“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Matt. 13:44 

If the Kingdom were to be some future great reign of Messiah on earth, as some teach, then how can it be hidden?  Isn’t Messiah’s reign on earth believed to be a physical ruling from Jerusalem or the New Jerusalem? That it will be like a shining city on a hill top?  Every eye shall see and every knee shall bow?  So why would Messiah say it is like hidden treasure?

The finding of lost treasure and who controls or own it, is different in every nation.  Suffice it to say that in Judea in the time of Messiah, the treasure belonged to the owner of the land.  So having found this treasure the field must be obtained in order to secure the wealth.

To acquire this hidden treasure required that all other valuables be sold.  One has to put in the time and effort to obtain such a rare realization.  All other valuables must be put aside.

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Matt. 6:33 

Putting aside ourselves is the hardest thing to do.  For we battle the world, the flesh, and the devil.  And our foes are formidable. They do not want us to realize that there is a treasure to be found.  And they certainly do not want to be sold off in order that we may obtain the victory that comes for submitting to the Kings will.

The World

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. John 15:18 

On the one hand it makes no sense that the world hates us,  since all believers are for the most part hard working, tax paying people.  One would think that any country, nation, or Empire would want people who self regulate.  Those who follow the Golden Rule.  We do not require the expense of police and do not need a bunch of rules or laws passed to control us.

and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deut. 6:5

You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Lev. 19:18 

But the nature of Rulers is to want total loyalty.  The history of the world is full of princes, kings, or Emperors who presented themselves as deity.  Worshiping the king was the only way to reach the greater gods.  Even modern Emperors have tried to instill an awe and respect beyond what is deserved.  Just look at the propaganda around Napoleon or Queen Victoria, not the mention current presidents and prime ministers.

But believers do not need government, except to protect them from others.  We have no need of kings, priests, or holy men of any kind.  For each one of us has direct access to our God and King.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Pet. 2:9 

As a man standing alone with God, not needing anyone between the individual and God, we have destroyed more governments than swords ever could.  It took 400 years, but Rome fell because there were no longer any central leaders who held any kind of awe in the minds of the people, let alone be able to command any form of worship.  We destroy Empires on our knees.  And those who desire to build an empire know it.  Even if we haven’t figured out what they are so worried about.  The first thing any would be tyrant tries to do, is get control the churches.

They may kill our bodies but they never have or will be able to destroy the faith.

The Kingdom is hidden more from us than from the would be tyrants.  They see it quite clearly.

The other irritating thing the world does is take offense at our goodness.  They just can’t take it when someone is self regulating when they are not.  Where some governments persecute and even kill us. Most of the time the world just submits us to personal attacks, being left out, or skipped over for promotion. The best they can manage is to throw temptation in our way.  Sometimes this one is hard to tell from our struggles with the devil.  Or sometime it is the devil using others to get to us.  But we must push on and pursue the Holy.

The Flesh

Paul has a perfect summation of this struggle.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Rom. 7:15

Our own flesh would rather sleep in, play, or be merry than spend time with the King.  A Savior is easy, a King is completely different.  Whether knight or serf, our paramount responsibilities are loyalty and obedience.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 

He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21

So simple yet so hard.  There are only ten little commandments.  Yet most people who claim Messiah can’t even name them, and don’t know where to look them up [Ex 20, Deut 5].

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psa. 119:11 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psa. 119:105 

How can any of us know what is sin without the law to tell us. We stumble along in the darkness, not knowing why are lives are not victorious.  We simply have no victory because we are not submitting to the King.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said,  “You shall not covet.” Rom. 7:7 

We have let the evangelist tell us all about our Savior over and over.  And they are right. He is our Savior.  But to find the King and His Kingdom will take a deeper search.  The Kingdom is hidden, and only in finding that He is King as well as Savior will we begin to realize the whole Kingdom. Where a Savior is adored, and King must be respected.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who practice it. His praise endures for ever! Psa. 111:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Prov. 1:7

The Devil

The world tells us there is no such thing as the devil. But the word of God says different.

Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. 1 Pet. 5:8

Our instructions for this battle are in Ephesians 6.  But before we enter this battle, we must first go through chapter’s 4-5.  As there is a long list of personal sins, that must be confessed and repented of.  Right in the middle of this long list is the reason for our need to confess and rid ourselves of these sins.

and give no opportunity to the devil. Eph. 4:27 

If we enjoins this battle with unconfessed sin in our lives, half the battle is lost.  All the armor will not do us any good if we have given quarter to the devil.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  13 Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  15 and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace;  16 besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.  17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,  19 and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,  20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.  Eph. 6:10 -20

Notice:  We have only one weapon. The word of God.  Everything else is just protection.  To fight, to go on the offense, we must know the word of God, and know it well.  Even Messiah Himself when facing Satan at the temptation, only quoted Scripture [Matt 4]. The other thing to note is that there is no armor on our backs.  We must never retreat.  We have all it takes to win.  There is no possibility of failure.  Stand your ground.  The devil loves to make us fearful.  Just remember

God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Tim. 1:7 

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19 

Even though the kingdom is right here in front of us.  It is none the less hidden from plain sight.  Only the spiritual can perceive it.  But once one has noticed  it, one will go to any expense any effort to obtain the full realization of it.  To make Messiah the King of ones life will be the greatest struggle of your life.  One must subdue the world the flesh and the devil.  And no one who is not of the kingdom wants us to succeed in this great quest.  While they accuse us of being selfish, it is they who are the selfish ones. They wish to be the center of our universe.  Once we have met our obligations to our fellow man, they ought to leave us to our study and our work for the Kingdom.

To find the Kingdom we must first find what the King wants for us individually, and the world, the flesh, and the devil, don’t want us to do that.  To find this, we must look hard in that mirror of truth. Once we have dealt with our own depravity then we can begin, to find our gift, then our mission [Rom 12:3-8; 1Cor. 12; Eph. 4]. Our spiritual leaders are quick to plug people into some category.  Where as they should seek those who have the gifts and apptitudes for the task at hand, just as they did in Acts 6.  Instead they are quick to fill positions were they have a need.  One can become quite busy pleasing others.  We can get so busy that we don’t even consider to ask, is this really what the King wants ME to be doing?  Our real job is to please the King, and do what He wants with our life.  Over the years this may even change and we grow and mature in Messiah.  There may be a time when working with small children is where we need to be, then again that may be the last place a person belongs.

Once we know ourselves, and our gift then we will also know where the King wants our skills.  Real submission to God, is following Him, not someone else’s ideas.  There is nothing wrong with helping out around the congregation till one figures themselves out.  Find what you do best and then do it for the Kingdom. [1 Cor 12]

Congregations have a way of emphasizing  evangelism and helping the poor, but not everyone is truly cut out for these jobs.  Sometimes we do jobs because they need doing.  But sometimes there is another who is being overlooked, but who is more suited to the job.  If we look for and train a replacement, then we can move on to what we should really be doing.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Matt. 6:33 

  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind;  when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad.  So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous,  and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Matt. 13:47 -50

The Kingdom of heaven is like a fish net full of all kinds of fish.  Both the good and the bad.  This is not some future kingdom of perfection.  It is what we see right now, our congregations are full of good teacher and good believers as will as evil false teachers and false believers.  The question is the same as in the soil or the wheat and weeds.  What kind of soil, plant or fish are we? 

At this point we have discussed over and over how the kingdom is full of unsaved, unrighteous people.  They look like us, they talk like us, but they are not of us.  They are false.  They will be sorted out at the close of the age.  But till them we have them in our midst.

This is not how the present day evangelist tell it.  They claim that all one has to do is ask Jesus into your hearts, and everything will be OK.  There is no longer an emphasis on repenting.  The idea of turning and going the other way has been lost. The definition of what is evil has been lost.  The Ten Commandments are no longer the measure of evil.  Every last one of the Commandments are ignored by our society and more importantly by the clergy.  The only one that is remembered is, “Thou shalt no kill”.  Which is taken to mean that capital punishment is wrong.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Hebrew means murder.  Killing for capital crimes is condoned and declared tough out the Bible as the responsibility of the courts.

Starting with the great revivals of the 19th century, salvation became an over simplified doctrine.  Some of this was done simply as a way of explaining deeply spiritual things to children, or simple minded adults.  In the 1970’s The Four Spiritual Laws came out with many many similar tracts following, with the same over simplified and unbiblical laws.  Church people were encouraged to use these simplified tracts.  These tracts are so simplified that they’re on the verge of being misleading.  Unfortunately no one ever got around to teaching the whole truth of salvation to these new converts.   The congregation of the Lord is full of untaught people.  The great foundational teachings are being lost. They have been replaced with platitudes and catch phrases. Are you saved?  Are you washed in the blood?  God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  Really?  How wonderful was that plan for the saints of the INQUISITION? Or the Soviet Union? Or present day China?  Yes, it is an honor to die for the faith, but that is hardly a wonderful plan.

