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The NT Visitation of God - Final Judgment & Final Salvation |
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The Mysterious Development of Salvific Promises -->
The Mysterious Development of Damning Woes --> |
Abrahamic – Priestly Mosaic Ceremonial – Kingly Davidic – New Testament – End of Days Salvation
Assyrian & Babylonian Captivities – 70 AD – End of Days Woe & Condemnation |
- “…upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” – Matt. 16:18
How fared “the Church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) against the gates of hell? How many raced and won the prize they raced for, of all the children of the OT Church which were “born after the Spirit” (Gal. 4:29)? Since the days of Moses, the prophetic foretelling of the Israelite nation’s falling away, eventual destruction, and final dispersion was ever looming over their heads. Centuries passed, one after another, and there were generations of much mercy wherein God did pour out His Spirit but a little, granting that He would raise up some men of His right hand for the lightening of the load. Even when all deserved to die, some Spirit-empowered leaders were enabled to preserve some small remnant alive in God. Oh! How hard these years, decades, and centuries were, and how awfully did iniquity increase at each generation unto the next. Even after the brief lives of those faithful few, some of which who were enabled to cause their generation to stand up for Jesus, these generations of Israel did quickly return back to the former crest of rebellion the previous generations left off at, and then from thence, they rose beyond it for greater heights for hell. Overlooking the entire span of these centuries of Israelite Church history, one would be a fool to conclude that “the gates of hell” did never prevail against the Church of God. This is to assert that the Church and Covenant of God was always fulfilled, standing fixed because of the people’s obedience, thus standing successfully as a defense against hell’s advances to breach its walls, so that God did not lose one, some, or any of His children to whom He was savingly related. What unlearned man would make such a claim!? Furthermore, what characteristic marked those rising lone-leaders who are chronicled as heroes of biblical history, upon whom was the Spirit of Revival? They did not follow their fathers, they did not follow the anti-God, anti-remnant majority of people who ruled the contemporary religion that civilized men held in honor, and they were appalled at the pervading conclusions of unbiblical traditions that bowed to the ancients with an unrighteous respect, ancient men who were stiffnecked to disobey the Bible. These Spirit-empowered leaders refused to yield to all these men, and they contended against all the exasperating pressures to bend the straight way crooked. They trusted in God by casting the hope of their entire life upon the infallible Writ of God’s Book – the Bible. They were a Book-keeping, Bible-reading, scripture-memorizing, truth-copywriting, testimony-singing, and truth-preaching people! Praise God!
Yea, the Church found in biblical history, called the “Church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), is our example Church, and not another! Biblical history gives us the surety that these were true Churches, whose events of history were recorded and protected by the inspiration and providence of God, recordings which can be trusted as accurate, with God-verified salvations in true works of saving graces, all of which should be trusted as genuine. This is biblical history – history which should be trusted and quoted, but extra-biblical history has been the primary study of “Christianity” today, and why!? Because men believe that they can never come short of the promises of God, and so, when they look at the centuries which have passed since the conception of the NT Church in the 1st century, they do conclude that there has been a thriving, persevering work of God throughout the centuries, and because it has thrived, it does therefore hold for us the honor of antiquity, or, truth that lasts the test of time, and thus, any confession which does not match with what can be traced throughout the centuries, they conclude, is not a part of the Church which Jesus promised to keep, and is therefore a modern and alien invention of man – it is “a new thing” which cannot be trusted. While I believe that a remnant was kept in saving graces, I do not believe the Covenant was maintained in its fullness, which means, not all those whom God intended to save were saved, not all of the glory that God intended to have was had, and not all the truth which does keep the saved saints persevering was being taught and held fast to. What I am pressing upon my reader is the sober question, could God raise up a Josiah generation on the eve of woes, just before the revelation of the antichrist? If we would be a Josiah generation, then we would be “a new thing,” which really is a reviving of the old thing formerly written, the Covenant of God, but if this is so, then we would have to be different from the majority of centuries of Church history. Are we prepared for that? To be like Josiah who denied the majority witness of “church” history and confession, for he held to the infallibility of the written word of God alone?
Men trust in extra-biblical history as if it is accurate, preserved, and infallible. They know so little of biblical Christianity, and what they did ever know about it, they forget, because they are so busy remembering what extra-biblical history says. Let me be as clear as I can! Men look at the centuries of extra-biblical “church” history and conclude, if it cannot be found and traced throughout the centuries as the common confession of all the remnant, then we should never believe it, accept it, and adhere to it, and why? Jesus said, “…upon this Rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18), and they conclude that this meant that extra-biblical history will show the infallible witness of true confessions of theology and doctrine, when not even biblical history demonstrated such preservation, consistency, and generation-to-generation Covenantal, doctrinal, and theological perfection. Men should be looking at extra-biblical history and conclude what Peter concluded when he studied biblical Church history’s chief lesson – and what was it!? “The righteous” were “scarcely saved” (1 Peter 4:18), or as Jesus Christ said it, “many are called and few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14)!
Looking at biblical history, after carefully noting all of which we have studied thus far, there is no mystery behind the words of Christ, “Many are called and few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). Many were saved, or, were of the companies which were saved, and of these two types, few persevered to be found of God as “the chosen.” Without these terms definitively referenced, this is what we have been tracing throughout biblical history. With the entire history of God’s people in mind, Peter observed this sweeping conclusion throughout the centuries: many righteous men are called, and of the called, few and scarce are those who are finally chosen. In his own words he put it, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear” (1 Peter 4:18)? Was this not the burden of the Lord Jesus for His Church of the “last days”?
Satan’s craft to beguile the holy was, and is, to preach promises without the coexistence of conditions. Satan preached to Jesus the promise of Psalm 91:11-12 in Matthew 4:6, but Jesus answered him again with the condition to that promise’s performance in Matthew 4:7. As Satan preached, so his son-servants spew out the same lies (John 8:44), yet Calvinism is an organized web which preys upon God’s people, catching them in false confidences in true promises, persuading men that conditions are nonexistent, inapplicable, and irrelevant. Satan cloaked his lure by the promises of God, and “no marvel,” this was his appearance of righteousness (2 Cor. 10:14), but he has crafted a theological system of corruption, namely Calvinism, which hath in it great and wonderful truths, and through them he doth employ the ignorant to his ruinous causes which deceive the righteous. As Satan was to Jesus, so “they” become. By doctrine or deed, they preach and praise the promises of God, and yet they are in complete denial and oblivion to the conditions. Jesus’ defense against Satan was a burden consistent with the truth and warning found throughout biblical Church history – beware of the CONDITIONS!
Thus far, we have studied how God renounced the generations of the Exodus and the Babylonian Captivity, both serving as typified relationships God has with saved persons. Now consider this: What God did to the generation of Jesus Christ was parallel to what was done to the generation of the Babylonian Captivity.
The dispersion (known as The Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities) was spoken of by God as His “visitation” (Jer. 10:15). When God visited His people, He was executing upon them the justice of the Covenant agreement according as it was written, every man according to their works (Prov. 24:12). When He visited, He judged them as He found them, which means that, before His visitation comes, during this undetermined amount of time, the people have a space to find mercy and repentance. God’s visitation was the hour of judgment, an hour too late for repentance, and so also, Jesus Christ spoke of His return and His Judgment of the Church! He speaks of it in the strict terms of Judgment according to works. It is a day to fear, a day to prepare for, so that we are told that all former days before this final Day are given for the purpose that men would find grace for repentance through saving faith, that they might be thus prepared. For this reason I have titled this section, “The Visitation and Final Judgment”, for, the NT visitation of Christ is like the OT visitation of God as seen in the dispersion, so that Christ’s return will be unto a people who are staggeringly unprepared for Him. When Christ returns, large portions of His people will be damned by Him, as it was already written that many were first called unto salvation, but in the end few were chosen unto its everlasting enjoyments. This is a pattern which is consistent and repeated all throughout the centuries of biblical Church history, but now, much more, it shall be in the Last Days just before His return.
