of the Lord. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk.21:36). That day is going to be a glorious day. It is the day when true saints are going to be revealed. The greatest saints are the ones who will be at the Rapture. The Rapture includes a resurrection too. When the Rapture takes place the saints who are dead in Christ, those who prepared themselves and died in Christ, will also be caught up.

It is frightening to learn about the plight of those who will be left behind. We must always fill our hearts and minds with thoughts like this: “God has called me for the Rapture.” The devil will come and say, “You cannot be ready”, and will try to bring condemnation. When our hearts are filled with the hope of being caught up, it destroys the power of darkness. II Thessalonians 2:8 reads, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” The Wicked is the Antichrist (or the spirit of the Antichrist). How will he be des- troyed? By the ‘brightness of His coming’. ‘The bright- ness of the Lord’s Coming’ is the hope of the Coming of the Lord. This should fill our heart and become brighter and brighter in us. Then we, that is, our character, will become bright, and that brightness will destroy the power of darkness. This is a beautiful thought. It is only the mercy of God. None of us deserves to go at the Coming of the Lord; it is only the mercy of God. This thought should fill our hearts: “The Lord will not leave me or forsake me; He will be gracious to me.” This faith will work in our life. Only the mercy of God can do that. Many of us think that by our own cleverness and ability, by our prayers and fasting and by our holiness we can go at the Coming of the Lord. But when we realize that we cannot attain that standard by ourselves, we condemn ourselves. No one can stand at the Coming of the Lord with his own righteousness. Only when we are clothed with His righteousness can we stand. So we should fill our hearts and minds with this thought—‘He will be gracious to me.’ This will help us to examine our life and get cleansed. The remnant of the seed which kept the command- ments of God are the ones who are not ready when Jesus comes. The dragon was wroth with the woman and with the remnant of her seed. If the Lord Jesus Christ comes today, the Tribulation Period will also start today. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kind-reds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (Rev.7:9). From where are they coming? From the great tribulation (vs.14). These people are the ones who were left behind at the Rapture and who become martyrs. Even among the people who received the Holy Spirit, some may not become martyrs. We read in Revelation Ch.13, that the beast compels the people to take the mark of the Antichrist (vs.16—Amp.) There is a possibility that some people will take the mark unknowingly. The Antichrist may not announce, ‘Be cautious; if you don't take the mark you will be killed.’ So out of those left behind at the Coming of the Lord, only a minority will become martyrs. About these, the Word of God says that ‘no man could number them’. Imagine then what a great multitude would be left behind at the Coming of the Lord! It is written that the multitude were of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues. This has a spiritual meaning. These are those from whom the nationality spirit (distinctions of culture, language etc.) has not gone. Those who go at the Coming of the Lord will be one nation—a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation. Saints have only one language—the language of love. Those who cling to distinctions of caste, creed and language cannot go at the Coming of the Lord though they may have received the Holy Spirit. If these distinctions come into our thoughts, we should resist them realizing it is a great demon. It is written in the Word of God, “My house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations.” We should realize this. In the Word of God it is mentioned that the very day Noah and the others entered the ark, the floods came. Jesus said that the last days before His Coming will be like Noah’s days and like Lot’s time. As soon as Lot came out of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brim- stone rained on Sodom and Gomorrah—they were just coming out. In Zechariah 14:12 we read a few things about the nuclear war and what could happen in the Tribulation Period: “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” As

regards this war, scientists opine that the intensity of the heat will be so tremendous that people will not even have time to fall down and die. In particular, four things about the human body are mentioned in Zechariah 14:12—flesh, feet, eyes and tongue. speaks of the carnal nature. The judgment is coming upon those who have a carnal nature. At Noah’s time also the purpose of the judgment of God was to destroy all flesh (Gen.6:12,13). We need to be very careful about the flesh. Another thing we read in Zechariah 14:12 is the  The Word of God says that God does not take pleasure in the legs of a man (Psa.147:10). ‘The legs of a man’ refers to those who walk independently. We may have this independent spirit—“I know better than you; what I do is always right; I don’t need to consult you.” God does not take pleasure in the ‘legs of a man’. We can have an independent spirit in many ways. Mephibosheth was lame on both his feet. In II Samuel 9:3 we read of King David asking, “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him?” Saul had many sons and grandchildren, but only one is mentioned. Mephibosheth was lame on both feet and so could not run away. At times, why do we feel like running away from the church? It is because we have legs. If we do not have feet we are helpless; we cannot do anything. God taketh no pleasure in the legs of man. If we do our work thinking, ‘I am able; I am clever,’ life will be very difficult for us; there will be many clashes, differences of opinion, etc. We will make life difficult for ourselves and make life difficult for others also. We should be like Mephibosheth. When the Lord asked Peter, ‘Will you also go away?’ he said, “Where can I go?” We also should come to this state: “Lord, where can I go? I have nowhere to go.” Mephibosheth says, “I am but a dead dog” (vs.8). We get many useful things from dead animals (ivory, fur etc.). But in a dead dog there is absolutely nothing. It is worthless, useless. Mephibosheth says, “I am but a dead dog; why are you showing so much kindness to me?” In other words, he meant he could be of no use to David, no matter how much kindness he bestowed on him. We should say, “If I have anything in me, it is all because God is everything to me; if grace leaves me I don’t have anything.” We should come to that state in our spirit. If we feel we do not deserve anything, when anything is done to us we will be grateful; and even if no one does anything for us we will not feel hurt either, because we do not deserve anything. God cares for such Mephibosheths. We read about God blessing Jacob when he deserved nothing and had nothing. He had deceived his father and brother and was running away from home. But on the way, in Bethel, God met him and blessed him. God blessed us when we deserved nothing and when we did not have anything. That is the God of Jacob. David says, “Fear not: I will surely show thee kind- ness...and will restore thee all the lands” (II Sam.9:7). Restoring all the lands denotes restoring the first love, grace—whatever we may have lost in the past. Our God wants to restore the years the locusts have eaten. ‘And thou shall eat bread at my table continually’ (not once in a way); not as a guest, but as one of the king’s sons (vs.11). Mephibosheth was given all these privileges. For Mephibosheths, every spiritual experience, whatever is lost—the first love, first faith, first prayer life—all these will be restored. And when the Gibeonites wanted seven of Saul’s sons, to hang, it is natural to think of letting the cripple be executed. But Mephibosheth was spared. Mephibo- sheth denotes a helpless, worthless, useless person. In the spiritual sense, when we come to God we should come in that state of poverty, for, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Then God will spare us. But very often our independent, proud spirit says, “I can do this. I can go there. I can do that ministry.” This is all self-confidence. In the spiritual sense, both our feet should be cut off. We read in Matthew 18:8,9, “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from

thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Does this mean that in heaven we are going to be without eyes and legs? Do you think heaven will be full of people without legs, eyes and hands? True, people who are blind, halt and maimed will enter into everlasting life, but after they enter in they will not have these disabilities. You may enter into a banqueting house hungry but that does not mean you are going to remain hungry in the banqueting house. In the spiritual as well as in the material world, at times there are people who, like our hands and like our feet, may be of great help to us. Such people may be cut off from us. Next we read in Zechariah 14:12 about eyes. The problem with Samson and David was that they did not make a covenant with their eyes like Job did. “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1). During those days, there were hardly any obscene things to be seen. At such a time as that, Job made a covenant with his eyes. Later on he says, “Mine own eyes shall see Him.” Spiritually, there will be an eye test, and we should pass that eye test or else, as we read in Zechariah 14:12, ‘Our eyes shall con- sume away in their holes.’ Sometimes, our eyes becoming blind literally also can be a judgment of God, as men- tioned in the Old Testament. Some were smitten with blindness. We need to make a covenant with our eyes also because our eyes have to see the King in all His glory. The other member we read of, is the tongue. “Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?” (Eccl.5:6). Here it says that our mouth or our words are capable of destroying our whole life and our ministry. The mouth is connected with our whole body. When we speak against God, we are making our flesh sin against God. Both our life and our ministry can be destroyed because of our mouth, because the heart and the mouth are connected. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt.12:34). “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable” (Psa.19:14). David had made a covenant with his mouth. “Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (Psa.17:3). We also must have such a decision. If our mouth does not transgress, our heart also will be right. How did David become a man after the heart of God? It is because he made a covenant with his mouth. If we are to be men after the heart of God, our mouth should be after the heart (plan) of God. Another thing the devil does to prevent us from going at the Lord’s Coming, is to bring back the past. The devil might try to bring back our past sins and mistakes. We should know that God can go to the past. He is called Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. We cannot do anything about the mistakes we have made, but God can go to the past and erase our sins and mistakes and make it as if we never committed them. That is the power in the blood of Jesus and Jesus is the only One Who can go to the past. Therefore we need not condemn ourselves thinking of our sins in the past. In the Old Testament, people of God had limited grace. Truth and grace came by Jesus Christ— fulness of grace and fulness of truth. Therefore we should hold on to that and never allow condemnation. A great many people are not going to be ready for the Rapture. They shall be left behind and there is going to be tribulation such as never happened in history or will ever happen again. The judgment will come upon the remnant church—those who are left behind. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par-takers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned” (Heb.6:4-8). After writing all these things, the writer of this epistle says in the next verse, “But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we

thus speak.” After mentioning all about the tribulation and terror of the Lord, the author of this epistle says, ‘We are persuaded better things of you.’ The Lord in His mercy will keep all of us ready for the Coming of the Lord. Let us rededicate our life and believe that this vile body of ours shall be changed and our body shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Believe that when the Lord comes He will be gracious to you. Fill your heart, mind and spirit with this thought. We all love the Lord. Let us love the Coming of the Lord. Let it become brighter and brighter; that brightness will destroy darkness and sin from our life.