When the Blue Laws and prayer in school were done away with, our society lost its foundation.  Instead of rising up to defend the truth, the church went along, and as a consequence lost its authority to comment on righteousness in the society at large.  We should have doubled down in our efforts to teach God’s word.  Instead we all began to parrot the false doctrine that the law has passed away.  Misquoting Romans 3:31.

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. Rom. 3:31

Now even the Ten Commandments are being removed for the public square.  It is past time for the spiritual leaders to step up and instead of decrying this removal, begin teaching every congregation to recite these Ten simple rules.  We don’t need them in the public square if they’re in our hearts.

I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psa. 119:11

Even the doctrine of original sin has gone the way of the dodo.  The church has moved on.  There is no need of the teaching that everyone is a dirty rotten sinner.  It has been replaced by the psychology of excuses.  Parents, culture, teachers, coaches, alcohol, drugs, etc. are the ones responsible.  Sin has been rebranded as irresponsibility.  Rebellion is now, excessive childhood exuberance.  The idea that sin came into the world through the act of one man and one woman, in a garden, while talking to the serpent, is treated as myth, if it is acknowledged at all.  If there is no original sin then there is no need of a redeemer.

If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Rom. 5:17

So the unsaved unbelievers can easily move among us.  Sometimes these false brothers are even in leadership.  There are those who live a good life for all to see, but inside there is no belief, no faith, no love of God. We may think we can fool others, we can even fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; John 10:27 

Salvation is a processes and a struggle, as we discipline our sinful natures to conform to God’s commands.

 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Cor. 13:5 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; Phil. 2:12 

and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, Heb. 5:9

We must never give up on learning more of how to follow our King.  One can live a good life all your life and make a error at the end and end up cast out.  Ezekiel 18 makes it quite clear that one can choose at any time in our lives to go the wrong way.

Our eternal security is only a sure as our obedience.  Once what we believe, do, or think is shown to be in error it must be removed.  One can not continue in disobedience.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  2 with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  3 And this we will do if God permits.  4 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,  5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  6 if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.  7 For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.  8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned. Heb 6: 1-8

We must continue to walk away from sin.  When we fail we must confess our sin and repent as soon as it comes to mind that what we have done or are doing is wrong.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Rom. 7:15 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1:9  

  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,  who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matt. 13:45 -46

Many times evangelist make this pearl to be salvation, but it is not. They present an easy salvation, that all one has to do is ask Jesus into your heart and every thing will be fine.  You will have the pearl.  But this is not about the pearl.  Neither is this pearl is a future kingdom, of glory and perfection that was never promised.  For the pearl is not the kingdom of heaven, the merchant’s search is.

When he found the one fine exquisite pearl he sold all the other pearls he had to obtain this one great pearl.  There is a cost or an effort to obtain the Kingdom.  It will require our all.

It is one thing to believe that Messiah died and rose from the dead to cleanse you of all sin, it is another to make Him King of your life.  That will cost all you have.  The other pearls must go.   Sure they have luster and are pretty, but they are not extraordinary.  They are the things of this world, and in the light of the Kingdom their luster becomes dingy, pale, and insignificant.  If we will only step back a bit and access them truthfully.  Oh how we love these insignificant sparkly shiny things, the tinsel, lights, or colored eggs, all catch our attention.  To top it off the spiritual leaders have renamed all these insignificant things with Christian names, fooling many into thinking that they have the great pearl, when what they have is a cheap imitation.  This singular extraordinary pearl, can only obtained by truth.

We must put away the things of this world.

Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.  Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  and give no opportunity to the devil.  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.  Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice,  and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Eph. 4:25 -32

Lying about anything, but especially spiritual things, brings an opportunity to the devil.  Stop right now telling the children that the 25th of December is Jesus’ birthday,  or that He rose from the dead on the pagan day of Ishtar.

“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” 

James A. Garfield 

The real pearl is hidden in the words of the Bible.  The real submission of our lives, is there.  One must go on this journey alone.  Oh others may help you with language, maps, and history books.  But like the Song of Solomon, where there is a harem, God has only one woman, just one, the individual believer, alone, each and every one of us are the only one, there are no others.  There is no need for jealousy among believers.  Because God is omnipresent, He is with each of us alone.  We walk with God alone, even though the harem cheers us on.  Just as we cheer others on.

We must not look sideways at others for our assurance that Messiah loves us.  As Peter, when told to feed Messiah’s sheep was worried about John.    It is not our concern how others may fair, we walk alone, with our God [John 21:15-22].