Thus, as we have thoroughly addressed repeatedly, Romans 11:13-23 prophesied the very same conditions of a falling away happening to the NT Church, and also this was the very burden of Christ during the latter end of His earthly ministry. As for what happened to the 1st century, do I need to remind you again? God gave them a “spirit of slumber,” eyes that see not and ears that hear not. The sovereignty of God was at work to blind them into damnation, and though they were, in type, saved persons, covenanted peoples, called sons and daughters, God’s wife, etc., and as the generation of the Babylonian Captivity was made ready for the curses of God’s wrath through the casting-away deception of God, likewise Jesus’ generation was prepared for wrath in 70 AD (another type of God’s visitation), but this 70 AD experience was only a partial fulfillment, and parallel to those prophecies of Christ. Will we understand our day in the light of those unfulfilled prophecies!? Will we understand that what happened in 70 AD was only a partial fulfillment of the wrath which was prophesied in those prophetic woes? Therefore, there is yet a generation that must be prepared to drink in the vials of God’s holy anger! As the generation of the Babylonian Captivity was prepared to drink in the wrath of God – being led thereto by the Deception of God – so also the 1st century generation of Jesus Christ was prepared, even so we must expect to fulfill the unfulfilled prophecies of the Babylonian Captivity by the OT prophets, and to fulfill the unfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ after 70 AD; even so, a generation must be prepared by a strong, delusive, deception of God – a “strong delusion” – so that the generations preceding the last prepare the stage for the coming of the Anti-Christ. In the generation of the antichrist’s arrival, with him is the woeful generation who will fulfill all the words of this Book which did prophesy a curse. We therefore should expect, EVEN NOW, a great “FALLIING AWAY” (2 Thess. 2:3-12)!
This very curse was called being a “castaway”, among other terms, which all define reprobation. This very terror is prophesied to happen within the dispensation of the New Covenant. Again I say, Jesus Christ warned of this repeatedly; He preached on it as the weighty theme of His latter ministry to His disciples! Paul dealt with this theological wonder in Romans chapter 11:13-25. In summary, Paul proved that if God cast away Israel, He could cast away His saved Church in like manner. “Some of the branches” were “broken off” (Rom. 11:17), and then the Church was grafted in, but as God broke the former branches off, so also, He can break the NT Church off, “casting away” (Rom. 11:15) saints who were made “holy” (Rom. 11:16) by “the root and fatness of the olive tree” (Rom. 11:17). Therefore LOOK, CHURCH – look at the many called and how few were chosen in the biblical ages already passed. Look at Biblical Church history, and understand just how few there are that were saved, and later were finally saved. Therefore FEAR – “Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:20-22).
Let me close this chapter with two points.
Yea, the Church found in biblical history, called the “Church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), is our example Church, and not another! Biblical history gives us the surety that these were true Churches, whose events of history were recorded and protected by the inspiration and providence of God, recordings which can be trusted as accurate, with God-verified salvations in true works of saving graces, all of which should be trusted as genuine. This is biblical history – history which should be trusted and quoted, but extra-biblical history has been the primary study of “Christianity” today, and why!? Because men believe that they can never come short of the promises of God, and so, when they look at the centuries which have passed since the conception of the NT Church in the 1st century, they do conclude that there has been a thriving, persevering work of God throughout the centuries, and because it has thrived, it does therefore hold for us the honor of antiquity, or, truth that lasts the test of time, and thus, any confession which does not match with what can be traced throughout the centuries, they conclude, is not a part of the Church which Jesus promised to keep, and is therefore a modern and alien invention of man – it is “a new thing” which cannot be trusted. While I believe that a remnant was kept in saving graces, I do not believe the Covenant was maintained in its fullness, which means, not all those whom God intended to save were saved, not all of the glory that God intended to have was had, and not all the truth which does keep the saved saints persevering was being taught and held fast to. What I am pressing upon my reader is the sober question, could God raise up a Josiah generation on the eve of woes, just before the revelation of the antichrist? If we would be a Josiah generation, then we would be “a new thing,” which really is a reviving of the old thing formerly written, the Covenant of God, but if this is so, then we would have to be different from the majority of centuries of Church history. Are we prepared for that? To be like Josiah who denied the majority witness of “church” history and confession, for he held to the infallibility of the written word of God alone?
Men trust in extra-biblical history as if it is accurate, preserved, and infallible. They know so little of biblical Christianity, and what they did ever know about it, they forget, because they are so busy remembering what extra-biblical history says. Let me be as clear as I can! Men look at the centuries of extra-biblical “church” history and conclude, if it cannot be found and traced throughout the centuries as the common confession of all the remnant, then we should never believe it, accept it, and adhere to it, and why? Jesus said, “…upon this Rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18), and they conclude that this meant that extra-biblical history will show the infallible witness of true confessions of theology and doctrine, when not even biblical history demonstrated such preservation, consistency, and generation-to-generation Covenantal, doctrinal, and theological perfection. Men should be looking at extra-biblical history and conclude what Peter concluded when he studied biblical Church history’s chief lesson – and what was it!? “The righteous” were “scarcely saved” (1 Peter 4:18), or as Jesus Christ said it, “many are called and few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14)!
Looking at biblical history, after carefully noting all of which we have studied thus far, there is no mystery behind the words of Christ, “Many are called and few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). Many were saved, or, were of the companies which were saved, and of these two types, few persevered to be found of God as “the chosen.” Without these terms definitively referenced, this is what we have been tracing throughout biblical history. With the entire history of God’s people in mind, Peter observed this sweeping conclusion throughout the centuries: many righteous men are called, and of the called, few and scarce are those who are finally chosen. In his own words he put it, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear” (1 Peter 4:18)? Was this not the burden of the Lord Jesus for His Church of the “last days”?
Satan’s craft to beguile the holy was, and is, to preach promises without the coexistence of conditions. Satan preached to Jesus the promise of Psalm 91:11-12 in Matthew 4:6, but Jesus answered him again with the condition to that promise’s performance in Matthew 4:7. As Satan preached, so his son-servants spew out the same lies (John 8:44), yet Calvinism is an organized web which preys upon God’s people, catching them in false confidences in true promises, persuading men that conditions are nonexistent, inapplicable, and irrelevant. Satan cloaked his lure by the promises of God, and “no marvel,” this was his appearance of righteousness (2 Cor. 10:14), but he has crafted a theological system of corruption, namely Calvinism, which hath in it great and wonderful truths, and through them he doth employ the ignorant to his ruinous causes which deceive the righteous. As Satan was to Jesus, so “they” become. By doctrine or deed, they preach and praise the promises of God, and yet they are in complete denial and oblivion to the conditions. Jesus’ defense against Satan was a burden consistent with the truth and warning found throughout biblical Church history – beware of the CONDITIONS!
Thus far, we have studied how God renounced the generations of the Exodus and the Babylonian Captivity, both serving as typified relationships God has with saved persons. Now consider this: What God did to the generation of Jesus Christ was parallel to what was done to the generation of the Babylonian Captivity.
The dispersion (known as The Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities) was spoken of by God as His “visitation” (Jer. 10:15). When God visited His people, He was executing upon them the justice of the Covenant agreement according as it was written, every man according to their works (Prov. 24:12). When He visited, He judged them as He found them, which means that, before His visitation comes, during this undetermined amount of time, the people have a space to find mercy and repentance. God’s visitation was the hour of judgment, an hour too late for repentance, and so also, Jesus Christ spoke of His return and His Judgment of the Church! He speaks of it in the strict terms of Judgment according to works. It is a day to fear, a day to prepare for, so that we are told that all former days before this final Day are given for the purpose that men would find grace for repentance through saving faith, that they might be thus prepared. For this reason I have titled this section, “The Visitation and Final Judgment”, for, the NT visitation of Christ is like the OT visitation of God as seen in the dispersion, so that Christ’s return will be unto a people who are staggeringly unprepared for Him. When Christ returns, large portions of His people will be damned by Him, as it was already written that many were first called unto salvation, but in the end few were chosen unto its everlasting enjoyments. This is a pattern which is consistent and repeated all throughout the centuries of biblical Church history, but now, much more, it shall be in the Last Days just before His return.