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JUDGMENT ON THE JEWS During the second half of the Tribulation Period, the judgment comes upon the Jews. In the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation, the Antichrist and the Jews will enter into a covenant. The Jews will accept the Antichrist as their Messiah and will honour him; the Antichrist too will help the Jews in many ways to build the temple, but at the end of the 3 ½ years (in the middle of the 7 years), he will break the covenant with the Jews by entering into the temple and positioning himself as God (Dan.9:27; II Thess.2:4). This will make them realize that he cannot be the Messiah, because the Jews, though in a backslidden state, will not worship any man. They know it is one important commandment of God. We read in Revelation 13:14,15 that the Antichrist has tremendous power. Seven times in this chapter we read of ‘power’. All such power is connected with evil power. In the second verse it says “And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” In the fourth verse we read, “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast.” The fifth verse says, “And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” The seventh verse says, “And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations” and again the twelfth verse says, “and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast.” Then the fifteenth verse says, “He had power to give life unto the image of the beast.” There is a great tendency for people to want to have power. People fight and quarrel; they tell lies, just to get a seat or position. This is a power-crazy world. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. It can be in the church too. In Emmanuel Emmase’s book we read about underground and undersea political leaders, great church leaders, and Rock musicians. They all go there for power and popularity because the devil can give all those things. This can be very, very true in the spiritual realm too. When we seek position, power, honour, authority and things that are connected with worldly power, it is a fallen power that we are seeking. Particularly for those who have some responsibility or authority over anybody or anything, there is a tendency in the mind to despise the other person. It can be in the heart. This is the spirit of Lucifer. We read in Luke 18:11,12, that when the Pharisee prayed he said ‘I’ five times. It was Lucifer’s spirit working. In Revelation 13:15 we see that the Antichrist was directly given the power to give life unto the image of the beast. First we read that the dragon or Satan gave power to the Antichrist. We must be discerning, for sometimes the devil will try to give us power or authority. If we do not discern things carefully we can be deceived, because the devil is a deceiver. “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Here the very word ‘image’ speaks. Sometimes we want to make an image for ourselves. We want to make a good impression or make our name popular. This is making an ‘image’. Particularly, as years go by, in our spiritual life, we should keep humbling ourselves more and more. In Revelations 18:1 we read, “I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” Only those who are in heaven can come down; that is, only those who have a very close walk with God can humble themselves. When we come down

from heaven, we have great power, and we can become the light of the whole world. Revelation 10:1 says, “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” ‘A mighty angel come down…’ Our might and strength is in humbling ourselves. ‘Going up’ is a weakness. It is in hell that people want to ‘jump up’ (want to exalt themselves). Those who are in heaven come down or humble them- selves. If we are really in heaven we will want to ‘come down’. ‘Clothed with the cloud’ signifies being very light—the humble will not be weighed down by burden. “And a rainbow was upon his head…’ Rainbow stands for the covenant. When we humble ourselves, we will be able to keep covenants. ‘His face was as it were the sun.’ Face shows character. When we are humble our face and our character will be shining. ‘…and his feet as pillars of fire…’ When pillars of fire go through fire, they become brighter. When we go through fire, it will not burn us but make us shine even more. “He had in his hand a little book open” (vs.2). For those who humble themselves this book will be open. For those who are proud, this book will be a closed book. That is why the Lord said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years” (Rev.20:1,2). Dear child of God, our power, might and authority is in coming down. The more we are willing to come down or to humble ourselves, the more powerful we are. Just that one angel coming down from heaven was enough to lay hold on the dragon and bind him for a thousand years. When we try to go up we become weaker. So we should keep going down. We should become humbler day by day; we should take the lowest place in the church, in the ministry. When this is in our mind it will give us a great strength. We read about Jesus saying, “I came down from heaven not to do My will but the will of the Father.” In the middle of the Tribulation Period or in the middle of the seven years, Jesus Christ will appear in the sky. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt.24:29-30). ‘Tribes’ means the twelve tribes of Israel. The reason for their mourning and crying when they see the Son of man is not mentioned here. We read in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.” When they see the Messiah, they will realise that He is the One they pierced. The deed was committed by their forefathers but the moral responsibility is upon them. When they see Jesus in His glorified body, they will see His nail-scarred hands and know Him. There is a blessed truth in this. Sufferings become such a praise. Suffering becomes a glory. In the glorified body too the marks of the piercing can be seen. When Jesus appeared in the glorified body, He asked Thomas to reach out and touch the nail-scarred hands and the side. Suffering out of the will of God is not going to become our glory. But suffering in the will of God will become our glory. Here, when they see Jesus, particularly the nail-scarred hands, feet and the pierced side, then they will mourn and cry, knowing He is the One they pierced. They will feel a deep repentance. We read something beautiful is going to happen then. God will pour out a spirit of prayer and supplications upon them. “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zech.12:10).” The bitter- ness will ensue from a heart of deep pain and repen- tance, for, a deep repentance takes place at that time. Two thousand years ago they pierced Him but now, after a long time, they are getting two things : (i) spirit of grace (ii) spirit of supplications. Two things came out of the heart of Jesus when

they pierced Him: (i) blood (ii) water (Jn.19:34). Now they look unto the One Whom they pierced and receive two things – the spirit of grace and the spirit of supplications. When people pierce us, blood and water should come out of us, out of our heart. The blood of Jesus stands for forgiveness. Water typifies love or grace. When people are piercing us or trying to hurt or wound our hearts by saying something or by doing something, immediately forgive- ness and love and not anger and bitterness should come out of us for those people. Then the very people who pierced us will look to us for spiritual help and they will be blessed abundantly. Immediately they may not look to us but a time will come for them to look to us. Blood and water coming from the heart of Jesus showed that Jesus was dead. If we are really crucified and dead with Christ and also risen with Him, forgive- ness and love will come out of us. Jesus will permit people to pierce us to see whether we are dead. We sing and say, “I am crucified with Christ; I am dead with Christ,” but we need to be tested—someone should pierce our heart to see if forgiveness and love come out immediately. At times it may come only after one week. For some, for many years it does not happen. We read in Zechariah 13:1, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” This will be in the second half of the Tribulation Period. Spiritually speaking, our hearts should become a foun- tain open for forgiving the sin and uncleanness of others. True, it is the blood of Jesus that washes our sins. Our water or our blood cannot wash sins but spiritually speaking, when people pierce us, if we are able to forgive them immediately and love them as Christ loved us, we become (spiritually speaking) a fountain open for the sin and uncleanness of others. Although literally this will happen in the second half of the Tribulation Period, spiritually, it should happen to us now. The house of David stands for servants of God, and inhabitants of Jerusalem stand for the Church or the believers. First, this fountain is opened to the house of David. First, servants of God should learn Christ-like forgiveness, because in Eternity, out of Zion shall go forth the law. Light will come from Zion. Light is cha- racter; from Zion it comes to Jerusalem. New Jerusalem does not have its own light. In Revelation 21:23 we read, “The Lamb is the light thereof”; it comes from Zion. Out of Zion comes the law and from Jerusalem, the Word of God. If the root is holy, then the stump also is holy. If there is prayer in the house of God, it will be in the houses of believers too. If servants of God live in harmony, peace and grace, and exercise faith etc, then all these will flow into the Church also. The judgment on the Jews is called Jacob’s trouble. “Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer.30:6,7). The second half of the Tribulation is the worst judgment we can think of because that is the time the wrath of the devil and the wrath of the Lamb will be revealed. When people are given time to repent and they do not, finally the wrath of the Lamb will be revealed and also the wrath of the devil. It is going to be a terrible time. Jacob stands for the Jews or Israel. Almost all the Jews will be exterminated (it will be much worse than what Hitler did). 144,000 Jews will be sealed. All the others will be killed. At the end of that period human blood will be flowing 200 miles (Rev.14:20). Among the Jews who are sealed (from every tribe 12,000), Dan is missing. In Genesis 49:17 we read, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” He was like a poisonous snake, biting others, poisoning others. We do not know the real reason for Dan being left out of the sealing. However, one probable reason could be that Dan was the first tribe to go into idolatry and apostasy (Judg.Ch.18). In I Kings 12:26-33 we read that the city of Dan became one of the centres where Jeroboam, the king ‘who made Israel to sin,’ set up calf worship. What was the reason for sealing these 144000 Jews? Ezekiel 9:4-6 reads: “And the Lord said

unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” Although this judgment is only for the Jews, there are certain spiritual lessons that we can learn from this. Now there may be abominations in Jerusalem or in the Church. We should not talk about them. We must go to the presence of God and sigh and cry. Otherwise as iniquity abounds the love of many will wax cold. Iniquity may not abound in us but may be abounding in others and when we see, think or speak about that, we lose our love. In these last days there will be many abominations. God is looking to see whether we are really sighing and crying in the presence of God for them. The priest has to eat the sin offering in the holy place. It means that we must bring the sins of the people to the holy place or the presence of God in prayer. We find that before these abominations started, the glory of God left the place. “And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side...And He said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth” (Ezek.9:3-7). What happens when the glory is gone? The house is defiled. (We can take it in many ways). The glory is the Shekinah glory in our life. If this anointing is gone, we are defiled. There is an anointing from Zion, and there is an anointing for Zion. Samuel anointed David, but after he took Zion there was another anointing. “Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion: the same is the city of David. But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David” (II Sam.5:7,17). After David took the stronghold of Zion he had another anointing. The Philis- tines did not like it at all. When God graciously gives us a revelation of Zion and when we get an anointing from Zion, the devil does not like it. He is not as much against the anointing as he is against the anointing from Zion, which is very special. When David heard about the Philistines seeking him, he humbled himself and went down to the hold. We do not need to fight; we can hide in Zion, which is the strongest fortress – nothing can come against us. David was never defeated by the Philistines. Once we dedicate ourselves and get the stronghold by the grace of God (we have to pay a price for it), then all the evil forces will come against us, but none can come near us, because Zion is a fire; all around it is fire. The walls are also fire (God will build a wall of fire around it). “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16). He ‘utters His voice’ from Jerusalem; but from Zion ‘He roars’. “And he said, the Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither” (Amos 1:2). The enemy cannot come near because there is a roaring Lion there. We read in Ezekiel 11:23 that finally the glory departed from the city too. “And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.” The glory left not only the most holy place, but also the temple and the city and went up to the mount because of the abominations. When unconsecrated priests (servants of God) carry the ark of God or shoulder the responsi- bilities of the Church, the devil will attack and the glory will depart. The glory departed first from the cherub, then from the threshold and from the temple; finally it departed from the city. Afterwards the judgment came. The judgment is going to come. In Ezekiel 9:6 it is written, “Slay utterly old and young…start with the ancient men...begin at My sanctuary...” Those who know the truth and the Lord more are the ones that will be judged first. It is a frightening reality. Although abomi- nations are seen in our hearts and in our minds, at times, the Lord will be longsuffering towards us, but a time will come when judgment will come.

Once the judgment begins it cannot be stopped; it will be terrible. We see that a mark is set on the foreheads of those who sigh and cry in the presence of God for the abominations of the Church. We must sigh, cry and pray without being bitter, prejudiced, critical and judgmental. We see that just before the judgment came, Lot was delivered. We read of the reason in II Peter 2:7,8: “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)” In the Old Testament the abominations were committed outwardly but in the New Testament it is in the mind. God is concerned about the mind, because in the New Testament He writes the law in the mind. God says, “I will make a covenant with them and will write My laws in their hearts and minds” (Heb.10:16). We must seek the Lord with a real brokenness of heart. Let us make a decision to sigh and cry for the abominations in the Church. God graciously wants to forgive the abominations in our thoughts, imaginations and desires. §§§§§

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JUDGMENT ON SPIRITUAL BABYLON THE FALLEN CHURCH One thing we must know about God is that He is longsuffering, merciful and gracious. It is only when God’s mercy has been totally rejected, when there is no hope or scope remaining for His mercy and pardon to work in a person or group of persons, when all oppor- tunities given for repentance have been totally rejected and His counsel trampled under foot, when every provi- sion for mercy has been utterly exhausted—that His judgment falls. The spiritual Babylon refers to the Roman Catholic church with its long history of martyring the saints from the 3rd century onwards. She is going to be judged for her worship of statues, idols and images, her spiritual fornication ie., her adoption of Babylonian worship, her heathen practices, her defilement with gold, silver and precious stones, etc. The judgment is going to fall on her during the latter part of the first half of the seven-year Tribulation which will take place after the Secret Coming of the Lord. The Roman Catholic Church is referred to as spiritual Babylon, because she has adopted so many Babylonian practices in the name of ‘Christian’ worship. For example, the 25th of December was celebrated as the birthday of Nimrod, the wicked giant of the Old Testament. Nimrod’s birthday has become Christmas Day. The ‘Holy Oak’ of Babylonian worship was brought into the church as the Christmas Tree! The ‘Madonna and Child’ traditionally representing the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus in the Roman Catholic church, has its origin in a Babylonian goddess bearing the same name, ‘Madonna’. The ornamental cross is also a Babylonian artifice. Jeremiah Chapters 50 and 51 are entirely about the judgment that is to come upon the fallen church. “Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against Me, a destroying wind”; “And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary” (Jer.51:1,64). To the New Testament Church that is desirous of preparing herself to be the Bride of Christ, it would appear to be unnecessary to study in detail about the fate of the spiritual Babylon during the Tribulation. But we too could be edified and blessed by what has been prophesied, by applying it to our own spiritual condition and checking to see how we stand in the light of God’s Word, and taking appropriate warning. Revelation Ch.17 refers to the ‘great whore’, ‘the mother of harlots’. Compare this with James 4:4 which refers to “friendship of the world” as adultery! Ezekiel 6:9 says that the Lord is “broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from (Him), and with their eyes, which go a whoring

after their idols” We may not be whores, but our heart and our eyes can go a ‘whoring’ after evil things, or spiritual idols ! God says He is broken with this unfaithfulness ! This could apply not only to the fallen church, but spiritually to individuals even today. Have we given cause for our Lord to say that He is broken with our whorish heart or lustful eyes? If our eyes stray to unnecessary places and things and people, it means that our heart is gone ‘a whoring’ after such uncleanness. Like Job, we should have made a covenant with our eyes. Samson had been careless with his eyes! Judges 14:1,2 reads: “And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.” When he fell, first his eyes were put out (Judg.16:21). We can have spiritual idols even as the fallen church has literal idols. If we have such a whorish heart, we will be departing from God—not He from us! Let us not wait for God’s judgment to fall on us. Instead of despising the Word of the Lord as King Zedekiah did, we should, like the king of Nineveh and the Ninevites, repent when we hear God’s Word—we must tremble at His Word and put ourselves right and not reject His mercy. When the Old Testament saints heard the Word of the Lord, they repented ‘in dust and ashes’! This phrase denotes a humbling of themselves. How much more should New Testament saints who have been called with a high and holy calling, humble themselves ! Humility is not trying to think small of ourselves or saying that we are very small. We get humility when we lose confidence in our self. “For the Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left” (Deut.32:36). Real humility is when we come to the state where we realize that without God’s help we cannot do anything. The Lord shall vindicate His people when He sees that their power (strength) is gone, and there is nothing left. A broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise. Every failure in our lives shows lack of grace, and we lack grace because we lack humility ! In both Jeremiah 3:3 and Revelation 17:5 we read of the forehead, which is given great significance—the ‘whore’s forehead’ and the forehead on which was written “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” The forehead stands for thoughts. We should examine our foreheads (thoughts). If our forehead is found sinful, the judgment of God will be very terrible. Our forehead is most important –“As (a man) thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:7). If we always think about Christ, we will become like Christ. If our thoughts are proud, even if we pretend to be humble, we will become like the devil. After saying in Jeremiah 3:3, “Thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed”, the Lord says, “Turn, O backsliding children…I will bring you to Zion!” (vs.14). Consider the grace and mercy in this call to repentance! In Revelation Ch.17, the words ‘mother of harlots’ are written in bold, capital letters. On the other hand, in Exodus 28:36 we see the words ‘Holiness to the Lord’ written in bold, capital letters. There is a beautiful truth here. If the congregation is to be acceptable before God, the words ‘Holiness to the Lord’ must be always on the forehead of the servant of God. Matthew 7:21 tells us that it is only those who do the will of the Father who will be accepted in heaven, and the will of the Father is our sanctification (I Thess.4:3). ‘Holiness to the Lord’ must be always on our forehead. Then we will be able to bear the iniquity of others and be acceptable before God. “And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they” (Exo.39:30-32). It was only when the words ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ engraved in the plate, was tied high on the mitre of the high priest that it says, “Thus was all the work of the tabernacle finished.” That is, all the work was considered finished, when “ HOLINESS TO THE