To obtain the Kingdom will take all your effort for all your life.  It is a lifestyle, or perhaps a quest. We are standing right in the middle of the Kingdom, and we don’t even know it, because we are deceived by the pearls of life that we cling to.  Oh yes, your wedding day, and the first baby in your arms are truly fabulous and wondrous events in your life. And all that will help you understand God as father and husband.  But finding the Kingdom is beyond any adjective in any language of man.  This will be the greatest endeavor of your life.

Oh and selling off those insignificant, frivolous, inconsequential pearls will be painful and sometime frightening.  It will even alienate one from the family and friends that are still addicted to them.  But if we want Messiah to be king of our lives, the cheaper pearls must go.

Then Jesus told his disciples,  “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matt. 16:24 

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt. 11:30

 He told them another parable.  “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” Matt. 13:3

Sarah made cakes of three measures of flour, for the three visitors.  So we know that this is enough for everybody who will be at the table.  However she did not put leaven in them.   She was in haste to prepare this meal, just as we left Egypt in haste, and when messiah return we will be in haste because we will have just woken up [Matt 25].  When we are dealing directly with God we are unprepared and therefor working in haste.

And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said,  “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” Gen. 18:6 

This woman however is not in haste.  She has the time to work the leaven in.  Leaven always stand for corruption.

Jesus said to them,  “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matt. 16:6

And he cautioned them, saying,  “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Mark 8:15

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1Cor. 5:6-8  

None of the grain offerings in the tabernacle/temple were to be leavened.  With one exception.

“No cereal offering which you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven; for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as an offering by fire to the LORD. Lev. 2:11 

Only the bread offering of Shavuot i.e. Pentecost was leavened.

Shavuot being the feast the celebrates the Kingdom going out to the Gentiles.  From the beginning it was destined to be a time of corruption,  partly clean, partly unclean.

You shall bring from your dwellings two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven, as first fruits to the LORD. Lev. 23:17 

Anyone who has ever made bread will tell you leaven does not make more bread.  There is no more grain.   The little yeast plants, just introduced gas to the dough.  Making it lighter in texture and give it that wonderful yeast flavor that we all love so much.  Just like we love sin and corruption.  If sin wasn’t tasty, pleasant, and fun, we would not participate.  And the woman of  sin has worked in all this pleasantness into God’s people.  We love our unbiblical traditions and rituals.  We rarely if ever ask were they came from.  For we are partly corrupt.

All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable.  This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet:  “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” Matt. 13:34-35

Stuck right in the middle of the Kingdom Parables is this small explanation of why they were necessary.  The quote is from the second verse of Psalms 78.  The whole Psalm is about the spiritual condition of God’s people.  At the end it,  David as type of Messiah tends and brings this unruly flock to order.  But till that time comes we are rebellious, and as a consequence the kingdom is corrupt.

There are lots of things in the Bible are from the foundation of the Universe [Eph. 1:4; Heb. 4:3; Heb. 9:26; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; Rev. 17:8 ].  Everything that was to happen had happened before time became a necessary thing.  We mere humans are stuck in time.  We measure the sequence of events in our lives by the speed of the celestial orbs that move through our sky.  But in reality time is an allusion, ever changing to your position in the Universe.  As long as we are still on earth it works just fine.  But our Creator is not so limited.  He sees and experiences all time and space at the same time.  Because He is our Immutable Creator.

Another parable he put before them, saying,  “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field;  it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Matt. 13:31-32  c.f.  Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19

First of all, this is not the mustard that makes the stuff in the squirt bottle.  That is made from the seeds of a herb.  This tree is the Salvadora persica L. also called the Arak tree, Peelu tree, Toothbrush tree.  It is a tree with many uses.  Among them a number of beneficial properties including abrasives, antiseptics, astringent, detergents, enzyme inhibitors, and fluoride.

The term “birds of the air” is always used in the Bible to mean unclean birds specifically vultures.  Not cute little tweety birds.  These are carrion eaters.  People are frequently cursed that their bodies will be left to the birds of the air.

 FYI: Clean birds are birds that nest on the ground and are seed eaters, like quail and pheasants.