Thus, as we have thoroughly addressed repeatedly, Romans 11:13-23 prophesied the very same conditions of a falling away happening to the NT Church, and also this was the very burden of Christ during the latter end of His earthly ministry. As for what happened to the 1st century, do I need to remind you again? God gave them a “spirit of slumber,” eyes that see not and ears that hear not. The sovereignty of God was at work to blind them into damnation, and though they were, in type, saved persons, covenanted peoples, called sons and daughters, God’s wife, etc., and as the generation of the Babylonian Captivity was made ready for the curses of God’s wrath through the casting-away deception of God, likewise Jesus’ generation was prepared for wrath in 70 AD (another type of God’s visitation), but this 70 AD experience was only a partial fulfillment, and parallel to those prophecies of Christ. Will we understand our day in the light of those unfulfilled prophecies!? Will we understand that what happened in 70 AD was only a partial fulfillment of the wrath which was prophesied in those prophetic woes? Therefore, there is yet a generation that must be prepared to drink in the vials of God’s holy anger! As the generation of the Babylonian Captivity was prepared to drink in the wrath of God – being led thereto by the Deception of God – so also the 1st century generation of Jesus Christ was prepared, even so we must expect to fulfill the unfulfilled prophecies of the Babylonian Captivity by the OT prophets, and to fulfill the unfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ after 70 AD; even so, a generation must be prepared by a strong, delusive, deception of God – a “strong delusion” – so that the generations preceding the last prepare the stage for the coming of the Anti-Christ. In the generation of the antichrist’s arrival, with him is the woeful generation who will fulfill all the words of this Book which did prophesy a curse. We therefore should expect, EVEN NOW, a great “FALLIING AWAY” (2 Thess. 2:3-12)!
This very curse was called being a “castaway”, among other terms, which all define reprobation. This very terror is prophesied to happen within the dispensation of the New Covenant. Again I say, Jesus Christ warned of this repeatedly; He preached on it as the weighty theme of His latter ministry to His disciples! Paul dealt with this theological wonder in Romans chapter 11:13-25. In summary, Paul proved that if God cast away Israel, He could cast away His saved Church in like manner. “Some of the branches” were “broken off” (Rom. 11:17), and then the Church was grafted in, but as God broke the former branches off, so also, He can break the NT Church off, “casting away” (Rom. 11:15) saints who were made “holy” (Rom. 11:16) by “the root and fatness of the olive tree” (Rom. 11:17). Therefore LOOK, CHURCH – look at the many called and how few were chosen in the biblical ages already passed. Look at Biblical Church history, and understand just how few there are that were saved, and later were finally saved. Therefore FEAR – “Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:20-22).
Let me close this chapter with two points.
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1) WRATH: That great and terrible Judgment Day of God, which was prophesied in the major and minor prophets, was partially, but not perfectly, fulfilled in the Babylonian Captivity, then again in the 1st century doom of 70 AD, and we await a final and more perfect fulfillment of all those prophetic woes – but that is not all we are waiting for, praise God!
2) SALVATION: So also, along with the prophetic woes, even so we await the Covenant and prophetic promises of salvation! We await still the final fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants, and also the prophetic promises of the major and Minor Prophets which expounded all the ways in which these two major Covenants will be mysteriously and eternally fulfilled. So we wait, because each one of these promises and Covenants were partially, but not perfectly, fulfilled, just like the prophetic woes.
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As a result of understanding this…we should be conscious that we are as the Israelites, who lived in those wayward generations which led up to the Babylonian Captivity, and we should learn from the valiant footsteps of those who lived in seasons of revival (Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah), therefore we should strive to be different from those rebellious persons who walked out the course of deception, which in turn, hastened the day of wrath. We should pray to the Lord the same old prayer of Habakkuk: “O LORD, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). Each backslidden generation brought the day of God’s visitation just a little nearer. They did not know the day or hour in which it would arrive, and neither do we. You can see how Hezekiah recognized that he was born into a generation in which the wrath of God was upon Israel (2 Chron. 29:10). Therefore, with desperation he sought to be different – DIFFERENT FROM BIBLICAL CHURCH HISTORY – for he recognized that he lived in a day which was prophesied to be a backsliding catastrophe! So also, we can see this exact same heart in the NT Christians as they meditated upon, and as they prepared for, the Final Judgment and/or Christ’s return (the NT visitation). Men should be making their “election sure” instead of fancying themselves that they are the elect, by a presumptuous, unfounded, untried, and unwise assurance.
Though many have and will come short of the promises of salvation, it must be that the promises of salvation come to their consummating fulfillment, as will the prophetic promises of wrath. Below are some of these unchangeable forevers…
Though many have and will come short of the promises of salvation, it must be that the promises of salvation come to their consummating fulfillment, as will the prophetic promises of wrath. Below are some of these unchangeable forevers…
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Amos 8:7
The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Ezekiel 24:14 I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord GOD. Jeremiah 4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. Zechariah 8:14 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not Amos 2:4 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept His commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: Amos 2:6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; |
WRATH
“I will never forget” – Amos 8:7 “I will not go back…neither will I repent” – Ezek. 24:14 “I have purposed it and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it” – Jer. 4:28 “I thought to punish you… and I repented not” – Zech. 8:14 “…I will not turn away the punishment thereof…” – Amos 2:4 “…I will not turn away the punishment thereof…” – Amos 2:6 “it shall not return any more” – Ezek. 21:5 “is not turned back from us” – Jer. 4:8 “shall not return” – Jer. 30:24 |
Ezekiel 21:5
That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
Jeremiah 4:8
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Jeremiah 30:23-24
Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.
Isaiah 24:19-25:1
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously. O LORD, Thou art My God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy Name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isaiah 14:24-26 (The judgment of Assyria, the Devil, and Babylon, and the salvation of God’s people)
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Yes, my dear reader, galloping from eternity past is this great occasion of wrath that God is seeking to bring upon the earth, and it is for His own eternal glory (Rom. 9:22)! We can see many of these prophetic woes, which He has eternally determined, by how God speaks in the explicit wording which affirms that He will not “repent” from, “return” or “turn” from, nor “forget” these purposes. Do you remember how God warned men to repent of their sins, lest He become so aggravated at evil that He is moved into an unrepentant, unrelenting mind of wrath? In such cases, He uses the same affirmations like the wording of the verses above, commanding repentance – “lest My fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jer. 21:12) – and He does mean it as He says it, even an unquenchable fire – and He will fulfill it! The fire of God’s fury, even this unquenchable fire-like wrath, has been rushing from eternity past to consume “vessels of wrath” in an unquenchable Lake of Fire – and therein, in the Lake of Fire, the prophetically declared forevers of wrath shall be fulfilled! These slaves of sin, these once-born men, with all the twice-dead saints who turned sinners again, they, along with the devils that ruled over them, shall be judged by the Ruler of heaven and hell – Jesus Christ – and He will take them against their own will, and “cast [them] into the Lake of Fire and brimstone…and [they] shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10)!
That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
Jeremiah 4:8
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Jeremiah 30:23-24
Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.
Isaiah 24:19-25:1
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously. O LORD, Thou art My God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy Name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isaiah 14:24-26 (The judgment of Assyria, the Devil, and Babylon, and the salvation of God’s people)
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Yes, my dear reader, galloping from eternity past is this great occasion of wrath that God is seeking to bring upon the earth, and it is for His own eternal glory (Rom. 9:22)! We can see many of these prophetic woes, which He has eternally determined, by how God speaks in the explicit wording which affirms that He will not “repent” from, “return” or “turn” from, nor “forget” these purposes. Do you remember how God warned men to repent of their sins, lest He become so aggravated at evil that He is moved into an unrepentant, unrelenting mind of wrath? In such cases, He uses the same affirmations like the wording of the verses above, commanding repentance – “lest My fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jer. 21:12) – and He does mean it as He says it, even an unquenchable fire – and He will fulfill it! The fire of God’s fury, even this unquenchable fire-like wrath, has been rushing from eternity past to consume “vessels of wrath” in an unquenchable Lake of Fire – and therein, in the Lake of Fire, the prophetically declared forevers of wrath shall be fulfilled! These slaves of sin, these once-born men, with all the twice-dead saints who turned sinners again, they, along with the devils that ruled over them, shall be judged by the Ruler of heaven and hell – Jesus Christ – and He will take them against their own will, and “cast [them] into the Lake of Fire and brimstone…and [they] shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10)!