LORD”

was put on the mitre ! The words should be projected, and seen! They were not merely written —they were engraved. Therefore, it can never be too much to emphasize the necessity for the words “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” to be always on the forehead of servants of God, if the work is to be finished and the glory of God is to fill us. “He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Lev.13:44-46). ‘Utterly unclean’—It is only here that this phrase is used in the Bible. In the sight of God, when our thoughts are unclean, we are utterly unclean. When we lose purity of mind, we lose all our spiritual garments; we ourselves, not someone else, rend our garments. ‘Head bare’—his head is open to all the attacks of the enemy. The covering on the upper lip shows that he has lost his testimony. ‘Unclean, unclean’ denotes that in two ways the person is unclean. First, his life is unclean; secondly, his ministry is unclean. “So He carried me away in the spirit into the wilder- ness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns” (Rev.17:3). We too can be in a spiritual wilderness. If we have no desire to read the Word of God and fast and pray, if we do things for name’s sake, we must repent and turn to God before His judgment comes on us. In the parable of the sower, we read of six different types of ground. Of the good ground, we read of thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold produce. This means that some accepted the truth only thirty percent, some sixty percent and some a hundred percent. As far as we are concerned, we must have hearts that bring forth a hundredfold. Otherwise a day will come when God will stop speaking to us ! He will say, “You did not revere My word.” An awful judgment came upon Jehoiakim who treated God’s Word with disrespect (Jer.36:23-31). In Revelation 17:6 we read, ‘she was drunken’. In verse 2 we read of the ‘wine of her fornication’— fornication is compared to wine! An alcoholic drinks from the time he wakes up until he goes to bed at night. A spiritual alcoholic drinks of the wine of his fornication in a much worse way. From his waking moments upto the time he goes to sleep, his mind is occupied with sinful, filthy thoughts, ideas and desires! This is a terrible thing. If God’s grace is not in us, we too can be in this terrible state. However, even in the worst place there could be the best of saints, while in the best place there could be the worst of sinners! Here are some reasons why people fall: (1) Pride: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov.16:18) (2) Not taking guidance from elders : “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Prov.11:14). When we come to a state where we think we know everything and are not willing to take counsel from our elders, we fall. (3) Trusting in riches : “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch” (Prov.11:28). Judas’ problem was his love of money; he had nothing against Jesus. (4) Iniquity or sin : “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity” (Hos.14:1). (5) Lack of knowledge : “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee” (Hos.4:6). To get that knowledge we should count all things as loss and as dung (Phil.3:8). (6) Not heeding the Word of God: “And the rain des-cended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matt.7:27,28). We must build on a sure foundation. False prophets are like the wind (Jer. 5:13). In Ephesians 4:14, we read of winds of doctrine. The house was tried from above—the rains came; from below—the floods came; from all around —the winds blew. These signify three types of trials.

(7) Losing the first love : “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 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” (Rev.2:4,5). Do the first works. Do what you do, with the first love. Love with agape love, Calvary’s love. Any other type of human love will end with our death. (8) Failing to make our calling and election sure: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (II Pet.1:10). Know the purpose for what God has called you and how He called you. If you allow the devil to bring a doubt about your calling, after a few years, you will lose all grace—because it is the God of all grace Who has called you. “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed (Dan.11:35). When men of understanding fall, others will fear and be sanctified. Fools have God to guide them (Isa.35:8). (9) Not living upto what we preach: Saul did not preserve his own life. He fell on his own sword! If we fail to live according to what we preach or profess, we can, like Saul, fall upon ‘our sword’ and die! §§§§§

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THE JUDGMENT AT THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON The word ‘Armageddon’ means ‘mount of slaughter’. On the Day of judgment we will be accountable to God for every good thing, every good gift and every blessing which we refused to receive or enjoy, when offered to us by Him. We cannot reject His goodness towards us, without bringing judgment upon ourselves, because by refusing His revealed goodness, we are in effect refusing His mercy. “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightenings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great” (Rev.16:16-18). It is going to be the worst earthquake that has taken place since man was created on the earth. In verse 21 we read of the awfulness of the hail that will fall upon the earth. Each hailstone will be about 30 to 40 kilos in weight. Armageddon is going to be one of the worst disasters upon the earth, as well as one of the worst disasters sent from heaven. Why? It is because people refused God’s goodness. We think of the Tribulation as being a terrible time. But even during that time God reveals His goodness towards man. Revelation 14:6,7 tells us that an angel preached the everlasting gospel to everyone on the earth. God, in His goodness, sent the two witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, to prophesy and warn the people. The people will see (obviously on satellite television) the two dead bodies being resurrected and taken up to heaven. With all these tangible proofs of the goodness and reality of God, we read that people did not repent of their wickedness, but instead blasphemed God! The goodness of God leadeth us to repentance, the Scripture says. But in Revelation 16:9 we read, “They repented not to give Him glory”! When a true saint with a truly broken and a contrite heart repents daily, with a deeper and deeper repentance, there is a greater and greater glory given to God. Self-righteousness is sin. We read that Job ‘repented in dust and ashes’. Although Armageddon is going to be a literal war on this earth, there are many spiritual lessons that we must learn from the Scriptures about Armageddon.

Revelation 19:11 describes a scene relating to Armageddon. This is a glorious manifestation of God. It is a spiritual truth that after a glorious manifestation a great trial or a spiritual battle will follow. For example, when Jesus took water baptism there was a glorious manifestation of the triune God—the heavens were opened, the Father spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. It was glorious ! But immediately after that Jesus was led into the wilderness where He had to face a trial after He had fasted for forty days. After the glorious thousand-year reign, there will be the battle of Gog and Magog! (Rev.20:7-9). In Revelation 19:11 we see that Jesus was on a white horse. A horse shows power; white shows purity. This is the power that is generated by purity. Verse 8 speaks of the Bride of Christ. It is clear from a com- parison of the verses, that verse 14 also refers to the Bride of Christ and that the armies that are with Jesus are the perfected saints who were caught up at the Rapture. Spiritually, even now we should be on the white horse, that is, the overcoming power generated by purity should be ours. The eyes mentioned in Revelation 19:12, show vision. The eyes were as flames of fire—we should have a fiery vision of the plan God has for our lives—not a cold, but a fiery vision. We must not think that just because we have immediate results and the appearance of fruitfulness, our life or ministry has been accepted by God. It must be a life and ministry that is in accordance with the will and plan of God. Eyes like flames of fire also show a burning zeal for the things of God. Like St.Paul we must have a goal before us. We should have the right vision and also the right commitment. “On His head were many crowns.” Crown denotes an overcoming experience – a victorious life. The crown is on the head—this means ‘overcoming thoughts’. ‘Name’ in verse 12 denotes character. When we have a fiery vision and a burning zeal for holiness, and a total victory in our thought realm, our character (or name) will be most unique. It is obvious that during the Armageddon War, nuclear weapons will be used. In Zechariah 14:2,12, we read of people dying, while standing on their feet. We read in the Old Testament, of a person who died while she stood upon her feet. Lot’s wife had all the privileges and experiences needed for one to live a holy life. Her husband’s uncle, Abraham, was the most godly man on earth at the time. Angels manifested themselves to her and took her by the hand, endeavouring to save her from the wrath of God, which was to fall upon Sodom. But her heart still yearned after that sinful city, and she looked back. “Remember Lot’s wife.” The Bible says that it will take seven months for those who are killed by the far-reaching effects of the Armageddeon war, to be buried—only a few people will be left! People will stop their noses because of the smell of putrifying bodies (Ezek.39:11,12). II Thessalonians 1:8-10 also speaks of the battle of Armageddon. “Taking vengeance on them that know not God.” The Living Bible says, ‘Those who do not wish to know God.’ These are those who have no desire or thirst to know God. God is humble. Only humble people can know God. God is the embodiment of humility. Therefore humility is the essential characteristic we must possess if we are to know God. Each time we try to justify ourselves, refuse correction, or resent being reprimanded, it shows one thing—we do not want to know God ! There should be in us an insatiable thirst to know God. Then the Holy Spirit will correct us and show us when we lack humility. The presence of the Lord and the glory of His power are the everlasting protection of the saints of God, but the everlasting destruction of sinners and back- sliders (vs 9,10). What will be the protection of the saints of God, will be destruction of sinners and backsliders. The pillar of fire was a light unto the children of Israel, but darkness to the Egyptians following them. When St. Paul says, “to be glorified in His saints,” he is referring to the saints who are gathered together —who have made a covenant with the Lord by sacrifice (Psa.50:5). Very often saints break the covenant because they are unwilling to make the sacrifice. Further, St.Paul says “admired in all them that believe”. We must know that there are different