So even though the Kingdom of Heaven grew from 12 guys following an itinerant Rabbi in the first century Judea, to followers all over the world.  We have vultures in our mist.  Waiting for every opportunity to deceive and mislead the true believers.  They fill the true believers heads with myths, fabrications, out right fictions.  They have taken pagan stories and ideas from the  mythological gods and heroes and attribute them to Mary and the saints.  Telling fanciful stories that hold on to these pagan ideas.  The cauldron of the Celtic druids became the holy grail.  The pagan goddess Bridgett of the Celts fountains and pools, even retains her names as St. Bridgett the patron saint of fountains and pools.  The yule child sacrifice of the Norse became the Christ child that would be sacrificed.  And the pagan green tree that represented the supposed resurrection of Nimrod is now called the Christmas tree.

These vultures were once able to persecute and kill those that confronted them.  Now they no longer have that much power, all they can do is ridicule and lie some more.  We are the gloomy kill joys with no Christmas or Easter.  But we have all the Biblical holy days.  They will not touch them, for they are JEWISH.  And one thing that always gives these false brothers away is there hatred of all things Jewish.  No amount of explaining that they are Biblical, and that they are how God told us to celebrate Him, will stop them from their never ending chants, “That’s Jewish”, and “The Law has passed away”.

There is nothing to be done about them.  We are always to have them.  But our hope our trust is that in the end they and their source will finally be destroyed.

 And he called out with a mighty voice, 

  “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird; Rev. 18:2 

Another parable he put before them, saying,  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field;  but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.  And the servants of the householder came and said to him,  ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’  He said to them,  ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him,  ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  But he said,  ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Matt 13: 24-30

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying,  “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”  He answered,  “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man;  the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one,  and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.  The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,  and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Matt. 13:36-43

First of all the parable is not about evangelism, as many teach. The evangelist seem to be able to find evangelism everywhere.  There is a strain among them that thinks that everybody can and should be evangelizing.  However, evangelism is a gift.  It is not everybody’s gift, and therefore not everybody’s responsibility.

Eph. 4:11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

It is the Son of man who is sowing the seeds.  He sews good seed into His kingdom, but the evil one also sews bad seeds in the same kingdom.  His servants, which are identified as angles, want to know what they should do about it.  He calmly tells them to do nothing lest they damage the good seeds of the wheat crop.  Not till the close of the kingdom age are these weeds to be dealt with.  Then they are to be taken first.  So they are taken first, and then they are destroyed.  The wheat that is LEFT BEHIND is gathered into the Son of man’s barn.

Again we see quite clearly that the Kingdom of Heaven is partly corrupt.  The enemy has sown weeds among us.  These are false teacher and false brothers, they have plagued the church since the beginning. They got so powerful during the INQUISITION that 60-100 thousand people paid with their lives.  They hunted down anyone who would not believe in the Church of Rome.  For 400 years The INQUISITION destroyed the people of God, while claiming to be the only true church.  Finally, in May of 1514  The Fifth Lateran Council challenged anyone who refused to obey the pope to say so.  No one came forward,  they were all dead or hiding.  The pope and the council celebrated.  Banquets were held and further laws against heresy were established. Among these laws was the for-bidding of burial for all heretics.  (see also Rev 10-11)

On Oct. 31st, 1517 exactly Three and 1/2 years later, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg castle.  And we were once more put on the path to finding truth.

Our enemy never rests. He never stops.  No sooner do we get one heresy out the front door than someone comes dragging another in the back door.  They always seem innocent and innocuous at first, but slowly they choke and kill the wheat.  The weeds are constantly starving the wheat.  Taking away the nutritious teachings of the word and substituting empty traditions and rituals.  There is nothing to be done.  They will be with us till the judgment.

The Kingdom is partly corrupt.  We are surrounded by the weeds.  Our only task is to make sure we stay wheat and not get turned into tares.

The weeds or tares are to be cast out and not brought into the barn.

 out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers

The “all causes of sin” is the Greek word “skandala”, where we get our English word scandal.  It actually means to set a snare or trap.  It is also translated else where as temptation or stumbling block, which is not quite the same as trapping someone.  Why translators do this, no one knows.

The “all evildoers” actually means to break Torah, or be a Torah breaker.  It is the same word as “the Lawless One” in 2 Thess 2.

So all the snare setters or trappers and the Torah breakers are so be destroyed.  But for now they are in the Kingdom.

The Bible constantly presents us with two options.  The mysteries of the kingdom are set up against the mysteries of Babylon,  The keepers of the law, are set against the Law breakers.  The bride as opposed to the whore.