SALVATION
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Psalm 110:4
The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 132:11 The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. Psalm 89:33-35 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. |
“will not repent… forever” – Ps. 110:4
“will not turn from it” – Ps. 132:11 “suffer My faithfulness to fail… My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips… …I will not lie…” – Ps. 89:33-35 “shall not return” – Isa. 45:23 “it shall not return unto Me void” – Isa. 55:11 “repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes” – Hos. 13:14 |
Isaiah 45:23
I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isaiah 55:11-12
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Hosea 13:14
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes.
I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isaiah 55:11-12
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Hosea 13:14
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes.
You see, the word of the Lord was spoken, and then it was not brought to pass because it was “prolonged” from being performed, but there is a day and generation in which “it shall be no more prolonged” (Ezek. 12:25). There is a “day” in which, God says, “There shall none of My words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done” (Ezek. 12:28). Do you know what “day” this is? There is a “time” in which God has chosen, God says, “that I will perform that good thing which I have promised” (Jer. 33:14), even though it was stalled, repented of, and prolonged for so many generations! Do you know this “time”? My reader, don’t despise how God stalls the Day of His coming! He does this for us, because we have not come to repentance, and He does not want to bring the Final Judgment of His return prematurely, while there are certain elect saints still in unrepentance, while there is a Bride yet blemished and wrinkled. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)! Nevertheless, there is a day in which ALL of that which was promised shall come to pass.
God wants men to know the surety of His Covenant, meaning that it is “everlasting,” “ordered,” “and sure” (2 Sam. 23:5), which is to signify that it is set in order to be fulfilled in its ordained “day” and “time”. This “everlasting,” “ordered,” and “sure” purpose of God is also called the “sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3). In manifold ways which God argues, proves, and exclaims, these promised mercies are and shall be “SURE”! God wants men to know that there are certain things in which He speaks, as “the LORD,” and not in the ways of man (Mal. 3:6), things which are irrevocably spoken from the loft of His absolute sovereignty over all things. Likewise, when God speaks of something in the loft of His Person, outside of the capabilities within God’s condescension, He links these words with a certain righteousness, that, if these words were not fulfilled, then there would be unrighteousness in God, for it is righteous for God to fulfill the word when it is connected to eternal purposes of “love” or “hate” (Rom. 9:13). With this in mind, it is understandable why the saints were and are utterly perplexed when God does not fulfill a word which He has spoken, and by compulsion they thence resolve that there must be some high mystery hidden in the heavens, which is veiled in a most holy, higher righteousness. This mystery is progressively and increasingly explained throughout the centuries, thanks to God, Who allowed that the prophets would be employed in the task of seeking out, standing attentive to, and watching after explanations of any further revelation, and they spent their whole life purpose inquiring of such mysteries (1 Peter 1:10). At “sundry times” in “diverse manners” (Heb. 1:1) they did see, understand, and from thence declared mysteries “hid in God” since “the beginning of the world” (Eph. 3:9). These eternal, unchanging, and timeless purposes of God are spoken on earth by His Spirit through prophets, and thus, it is only right that God would fulfill these words by His determinate powers, which we know do transcend creation and time. Therefore, because it is only right that these eternal purposes come to pass, or because it is righteous that nothing in creation and time can disrupt the good desires of God, we can understand that God wants to show men the certainty of what He says, and so, when He speaks a word that is, God says, “gone out of My mouth in righteousness” (Isa. 45:23), we will know that it is God’s righteousness which will fulfill that word! Have you ever meekly pled with the Lord that He would hear your prayers and save you, pleading that, an answer to your prayers for this cause would be a deed done, as David said to God, “in Thy righteousness” (Ps. 143:1)? It is important then to understand what this means! The question this verse should arouse in us is, what is righteous about a word that goes forth, God says, “in righteousness”? As in this word which is encased in God’s claimed and stated “righteousness,” which is cited in Isaiah 45:23 and Psalm 143:1, so also God wants to show what is faithful about His faithfulness (Ps. 89:33), and what is the truthfulness of truth and the uprightness of upright when deeds are “done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:8). You see, when God speaks a word in His ways, which are, “in righteousness” (Isa. 45:23), “by My holiness" (Ps. 89:35), and “done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:8), or any other like attribute that is connected to the words and deeds of God, we must come to understand exactly what eternal purposes God is pointing toward, to know, what exactly what God’s attributes will eventually accomplish, and, what exactly God is assuring us of.
God wants men to know the surety of His Covenant, meaning that it is “everlasting,” “ordered,” “and sure” (2 Sam. 23:5), which is to signify that it is set in order to be fulfilled in its ordained “day” and “time”. This “everlasting,” “ordered,” and “sure” purpose of God is also called the “sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3). In manifold ways which God argues, proves, and exclaims, these promised mercies are and shall be “SURE”! God wants men to know that there are certain things in which He speaks, as “the LORD,” and not in the ways of man (Mal. 3:6), things which are irrevocably spoken from the loft of His absolute sovereignty over all things. Likewise, when God speaks of something in the loft of His Person, outside of the capabilities within God’s condescension, He links these words with a certain righteousness, that, if these words were not fulfilled, then there would be unrighteousness in God, for it is righteous for God to fulfill the word when it is connected to eternal purposes of “love” or “hate” (Rom. 9:13). With this in mind, it is understandable why the saints were and are utterly perplexed when God does not fulfill a word which He has spoken, and by compulsion they thence resolve that there must be some high mystery hidden in the heavens, which is veiled in a most holy, higher righteousness. This mystery is progressively and increasingly explained throughout the centuries, thanks to God, Who allowed that the prophets would be employed in the task of seeking out, standing attentive to, and watching after explanations of any further revelation, and they spent their whole life purpose inquiring of such mysteries (1 Peter 1:10). At “sundry times” in “diverse manners” (Heb. 1:1) they did see, understand, and from thence declared mysteries “hid in God” since “the beginning of the world” (Eph. 3:9). These eternal, unchanging, and timeless purposes of God are spoken on earth by His Spirit through prophets, and thus, it is only right that God would fulfill these words by His determinate powers, which we know do transcend creation and time. Therefore, because it is only right that these eternal purposes come to pass, or because it is righteous that nothing in creation and time can disrupt the good desires of God, we can understand that God wants to show men the certainty of what He says, and so, when He speaks a word that is, God says, “gone out of My mouth in righteousness” (Isa. 45:23), we will know that it is God’s righteousness which will fulfill that word! Have you ever meekly pled with the Lord that He would hear your prayers and save you, pleading that, an answer to your prayers for this cause would be a deed done, as David said to God, “in Thy righteousness” (Ps. 143:1)? It is important then to understand what this means! The question this verse should arouse in us is, what is righteous about a word that goes forth, God says, “in righteousness”? As in this word which is encased in God’s claimed and stated “righteousness,” which is cited in Isaiah 45:23 and Psalm 143:1, so also God wants to show what is faithful about His faithfulness (Ps. 89:33), and what is the truthfulness of truth and the uprightness of upright when deeds are “done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:8). You see, when God speaks a word in His ways, which are, “in righteousness” (Isa. 45:23), “by My holiness" (Ps. 89:35), and “done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:8), or any other like attribute that is connected to the words and deeds of God, we must come to understand exactly what eternal purposes God is pointing toward, to know, what exactly what God’s attributes will eventually accomplish, and, what exactly God is assuring us of.