grades in believing. Believing the Word of God is good; but we read in James’ epistle that faith without works is dead. In Galatians 5:6, we read “Faith which worketh by love”. Unless love is the primary motivating factor behind faith, that faith is of no avail. This love must be the love of God, the love of Calvary. True faith, the faith that is going to be perfected, the faith that qualifies us for the Rapture, is faith, which worketh by love. When we go to Eternity the only love that will be found and accepted there, is our love.  is the unfailing and unconditional love of Calvary. Even in the fruit of the Spirit, what makes every segment of the fruit operative is love. How much love we have is what matters. When we are weighed in the balances, will we be found wanting in love? A friend loveth at all times. We should have a special love for our enemies, towards those who perse- cute us most. The city, which persecuted, rejected and humiliated Jesus most and eventually crucified Him, was Jerusalem. But Jesus showed a special love for Jeru- salem and even wept over her. Of all Jesus’ disciples, Judas did the most evil to Him. But Jesus showed him the highest token of love, by feeding Judas out of His own dish, with His own hand (Jn.13:26). Peter had denied Jesus and cursed, but the angel of God said, “Go ...tell His disciples and Peter.” Peter was specially mentioned. In David’s life, we see a type of love when we consider the love he bore towards Saul and Saul’s family, although Saul was, until his death, trying to kill and destroy him. Agape love is the special love we must have and show to those who are our enemies and who persecute us. On the Day of judgment, many may be shocked. If you do not have agape love, no matter what you do, you are nothing, and it profits you nothing. I Corinthians Ch.13 makes this very clear. In order to escape the judgment of God, and stand before the Son of man, we must have the fulness of agape love in us.

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THE JUDGMENT ON THE BEAST AND THE FALSE PROPHET “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim- stone” (Rev.19:20). Here the beast and the false prophet were both cast alive into the Lake of Fire. The Greek word for ‘cast’ here is ‘ ’ which means ‘officially arrested and cast’. ‘ ’ is seen in Acts 12:4 too—‘apprehended and put in prison’. Peter was officially arrested; in the same way the beast and the false prophet are also arrested and taken away. This was the judgment on the beast and the false prophet. This is the difference between the sinner’s departure and the saint’s departure. Sinners or back- sliders are apprehended at death. We read about the rich fool in Luke 12:20. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Whether believers or saints, when the God-given time to repent is over, their lives will be demanded back from them. Death will be a judgment for sinners and backsliders; for saints, it will be a reward. Dear child of God, death should not be a ‘ ’ or an official arresting for us. To sinners and backsliders, one day the Lord will say, “I gave you My word, My enlighten- ment, My prophets, etc. This night thy soul shall be required of thee.” The departure of sinners and back- sliders will therefore be a night—a horrible night. We should always live in the light. If we walk in the light our going away also will be in the brightest light; or else it can be as darkness. Let us see how saints depart. Very often, when saints die, we say that they are promoted for higher services. When sinners and backsliders depart they are not promoted but apprehended to suffer torment. They suffer because they misused God-given opportunities. We are given so much grace and

revelations and privi- leges; however, our character (purity, humility, grace, obedience, submission, etc.) needs to be developed. God will give us a period of time for that. Look at the fig tree in Jesus’ parable. Jesus said— “I gave thee three years, but there is no fruit.” The fig tree cannot complain that there was no fertilizer or that it was not taken care of. It had been taken good care of. It was cumbering the ground because it did not bring forth fruit. So the owner wanted to cut it down. But the husbandman (Jesus) pleaded with the owner to give it one more year. Dear Reader, we must know that God has extended time for us in His mercy so that we may bear fruit. So we should concentrate very much on our character and continually search ourselves and see whether we love everyone and whether we can take correction without getting irritated, etc. Let us look at Jesus’ death – “He...yielded up the ghost” (Matt.27:50). The Greek word for ‘yield’ denotes ‘an act of the will’. Jesus willingly yielded Himself. “Jesus…said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost” (Jn.19:30). This differentiates the death of Christ from all other deaths. Jesus died of His own volition for, He could say of His redemptive work, “It is finished”; “No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself “(Jn.10:18). This is the death of Jesus. We should follow Jesus. Our end should not be a judg- ment but a promotion or a reward. It will all depend on how we trust the Lord for a change of character. When our work is over, God will reveal it to us. Suppose your boss wants to promote you, he will tell you that he is going to give you a promotion. In the same way God reveals the event of their death to many saints of God. When we look at the Old Testament we find that the Lord revealed to many the fact that He was going to take them—Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Elijah, etc. When a person is sentenced, it is done unexpec- tedly without that person’s prior knowledge; but when a person is promoted he knows about it months prior to his promotion. The end of our life should be like that. We read about Peter in II Peter 1:14—“Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.” We see that the Lord Jesus Christ had shown him he was going to die and that he was preparing himself when he was writing the epistle. Later on we see that he became a martyr. In II Timothy 4:6 we read of St.Paul saying that he was ready to be offered and that the time of his departure was at hand. If we have any hidden or unconfessed sins in our life, death can be a sudden apprehension. Death becomes a dark and horrible night. In the case of the beast (Antichrist) and false prophet we see that their end was a judgment. We should live a very careful life or else our departure from this world will be a judgment. If you want your departure from the earth to be a blessing and a promotion, then make sure that with God’s provision and grace you grow in the character of Christ. In the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist is called ‘the beast’. It shows that his is not a human or divine nature but a bestial one. Sometimes we can also be like a beast—with no divine love or even natural love. How can we know whether we have divine love or not? When people speak evil of us, we will have a special love for them. When somebody is ridiculing you, persecuting you, talking evil of you or suddenly becoming your enemy, and you love such a person, it shows you have a special love, ‘ ’ love. The beast we are talking about has no natural love or divine love—is not sensitive to the feelings and problems of others. Sometimes we offend and hurt others so much that their hearts bleed, but we do not feel anything. Sometimes we purposely offend or wound others. Such people can be called beasts. In Revelation 17:8 we read another aspect about the beast. “The beast that...shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition.” Anyone who wants to ascend in the worldly way ie. in position or honour, in one sense, becomes a ‘beast’. We should examine our hearts and see whether we have the spirit, which wants to ascend ie. receive praise, glory, honour from others, be great, etc. Christ was just the opposite. From heaven He came down to earth. Those who want to have a Christlike character will always want to keep descend- ing ie. humbling themselves. Desires to become great do not come from heaven, but from the Bottomless Pit. We therefore should be able to

discern such thoughts. Every thought of wanting to be high in the world shows that we are spiritually in the Bottomless Pit. Every such thought may end us up in perdition. On the other hand, every humble thought—that others, particularly our enemies, should receive more honour than ourselves, etc, will bring honour to us. What happens when we pray that God should bless our enemies? In one sense, we become greater than our enemies. The Bible says that the lesser is blessed by the greater. Of course, our intention should not be to become greater, when we pray that God should bless our enemies. But wholeheartedly, we should pray for them. Sometimes you do some work and others get the praise for it. We should be thankful for that. That is the nature of a father or mother. They always desire better things for their children. All the saints who go to Zion are called ‘fathers’. There are three places of torment – the Bottomless Pit, Outer Darkness and Hell. On the Day of judgment the dead are brought up from all these places (Rev. 20:13). The Bottomless Pit is where most evil spirits are kept bound. Evil spirits cannot work without a body. That is why we find that immediately after the devils came out of the man of Gadara, they went into the pigs. Why did Cain kill Abel? “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (I Jn.3:12). If we are not careful, demons of envy, greed, lust, carnality, etc, can get into us. We should examine our lives to see what sort of spirit we have. When James wanted to bring fire down from heaven Jesus said, “You don’t know of what spirit you are.” Dear child of God, God graciously gives us chances to change our character. This book on judgments could be one. The Word of God says, “By the terror of the Lord we persuade men.” Only God can change us. Some people cannot take correction. The evil spirit will not go out of such people. Peter swore and cursed, “I don’t know this man.” If God could have changed him, God can change you too. Peter wept bitterly but a few days later he told the others, “I am going fishing”–he became the leader of the backsliders. But God was so merciful that He made the chief backslider, the chief apostle. Sometimes we are like that. We cry bitterly for our mistakes and a few days later do something worse. But God is still merciful. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (I Jn.2:18). If we are not careful, we can become antichrists. If 2000 years ago there were many anti- christs, now the world is much worse. Now there are very many antichrists and they are among us. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (vs.19). Antichrists ‘went out from us’—ie. they were with us but were not of us. ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed’. ‘Antichrist’ therefore means ‘anti-anointed’ or ‘working against the anointed’. When a problem arose the anti-anointed people left. They had another anointing. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (vs.20). ‘Unction’ here means ‘anointing from God’. So, there are two anointings: (1) From the Holy One – ‘an unction’ from the Holy One to continue by the grace of God to the very end. (2) Antianointing from the Antichrist. We may have had an anointing from the Lord, but could have lost it. E.g. Saul was anointed by God, but when anger, envy and a murderous spirit came into him, the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and an evil spirit bothered him. Although we give room for evil spirits to work in our life, God in His mercy, gives us time to repent. King Saul ruled properly for only two years. After that he was king for 38 years; the judgment came only after that. At the time when God rejected Saul from being king, David was not even born; but God said, “I have chosen someone else.” David was then only in the mind of God. We too can be like Saul. We may be involved in various types of ministries but God could have rejected us. Although the Spirit of God had departed from Saul, David honoured him. He said, ‘I cannot touch the anointed of the Lord’; but in the sight of God, Saul was rejected. We read that Saul prophesied all night naked. We can be like that. We may lose the garment of