Oh, that the things of Babylon were as putrid to our eyes and stomachs as they are to our souls.  But alas they are not.  Because spiritual adultery like marital adultery is compelling and alluring.  The things of Babylon are tasty and shiny, pleasant and fun.  They seem at first to bring love and family, joy and happiness.  But the joy and happiness they bring are shallow and fleeting, not deep and abiding.  For they separate us from the true nature of our God, which brings a deep loneliness to our souls.  As the tower was intended they push God up and out of our lives.  So that is what all these pagan leftovers do as well.  They separate us from truth and knowledge with their distorted views of God.

We are not to lose hope, we are to trust that all will work out.

 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psa. 121:

When Peter announced the Jesus was the Messiah the Son of the Living God he was told that this declaration was to be the foundation.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt. 16:18

We must find the true Messiah, not the false one.  The true Messiah was not born on Dec 25th, but rather in the Hebrew month of Tishri.  He did not raise from the dead on Easter, but rather First Fruits.  He worshiped every Sabbath, not on the venerable day of the Sun.  He kept every Biblical Holy day.  Are we followers of Messiah or some other Jesus?

Only when we put aside all that is pagan, all that came from Babylon, will we begin to get some control over the weeds.  We must put the spiritual adulteress back in her jar and send he back to Babylon [Zech 5:5-11].

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt. 3:1-2  

If something was “at hand” two thousand years ago, it can hardly be future to us.  If John the Baptist is to be trusted as a prophet we must start looking for this kingdom in the first century, when John said it was at hand.  Not all these centuries later.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. Matt. 11:12

nor will they say,  ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Luke 17:21

The idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is a future, physical place of fabulous luxury and wealth,  a place of peace and well being, of health and longevity, is just not here in the Bible.  These  attributes are never mentioned.  What we are repeatedly told, is that the Kingdom is partly corrupt, full of persecution, and tribulation.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach.  And he told them many things in parables, saying:  “A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,  but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away.  Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear.” 

  Then the disciples came and said to him,  “Why do you speak to them in parables?”  And he answered them,  “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says:  ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.’  But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.  Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 

  “Hear then the parable of the sower.  When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path.  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.  As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.  As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Matt. 13:1-23

Unfortunately many false teachers have used this parable to explain that believers with enough faith, will get all the good stuff of life.  They are motivated by their own greed and covetousness.  They condemn the poor or sick, as ones whose faith is weak, or they are somehow living outside of  God’s will, or harboring some sin. If faith alone could bring good health and prosperity, then we would have few hospitals and even fewer food banks.

Messiah explains just the opposite is true, but only to His close followers.  They are the ones to whom the mysteries of the Kingdom are given.

To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 

Clearly this is not physical wealth or health, it is information and knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom. These mysteries are to be given in abundance, to those who are close.  But to those who are just hanging around to get food or miracles, health or wealth, even the small knowledge that they do have will be taken away.  Messiah knew that the generation that He spoke to would not receive this new Kingdom.  He knew only a few would hold on to this great blessing.  He knew that the counterfeit mystery Babylon held much more allure.

The idea that this knowledge was passed down from the apostles to new apostles and resides only in the direct line of teaching is also a false teaching of the church of Rome.  The Bible makes it quite clear that anyone who studies can find these same mysteries,  “Whosoever will”, John 3:16.  We need only to seek the mysteries of the Kingdom and not be fooled by the Mysteries of Babylon.  Our enemy is subtle and deceiving.  He carefully built his mysteries to mimic the true Mysteries of God.  In paganism there is an original sinner, and a redeemer, who has a mother, and a father.  There is always a snake, and someone who dies killing that snake.  We must be careful not to adopt these false ideas but remain true to the truth. The false teachers are every willing to distract our minds with tinsel, garlands, twinkling lights, colored eggs, and false sacrifice.  Anything that will keep the money and the power flowing to them.

The explanation of the parable of the sower is simple.  The kingdom has many kinds of soils.  Some are good and nutritious and produce great growth.  Others are poor and shallow, and provide little or no growth.

This is not the Kingdom of perfection that those false teachers present.  There are bad soils beaten hard by the world, there are predators swooping in to eat the seeds of knowledge, there is persecution and tribulation of the choking weeds.

The question is not what will you get from God, health, wealth or a Mercedes- Benz?   Is it, WHAT KIND OF SOIL ARE YOU?

Are we the kind of soil that the spirit of truth and wisdom can grow deep and abiding?  Or would we rather play in the world?  Are we hard and impervious to the teachings of the truth. Or did we start out with hope and joy only to turn when the first person makes fun of us?