“They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” – Ps. 11:8
First let me address this…all of these attributes are spoken of as eternal realities in the Person of God, realities which shall be proven as everlasting throughout all the happenings of time; they shall be known by all men, especially redeemed men, and they will magnify Him in these titles with everlasting praises, and that means that these words are directly in reference to the FOREVER purposes of God which He will perform on the earth! Read the following verses and remember, no word in scripture is without immeasurable depths, deeper-than-the-oceans unsearchable depths, and no word is without invaluable richness, even riches which are hidden from angels’ eyes in heaven. Therefore, when the forevers of God are stated, bound with everlasting attributes, these are not idle words of empty detail about vague, unspecific, and unidentifiable attributes in God’s words and deeds! Heaven’s most dignified and godly angels do long to look upon such mysterious riches, and, lo, these mysteries are not explained in heaven! Nay, they are found on earth, in the hearts of the prophets and saints, on the tongues of holy men, even the things which the breath of God called – “the unsearchable riches of Christ” and “the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:9-10), “which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12)! Men of such caliber were: the prophets of old and new, and the 1st century Church which was beautified into a “glorious Church” (Eph. 5:27), which is to say that they were the envy of the Jews, a bright beacon of hope for the entire Gentile world, which was turning the devil’s world upside down – making men who had formerly fled from God to flee from sin. Now listen, my reader, if these men understood something exactly specific when they worshipped God for His “righteousness”, “holiness”, “truth”, and “uprightness”, or at other times, His “faithfulness”, “mercy”, “covenant”, “wonder”, and “praise”, it remains therefore that we need to study, identify, and discover what they understood about these attributes, with exactitude, so that we, like them, might worship God “with the understanding also” (1 Cor. 14:15).
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“Thy faithfulness is unto all generations” – Ps. 119:90
“His work is honourable and glorious: His righteousness endureth for ever” – Ps. 111:3 “the truth of the LORD endureth for ever” – Ps. 117:2 |
The Holy Ghost renders each of these attributes as the chief praises of God, and foremost of all, the inspired psalmist repeated – “He is good…His mercy endureth for ever.” Therefore, it remains as a vital priority for us, who are the children of untimely birth into an adulterous generation, that we must understand, more than all other attributes hailed in God – the MERCY of God – and exactly, what is so “plenteous” (Ps. 103:8), “rich” (Rom. 9:23) in it, and what is surely meant by how it endures forever.
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“Mercy shall be built up for ever” – Ps. 89:2 |
The mercy of God is the motivator for salvation, as we have exhaustively addressed in the chapter, “Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy,” and thus for it to be “built up for ever,” it must be that His Covenant, or the agreement of salvation, must also be forever. Therefore is it written: “He commanded His Covenant for ever” (Ps. 111:9).
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“The works of His hands are verity and judgement; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto His people: He commanded His covenant for ever: Holy and Reverend is His Name. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth for ever” – Ps. 111:7-10
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The Lord’s mercy endures forever to establish His Covenant of salvation in its final consummation, and therefore, men praise God that His mercy and faithfulness endure forever EVEN if and though, at present, mercy is not establishing the Covenant of salvation for regenerate individuals who are born into a backslidden generation. Do you believe that? Ezekiel 20 is like no other chapter in the whole of scripture, but by theme and purpose there are many other chapters which are devoted to communicate the exact same theme at hand! Such chapters are Nehemiah 9, Deuteronomy 7, Psalm 89, and Psalm 106. By now you know the content of these chapters, but look with me at the very shocking attributes of God in view, attributes which I did forbear to highlight heretofore!
Remember that Deuteronomy 7 addresses the Abrahamic Covenant promises, Psalm 89 the Davidic Covenant promises, and Nehemiah 9 and Psalm 106 the Abrahamic and Davidic promises – each chapter is devoted to communicate how the promises have been breached in the former generation or generations (Deut. 7, Neh. 9, Psalm 106), and/or, the promises have been, and are being, breached at the present generation (Psalm 89, Psalm 106). Furthermore, Psalm 89 and Psalm 106 are entirely devoted to the acknowledgment of the promises of God in the Covenants, so also the psalmists do rehearse what God said and did, but most importantly, these psalms are an intercessory lamentation for the Covenants that were presently breached, broken, cast off, and destroyed in their day; thus they cried out for salvation – but what is so amazing about the psalms is that they still praise the Lord for His faithfulness and mercy, in that it is FOREVER ENDURING while they are in the midst of a breach of promise, wrath is breaking forth, and they are bewildered, astonished, and full of perplexity!
Remember that Deuteronomy 7 addresses the Abrahamic Covenant promises, Psalm 89 the Davidic Covenant promises, and Nehemiah 9 and Psalm 106 the Abrahamic and Davidic promises – each chapter is devoted to communicate how the promises have been breached in the former generation or generations (Deut. 7, Neh. 9, Psalm 106), and/or, the promises have been, and are being, breached at the present generation (Psalm 89, Psalm 106). Furthermore, Psalm 89 and Psalm 106 are entirely devoted to the acknowledgment of the promises of God in the Covenants, so also the psalmists do rehearse what God said and did, but most importantly, these psalms are an intercessory lamentation for the Covenants that were presently breached, broken, cast off, and destroyed in their day; thus they cried out for salvation – but what is so amazing about the psalms is that they still praise the Lord for His faithfulness and mercy, in that it is FOREVER ENDURING while they are in the midst of a breach of promise, wrath is breaking forth, and they are bewildered, astonished, and full of perplexity!
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PSALM 89 - THE DAVIDIC COVENANT -
“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the heavens.” (Psalm 89:1-2) “And the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O LORD: Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.” (Psalm 89:5) “O LORD God of hosts, who is strong LORD like unto Thee? Or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee?” (Psalm 89:8) “But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with Him: and in My Name shall his horn be exalted.” (Psalm 89:24) |
Amazing! Is it not? They were singing of the mercy and faithfulness of God, but they had no idea where it was, and were in the utter agony of oblivion in why it was gone, failed, and fallen, from the previous generations longstanding, unto theirs. Nevertheless, they knew it would rise again! But would it rise again with them in particular, even their generation of all the generations of men past and future? This they knew not. This is just like the praises of God which Habakkuk uttered in chapter 3, and how he pled, “in wrath remember mercy”, for he desired mercy for himself so that he would be hid in the day of wrath, but even if he was not, nor all of Israel, he did still sing and praise the Lord for salvation!
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Habakkuk 3:16-19
“When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.” |
This is amazing to me! “Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger” (Zeph. 2:3). When you enter your church assembly and “sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever”, what is so forever and faithful about the mercy of God that you are singing about? To the psalmists, it is not that those of the regenerate multitude can never fall away from, or fail to obtain, the promise of salvation, but it is that God will eventually and finally, in a great consummation, fulfill the promises in the resurrection, and thence, changelessly forevermore.
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PSALM 106 - THE ABRAHAMIC & DAVIDIC COVENANTS-
“Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.” (Ps. 106:1) |
This psalm is like as Psalm 89. Read Psalm 106:4-5, 47-48 – it is the psalmist’s fervent appeal to be saved, for he is presently under the wrath of God. He prays for salvation, hoping that God may repent and remember the Covenant for him. The last verses of the psalm are prayers for saving grace, and unlike other psalms, there is no confident reckoning or triumphant proclamation that God has heard or will hear his prayer unto salvation. The psalm ends without any evidence that the man is confident that he is, or will be, saved, therefore, while presently under the wrath of God, here again, to my amazement, the psalmist’s opening line is the same praise of God in Psalm 89 – “His mercy endureth for ever”! The psalmist desires for God to remember His Covenant (Lev. 26:42), which also is to remember him for personal salvation therein. The psalmist rehearses how great God’s mercies have been in the past toward His wayward, backsliding people (like as the law commands that a man should do, see Psalm 78:5-7)…but specifically, the psalmist rehearses the multitude of mercies that are in God; the psalmist said, “we have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly” (Ps. 106:6), in the beginning of salvation in the Abrahamic Covenant, and after salvation in the Abrahamic Covenant was already begun and established, they “tempted God” to their great destruction thenceforth, so much so that God “should destroy them,” and He did destroy many of them (Ps. 106:23), and yet, by the riches of His glorious mercy, the multitude of His mercies, God “saved” (Ps. 106:8) them in the beginning, and still, He continued to save a remnant thenceforth because Moses “stood before Him in the breach to turn away His wrath” (Ps. 106:23). After Moses’ death (Ps. 106:33), it appears that the psalmist traces the future generations, beginning with Joshua, through the Judges, up into and through the Davidic Covenant until the final dispersion (I conjecture), and all the while, the psalmist points out and recognizes how many times Israel rebelled and deserved total annihilation (Ps. 106:34-43)…but God did not totally annihilate them, and did rather hear and save them when they were laden with “affliction,” and thence when they lifted up an intercessory “cry” for salvation (Ps. 106:44). The psalmist recognizes that this cry and answer of salvation was the praise of God’s glory, that He “remembered for them His Covenant, and repented according to the multitude of His mercies” (Ps. 106:45). For this reason, being instructed by the near annihilation and scarce salvation of God’s people throughout the centuries, the psalmist praises God’s mercy, that it is a great “multitude” of mercies that “endureth for ever” (Ps. 106:45, 1)! Therefore, because of this, the psalmist has hope, even though he is not presently saved, for he knows that God can, but is not obliged to, repent from destroying wrath and save him, when and if he calls upon Him. Having all of this in mind, it is then that the psalmist ends the song with this hopeful cry – “Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Thy Holy Name, and triumph in Thy praise. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD” (Ps. 106:47-48). What is so good about God, what is so thankworthy and praiseworthy, insomuch that it can be said, “His mercy endureth for ever” (Ps. 106:1)? It is that NOT ALL of the regenerate people God were castaways! Nay, shockingly, a small remnant is spared for present and/or eventual, consummating salvation, and “they shall inherit the land for ever…” (Isa. 60:21)! Is that what is amazing about the grace of God to you?