righteous- ness. Do not give room for even a small sin to continue or rule in your life. If you do, a time may come when, even if you want it to go away, it will not go—like the little foxes who eat the tender grapes. How do these little foxes come in? Through holes in the fence. If we nurse little foxes of envy, jealousy, bitterness, anger, carnality, etc, in our lives for a long time, they may never go away from us. Our character is more important than all our ministries. Dear child of God, there's going to be a terrible judgment on earth as never before. In the past, in the time of Noah, etc, warning was given before judgment, through God’s chosen saints. But throughout history, we read that many people took no heed—except in the time of Jonah, when from the king to the slave, they all humbled themselves. So it is time we humble ourselves. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb.4:12). God is going to reveal the thoughts of some people. Some who appeared to be great saints will be denounced by God as hypocrites. If they had wild, sinful, filthy, carnal thoughts, God will reveal it. Let us not think that these judgments are not serious. Let us seek the Lord with a broken and a contrite heart. God shows mercy first and then comes the judgment. Let us all tell the Lord that we want His mercy and not judgment. Let us say, “Change me, Lord.” Let it not be a case of ‘official arresting’ for us when we leave the earth, but a spiritual promotion. May the Lord show us mercy.

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JUDGMENT ON SATAN This is the most terrible of the twenty judgments. It is going to be the most tormenting of all the judgments and Satan will be the solitary person on whom this judgment will be executed. Revelation 20:10 reads: “…and shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever.” The words ‘for ever and ever’ are used in the Bible right from Exodus to Revelation. Hebrews 1:8, for example, shows how they are used in relation to Eternity, to provide a special emphasis on the glory and authority of the Lord’s throne in Eternity. Similarly, although all in the Lake of Fire will be subjected to eternal punish- ment, the words ‘for ever and ever’ used in relation to Satan’s punishment, are meant to emphasize the singular magnitude of the torment to be meted out to him throughout Eternity. Although many different groups, such as the fallen angels, the false prophet, the Antichrist, the wicked, all the backsliders, etc, will be in the Lake of Fire with Satan, and all will be tormented, the degree of torment will vary; and Satan’s will be the most terrible. For example, we read in Proverbs 9:18 that those who commit the sin of immorality will be punished ‘in the depths of ’ hell, thus showing that there are varying degrees of suffering in Eternity. Fallen servants of God will have a greater torment than fallen believers. From those who have received more from the Lord, by way of revelations, visions, etc, the Lord will ask more ! Not only with respect to souls and ministry, but also with respect to glory and development of character. If a person is really holy, there is a light all around him, and Satan and his angels are warned of such a person. Satan is the embodiment of evil. He is the most subtle and deceptive of all the fallen angels. He is ‘more subtil than any other creature’ (Gen.3:1). He works invisibly—because he attacks with the intention of causing eternal loss to his victim. Satan started his conversation with Eve by saying ‘yea’—his approach is positive. He shows much ‘concern’ for his victim—he is uniquely deceptive and subtle in his approach. This is revealed all through the Bible. Revelation 20:7,8,9 reads: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And

they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” What happens here reveals the unique capacity Satan has for deceiving mankind. After enjoying all the blessings of the righteous and peaceful reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints for a thousand years in the Millennium, all the nations readily allow themselves to be deceived by Satan who is loosed but for a short while from his thousand-year imprisonment, and they go to war against the Lord and His people. What an achievement this deception will have! Satan wants people who are called for the higher purposes of God. He wants to corrupt and twist their lives. He is very subtle in his ways. When you are proud, he makes you think you are more humble than others are! He makes others come and tell you so. We may tell others that we are proud, but Satan puts in the depth of our heart the imagination that we are more humble than others; when we are filthy he tells us we are holier than others. Jesus tells us of the greater sin of saying, “We see”, when we are blind! “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (Jn.9:41). The devil is so deceptive and subtle that he will make you think you are all right until you come to your deathbed, and then he will begin to torment you! Satan will make you believe that you have forgiven someone, when you have in fact not done so! The first evidence of true forgiveness is that you do not tell anyone else of the wrong done to you. There are seven such evidences. When a pastor was ministering to a couple, the husband assured him that he had forgiven his wife completely, but started speaking many terrible things about her the moment she left the room! Such people are fully deceived by the devil. That is why the Word speaks of the ‘depths of Satan’. We may be deceived by Satan into thinking we have fully forgiven someone, while unknown to us there lurks in the depths of our heart a smoul- dering resentment against that person. How the god of this world blinds our eyes! Satan’s work is to make those who are trying to live the highest sacrificial life, love money – like Judas, or love comfort. In Matthew 16:21,22 we read of Satan speaking through Peter! Peter did not want Jesus to suffer because he himself did not want to suffer! This was proved later, when Peter warmed himself at the fire, when Jesus was taken by His captors to be tried. We should desire no comfort for this ‘vile body’, that we may receive a glorious body. Satan is against our faith life. “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Lk.22:31,32). Satan is trying to make children of God turn away from their faith life. He tried to make Peter go back to his old job, after being in the ministry for about three years! “And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open” (Num.24:3). Although Balaam thought that his eyes were open, he was spiritually blind for he gave counsel to the King of Moab to defile Israel (Rev.2:14). This is the great subtlety and deceptiveness of Satan’s wiles against God’s people. Satan enters into a man’s life through many doors —but the first door he uses is an unforgiving spirit (II Cor.2:10,11). “To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” If you do not forgive others, Satan will take advantage of you. Some sicknesses, accidents, incurable diseases and other tragic incidents are directly brought about by Satan—and an unforgiving spirit is the open door! Satan is against forgiveness because, when the angels fell, God did not forgive them! Have a special love for the person you have forgiven. “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! (Lk.13:34). Look at Jesus’ love for the city which did Him so much harm. “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, 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” (Lk.19:41,42). The punishment for those who do not really forgive, is torment. In reality Satan is very, very weak before those who are washed in the blood of Jesus, but if they have an unforgiving spirit, then it gives power to the devil. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor.11:3). When we do not wholly forgive, Satan (the serpent) does a big work in our lives ! He corrupts us from the simplicity that is in Christ. He takes over the capital of our lives – which is our mind. Keep your mind free from defilement by making confession with heart-felt repentance. God has to write His laws, His plans, His mysteries, His revelations, etc. on our mind and heart (Heb.8:10). He wants to keep writing His Love in our hearts and minds. But He needs clear, pure minds and hearts. Our mind must not be alienated from God. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled” (Col.1:21). False humility or concealed pride is a special device that Satan employs to deceive God’s people. Let us examine ourselves and see whether we have given any room in our lives for Satan’s unique subtlety. Satan must not be given the upper hand in our lives. He must be bruised underneath our feet, for he really is a defeated enemy.