All these soils are in the Kingdom.  The Kingdom is partly corrupt. It is not the perfect world we were told to wait for.  It is right here right now.  Full of false teacher and false brothers.  Looking for every a opportunity to get our eyes of the prize.  We must  identify and purge all that is Babylon.  Christmas, Easter, Lent, etc.  they must all go, if we have any hope of finding the true Mysteries, we can not, must not, be distracted with the false mysteries.  We must study and learn to identify them.  We must study God’s word, and find the truth in order to have a full victorious Christian life.  We will never hear the angels sing, until we stop listening to the croaking frogs [Rev 16:13].

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Rom. 8:5

It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem;  it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.  So the Jews gathered round him and said to him,  “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered them,  “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me;  but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;  and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.” John 10:22 -30

We figure most of you have heard a thousand sermons on “I and the Father are one”, so we’re going to skip that part.  Many of you have never noticed that it was the feast of the Dedication. This feast is Chanukah/Hanukkah, doesn’t really matter how you spell it as long as it has 8 letters.  Many think Chanukah/Hanukkah means festival of lights, this term comes from Josephus, but that part came latter. The word means dedication or consecration.

Some history

In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, invaded Judea, at the invitation of the Hellenizers. He forced the people to sacrifice to Greek Gods.  He did not allow the circumcision of the boys to continue, under pain of death.  He killed any who opposed his paganization of the populace. After great suffering, the people united under the leadership of the  Mattathias and his 5 sons, who fought the Greeks and regained control of the temple.  According to 1 Maccabees is took 8 days to clean the temple.  200 years later a tradition started that during this cleaning  of the temple, the menorah or lampstand in the temple burned these 8 days, on only one days worth of oil.

The first Chanukah

He chose blameless priests devoted to the law,  and they cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled stones to an unclean place.  They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned.  And they thought it best to tear it down, lest it bring reproach upon them, for the Gentiles had defiled it. So they tore down the altar,  and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them.  Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one.  They also rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the temple, and consecrated the courts.  They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple.  They placed the bread on the table and hung up the curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken

Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-eighth year,  they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering which they had built.  At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals.  All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them.  So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and offered burnt offerings with gladness; they offered a sacrifice of deliverance and praise.  They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and furnished them with doors.  There was very great gladness among the people, and the reproach of the Gentiles was removed. 

Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with gladness and joy for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev. 1 Mac. 4:42-59

Chanukah/Hanukkah is about fighting to keep our faith pure and undefiled by those things that are pagan.  It is better to die than assimilate into the pagan culture around us.  We no longer have a temple of stones, Messiah Himself sent the Romans destroy it.  [see also The Olivet Discourse].

and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:44

Now we are now the temple

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it.  For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw —  each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. 1Cor. 3:10-17

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Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; 1 Cor. 6:19 

We are not children of Moses, with a tabernacle or temple that was only a symbolic representation of Messiah, we have Messiah.  And He made us children of Abraham, who had no tabernacle or temple.   He did not build temples and hold sacrifices everyday.  He seems to have kept the holy days before they were explained by Moses.  But he was a prophet, priest, and a king.

So at this time of year we of the Hebrew Roots or Messianic movement need to stop looking to that temple of stone, and start rededicating our own temples.  Stop pining for the temple of stone and look to the true temple, our souls.

Like the people under the Maccabees we must clean out all that pagan a dirt that have collected in our souls.  All the false ideas, false beliefs, and false hopes.

The pagan culture around us wants us to conform.  Drag a dirty tree into our homes, lie our children that this is Jesus’ birthday, and hold a feast for winter solstice.  Unlike the Maccabees or the saints of the INQUISITION, we face no real persecution.  No one is trying to burn us at the stake.  Yet we cower.  We hesitate.  We are ashamed of our faith.  We run like lambs when we should stand like lions.

We are to be His bride clean and white.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Rev. 19:7-8

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Eph. 6:12

We have been lulled to sleep by the incessant tranquilizing serene cloaking of the three foul frog spirits.

And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs; for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. Rev. 16:13-14  

So lets us get things in order for battle.  First of, read the whole armor passage.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the

Roman Soldiers

devil.  For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace;  besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,  for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.  Eph. 6:10 -20

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Notice, we have no armor on our backsides.  So never ever run away.  We must face the enemy straight on.  We also have only one weapon, the Word of God.  So start memorizing.  We need the right verses in prayer as well as battle, and lets face it, most of this battle is on our knees.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb. 4:12

They may mock us and ridicule us as Bible thumpers,  just remember His words and not our own, are our only weapons.  The quoted word of God is hated by the enemy.  We can argue all we want with our own words, and they will never have the effect that the Word of God does.  That is why the enemy responds with the Bible Thumbing ridicule, they have nothing else.  If they can silence you with ridicule they might win the day, even though their war is long lost.  We have the victory, it was won at the cross. The battles we now fight are really just mop up operations.