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Deuteronomy 7 -THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT-
“because the LORD loved you…” – Deut. 7:8 “because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers…” – Deut. 7:8 “He is God, the faithful God” – Deut. 7:9 “which keepeth Covenant and mercy” – Deut. 7:9 |
This faithfulness of God is mentioned in reference to the following: the parents of the audience that God is herein speaking to did fall away from their salvation and were lost, and God’s mercy, and His promised oath - and covenant - keeping faithfulness, are magnified in this very specific way, that the generation now in Covenant with God is raised up for salvation in the stead of their parents! This is undeserved! The children of the castaway parents deserved total annihilation. God desired and spoke to accomplish (see Numbers 14:11-12) a total annihilation of them, but He did not do this because He is an oath- and Covenant-keeping God in mercy and faithfulness! Now, what is so loving, merciful, faithful, and keeping about God? It is that some, even that anyone, even a small remnant at all, or any at all of the whole multitude of regenerate persons, are saved, in your generation and/or in the end of time, and it is not that none can be lost or fall away who were formerly saved, otherwise the parents of this generation would have been preserved! Furthermore, God forewarned this generation that if they did not maintain His command to them, which required holiness from the Canaanites (see Deut. 7:11-12, 1-5, 25-26), then God warns them, even this remnant, that He will destroy them “suddenly” (Deut. 7:4), for God had made a name for Himself in the castaway wrath He showed to former generations when He: “repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face” (Deut. 7:10) – He is willing to keep that reputation. The language here, in Deuteronomy 7, which very specifically speaks that God keeps His Covenant and oath to the magnification of His mercy and faithfulness…became a foundational understanding of what the mercy and faithfulness of God was; therefore, henceforth the people of God do echo these attributes of God in prayers, praises, and prophetic books, with the exact same meaning as Deuteronomy 7. All events of history, including Deuteronomy 7, sung the same sounds in the same songs, resounding the everlasting understanding – the Lord is “the Great, the Mighty, and the Terrible God, Who keepest Covenant and mercy” (Neh. 9:32). This is written, as you can see, in Nehemiah 9:32, and it is a comprehensive summary of the biblical history of God’s people. Nehemiah built the same historical and contextual foreground of God’s words and deeds, tracing it through history, event to event, until finally, Nehemiah lifted up the praise of what is so merciful about the Covenant-keeping virtues of God. Oh! It is the multitude of God’s Covenant-keeping mercies that salvific mercy is available at all for latter generations, when, behold, He did reprobate the former…thus God is “terrible” and merciful, and, behold, He has “goodness and severity” (Rom. 11:22)! “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:22).
Amazingly, to the staggering of my soul into worship, the ever-enduring mercy of God is praised in backslidden generations, even while no mercy is presently given and the promises remain breached! Why? Oh, how happy I am to declare it to my reader! The brethren knew that, one day, though it may not be their day, the promises will be fulfilled, or in other words, though wrath is burning now in their day, it will not burn forever! Wrath seems like it burns forever, but Oh! God’s mercy endures forever! Yea, there is a greater and longer lasting energy than wrath, at least for God’s chosen people, and that is, “His mercy endureth for ever!”
Amazingly, to the staggering of my soul into worship, the ever-enduring mercy of God is praised in backslidden generations, even while no mercy is presently given and the promises remain breached! Why? Oh, how happy I am to declare it to my reader! The brethren knew that, one day, though it may not be their day, the promises will be fulfilled, or in other words, though wrath is burning now in their day, it will not burn forever! Wrath seems like it burns forever, but Oh! God’s mercy endures forever! Yea, there is a greater and longer lasting energy than wrath, at least for God’s chosen people, and that is, “His mercy endureth for ever!”
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“And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:20-21)
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The Covenants are clear to declare a forever salvation which is with a forever enduring mercy (with all other attributes included in their eternal titles), and these things will be fulfilled in the consummation or restitution of all things. The prophets who communicated these Covenants spoke, as a whole, not just of the second advent of Christ (which initiates the resurrection or the condescension withdrawn), because if anyone will be saved in any generation before the resurrection, it is because mercy endured beyond the near-annihilating wrath of God in their personal and corporate lives, but saved individuals or generations will, at the resurrection, rise again to inherit any promises which were left unfulfilled in their day, and they were saved in a salvific work which was experiential in enough of the promises, so as to be finally saved when they stand before the Judgment Seat. When these persons stand before the Judgment or at the millennial reign of Christ, and afterwards, they will obtain all the promises in their forevers, forevermore!
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“…the times of restitution of all things…” (Acts 3:20-21)
“then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.” (Ezek. 37:14) |
At THIS TIME – the resurrection – men will know that God’s word is performed, and therefore God says – “then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezek. 37:14). How do I know what time this is, and what is the time that the Abrahamic Covenant shall be finally fulfilled forevermore? Look carefully at this time, saints, so that heretofore you may look forward to it, praising God, for the eventual deeds which God’s everlasting mercies shall perform. Look now at the context in which Ezekiel 37:14 was written in: -->
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Ezekiel 37:12-14 - THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT FULFILLED-
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD. “Thy people also shall be all righteous… they shall inherit the land for ever… (Isa. 60:21) |
This time is “The Condescension Withdrawn,” which happens at the resurrection. At this time, God will fulfill everything promised and covenanted, and as the Lord said – “then” – but not another time, “then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezek. 37:14). When God says that He speaks something “in righteousness” (Isa. 45:23), “by My holiness” (Ps. 89:35), “done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:8), it is meant to make clear that He will not fail to fulfill what He is speaking of at that very moment, so that the promise will not “fail”, “break”, “alter”, or “lie”, or, that His word “shall not return” (Isa. 45:23), and again, “shall not return unto Me void” (Isa. 55:11), because at the time of the resurrection, God said, “repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes” (Hos. 13:14). Why and how is it possible that repentance shall then, at this time, be hid from God’s eyes? IT IS BECAUSE of the resurrection, or “The Condescension Withdrawn.” Review the verses from which these quotations are made, and you can evidently see that the consummating time in which God will bring to pass these changeless words is after the resurrection, and, if ever you were saved by the promises or Covenants of God in any single generation, your salvation was but a partial expression of a greater fulfillment to come!