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JUDGMENT AT THE BATTLE OF GOG AND MAGOG “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Rev.20:7-9). Immediately after the Millennial Reign, the Battle of Gog and Magog will begin. After the Battle of Armageddon the saints will reign in their resurrected bodies, having positions and authorities differing according to their character or the life they lived. Jesus will be the King of kings. During Millennium, Satan will be bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. After a thousand years, Satan will be loosed and he will go and deceive the nations (as he is a deceiver and does everything in a deceptive way) on the earth. Even the very people who enjoy a thousand years of prosperity, peace and joy (no famine, battle, problems or sickness, and limited deaths) when Jesus was the King of kings and Lord of lords, will be deceived. We cannot even imagine that the people who enjoyed such times can be suddenly influenced by Satan. The earth would have the Edenic perfection in many ways, but with all this, when Satan is let loose, he deceives the people and takes them all to his side and goes to battle with the saints. ‘The number of whom is as the sand of the sea’—perhaps there will be more people with Satan in this battle than in past history, because it is the final battle. Afterwards the earth will be burned with fire (II Pet.3:12) and the sky will be rolled away (Rev.21:1). Let us see the spiritual significance of the Gog and Magog battle. The Word of God says that fire came down from heaven and devoured them all. In this battle the saints do not fight; fire comes directly from heaven and destroys all the people. The last enemy for the saints of God is death (I Cor.15:26). Particularly for sinners, backsliders and unsanctified children of God, Gog and Magog can be compared to the last battle in life. Facing death can be a Gog and Magog battle. Evil forces, like the sand of the sea can come and attack us at that time. Whatever the sin we may have given room

to in our life, all the evil spirits behind that sin will come and attack us. Death will become a terrible battle—for unsanctified people, sinners and backsliders. It will be their Gog and Magog battle. None of us should let such a battle confront us. While we are alive on this earth, this last enemy (death) should be overcome. Everywhere in the Bible we read that death means separation. The meaning of second death (Lake of fire) is separation from God. In the parable of the prodigal son we read, ‘This my son was dead,’ implying that he was separated from the father. We were dead in sins and trespasses, and as sinners, we were separated from God (the father). If we do not overcome death on earth, if we wait for the last minute, it will be like the battle of Gog and Magog. When a certain child of God died, it was a terrible battle. He was asking others to pray for the gates of hell to be overcome—maybe he was reaching the gates of hell. The gates of hell should be overcome now. We read that Peter came out of the prison passing the first gate, the second and the third. “When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of its own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him” (Acts 12:10). This can be compared to a sinner in the prison of sin. The light of God’s glory (truth) comes from heaven, and the angel of God comes and helps the sinner come to God, and he is brought out of prison, out of his sinful life. The angel of God or God is leading him. Peter was told, “Cast thy garment about thee”—this shows our being clad with the righ-teousness of God. And he was asked to follow, passing the first gate (overcoming sin) and the second gate (overcoming the world); the third gate was the iron gate (overcoming death) that leads to the city (city of God). This is typical of the sinner coming to the Lord and getting saved, taking water baptism, attaining other higher spiritual experiences. When Peter came to the first gate and the second gate, the angel of the Lord helped him, but when he came to the iron gate (which leads to the city) it opened to them of its own accord and the angel departed from him. Death has no power over saints. “Death is swallowed up in victory...O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor.15:54-57). Sin is the sting of death. Do you keep sin in your life? Sin is not an ordinary sting—it does not induce ordinary pain, but the worst pain in the spirit and in the soul (more than in the body). It gives us eternal pain. Dear child of God, even while we are living on this earth we must overcome the sting of sin. There are so many ways by which sin enters us. If we know the consequences we have to reap for keeping sin in our lives, we will never allow it. We should see sin the way God sees it. As we are in this body, sin may try to come into us. But what is our attitude towards it? If we yield, or are passive or careless, then it will bring eternal death to us. The saying, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ does not imply that we will not have a physical death. Physical death is the soul and spirit being separated from the body. ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’, means over-coming the sting of death which is sin. This we must overcome by living an overcoming life on this earth. There is no death for saints. Sinners die, but saints sleep. If we harbour sin in our life, the last minute of our life, will be like the battle of Gog and Magog. As soon as Satan was loosed, he gathered all the evil forces (like the sand of the sea) and went against the beloved city (our heart or soul could be the beloved city). For sinners, death is most painful. The last words D.L. Moody spoke were: ‘This is my crowning day (coronation day). If this is called death how sweet it is !’ According to the Word of God, this is very true. For saints, death is seeing Jesus face to face, whether at the Rapture or at death. Basically it is more or less the same, but there is a slight difference. At the Rapture, the dead in Christ shall rise first; the bodies of those of us who are alive will be transformed and we will meet the Lord in the air. Death is the spirit and soul leaving this physical body; with our soul and spirit and with a new body (not the resurrected body, but the spirit body), we will see Jesus. There are three bodies—now we are in the physical body, when we die we will have a spirit body (it's in this body that we will be resting till our resurrection, and when Jesus Christ comes, at the Rapture, we will get a resurrected

body. Practically, death and the Rapture have the same importance—both mean seeing Jesus. Rapture is seeing Jesus face to face. “When we shall see Him, we shall be like Him” (I Jn.3:3). Dear child of God, for a saint death means seeing the face of Jesus. For sinners it will be like standing before a judge. But seeing Jesus as our heavenly Father, and as the King of kings is different. For sinners it is most painful, but for saints it is most peaceful. For saints, death will not be the battle of Gog and Magog, but the most blessed moment, because it is seeing the face of Jesus. While we are on earth our life should get transformed for that day. We read, ‘...the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.’ Many evil forces can come. Once, a man who practised witchcraft got saved. He said that an ordinary sinner (not a drug addict or an immoral person) has at least 28 demons. Each time a person commits a sin of immorality, adultery, fornication or some other such sin, a demon gets into him. The man of Gadara who was sleeping in the tombs, obviously had 6000 demons in him, because he says there was a legion in him. Six thousand demons were unitedly in one person! Whether this is true or not, one thing is true—when we give room for sin we are giving room for demons and they are waiting to attack us. We all make mistakes but when they are revealed to us through sermons, songs or other ways, there should be in us a yielding, willing spirit to correct ourselves. If not, we will have no hope. God will open our hearts to show us that when He sees us there are still many more areas in our life that need to be sanctified. But deliberately keeping sin in our life, and allowing sin to grow in our life can end up as a Gog and Magog battle. We should not allow that to happen. When the heart is not right with God there is a battle. The Gog and Magog battle is the last battle. But when sin is ruling and dominating our life, every day we will have a battle (battle with others and battle with ourselves). “I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart” (Psa.38:8). Spiri- tually speaking, the reason for shouting, getting angry, speaking like a roaring lion, etc, is ‘the disquietness of heart’. When there is a disquietness of heart, when there is a war within, there will be roaring or fighting. We should overcome this. “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls’ (Prov.25:28). How many of us are in this state? “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not” (Jas.4:1,2). Spiritually, we may be killing people and their spirits. Why all this fighting? It is because of the lust that wars in our members. Wars and battles show the state of our heart. We should overcome all these now. Do not wait till your deathbed to deal with lust, carnality and everything connected with envy and jealousy, and every evil work. “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (Jas.3:16). One reason for confusion and every evil work is envy and strife. We need to examine our life. If we judge ourselves we will not be judged. The war will be over. During the time of certain judges, for about 28 or 30 years, there was peace in the borders of Israel. We also should have peace in every area of our life. For that we should seek the Lord. Seeing the face of Jesus is sweeter than any other experience. But for sinners and unsanctified people it is a terror. We should deal with sin or else death will be like the Gog and Magog battle to us. Evil forces will try to come and attack the area in which we have given room for sin. We should not give room for that—our life should not be the Gog and Magog battle. Seeing Jesus should be the sweetest moment of our life. Now we may see Jesus in visions, dreams and through revelations, but at death we see Him, in reality, even as He is. As long as we are in this physical body we cannot see Jesus as He is. This body is a hindrance for that. At death our soul and spirit are separated from the body; that is the sweetest moment. An important thing we have to study is, if we do not have a victorious, holy life now we cannot build the temple of God. To David God said, “You cannot build the temple because you have been a