He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. Col. 2:15

So we must regain our right perspective.  We  ARE already victorious.  But we seem to get distracted by our present circumstances.  We spend a lot of time worrying over our situations in life, finances, health, wars, politics.  These things catch our attention, we see and understand them.  It is hard to fight an enemy we do not perceive.  They need to be exposed, so we and all others can see.  So pray that they are made known, for what they are.  Both the physical and the spiritual.  All the plots, all the lies must be brought to light.

For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Luke 8:17

Claim your authority.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Luke 10:19

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38-39

Let there be no encumbrance in your life.  Let there be no unconfessed sin in our lives.  Satan loves to blind side us with something from our past. Give him no chance of a flanking maneuver.  Confess all your sin, so he has no opportunity.

and give no opportunity to the devil. Eph. 4:27 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. 1 Pet. 5:8

Confess your own sin [Ex 20; Gal :19-21; Eph. 4:17-5:20]

Confess the sins of your nation [Daniel 9:3-19]

We listen for that last call to reveille.  It is a shofar that wakes the dead.  A simple hollowed out rams horn.  Not the beautiful silver trumpets of the temple.  They are for holy days, and the crowning of kings.  Shofars are for battle.

All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet (shofar) is blown, hear!  For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”  For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he will hew away.  They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them. Is. 18:3 -6

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;  then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. 1Th. 4:16-17

It is time to watch, it is time to listen.  If we don’t know what is coming, like the children of Israel who did not understand when the Roman army came under Messiah’s orders to burn their temple, we will surly be lost.

And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it,  saying,  “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.  For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side,  and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41 -44 

The Jews of the first century were expecting the Messiah to come and destroy the Roman Empire and set up a Jewish kingdom that was as fabulous as any church teaching about the millennium.  The church is now waiting for a Rapture, Tribulation, and Political Anti Christ, like the first century fall of Rome all is a mirage.  As none of these things are actually in the Text.

It is important to be prepared and equipped, lest we also miss the time of our visitation.  We do not want to be blotted out.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous. Psa. 69:28

It is some what unfortunate that the translators have made this blotted out, the Hebrew has more the idea of scrapped off.  The ancient Israelite wrote on vellum, an animal skin, ink is not blotted off as you can with fresh ink on paper.  It is scrapped off with a sharp knife.  Church Soteriology (salvation) has the idea that when you are saved you get written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  However the idea with the Rabbis is that everyone is written in this Book of Life, until something in their life causes them to be scraped off.

We need to repent for ourselves, our family, and our nation.  The demons must be defeated, they must be given no more opportunity.  If we resist them they will run.  We need to beg our God that those that have wandered from the faith will be brought back by the Holy Spirit, lest He scrap them off.

Of the three foul frogs, it is the one of evolution, that has taken so many souls away, and caused them to lose faith in their God and His Word.  We must point out that in over 150 years those that present this lie have presented NO evidence.  They speculate, they propose theories, they postulate.  But no matter how scientific or logical one reasons from a wrong premiss, the conclusion will always be wrong.  Truth cannot come from error.  These monkey men must be exposed for the frauds that they are.  We are not monkeys, we are the image of God [Gen. 1:27 ].  When this is pointed out, one of them will almost always attempt to correct and say that they do not teach we came from monkeys but rather apes.  Just turn on them and throw it back in their faces, “Oh yes it is so much more sophisticated to be descended for dirty apes than dirty monkeys.  They both throw there feces.” These liars will hate you, but that is our job.  Just as Luther said, “Evil hates ridicule.”

and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Matt. 10:22

It is time to beg the Good Shepherd to leave the ninety and nine and go find the lost sheep.  Find them all, bring them back.  Not on our account, but rather because he said He would.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them,  ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.  Luke 15:4-7  

Only when our numbers are complete and we stand clean and pure, will we be the true Bride.  Then we will see the victory that was always ours.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;  and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,  “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;  he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:2-4

FYI  Some have suggested that the USA is the great grinding stone of Dan 2.  That this nation will grow into the great mountain that fills the whole earth.  If this is the case we need to fix our relationship with our God, in order to be ready for such a great responsibility.  If this is not the case than we need to be prepared to submit to the authority that the grinding stone clearly has.