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Isaiah 45:23
I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Isaiah 55:11-12 So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes. |
Think of it! Think of such a time when God will never repent from the purpose of love and mercy! So that, everlastingly, God will fulfill such words which He spoke when He said: -->
These words of promise make up “an everlasting Covenant” which is called “the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3). These promises, and others like them, shall have their fulfillment in the resurrection, but, these promises are also double sensed. They do begin and establish the New Covenant of Christ, partially and present-progressively, but they will have their final consummating fulfillment in the resurrection. Other 1st and 2nd Advent promises that are double sensed in this way are: Jeremiah 31:31-40, Jeremiah 32:37-44, Isaiah 54-55, Hosea 2:18-23, and Isaiah 49. The Lord will initiate and partially fulfill the promises of God in the 1st Advent because of His faithfulness, like as His faithfulness continued and did not totally annihilate God’s saved people in generations past, generations before the New Covenant, and when the problem of sin is no more during the time of the resurrection, or the 2nd Advent of Christ, it is then that God will finally fulfill the Covenants in Christ – “Because of the LORD that is faithful” (Isa. 49:7). The power of these promises is progressively being fulfilled in dispensations, and during times of wrath they are kept alive, and enduring, notwithstanding those who are reprobated, and so, the New Covenant dispensation which is before the resurrection is powered by the very same promises which shall eventually and finally save literal, physical Israel, and in turn, empower the millennial reign after the 1st resurrection, and then, also, empower the full manifestation of the New Heaven and New Earth reality after the 2nd resurrection. The stress of this Covenant is a looking forward to the consummation – for in its consummation, all of these forever glories shall be changelessly established! Read how the prophets continually referenced this “time” of forever glories to be a time of the resurrection, which is also the same time when, simultaneously, God will establish the Kingdom of God to cover the whole world, and like the saints, the world – itself – will be regenerated and made new.
- “neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel” – Ezek. 39:29
- “with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee” – Isa. 54:8
- “so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee” – Isa. 54:9
- “my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee” – Isa. 54:10
- “I will not turn away from them… they shall not depart from Me” - Jer. 32:37-44
These words of promise make up “an everlasting Covenant” which is called “the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3). These promises, and others like them, shall have their fulfillment in the resurrection, but, these promises are also double sensed. They do begin and establish the New Covenant of Christ, partially and present-progressively, but they will have their final consummating fulfillment in the resurrection. Other 1st and 2nd Advent promises that are double sensed in this way are: Jeremiah 31:31-40, Jeremiah 32:37-44, Isaiah 54-55, Hosea 2:18-23, and Isaiah 49. The Lord will initiate and partially fulfill the promises of God in the 1st Advent because of His faithfulness, like as His faithfulness continued and did not totally annihilate God’s saved people in generations past, generations before the New Covenant, and when the problem of sin is no more during the time of the resurrection, or the 2nd Advent of Christ, it is then that God will finally fulfill the Covenants in Christ – “Because of the LORD that is faithful” (Isa. 49:7). The power of these promises is progressively being fulfilled in dispensations, and during times of wrath they are kept alive, and enduring, notwithstanding those who are reprobated, and so, the New Covenant dispensation which is before the resurrection is powered by the very same promises which shall eventually and finally save literal, physical Israel, and in turn, empower the millennial reign after the 1st resurrection, and then, also, empower the full manifestation of the New Heaven and New Earth reality after the 2nd resurrection. The stress of this Covenant is a looking forward to the consummation – for in its consummation, all of these forever glories shall be changelessly established! Read how the prophets continually referenced this “time” of forever glories to be a time of the resurrection, which is also the same time when, simultaneously, God will establish the Kingdom of God to cover the whole world, and like the saints, the world – itself – will be regenerated and made new.
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“And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” (Hosea 2:18-23)
“The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for His mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 33:11) |
Here again, at this time we can see the age-old, long-lasting praise of God exclaimed – “For the LORD is good; for His mercy endureth for ever”! This is like a capstone, a pillar’s crown, which magnifies to me that then, at this time, mercy has endured throughout all the evil days! This hallowed time is what the saints of every age waited for, and for them, at this time, forever has become “the now.” Forevermore the Davidic Throne will be lifted high, and down the steep, hallowed, white-transparent steps which lead thereto flows a waterfall of righteousness, faithfulness, and mercy, and time has ceased to exist!
I have seen an amazing thing in the scriptures! Firstly, it is God’s mercy that He keeps any men alive at all, for He would be just if He decided upon the kindled repentings which raged in His holy heart, and again be sorry that He made man upon the earth (Neh. 6:5-7) until He destroys them all. Still today, everyone, from their birth – “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart” is “only evil continually” – nevertheless, God set a bow in the heavens that He will never destroy the world again like at Noah’s day, which means, namely, that God will not destroy the world again by water. Now the Noahic rainbow does declare for us this unchanging purpose in God, and the love of God is magnified over His enemies, in that, “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 6:45). Thus it is God’s mercy and love that anyone, any man at all, is kept alive! I believe that this is one of the main things which is meant by the sayings:
I have seen an amazing thing in the scriptures! Firstly, it is God’s mercy that He keeps any men alive at all, for He would be just if He decided upon the kindled repentings which raged in His holy heart, and again be sorry that He made man upon the earth (Neh. 6:5-7) until He destroys them all. Still today, everyone, from their birth – “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart” is “only evil continually” – nevertheless, God set a bow in the heavens that He will never destroy the world again like at Noah’s day, which means, namely, that God will not destroy the world again by water. Now the Noahic rainbow does declare for us this unchanging purpose in God, and the love of God is magnified over His enemies, in that, “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 6:45). Thus it is God’s mercy and love that anyone, any man at all, is kept alive! I believe that this is one of the main things which is meant by the sayings:
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“Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds” (Psalm 36:5).
“For Thy mercy is great above the heavens: and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds” (Psalm 108:4). “Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth” (Psalm 119:90). |
Secondarily, it is the mercy of God that He is “longsuffering” toward His people, because they provoke Him, over and over, to desire a full destruction of them by a total annihilation (2 Peter 3:9). It is the mercy of God that any of the regenerate multitudes are alive at all! And, there are certain other verses which are connected with the faithfulness of God “in the heavens,” like Psalm 36:5, and these verses refer to the ever-enduring mercy of God to accomplish the final and eventual salvation of Israel…
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“For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” (Isa. 54:9)
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At the return of Christ, which is also the resurrection, this verse will be accomplished, as formerly noted, but what is astonishing to me is how God affirmed His ever-enduring faithfulness when He connected it with the fixed positions of creation. In this, He showed the verity of His word which fixed them in their places when they were created at the beginning of the world, and also, we can see the verity of His word of mercy which was spoken in the days of Noah. All of this is to say, as God keeps all these things in their places, fixed, firm, enduring, and sure, so God will keep the purpose of Israel’s final salvation. God is powering this eternal purpose for Israel like the undying energies of these created beacons of love, health, and life. BUT, God also says that they are emblems which reveal another unchanging, eternal, unrepentant purpose in God – which is to save His people in all the forevers – and so God says:
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“His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in the heaven. Selah.” (Psalm 89:36-37)
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Read carefully of those prophecies which connect these two things:
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THE ABRAHAMIC AND DAVIDIC COVENANTS FULFILLED
“The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the Bridegroom, and the voice of the Bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for His mercy endureth for ever…For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD… I will perform that good thing which I have promised…For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel…Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break My Covenant of the day, and My Covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also My Covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David My servant, and the Levites that minister unto Me…Thus saith the LORD; If My Covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.” (Jer. 33:11, 14, 17, 20-22, 25-26) |
Do you see how God specifically referenced “David” and “the seed of Abraham”? Do you see how He referenced the stars and sand as a witness of what God will surely do on earth, without repentance, in direct reference to the words of the Abrahamic Covenant? So also, God referenced His Covenant with the day and night, which also is with the sun and moon…now look carefully, and see how much God repeatedly emphasizes this peculiar witness to affirm what will become of the King Messiah Who will be upon the Davidic throne: -->
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“They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve Him.” (Psalm 72:5-11)
“His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” (Psalm 72:17-19) “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and He is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” (Psalm 22:27-31) |
As the scriptures state, this Davidic throne shall rule the whole world, and this is in fulfillment of the word spoken in Numbers 14:21, a word which was rewarded to Moses through his intercessory prayers against a total annihilating wrath - “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Numbers 14:21).