man of war—you have always been fighting.” You may not fight with others, but there may be a struggle going on in your heart—if that is so, you cannot build the house of God. Servants of God are called to build the spiritual house of God, to build peoples’ lives. This is a great ministry; everybody cannot do it. People may be able to preach, some may have the gift of healing and may be able to minister to others, but building up the lives of people or building up the city of Jerusalem and Zion is different—only a man of peace can do it. The Lord told David, “You can- not build the temple for Me,” although David had been called, chosen and anointed by God and was a great man, and had many good qualities. As long as there is a war going on inside us against lust, carnality, anger, envy and jealousy, etc. we cannot build the temple of God. There were three main kings in Israel. They stand for three stages in our spiritual life. Saul—flesh or defeated life. He was defeated (by desires, thoughts, etc.). This shows a defeated Christian life. God could not fulfil any promise in Saul’s life. Although God has given us promises, they cannot be fulfilled in a defeated life. God gives promises for overcomers. We must not be in Saul’s state. From the time we are born again or anointed, we can live an overcoming life by the grace of God. Although Saul hailed from the smallest tribe and from the smallest family in the tribe (he himself admits it), God anointed him and he became the first king of Israel, but we do not read of Saul ever praising God—he was a defeated person (With the mouth we may praise God but God does not accept that). David—battle. He was not defeated but he was fighting all the time. That can be our state too. Perhaps wrong thoughts or desires try to gain the mastery, enemies try to attack, and you fight and do not allow them to enter in and defile you. When they try to come again, by being alert, you push them out. This was David’s state. David cannot build the temple, but he will have a son, a man of rest (peace) and he will build it. A man who is fighting has no time to build. Solomon—no battles. No enemies come now, no more fighting, all are alert (I Kgs.5:4). Perhaps the armies were much greater than David’s but there were no more battles. There was quietness, rest and peace in all the borders. This shows a real holy life. There are three stages: first Saul—a defeated life, allowing all the filthy things to come and defile the mind and heart, having evil desires and feelings, thoughts, etc. In David’s time all these enemies attacked but he fought and got the victory. In Solomon’s time the Lord said he could build the temple for he was a man of rest or peace. We may be doing many other things for God, but are we really building the holy temple of God? God can see our life and He is very concerned about it. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). On the outside, our work might appear very good, but God is more concerned about our thought realm (what we are thinking). If we think like Christ we will grow like Christ. If we think like the devil, we will be like the devil. We should not allow evil thoughts to cross our mind at all. Christ did not allow evil thoughts to cross His mind. After fighting the battle you come to restfulness. People in the world have many standards for holiness, but we must have the standard of the Word of God or Christ’s holiness. We are called to live Christ, not merely to live for Christ. Living for Christ is different from living Christ. God has called us to live Christ—live in the character of Christ. This is the standard God has called us to. We should not face the Gog and Magog battle in our life. When we look at our future we should feel happy, not frightened. For this, we should catch the little foxes (thoughts) which destroy the tender grapes and this sweet life. We should discern every little sin in our life. If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. We should see in which state we are —whether in Saul’s, David’s or Solomon’s. Let us not wait for the Gog and Magog battle in our life. Let our end be more blessed than the beginning. Let all the battling cease in our body, soul and spirit. As David did, we must fight our enemies; then Solomon’s period will come. St.Paul said, “I fought a good fight, I kept the faith.” Every saint has some battle to face. Gog and Magog is the last battle and that last battle can be the worst battle. But thank God, we read here that in the Gog and Magog battle saints did not fight (unlike many other battles), but fire came from heaven and destroyed the enemy. Spiritually speaking, God can do that for us. When we

really turn and surrender our life to God, the fire of the Holy Spirit, the love of God can come and destroy all the evil powers out of our lives.

19  20

THE WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT JUDGMENT ON THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev.20:11-15). This final judgment is after the Millennium and after the battle of Gog and Magog. Those who have obtained nothing more than the basic experience of salvation, and the wicked shall face this judgment. Jesus sitting on the great White Throne, shows that the basis for the judgment is God’s holiness (‘white’ shows holi- ness). This judgment can be for our edification, instruc- tion, blessing and warning. God is going to judge bet- ween him that serveth Him, and him that serveth Him not, by the criterion of holiness. Even our service to Him is measured by His holiness! Our motives, our thoughts, our attitudes, our words—these are all weighed against His holiness, as we offer our service to Him. There is a difference between Christian perfection and Christlike perfection. Our character must be Christlike. Are, our holiness, humility, meekness, prayer life, etc Christlike? Our standard must be Christ. “The earth and the heaven (the sky) fled away.” This means that whatever is done for the present world —be it honour, fame, name or riches—is going to flee away! What is done for God will remain. The ‘books’ refer to the record of all sins and evil thoughts (unless they have been earlier washed away by the blood of Jesus). If our life is like a closed book, one day it will be opened. We should be an open book before God. Our lives must be in the light even as He is in the light. There are three meanings that can be given to the expression, “presence of God”. First, God’s presence is everywhere. There is no place where God is not present —He is even in the drug addict’s home. This is the unconscious presence of God. Secondly, there is the conscious presence of God. We know that when two or three gather together in His Name, He has promised to be in their midst. We know that He is present, though we may not actually feel His presence. We are conscious of His presence. There is a third experience—the manifest presence of God, where we not only are conscious of His glorious presence all around us, but also can reach out and touch Him, or rather that He is reaching out and touching us, where we are conscious that the words we speak are really His words, where He stands before us and prevents us from doing anything against His will, where He stops a wrong thought when it is far away from our mind and we know that He has disallowed it. This is a beautiful experience—the manifest, revealed or immediate presence of God. You experience God all over you! The Psalmist says, “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If

I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me” (Psa.139:2-10). Our calling is to be always in this immediate presence of God! We do not know how the psalmist was able to write like this, because it is unlikely for Old Testament saints to have really lived in this experience. At the White Throne Judgment, the people are judged ‘according to their works’. The wicked will be cast into the Lake of Fire, but there will be varying degrees of punishment and torment, according to their works. Proverbs 9:18 refers to the ‘depths of hell’. This shows the different degrees of punishment in hell. Those who commit the sin of immorality, fornication and adultery, will receive the maximum punishment in hell, the Bible says. “For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase” (Job 31:11,12). This sin of immorality is called the ‘chief crime’. We should never underestimate the seriousness of this sin of lust. “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whosoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more” (Lk.12:47,48). This scripture also tells us that there are varying degrees of punishments. In heaven there are varying degrees of glory. God is now pleading with us to receive His mercy. “The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people” (Isa.3:13). He is pleading with us saying, “My child, please do not forsake My mercy.” How gracious He is towards us! He is pleading with us, to receive His mercy. There are three places mentioned here (1) death and (2) hell and (3) the Bottomless Pit. There are evil spirits which have already been cast into the Bottomless Pit. They are already judged and have no further judgment. Death refers to the Outer Darkness, the place where the backsliders go. Hell is where sinners go. Note that Revelation 20:14 says, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” The spirits in the Bottomless Pit, are also thrown into the Lake of Fire. Matthew 25:31-33 says, “When the Son of man shall come in His glory…” This also concerns the final judgment referred to in the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation. However, the latter part of the chapter refers, in particular, to the judgment on the sinners. The reference in Matthew Ch.25 to the ‘throne of His glory’ and in Revelation Ch.20, to ‘the great white throne’ are one and the same thing. As we have seen, the ‘White Throne’ refers to His perfect holiness. The Lord is ‘glorious in holiness’! So it is the same throne that is referred to in both these chapters. Let us now consider why, in this final judgment, the Lord commends one group of persons (vs.35-40) and upbraids the other (vs.41 to 45). The group on the right did not even remember the things they had done for the Lord! The essence of it is that this group had done everything as to the Lord—they did not take any glory for themselves! They gave all the glory to God. We see how God’s glory is emphasized in Matthew 25:31, by its repeated mention in the same verse. One of the greatest sins we can commit is to take the glory for ourselves. The other group also must have gone and visited at least their own relatives when sick or in prison—at least once in a way. But the difference was that they did what they did, for their own glory. We read that they were sent into everlasting punishment. The seriousness with which God views the sin of taking the glory for ourselves is clearly illustrated in what befell King Herod, as set out in Acts 12:21-23. “And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.” Herod had committed many evil crimes, such as killing James the servant of the Lord, imprisoning Peter with

a view to killing him, etc. But God’s judgment did not fall on him until this incident when he took for himself the glory that belonged to God. The worms that ate him literally could also be spiritual worms that eat up our inner man and destroy our character and fruitfulness for God (such as the palmerworm, locust, cankerworm and caterpillar mentioned in Joel 1:4), if we take for ourselves, the glory due to God. “I am the Lord: that is My name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images” (Isa.42:8). God says that He will not give His glory to another. God will not tolerate this sin. We must always transfer to God any glory people may give us when God uses us. We must realize the seriousness of the sin of taking any glory for ourselves or even desiring appreciation or praise for anything that we may do. It is all the mercy and grace of God, and we must imme- diately tell Him so! The first great sin committed by Saul, the first king of Israel, was taking the glory for himself. That was the beginning of his destruction— grabbing God’s glory! I Samuel 13:3—Saul ‘blew his trumpet’, both literally and metaphorically. Later he began to distress others in his quest for personal glory. This was the beginning of his downfall. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil.2:3). Anything that is not done for God’s glory, is vainglory.                                                                                                                           be aimed at glorifying God and seeking the honour that comes from above. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Lk.17:10). Even if we do everything properly, we must confess that we are ‘unprofitable servants’. In us, there is nothing good. Whatever good we do, we do only by the grace of God. The final judgment is essentially based on whether we gave God the glory or not. We must be very careful not to expect or to take glory for ourselves, avoiding all strife and vainglory. If we live now before the throne of God, on that final day, we need not stand before the throne for judgment; instead we will be with Jesus on His throne! Dear child of God, let us always live before the throne of God or in the immediate presence of God so that we can escape all these judgments. Remember, in this Grace Period, God’s throne is the throne of grace where we can receive grace to live a perfect holy life. May the gracious Lord keep us ready for His soon Coming.

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