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“And the LORD shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and His Name One.” (Zechariah 14:9)
“All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy Name.” (Psalm 86:9) “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) “The Kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15) |
Now remember, God said to David - personally - “But My faithfulness and My Mercy shall be with him: and in My Name shall his horn be exalted” (Psalm 89:24). And God said of David’s seed – exactly his seed, which was Solomon – that his throne would last forever, but shockingly, God shows His higher-righteous and irresistible powers when He calls Jesus Christ by the Name – David – making Christ fulfill this word about David, and, that Christ’s Kingdom shall be forever just as the Davidic Covenant states:
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Jeremiah 30:9
But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Ezekiel 34:23-24 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. Ezekiel 37:24-25 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Hosea 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days. Psalm 145:13 Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. |
This is the mysterious fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant in Christ! Does that amaze you? It should! Most well-studied Christians do know this, but there is something else that is astounding which we must understand so that we can praise God for what He is, according to the scriptures, most praiseworthy for! How is God made great? Read carefully: -->
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Psalm 98:1-9
A Psalm. O sing unto the LORD a new song; for He hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. The LORD hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together Before the LORD; for He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity. |
Do you see how the psalmist, under the inspiration of God, is speaking to “the sea”, “the world”, “the floods”, and “the hills”, but why? Have you ever understood it? We can well remember how Psalm 19:1-3 describes creation in a personified way, making it to have a voice of communication, for, its existence and purposes do communicate that which every language can understand, but there is something different than personification spoken HERE in the Davidic Kingdom’s worldwide fulfillment. This is the time when worldwide salvation is revealed, the time when God comes to establish His Kingdom and judgment, a time which is simultaneously the resurrection, and – with climatic GLORY – this is the time when the world – the plants, animals, soils, seas, the sun, stars, and universal laws in created order – everything – shall be regenerated! What I mean is that at this time, the earth will go from what it is now, namely, how it “groaneth and travaileth in pain” (Rom. 8:22), for now it is subject to the curse of sin which is called “the bondage of corruption” (Rom. 8:21). At Christ’s return - then - the whole world and all that is in it will be gloriously translated from groaning and travail into singing, like as a standing ovation of applause, even all the trees of the field clapping their hands, and how?! Why? Why will “the sea” and “the world” “roar”, and why will “the floods clap their hands,” and why will “the hills be joyful together” (Ps. 98:7-8)!? For such a long-lasting amount of time, the promises of God have been stalled, or prolonged, and for so long a time God has long-suffered His sinning saints (2 Peter 3:9), but at this time that the created world itself praises God, it is because God brought His Davidic Kingdom upon the earth with His appearing, and with this: the sudden, immediate, and glorious “manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19)! Yea, just as the sunrise is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber (Ps. 19:5), then God, even Christ, will be The “Bridegroom coming out of His chamber” to rescue His Bride, and He “rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race” (Ps. 19:5) – “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it” (Rev. 21:23-24)!
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“For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob…The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.” (Isa. 14:1, 5-8)
“Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.” (Isa. 44:23) “Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted…Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people: and they shall bring their sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me…all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isa. 49:12-13, 22-23, 26) “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isa. 55:12). “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because He cometh to judge the earth.” (1 Chron. 16:31-33) |
What a glory! The resurrection! And the whole world will follow the children of God in their final regeneration, called – “the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). So it is written, my reader, and furthermore – I repeat – this is the exclamation of God’s “righteousness”, “faithfulness”, and “truth”! Verily, from the beginning of salvation and to this final end, God is praised for His faithfulness, primarily that it will work this final and glorious END, and thanks be to God for every partial manifestation theretofore!
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Romans 8:18-23
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Revelation 22:16-17 “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come…” |
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“And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” (Isaiah 11:5)
“O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” (Isaiah 25:1) “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” |
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“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa. 26:8) “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” (Rev. 21:1) |
“…an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off” (Isa. 55:13)!
“…everlasting joy shall be unto them” (Isa. 61:7)!
The Bride groans and mourns until the consummating forever comes – and the whole earth with her – they both are awaiting their own final and redemptive regeneration! O let us praise Him with understanding, then, when we sing of His faithfulness and mercy! Though we, like David, be near death by His wrath and judgments (Psalm 143:2-4, 7-9), and though we are scarcely escaping the annihilation that takes out so many saints throughout the generations, let us appeal rightly, before our God, on the basis of the righteousness of His faithfulness to save His Name (Ps. 143:11-12), and that we would be a part of this Name which He determined to preserve and glorify forever! Thus we can pray with understanding, and say - “Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness” (Psalm 143:1).
Let the scriptures, and not a man’s false imaginations, “shew forth” the “lovingkindness” and “faithfulness” of God (Ps. 92:2), in what it is exactly. According to the word of God in Psalm 92, and for a conclusion to this chapter…even though the wicked do flourish now (92:7), they will not flourish forever. They have risen up and flourished, but it is so that they might be destroyed forever (92:7), and even their destruction is not now so that the righteous do flourish instead, the psalmist explains, it shall eventually come to pass that the righteous will be saved and flourishing instead of the wicked (92:14). If this exaltation of the righteous did not eventually and forever happen, then it could be said that God is unrighteous, but God will do this very thing because He is righteous, to show forth His righteousness, as it was said in the last line of the psalm – “To shew that the LORD is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (92:15). When the psalmist undertakes the holy burden to “shew forth” the “lovingkindness” and “faithfulness” of the LORD, it is to show forth this very thing, that eventually and forever, the righteous shall be saved and flourishing forever in the Covenants of God, even though it is not so now!!
Let the scriptures, and not a man’s false imaginations, “shew forth” the “lovingkindness” and “faithfulness” of God (Ps. 92:2), in what it is exactly. According to the word of God in Psalm 92, and for a conclusion to this chapter…even though the wicked do flourish now (92:7), they will not flourish forever. They have risen up and flourished, but it is so that they might be destroyed forever (92:7), and even their destruction is not now so that the righteous do flourish instead, the psalmist explains, it shall eventually come to pass that the righteous will be saved and flourishing instead of the wicked (92:14). If this exaltation of the righteous did not eventually and forever happen, then it could be said that God is unrighteous, but God will do this very thing because He is righteous, to show forth His righteousness, as it was said in the last line of the psalm – “To shew that the LORD is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (92:15). When the psalmist undertakes the holy burden to “shew forth” the “lovingkindness” and “faithfulness” of the LORD, it is to show forth this very thing, that eventually and forever, the righteous shall be saved and flourishing forever in the Covenants of God, even though it is not so now!!
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“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6) |
“I AM THE LORD” means that God is not a man, and therefore, because “God is not a man” (Num. 23:19), and again, because “He is not a man” (1 Sam. 15:29), He will not change His mind or word from the eventual, final, and forever salvation of Israel, even though He has changed His mind and word of salvation over so many generations and persons. As it was then, in the lives of those generations and persons when His word changed, it will not be in the END, because God in the ways of man will cease to exist when God establishes His word toward Israel. Then, it will be the resurrection, “The Condescension Withdrawn”. His word will be performed toward Israel, and why? “For I am God and not a man” (Hos. 11:9), God said, which means that this purpose and word which was spoken in His ways, His sovereignty, and according to His predestination, will come to pass, and understandably so, for everything that is spoken in His ways, instead of our ways, does not “change” (Mal. 3:6), is “immutable” (Heb. 6:17), has “no variableness” or “turning” (Jas. 1:17), and is “for ever” (Eccl. 3:14), because God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2) and “will not lie nor repent” (1 Sam. 15:29, Num. 23:19); even so, it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). This “gift” and “calling” of God is “without repentance” (Rom. 11:29), for THE FINAL generation of Israel which shall be saved in the END, who shall be saved condescension-removing resurrection power, and as for all the former Israelites which underwent a breach of promise or word, which is a repentance of God unto their damnation, even though they were formerly saved, and EVEN IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW IT CAN BE SO, understand this – God can condescend to man in man’s ways of purpose and word, and thus He can change, but eternity does always remain the same – and if you have a problem with that, then remember this one truth about God – how Job said, “He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment" (Job. 9:32).